Mrs. Koeller's Reading Class

Mrs. Koeller's Reading Class

Welcome to Western Jr. High!

The goal of Reading/ Writing Workshop is to reinforce language skills and encourage students to become life-long readers.

It's another great year at Western Jr. High!

Classroom Procedures

Students need to be prepared for class each day with their workshop binder, writing utensil(s), free reading book, student planner(assignment book) and any other materials needed for working on projects.

At the end of class each day, ten to fifteen minutes will be dedicated to silent reading. During this time, students will be expected to read. It is not the time to "browse" for a new book. This is often disruptive to others who are trying to read, and the "browsing" student is wasting valuable reading time.

Books may be checked out before school or before class begins. Students should also set aside time to read outside of Reading/Writing Workshop, so they can meet their reading goal for each quarter.

What can parents do to help?

The best way for you to help, is to ask to see your student's Workshop binder at least once a week, to see if he/she is keeping up with class expectations.

Things to check:

Students should be reading 90 pages on their own each week to meet their reading goal each week.
After reading 20-30 pages of their novel, students should write a journal reflection of 2-3 complete sentences. When a novel is completed, an "End of Book" entry should be made. (There will be a red sheet in their binder with journal choices.)
Directions for any project that we are working on should be located in their binder. I encourage you to look at the project directions and expectations to see what we are doing in class.

Autobiography

(Scrapbook Project)

Parents & Students,

My reading classes will not be able to complete the autobiography (scrapbook) project during school time this year. It takes a lot of class time and many students do not use the given time wisely. After reviewing curriculum, I feel that we should devote more time to our novels and reading curriculum.

However, the autobiography project is a great way to document students' lives during their junior high years. I would like all 7^th and 8^th grade students to complete their next chapter if at all possible. Any 6^th grade student may also complete this project if they would like.

I handed out the requirements to all of my students. Anyone who completes the project by May 14, 2010, will receive an extra test grade based on their effort. All students who complete the pages and put forth good effort with the project will receive high marks! I will expect the project to be neat and turned in by the due date to receive the extra credit.

I still have some supplies left from last year. I have a lot of construction paper and printer paper. Students may see me for these supplies. They may come in before or after school if they need help. If they need to print, they may save documents to a flash drive and print before or after school. If there are a lot of students working on the project, I will try to make time for them to work on certain Fridays!

I hope that many students will continue documenting their lives through this project. All books will be sent home with students towards the end of the year.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Koeller

Supply List

1 inch three ring binder with pockets (must be used only for reading).I also suggest a three ring pencil pouch and a folder to clip into your binder.1 box Kleenex2 Large packages of loose leaf paper (Put ½ a package in binder & bring the rest to my room to store.)

***Please bring the Kleenex and paper to Mrs. Koeller’s room to be stored. They will be distributed as needed throughout the year.