A Prehistoric V-Day

Some helped us with our essays,

Some solved puzzles,

Some got new outfits,

Some just offered us a smile,

Some met long-lost siblings,

Some supervised our work,

Some liked the taste of folders,

Some hung out in our hair,

And some got lost... kind of.

January 10th Lesson

1.) Read this article, then watch this video.

2.) Look at the propaganda posters and discuss them with your group.

3.) Watch Disney's Nazi video - You should all watch this on one computer.

4.) Read the article "Hitler's antisemitism. Why did he hate the Jews?"

5.) Look at these identification cards and/or look at WWII newspapers (from Maine!) from this time period!

If you have extra time, check out the Anne Frank website.

Winter Books

After finishing their assessments, students were able to read some winter-themed children's books to unwind before vacation begins! Some chose to read on their own, while others set themselves up almost like a little class. Here are some pictures of that. Enjoy your vacation, all!






Coming Soon!

Coming Soon: Our realistic fiction stories! Students created a visual representation of their stories, in this case, a book cover or movie poster. How cool did these come out?!?!? I cannot wait to read the stories themselves!






Who is Dante?

This month we read "How to Turn an Everyday Ordinary Hoopcourt into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the Podium" (say that 10 times fast) by Matt de la Peña, and talked about how people are complicated. Everybody has multiple sides to them, and while the least desirable parts of a character may be real, so are the best parts of them too. In this class we came up with how we see the character of Dante before page 18 of the story, and how we saw him AFTER that part of the story. It was really cool to hear how students described Dante, and this is just one example of the language they applied to him.

How we Get our Reading Done, and Done Well

How we Get our Reading Done, and Done Well

This list was generated by all four of Ms. Olsen's ELA classes in the midst of reading their book club selections. So if you're ever wondering how you can get a book finished, and ensure you understood it as well, try these tips straight from some super smart middle schoolers!

- Think / reflect on reading (pause)
- Practice by reading not just when it's assigned
- Find something you're interested in
- Take your time
- Set reminders
- Talk about the book with a group
- Takes notes as you read
- Give yourself a time limit you have to reach
- Find reading tools that work for you
- Research if needed
- Ask questions as you read
- Reread parts
- Find a quiet and not-distracting place to read
- Utilize reading partners
- Eat brain food (No dum dums, apparently)
- Come up with memory devices
- Write things down
- Have someone ask you questions about what you read
- Set goals
- Make a plan
- Review / check-in with yourself
- Picture it in your head
- Use in-class time
- Break the book into chunks
- Make time outside of class (even small moments)

~ Book Bistro ~

Students  got to "taste" all of the books we will be working with within our "Investigating Characterization" Reading Unit.

Welcome to Ms. Olsen's 2019-2020 ELA Blog! I will post some of the happenings here in class, as well as certain notes that are best shared to everyone, instead of individually through GoogleClassroom.