Independent Reading FAQ

What Should I Be Doing With my IR Novel?  Set a reading goal. How many pages will you be reading a day?  IR novel MUST be finished by 10/26.  There will be a project/presentation where you’ll have to “sell your book” to your classmates within 60 seconds with a cereal box prop that represents your book.  I will model this activity before assigning it. After I model it, you’ll have a week to plan your 60 second sell and create your cereal prop.

What Should I Be Doing With My IR Novel? (Fiction)  ********READING IT!*********  You should have a clear idea of the major events within your story.  You should have a clear idea of who the characters were in the story.  You should have a clear idea of important character relationships. in the story.  You should have a clear idea of the major conflicts character’s face and overcome in the story.  You should be aware of some of the themes within your story.

What Should I Be Doing With My IR Novel? (Non-Fiction)  ********READING IT!***********  You should be aware of the author’s purpose or purposes in writing this selection.  You should be making connections between yourself and the text.  You should be asking yourself how you can apply these concepts within your own life.  You should be challenging some of the author’s assertions.  You should be asking yourself why these topics may or may not be relevant or important.

What’s The Purpose of My Reading Journal?  Your reading journal is a sacred space where you can write about your reading, answer the prompts I assign for your IR or WC novels, and write your upcoming WC Novel letters that utilize the Thinking Stems you pasted into your journal.  You could also use your journal to take notes as you read, but you are not required to do so.  If your memory often fails you, I highly recommend taking notes as your read the WC Novel and IR Novel, so you could do well on the Take Five Quizzes, our class discussions, and our reading response prompts.

I Finished My IR Novel! What Should I Do?  Write the name of the novel you finished on “The Books I have read” log in your binder.  Select another independent novel to read.  For your IR project and IR Responses you could choose which novel you’d like to respond with.  You can continue reading your second IR Novel after 10/26, so long as you notified me and have written your first novel down on “The Books I have read” log and I signed off on it. First off, congratulations!

Questions?

Do Now: What Writing Genre Am I? Can you Guess?  I’m a collection of memories that an author writes to recall vivid moments or events that shaped their lives.  I’m snapshots of a life story pieced together.

Today  Can you define your life in just 6 words?

6 Word Memoirs  Examine the 6 word memoirs at your desk.  Turn and Talk: With a partner, discuss what these authors are doing with their writing.  What is their purpose for writing these 6 words?  What are some of topics, experiences, or feelings that they’re highlighting in just six words?

6 Word Memoirs  6 word memoirs allow us to concisely address the question: Who Am I?  They could also be life lessons learned, a message to the world, or a piece of advice.

6 Word Memoirs  In order to narrow down a life into six words, a writer needs to begin with many words and ideas.  Follows these instructions to complete a six-word memoir.

6 Word Memoir: Start With A List (3 minutes)  List as many words, topics, memories, or personality traits as you can about yourself—activities you do, items, belongings, places you like, and feelings you have.  Don’t edit, cross out, change or rewrite words. Don’t worry about spelling—just write.  You are going for quantity.

My List:  Teacher, daughter, humor, spoken words, sunset, sunrises, puppies, daddy’s girl, Dominican, Black, love, happiness, strength, the beach, hiking, running, serenity, laughing, connection, cooking, hope, The 90s, Saturday morning cartoons, Cottage Place, American cheese, risk, bike riding, truth, live, life, Halloween…

Now  Circle or underline two or three words that stand out for you, the ones that you could say more about.

My List:  Teacher, daughter, humor, spoken words, sunset, sunrises, puppies, daddy’s girl, Dominican, Black, love, happiness, strength, the beach, hiking, running, serenity, laughing, connection, cooking, hope, The 90s, Saturday morning cartoons, Cottage Place, American cheese, risk, bike riding, truth, live, life, Halloween…

Now: (2 min)  Pick one item and freewrite about the thought. That means you just start writing about that idea, object, role, or event. The only rule is don’t stop writing for at least two minutes. Whatever comes to mind is fair game.  Daddy’s girl

Daddy’s Girl  My dad shaped me into the woman I am today. He told me that women and men are equal and I could be just as smart, just as funny, and just as fast as a boy. He taught me not to let the opinions of others affect me, especially if they’re untrue. He taught me that good friends are hard to find when I had a really bad fall out with my best friend in 8 th grade for the first time. He said, “You only have one best friend in life and that’s if you’re lucky.” He taught me to believe in myself. He taught me to be picky and to never settle when it comes to love. He taught me that there’s hope in despair and a silver lining to every cloud.

Now Circle The Most Important Words In the Paragraph:  My dad shaped me into the woman I am today. He taught me that women and men are equal and that I could be just as smart, just as funny, and just as fast as a boy. He taught me not to let the opinions of others affect me, especially if they’re untrue. He taught me that good friends are hard to find when I had a really bad fall out with my best friend in 8 th grade for the first time. He said, “You only have one best friend in life and that’s if you’re lucky.” He taught me to believe in myself. He taught me to be picky and to never settle when it comes to love. He taught me not to despair and to find a silver lining to every cloud.

Choose six words, or rewrite some words from your freewrite to create a 6 word memoir based on the topic explored  Believe in myself, be picky, never settle when it comes to love, silver linings of hope, do not despair.  What do I want to say with these words? What life lesson did I learn? What advice would I like to give based on these words?  Revise/Construct Your 6 word memoir:  Find your silver lining of hope. (Life advice)  Do not despair. Believe in yourself. (Life advice)  All I know, I owe you. (Lesson Learned)  Good friends are hard to find. (Lesson learned)  When ordering love, be very picky. (Lesson learned)

Upcoming Due Date  Your FIRST IR response will be due this Friday, 10/9.  This response will be written in your IR Novel Notes section of your journal. You could type this entry! Just paste it into your journal.  Step 1: Choose your favorite character or another complex character from your reading.  Step 2: Once you’ve selected a character you can respond in the following ways:  A Diary Entry written in the perspective of that character (Must be at one page long in your journal—Use the checklist online as a guide)  A 6 Word Memoir written in the perspective of that character. Including a two paragraph rationale for why you chose those 6 words (Use the checklist as a guide)