Persuasive Writing Tests and Reading Tests Marked

I have marked the persuasive texts the grade 6 students wrote about whether energy drinks should be sold to children 16 and under. Most of them were of a good standard with many more students successfully using rhetorical questions and emotive language. The majority of students are writing clear introductions, but a few a still forgetting to briefly state their main arguments in their opening paragraph, or, to sum up and restate their opinion at the end.

I alerted students to the following spelling words on Wednesday which were the most commonly misspelt in their texts and have asked them to learn the words by next Tuesday. We looked closely at the part of each word which they were having difficulty with. We also discussed the importance of using the  given support materials which modelled some of the words below. The marked texts, along with the ten writing criteria being assessed, will be put into students' portfolios on Tuesday if parents wish to look at them. The portfolios will go home with the mid-year report.

which         irritable          dehydrate          poison          dietitian          complaining          caffeine
too many    equal              beverages         believe          pressure         nervous                 coffee
allowed      headaches     major                doesn't

Big Apple, Little Apple and other riveting things...

Today was so funny. I was spending some time in the classroom with some students who wanted to just have some downtime in the classroom during the lunch break (and for once I didn't have duty) when one grade 5 boy produced the biggest apple that I have ever seen from his bag as part of his lunch...then a grade 5 girl proceeded to produce possibly the smallest apple I have ever seen. It was so funny. The large apple could have easily fed three people! The other one was cute, but would never qualify for export. It's something a budgie might chew on for an hour or so. I talked to the small group of students about camera angles and how they can further exaggerate something and took a photo. Animations unit coming up. BUT believe me, this particular apple fell from the table of the Titans and would be a real gum masher.

Sadly, sorry to say... today we didn't hit the the mathematics as hard as I wished but we did finish the tenth monster grid. So I gathered them up and had a look at the two biggest improvers as well as their graphs. There are two mini Rubrik's cubes up for grabs. Tomorrow, we start on the  Maze Grids which deal with a wider range of mental arithmetic which might appeal to some students as well as knocking a few others off their comfort perches. Arrays is also on the cards.

This morning in our 'new' expanded space, I read students a very powerful picture book called The Enemy   written by Davide Cali, and illustrated by Serge Bloch,who incidentally is one of my favourite illustrators. We also have his book which is filled with idioms called Butterflies in my Stomach in the classroom which I read to students earlier in the year.  Ask your child about this aspect of the literacy curriculum. They know what idioms and chocolates are and are now very quick to point out when I use one in class.

We did a quick think, pair, share about what students believed to be the central message of the book.  Not one of the students knew about propaganda, so we discussed the term and I will be very interested to see the final persuasive poster produced by two of my most literate students on this one.  Over the next few days, students will be working on the visual literacy-driven persuasive poster, promoting their given picture book. All the picture books focus on conflicts in which Australia was involved. Students worked very hard on reading and unpacking their given books. They also recorded in their Writer's Notebooks the types of things they need to include in their poster and have started to plan their approach. Ten students shared an exerpt from their book in the ANZAC asssembly today, and I must add that they did a fantastic job, even our very popular student from New Zealand managed to say The Nek instead of The Nick. (Love him to bits.)  I also managed to find the time to sit down and individually conference eight students about yesterday's persuasive text discussing their successes and their future areas for focus regarding the next persuasive text on mobile phones.

Students had their normal 45 minute music lesson. 

The Anzac assembly went off quite well and I was proud of the respect my students showed during the bugle playing and the one minute of silence.  

Homework tonight is for students to finish off The Lorax film/book comparison unit. This should be handed in tomorrow with the accompanying rubric. This, like the persuasive text, will be something which I share with parents during parent/teacher discussions. I now have received 21 replies out of 24 regarding interview times.

The Persuasive Text and Maths

A busy day, home at last after a long staff meeting. Mr Matt Stafford and myself will be co-ordinating the school student council and hope to have our first meeting next week.

Today, in the classroom, students wrote up their persuasive texts about the use of animals in warfare. They were given 50 minutes to plan, write and check their finished copy. I have collected them and they will receive an assessment which I will share with parents at the upcoming parent/teacher discussions along with other assessments and the social progress of the students. Most students were given their interview times today but other with a number of siblings will receive their times tomorrow. I am still short  9 responses from parents; hopefully they will come in tomorrow as these discussions will be very informative and productive.  Below is the criteria the students are being assessed on for the persuasive writing they did today:

Comments will be made on all of the above. Hopefully we will do another text about the pros and cons of mobile phone ownership in a few weeks. 

Following this we learnt how to play two place value games to increase students knowledge in this area and to help them further understand the concept of regrouping. These games are located in the back of their large scrapbooks. It might be interesting to ask your child about these games. Some of the music option students (woodwind) didn't get to play the Race to 1000 game as they always go for their lesson at 12-00.

In the afternoon we had silent reading and a number of students went to guitar and choir and grade 5 woodwind. The remainder either went to a rugby clinic which was held on the oval for upper primary students or published some of their written drafts, or stayed and caught up on some work because they were behind. We now have five operating computers in the room and are expecting one more in the near future.

The new withdrawal (ex-Science) room is starting to come together and at recess I managed to recover the display board, and move some furniture around. Some of the grade six boys assisted me in placing some shelving in the room  and cleaning stickers and mess of the walls, thanks guys! There will be two computers in this area and an animations area where students can make and photograph their creations soon. Science will have to be a major focus next week where we will be looking at mould and the conditions it needs to grow.

Tomorrow morning their will be an ANZAC Day display in there. Students will be looking at a range of picture books which focus on primarily Gallipoli, and the wars in which Australia has been involved. In pairs students will be designing and promoting their chosen picture book to create a persuasive poster, which will cover some of the components of the visual literacy aspect  of the Australian Nation Curriculum.

Half of the of the class has now read the novel Storm Boy. Keep the four books circulating please. 

Writing Persuasive Text, The Lorax continued...

First up today I read students Krista Bell's book Lofty's Mission as a way of introducing the ways in which animals were use or abused in warfare. The book is fiction, but in Australia between 1942 and 1943, during the Second World War, home breeders like Charlie Morris donated more than 13, 000 baby pigeons "squeakers" to the army to be trained as messenger pigeons. Several Australian birds won the Dickin medal for bravery. We also looked at some non-fiction accounts and examples of the ways in which animals were employed during the major wars Australia has been involved in. Students will be writing a persuasive text either in favour or against the use of animals in warfare tomorrow. Today they were also provided with a structure to assist them.  This ties in with all the work we have done on emotive texts and use of rhetorical questions over the last three weeks.

Structure:
Introduction
– include a statement to give the author’s opinion
– preview important arguments
– engage the reader’s attention
Body
– include a series of paragraphs
– give a new idea or argument with reasons and examples to support it in each paragraph
– use persuasive language
– use quoted or reported speech
– use cohesive language to link ideas between paragraphs
Conclusion
– restate the position of the writer
– sum up the main arguments
– include request action to be taken by the reader (optional)
– do NOT give any new information


We then view a short film clip from Behind the News on sniffer dogs used to detect bombs.   We revisited the idea of using keywords to take notes.

http://www.abc.net.au/btn/story/s2214523.htm

After lunch we read some factual accounts of animals being used  in warfare in terms of transport haulage, communications, morale boosters, and as live weapons. We also spent a fair bit of time looking at how to do a good search on a topic and to question sources without adequate citation or from trustworthy websites. Tonight students have been requested to do some further reading on animals in warfare and to explore their arguments ready to write their persuasive text in a 50 minute time frame first up tomorrow morning..

The Lorax was also back on the agenda and a generous amount of time and guidance given to look at the similarities and differences between the original version of The Lorax and the Hollywood adaption. Students will be expected to continue working on this tomorrow night as part of their literacy homework. 

We watched the trailer again to refresh their memories and looked at IMDb the Internet Movie Database.

Maths will be a major focus tomorrow.

Persuasive Texts, more on square numbers and some interesting new art

Today Persuasive text writing was a major focus with students looking closely at some tips. Grade 6 woodwind students did not see this amusing little clip but saw the one below this text.

Research is important, have information to back up your argument

Be creative and use humour

Appeal to the audience's emotions

Use real life experiences or stories

Reason through the other point of view

Then come up with a rebuttal



Stick to the subject and don't get personal

Students watched the following short film to take notes on the tips listed above.

Today students also completed a second lesson on square numbers and did Monster Grid number 5.
Daily Phys.ed was cancelled due to bad weather.

They had their usual art lesson and have begun making relief pictures which they will print with later.

In the afternoon they proceeded with their jigsaws, the microcosmos competition, quiet reading. The usual ins and outs for music options occurred from 12 0'clock onwards. A few students learned how to scan a picture and save it whne making the picture for the top of their jigsaw boxes. A few other students published The Other Side piece.


We will finish the Photo Story lesson tomorrow as the whole class wasn't together from 12 o'clock on wards.