Some of our Favorite Reads

Curtis with Captain Underpants. (Yes, you read that correctly!) 

Michaela loves the Hunger Games series and the Michael Vey series.     

Natali's current favorite is The Cupcake Queen.

Grace is a big fan of the Divergent series.

Meghan likes Divergent, as well.

Peyton also likes Divergent and the Gallagher Girls series.

Jenna loves Divergent, Mockingjay, and Michael Vey.

Molly's favorite is Catching Fire.

What is your favorite read?

The Outsiders Readers' Theater--CCLS style

Both classes acted out a scene from The Outsiders in a Readers' Theater style. Please enjoy this Academy Award caliber acting. :-)

Starring:

Edward as Ponyboy
Lucas as Johnny
Emmett as Bob
Robby as Randy
Deanne as David
Paul as a Soc
Kate as a Soc

Starring:
RJ as Ponyboy
Brock as Johnny
Curtis as Bob
Grace as Randy
Aly as David
Gage as a Soc
Natali as a Soc

The Outsiders

We have started The Outsiders. So far there has been very positive feedback on the book and we're just getting into the thick of it this week. There will be two projects to go along with the daily reading assignments, quizzes, and discussion.

1. Casting a new movie version of the book (which I'm surprised hasn't been remade yet!) The students will have to write a description of several characters from the novel, choose a person to play that character, and explain his or her choice. I have added this to the assignments tab above and will be discussing it in class on Friday.

2. There will be a short creative writing piece based on the novel. I will not assign this until closer to the end of our reading of the novel. More details to come!

Again...it doesn't matter which character these illustrations are supposed to represent!

Links for the 1960s research

Here are a few links you can use to direct your research today on the 1960s. You may find your own sites, as well.

Music

Music

Television

Television

1960s movies list
(Be sure to focus on the movies of the early 1960s).

Historical Events

1960s timeline

1960s History

Historical Events, Music, Entertainment
(You will need to scroll through art and architecture, etc.)

Realistic Fiction

We are nearly through with our realistic fiction short story unit. We are spending much of our time focusing on theme. In particular, we are paying attention to how characters change and what that teaches us about the story.

Once we are finished with this unit, we will begin The Outsiders. Please don't watch the movie! I promise it is not as good as the book. I know people always say that but I always have students every year watch it after reading the book and just hate it. Trust me on this! :-)

Book report information has been posted. Check the tab above for the directions. As always, please direct any questions to me.

Non-fiction unit

8th graders have almost completed their first unit in literature! We started out with a small non-fiction unit. So far students have read two memoirs, an interview, a newspaper article, a humorous essay, and will read and analyze editorials this week.

After this unit we will move on to a short realistic fiction unit, leading us to our first novel--The Outsiders.

Just a reminder...students need to have their book report book turned in to me on Tuesday, September 3rd. This can be any non-fiction book, including autobiography and biography. Please make sure that you approve of the content of these books. Some non-fiction books, especially if they detail difficult experiences such as war, can have material that may not be appropriate for all maturity levels of 8th graders. 

Please let me know if you have any questions!