This week in middle school we continued our unit on dramatic structure with mini-lessons on theme. We reviewed the difference between theme, main idea, topic, and moral. We also reviewed how to identify a theme in a story and how to structure a theme statement. Now that we have learned all of the elements of dramatic structure, we will use this knowledge to help us analyze, discuss, and write about literature.
Middle school students revisited a lesson on how to annotate a text and practiced using two short stories. Our 6th/7th grade cohort read and annotated Eleven by Sandra Cisneros and our 8th grade cohort read The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov. Students had a mini-lesson on how to create textual questions (factual, interpretive, and evaluative) and we practiced constructing questions about these texts.
Students continue to work on their Genius Hour projects, both in school when they have work cycle time, and at home. Their blogs are up on KidBlog, so please take time to check out their awesome writing!
Above students work on informative writing for their Genius Hour projects.
