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Friday students turned in their final writing assignment for the semester--an op ed. I’ve started grading them already, and I’m really enjoying them! We worked hard on using different rhetorical strategies to persuade and the students did a great job. Please encourage them to let you read their writing. Students will receive their scores by Wednesday at the absolute latest; in the meantime, they can check their uploaded essays in turnitin.com for my comments. I’m about halfway through so if they don’t see comments yet, they should check back later!
This upcoming week will be dedicated to our final speeches for the year. Students will be giving a persuasive speech about one of the independent novels they read this year. On Friday I gave a sample speech about a book I read. I also gave them a graphic organizer (available for the students on Google Classroom) to help them plan their speeches. Those need to be completed by Monday so that we can spend the entire class period practicing on Monday. Speeches will be given Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. After speeches, we will return to our work with analyzing informational texts for rhetorical strategies. Now that they’ve written their own op-eds, I predict this type of analysis will be easier for them. They will do some in class practice on Friday and Monday and then do the final short answer assessment of their informational text reading on the exam day. As I have told the students in class, this Thursday will be my final day with them as I have been selected to attended the AP Language and Composition grading conference in Kansas City, Missouri. While they’re happily finishing out their final week of school, I’ll be locked away in a conference center grading thousands of essays!! Luckily, I’ve secured a phenomenal guest teacher for the last week of school. Ms. Gina Mendola is an experienced ELA teacher; she and I have been working together on developing lesson plans that will best help her assist the students with their final prep for the exam. Please let me know if you have any questions! Students’ grades will be completely up to date by Thursday in MiStar. Thanks for a great year with your students. I’ve enjoyed working with all of them and hope that I’ll get the chance to work with them in future years at the high school. Have a great summer! (and READ! please, please...encourage them to read! They can always email me if they need suggestions!)
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This week we will dig into our final writing piece--college application essays--with conferences and revision. Students have been drafting their essays, and everyone will meet with me this week at least once to discuss their concerns/struggles with their essays. Usually it’s pretty hard to motivate kids at this point in the year--especially after the AP test--but they all seem very invested in working hard on these essays. Please encourage them to keep that focus throughout this week and next!
As I’ve told the students in class, Thursday will be my final day with them this year. I was selected to attend the AP Language and Composition grading in Kansas City, Missouri. So, instead of finishing up the year with them, I’ll be locked in a convention center grading essays for eight hours a day!! Yikes! I’m leaving them in the very capable hands of Ms. Gina Mendola. She is an experienced AP Language teacher and is ready to help them work on the final drafts of their essays. Students will submit their final drafts to me electronically via Google Classroom on the day of their final exam. Their grades should be completely updated in MiStar by Thursday of this week. They have already taken their final exam (the practice exam for the AP test they took in late April) and the only other assignment I need to input in MiStar is their final independent novel book review. Please let me know if you have any questions. I will be able to answer emails from the AP conference (unless they really do lock us in the convention center…) Thank you for sharing your smart, funny, thoughtful children with me all year!! I have truly enjoyed working with them and hope they’ll all stop by and visit me in the fall!! Have a great summer! (and READ! please, please...encourage them to read! They can always email me if they need suggestions!) |
AuthorMrs. Hattie Maguire Archives
April 2019
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