Class Newsletter

December 9, 2019

Happy December! We are back from Thanksgiving break and we are continuing our World War II unit. This week is the Book Fair, which is very exciting!

This week, we are analyzing different texts and sources that focus on the United States internment camps during World War II. We will watch a government video, read an article about the camps, and we will watch George Takei speak about his experience. We will use these resources to write about how we (the United States) responded to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

November 5, 2019

Quarter 2 has just begun and we are starting a new unit! This second unit is about conflict. We will be focusing on World War II. Through texts/passages and novels, we will investigate the question: "What does our response to conflict teach us about ourselves?"

We have a fair few books to choose from this unit and they cover the various theaters of World War II. "Night" by Elie Wiesel, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas," "Farewell to Manzanar," "They Called Us Enemy," "The Wave," and "The Diary of Anne Frank" are all among the choices for this unit. Before we begin reading, we will be doing a mini-research project about World War II, so students will have a better idea about which book they would be interested in.

October 30, 2019

Here are a few important dates:

  • **November 1: Bingo's for Unit Books are due
  • November 1: End of Quarter 1

Happy almost Halloween! We are ending our Suspense Unit this week! I have been reading some wonderful suspense stories this past week and those will be in the gradebook for Quarter 1!

We are about to embark on a new unit adventure: World War II. This unit will be about conflict and people's response to it. What does our response to conflict say about us?

October 16, 2019

Here are a few important dates:

  • October 25: Suspense Narrative is due
  • October 31: Bingo's for Unit Books are due

In the past couple of weeks, we have worked on brainstorming setting, characters, and events for our suspense narrative. Now we are starting to work on our first draft of our story!

Each day, students have about fifteen minutes to read their unit books. By the end of the unit, students should complete four boxes on their Bingo page! Bingo's can be found in Google Classroom. The assignment is due October 31!

October 2019

Happy October! We are well on our way into our unit on Suspense! The books for this unit include: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, A Night to Remember by Walter Lord, and The Lord of the Flies by William Golding. We are grappling with the following questions:

  • What attracts us to suspense?
  • What compels us to experience in stories the very things we spend our lives trying to avoid?
  • What makes us keep reading the book we are reading?


For the second half of the unit, students will work on a suspense narrative. This is a big writing adventure and we will be using the techniques we read about in our books! The suspense narrative is due October 31, just in time for Halloween!