Vocabulary for Chapters 3 & 4

Muttering (29) Bladder (29) Beeline (29) Theory (29) Barest (30) Blared (31) Twinge (32) Scowled (32) Shears (32) Smothering (33) Expulsion (33) Interrupted (35) Detect (36) Sarcasm (36) Anxiety (36) Ruffled (36) Lug (36) Griping (36) Gesture (36) Hinges (37) Pastel (37) Obvious (45)

Rebellious (38) Streak (38) Misty (38) Hyperactive (38) Outright (39) Resented (39) Regretted (39) Welled (39) Vivid (41) Artillery (41) Bellow (42) Framed (42) Sternly (43) Stammered (43) Muscular disorder (43) Limp (43) Cloven (43) Tabs (44) Bleat (45) Trample (45) Underhoof (45) Satyr (45)

Myth (45) Miffed (46) Minions (46) Glimpse (47) Fluttering (47) Anticipating (47) Peeled (47) Slumped (48) Faltered (48) Lumbering (48) Deliberately (49) Scrambled (50) Draped (50) Chassis (51) Tromping (52) Reeked (52) Bolt (52) Pummeling (53) Dissolved (53) Snuffling (53) High-octane (55) Stern (56)

Reading 2A & Reading 7A Missed Classwork

The students are to do a close reading of the excerpt of "The Hero's Journey" they received today in class - only sections titled Introduction and Act 1: Separation (the first side of the page). They are to do the following:

1. Circle any words that are unfamiliar.
2. After each paragraph, write a gist statement about that chunk of reading. A gist statement is a very brief, one-sentence idea of what the paragraph is about.
3. Annotate (highlight or underline AND provide notes) for questions you may have about the text or information you think is important.

Bring it to class tomorrow, completed.

Thank you!

Mr Ridges

READING 7A

Today was a rough day for this class. It's the last class of the day, so I understand that students are restless to get out of school; however, today's behavior was just disrespectful. There was so much talking and distraction that I could not get to what I needed to teach.

So, I need to make sure the scholars get it down at home.

1. They need to finish reading chapter 5 (pages 73 - 74) and write evidence flags for any interaction that Percy has with another character from 67 - 74 as well as what these interactions tell you about Percy as a character.
2. Write the following notes in your Reading Journal:

The Hero’s Journey

Introduction:

Joseph Campbell, an American psychologist and mythological researcher, wrote a famous book titled The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Campbell discovered many common patterns that are in many hero myths and stories from around the world. He described several basic stages that almost every hero goes through.

The Hero’s Journey - Act 1: Separation

The Ordinary World

Heroes exist in a world that is considered ordinary or uneventful by those who live there. Often people in the ordinary world consider the heroes odd. The possess some ability or characteristic that makes them feel out of place.

We will begin class tomorrow with a brain teaser and a journal entry, then we will discuss these notes and what they have to do with The Lightning Thief.

Happy Sunday!!

Good morning!

I am comfortably seated at the Stuart Sports Complex in Aurora, IL, waiting for my son's U14 boys team for the Kickers Soccer Club to be absolutely trounced  by Oak Forest. Our boys know they are not the better team. They are going to focus on playing a possession game, cutting Oak Forest's scoring chances of scoring, and keeping the ball on heir side of the pitch for a greater amount of time than the last time they played them. For this match, they've realigned (changed) their expectations as a team to focus more on the personal goals of developing as individual players rather than what the final score will be. Sometimes you have to create your own success.

I would like to share an article about the role reading literary fiction plays in developing not only the young person's mind, but the capacity for empathy and compassion. If you click on the word "article" at the beginning of this paragraph, it will take you to the article.

When a 6th grader reads a work of fiction like The Lightning Thief, whether he or she admits it, or can even put into words what is happening, he or she is observing Percy Jackson's responses to the challenges he faces, his thoughts, his feelings... and, the scholar is making judgements based on his or her own experience (both from in life and from what has been read before), thoughts, and feelings. It's the discussions, the written responses, and the THINKING about their reading that facilitates the human growth this article talks about.

We, as influential adults in these young people's lives, have the most important job of developing leaders, in their household, in their chosen profession, on their sports teams, amongst their friends, and in their own lives. In engaging them in conversation about what they read; in encouraging, then demanding that they assert their own thoughts and experience into their side of the conversation; by assuring them that their thoughts, feelings, experiences are VALUABLE, we are helping them believe themselves to be leaders they are.

Again, Happy Sunday!

Mr. Ridges

Reading 2A, 3A, 6A, 7A Mid-Unit Assessment

Happy Friday!!! Here is the website update I promised on Wednesday. Your Kellar Scholar should be bringing home his or her assessment to complete over this weekend.

There were some students who finished in class, but refused to take it home to make sure they followed all of the directions and make sure they answered all of the questions thoroughly. They felt that they did the best job they could.

Here are the sentence starters for the questions. Please use them! The number of the sentence starter applies to the question on the assessment:

1. After a first read, my general sense of what happened in Chapter 4: “My Mother Teaches Me Bullfighting” is
2. A challenge that Percy faces in pages 52 - 56 is ...

A response to this challenge is …

3. Percy’s choices tell us about his strengths in the section on pages 52-56 … Evidence to support this is …
4. Based on Percy’s choices on pages 52-56, my opinion of Percy is … I believe this because … Evidence to support this is …
5. Percy has changed as a character from the beginning of the novel up until this point by … Evidence from the novel that supports this is …

Please, reread your answers and ask yourself the following:

• Have I followed the directions of this question and answered the question according to what is being asked?
• Have I provided evidence from the book to support my answer or my inference in the form of
• a direct quote? or
• a paraphrase of a specific scene with page number?

Please, make sure that you have answered every question, providing any details that the question is asking you to provide.

I will update this post if I think of anything else.

UPDATE: Here is a link to the novel online: http://www.readanybook.com/online/67152

Good luck! Have a great weekend!

SOMETIMES THE JOURNEY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE DESTINATION

So, there was this dude named Joseph Campbel. He was a psychologist who studied mainly comparative religion and how mythology (not just Greek mythology) plays into the regular, everyday human experience. In short, he read a lot of different books: social studies, science, literature, plays, religious texts like the bible, the Torah, or the Quran, thought about them, then wrote his own books about these books.

In 1949, he wrote a book called The Hero With A Thousand Faces where he identifies a common pattern in the narrative of traditional stories:

A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.

There are stories in Greek mythology that serve as his foundation for his critique, but his ideas can be applied to stories throughout our history, including Star Wars, Disney's Hercules, Kung Fu Panda, The Karate Kid, and The Hobbit.

We will be applying Campbell's pattern to The Lightning Thief over the next few weeks, and the Scholars will become well-versed in the stages of The Hero's Journey as they are experienced by Percy (Perseus) Jackson.

The first aspect we will consider and discuss in class is What is a Hero? If you get the chance to discuss this question with your Kellar Scholar, it might be interesting to learn what he or she considers characteristics of a Hero...

Have a wonderful Thursday night!

-Mr. Ridges

A NOTE ON THE 6th GRADE LIGHTNING THIEF MID-UNIT ASSESSMENTS

THIS POST APPLIES TO READING CLASSES 2A, 3A, 6A, and 7A

(Reading 1A is working on another assessment: the Chapter 3 Exit Ticket. We are working on that together in class.)

Because this is a different type of assessment than the students are used to, they have taken more time than I've allotted in class. It is absolutely NOT a bad thing, though. They are asking questions and taking their time to make sure they construct the best, most detailed responses they can.

I have decided to take a risk and let the students take home the assessment to finish over this coming weekend. I'm hoping that all of the assessments will return. (-:

I am asking for your help, families! Could you please give the students support and help on completing this over the weekend?

I will post detailed instructions for this assessment on the blog on Friday afternoon. Most of the students should have most of the assessment finished. I will just need your help to make sure they have followed ALL of the directions and have answered ALL of the questions. I want to make sure they all have this opportunity before I collect the assessments to grade them.

As I'd provided on Monday, here is the link to the rubric I will be using to grade this assessment: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz2zLvs72EojWU0yYVI4R2REN0k

Thank you for all you do! You are so important in all of this!

Sincerely,

Mr. Ridges

THIS ONLY PERTAINS TO MY READING 1A CLASS - FIRST PERIOD

The students in my Reading 1A are bringing home the Exit Ticket for The Lightning Thief, Ch. 3 "Grover Unexpectedly Loses His Pants".

The question that they are to answer is this:

What has been more important so far in helping you to learn about Percy Jackson as a character, his actions (we made evidence flags for these in Chapter 2 "The Old Ladies Who Knit The Socks of Death" by asking What Challenges did Percy face in this chapter? How did he respond to those challenges? and What do these responses tell us about Percy as a character?) or his inner thoughts?

Here are the sentence starters the students should use for their response:

Percy’s (actions/ inner thoughts) have been more important in helping me to learn about him as a character.

I believe this because …

In The Lightning Thief, (this is where you put your evidence/ example for your answer) ...

The Lightning Thief Assessment - Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Tomorrow is the first assessment for the novel The Lightning Thief for Reading Classes 2A, 3A, 6A, and 7A. Reading 1A's assessment will be later on this week. The students have been preparing for this in class and through their homework for the past three weeks.

In this assessment, the students will be asked to review a section that they have already read and write answers to questions that read and think deeper about what the author is trying to tell the reader about the character of Percy Jackson. This is called inference.

Today in class the students had an activity where they worked in groups to answer questions that are very similar to the ones that will be on the assessment tomorrow.

It is very important that the students answer the questions on the assessment in complete sentences. This shows that the student has read the question, and that the student has some knowledge of the story, as well as having made deeper inferences about the character.

Some of the students did not take this activity seriously, and refused to work towards understanding how to answer these types of questions.

I will provide the questions and the sentence starters so that you can work with your students at home.

1. What is an example of a challenge Percy faces in  pages 38 - 40? How does he respond?

An example of a challenge that Percy faces in pages 38 - 40 is ________________. Percy responds to this challenge by _______________________________.

2. What does Percy say that he regrets? What does this tell the reader about him? (P 39)

Percy regrets saying ___________________. This tells the reader that Percy __________________.

3. How does Percy's mom describe his dad in this scene?

Percy's mom describes his dad in this scene as ___________________. 

4. At the bottom of page 39, Percy says he's "not normal". What does he mean? Why does he say it?"

By saying that he is "not normal", Percy means ___________________. He says this because ___________________.

Here is a link to the rubric used to grade

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz2zLvs72EojWU0yYVI4R2REN0k