1. WELCOME TO 6TH GRADE LANGUAGE ARTS & LITERATURE NICHOLS MIDDLE SCHOOL
6th Grade Literature and Language Arts Team: Mr. Teichert, Ms. Fox, Mrs. Stratakos, Mrs. Morales and the District Literacy Coach Mrs. Patel

2. Introductions
4 Years total of Teaching Experience (This is my second year at Nichols)
2 Years of Long-Term Subbing in Highland Park
1 Year Student Teaching in Peoria, Illinois
Studied with Dr. Kevin Stein, Illinois Poet Laureate
5 Years of Tutoring College, High School, and Middle School students
Published (Articles, Short Stories)
Working on Publishing a YA Novel

3. Reading & Writing Grades
A combined grade for reading and writing endorses the reciprocal nature of these two processes. Additionally, the CCSS supports an integrated approach to teaching thus making it unnecessary to separate grading into two categories.
Students will read, discuss, and craft writing in a variety of genres including informational, argument, and narrative. Students will also respond to reading through literary analyses.
Students will have opportunities to improve their grades and revise their writing. It is their responsibility to set up a meeting with me to revise any piece of writing.

4. The Workshop MOdel
Class begins with a mini-lesson where a particular reading or writing concept is explicitly taught
During workshop students practice the concept in small groups, independently, or in partners.
The teachers work with students in small groups or individually
The class comes together as a whole to debrief and reflect on what they worked on
The teacher uses exit slips, student work, and observational notes to inform future instruction

5. Grammar
A Literacy Department goal this year focuses on grammar instruction
We assess each student’s individual grammar skills and then determine what needs to be taught whole class, in small groups, or independently.
Research shows that grammar needs to be taught contextually – meaning that students have to see and identify it in literature and their own writing.
Optimal learning happens when as student is able to apply the grammar skill he or she has learned into his/her own writing.
The students took a grammar self assessment (that was administered district wide) last week and we will be meeting with students to set specific grammar goals based on their assessments.

6. A look at some of the grammar skills
Sentence boundaries:
Solutions for run-ons – semicolon, commas and coordinating conjunctions, add a period to create two sentences
Solutions for fragments, i.e. – combining sentences, adding a subject, clauses
Pronoun use:
Proper case – subjective, objective, possessive
Intensive – (myself, ourselves)
Shifts in number and person
Recognize and correct vague pronouns
Punctuation:
Use commas, parentheses and dashes to set off nonrestrictive/parenthetical elements
*These are based on the Common Core Language Standards

7. Reading & Writing Workshop
One-on-one meetings are the ultimate confidence builders for students. They’re especially effective as follow-ups to (instruction), when students practice a strategy. Your undivided attention to each child makes them feel that you care about their learning and will try to help them understand and improve
~(Robb 1998, 7-8)

8. Reading
“Time devoted to silent reading through a structured, systematic approach and the emphasis on school-wide reading contributed significantly toward creating a family of readers within a school.”
~Karen Weller Swanson

9. A closer look at one of our units
Our Middle Eastern Unit combines realistic fiction books that deal with conflicts in the Middle East with non fiction current event articles on the Middle East. The 6th grade language arts and social studies teachers will be collaborating on the lessons surrounding the conflict and the students will write an argument essay.