I have kept all of the content from last year on this page. We will now just add your new and mudlucious content.

 To access your student's portfolio, find his or her name on the right, click, enter the password I included in your email, and then take a tour. We would love you to leave comments. To do so, just click on the word "Comments" at the top of each entry, and leave your words of wisdom. This interaction is what makes an eportfolio different than a traditional portfolio. Have fun.

I am copying the post I wrote for the 8th grade portfolios below:


So much work has gone into making these websites. Each student took a tour of his or her work since the beginning of this year. Each entry required a reflection of progress: an evaluation of what the project was, what went well, what was difficult, what was learned, and other information of interest. 

We hope that you will look carefully at the work presented and leave comments that recognize these students as authentic and successful readers and writers. Feel free to comment on any or all student websites. One of the purposes of this project is to widen the audience my students have for their work. (This is infinitely more interesting than writing for your teacher only!) They would love to know what you think. To comment, please click on the blue comment link at the top of each entry. 

Again, welcome! You will be amazed, as am I!

(In an ideal world, all content would be error free. The students and I have made every effort to make their work grammatically accurate, yet with the amount of writing and manipulation of the Weebly tools, errors may slipped through the cracks. Rest assured that every attempt has been made to present accurate work. At the same time, errors in writing can be used as formative assessment of student work. We can use these errors as guidelines for instruction. If you have questions about this process, feel free to contact me. )

The seventh graders are currently developing their websites. If you visit them, please know that they are "works in progress." I will announce when they are, in fact, ready for an audience. Get ready for a great show!

I am so excited to be launching you into the world of e-portfolios. You have all done such great work that I want your families and each other to share in your successes. This is a place for you to showcase your work and to reflect on your learning. Remember that there should be nothing posted that does not relate to school. At all times, appropriate language and content must be used. If in doubt...leave it out! Welcome. I can not wait to see what you create to show the world who you are!

The seventh graders have been writing poetry that focuses on different aspects of poetic technique. They've written poems that use the five senses, personifications, confession poems, imagery, metaphors, and ekphrastic poetry which takes inspiration from art. Many of these will be presented at the Poetry Reading on Wednesday.

We had the most amazing day writing in the rain on the day the typhoon came through. We were perched under the eaves watching the trees bend and the drops of rain fly off of the eaves. It was a great beginning to our poetry unit. We used to study poetry in January, but we changed our schedule last year to bring the Poetry Reading into the fall. There were too many events lined up in the winter. This has worked out well, except...
I love to take the students outside in inclimate weather to write. October and November are usually dry and warm. It's not quite as inspiring as a good old storm. Alas, Mother Nature provided an extraordinary day for us! Our journals were a bit wet, but it was worth it. Ask to see your students' rainy day poems!

And so begins our poetry unit. Get ready for November 11th when each student will present an original piece. It's my favorite event of the year. Yes, I'm biased. Enough said. This week we will be writing all kinds of free verse poetry. Even my most reluctant students, those who profess disdain for poetry, seem to be enjoying themselves. It's all about choice, choice to write about what they want. I suspect we will have a number of clever and humorous poems presented during our poetry reading. Stay tuned.

Have you heard any interesting words floating around lately? This week we worked on the Morning Vocabulary words by using a great website called quizlet.com. The site offers many opportunities for students to practice, learn, and absorb vocabulary words. There are also a few games that engage the students. We used the site on the SMART Board this week. Who thought vocabulary could be fun???

We also worked on "Trash and Treasure" reading. Students learned to mine the treasures, the important words, from articles using highlighters and annotation. Then they used those gems to write summaries. We then compared these factual summaries to our previous reading responses which were opinion based.

We ended the week with some great "like your hair is on fire" reading of independent books. There is no better way to end a productive week!

This week we will be working on more basics in writing and reading: sentence variety, vocabulary review, and reading response. The children are reading like crazy! Our book discussions are rich, informative, and varied. Last week, we concentrated on writing reading responses that used critical thinking prompts. We are realizing that personal responses, those that make us think, are very different than writing summaries. Some of the prompts are:
1. When I started reading this book, I thought...
2. I changed my mind about ...because...
3. My favorite part of the book was...
4. I was confused by...
5. My favorite character is...because...
6. I was surprised when...
7. I predict that...
8. I like the way the author...
9. I didn't like...because...
10. This book reminded me of...

As you can see, these prompts require a personal response from the students. In so doing, they are using multiple strategies to make meaning of what they read.
 

Parents, I loved seeing you all at Back to School night. Thanks for laughing at my stupid jokes and for your enthusiasm for the six word memoirs. I think they are amazing.

Students, you have worked so hard this week. Your six word memoirs are terrific, and your work with the parts of speech has been great. (Though we will try to throw those Grammar Ninja stars a little softer next time so they don't disorient the SMART Board!) If you want extra practice, go to www.kwarp.com to log onto Ninja Grammar.

I am so appreciative of the way you got in the zone on Friday. You were engaged and focused. Nice job!

This week, we will try to get your six word memoirs put on this website so that EVERYONE can read them! I'll see you tomorrow. Don't forget your tents for Tuesday. (That was alliteration!)