Fragments, Fiction, and the Future

Warm Up: 'Identifying Fragments' Practice  To get started we are going to continue practice identifying fragments. For a refresher on what a fragment is and how to identify one, check out the link here. Next, identify fragments and win prizes by doing the online activity here. Read each passage and use your mouse to choose the part that is a fragment. Finally, for homework tonight, continue your practice by completing the activity 'Identifying Fragments - Practice' in your Language Arts folders. You can also find a link to the document here.  

Scope Magazine Fiction Story: 'Dear Future'   Today we are going to continue to explore short fiction and characters by beginning to read a story from Scope Magazine entitled "Dear Future." Following in the footsteps of Sandra Cisneros's "Eleven" and Lois Lowry's "Who's the New Kid?," "Dear Future" is another piece of literature about identity and growing up. As we read, we will pay special focus to making inferences and analyzing characters. You can find a copy of the story "Dear Future" in your Language Arts folders (and a link to it here). Additionally, two "Dear Future" activity worksheets ('Making Inferences' and 'Analyzing Characters') have also been placed in your folders; links to these assignments are also here and here. We will spend the next several class periods working through this story (and its accompanying 'paired text') together.   

Homework  (1.) Read your A.R. book at home for at least 30 minutes and make a digital Reading Log entry. (Remember that your reading log has been placed in your Language Arts folders. If for some reason you need to make a copy of the reading log, you can find a link to it here.) (2.) Tomorrow is Friday! We have several assignments from the week that need to completed and "turned in" tomorrow Friday, September 5, including: Comparing Texts in 'Eleven'/'Who's the New Girl?', Identifying Fragments, and the Character Traits Paragraph (Writer's Workout #1).