What's New in LA

Teacher: Ms. Mary Ellen Harmeyer, mharmeyer@stclarepdx.org

11/2

Thank you to all the parents I met and talked with during parent conferences. It's a pleasure to meet and talk about your students and share the great things that are going on in language arts. I've been so impressed with the class's responses in their journals about the books they are reading during silent reading time. The interests range from graphic novels to nonfiction world history.

10/11 Some thoughts about reading:

"Books can help you learn a new language or math or science or your religion." - Joseph

"You can read the newspaper to see what's going on in the world." - Michael

"Books can be the keys to open doors of something new." - Grace

"I think reading can be good for you because you can learn new words and increase your vocabulary." - Sara

"If it wasn't for reading, we would be nowhere." - Sara

"I think there are many ways reading can be good for you. When you are sad you can go into someone else's life and forget about why you are sad." - Chloe

"Books open new ideas in your head. You have a lot of imagination. Use it!" - Claire

10/5

We will be taking our vocab unit 3 test on Friday. Students have the opportunity to earn a bonus point on the test by completing a practice test on the website www.vocabtest.com, level A.

10/3

We're on Unit 3 in our vocabulary book, and it looks like, from the scores on our previous tests, that we need to review accent marks a little more. Any help you can give at home reviewing the pronunciation of the words and where the accent falls would be helpful.

We made our writing portfolios today. We also include our notes about our first writing piece, the September Quick Write. The students had their choice of writing an expository piece, a personal narrative, or a fiction short story.

This week we will be reading the short story "The Gold Cadillac" in our anthology book.