Don't Be Part of the 10%

Today I gave my last lesson to the students as I used a highway to symbolize the next four years of their lives. Traffic cones, off ramps, scenic lookouts all symbolized problems and adventures that await them. There were some heavy topics presented and I gave the same advice to them that I gave to my own daughter. I hope the advice will help them make good decisions over the next few years. Only three days left and they are spending time as a group and having the final days of middle school be memorable.

Wrapping Up

Today we finished with the symbolism presentations --other than a few stragglers who were absent. They will go tomorrow. We will spend the rest of the week tying loose ends like deleting out email accounts, going over summatives, and the speeches.

Homework:
None

The Ultimate Gift

We continued watching "The Ultimate Gift" today and inferred the ending again. Our inferences have changed a little because of new information. We should get to the ending tomorrow and see how our inferences turn out. Remember, AR points are due tomorrow and the symbolism project needs to be ready to go on Monday.

Homework:
Read AR
Finish symbolism project (due Monday)

Year in Review

Today we started our review of the year by watching "The Ultimate Gift." It hits on many of the topics we covered like inferencing, theme, and advertising techniques. We will continue the review tomorrow. Students need to finish their symbolism projects by Monday for presentation.

Homework:
Read AR (points due Friday)
Symbolism project due Monday

Summative and Project

Today the students took the final summative of the year today as we finished up Animal Farm  and symbolism. We don't completely finish symbolism as the students need to do a project with symbols and life. Click here to see the rubric and here for the drafting sheets.

Homework:
Read AR
Get materials together for project

Symbolism Practice

Today we worked on different symbols in the book Animal Farm and the students worked on their own to determine what the symbols represented in our society. The summative for symbolism will be on Wednesday.

Homework:
Read AR (points due next week Friday)

The End

We read the final chapter in Animal Farm today and unfortunately, it wasn't a happy ending-- unless you were a pig or a dog. In the end, the animals were worse off than they were before the rebellion. Afterward, I had the students write a paragraph on which animal in the story symbolizes them. They need two comparisons and the focus needs to be on the character of the animal, not the physical characteristics.

Homework:
Read AR
Finish summaries and paragraph (due Monday)