Reading reflections

To reflect on all the books you have read this year, answer the following questions on a sheet of loose leaf. #2-6 should be written in at least a paragraph and make sure to indicate the question in your answer.

1. From easiest to hardest, list all 20 books you read this year by title and author. If you read more than 20 books, you don't have to list all of them. Just list 20.

2. Explain why you chose this order for your easiest to hardest list. What made the hard books hard and the easy books easy?

3. Reflect on your reading rate this year. Did it improve or go down? How do you explain the progression or lack of progression in your reading rate?

4. What were your goals as a reader this year and how did you achieve them? 

5.  How have your reading habits and preferences changed this year?

6.  What was your favorite read aloud this year?

Final reflective essay

Your reflective essay should include the following:

1. How you have grown as a writer this year

2.  Where you feel you could improve

3.  How the 6+1 traits of writing helped you to become a better writer

o  Are the 2 traits you chose at the beginning of the year still the most challenging for you?

4.  The one piece of writing that helped you to see your progression as a writer (your “Aha!” moment if you will)

5.Tell me your favorite and least favorite writing pieces and why.

6.How did your writer’s notebook help shape your writing this year?

7.BONUS: What mentor text helped you the most? 

Also:

•Must be typed, double spaced and use an easy-to-read font

•Need to have a rough and final draft

DUE: Friday May 24th 

When You Reach Me reflection questions

Answer the following questions in complete sentences.

1. When You Reach Me is one of those books that confuses the reader up until the very end. So what I want to know is (a) what are you certain you understand and (b) what are you still confused about?

2. Who was your favorite and least favorite character and why?

3. Explain the significance of the book A Wrinkle in Time to the story.

4. What genre would you categorize this book? Why?

5. What if Marcus had never hit Sal?

6. As we were reading, who did you predict was sending Miranda the notes? Why did you think that? (if you'd already read this book, think back to the first time you read the book to answer this question)

Poetry Reflective Essay

Write a one-page (front and back), handwritten essay on the following prompt:

Now that we have finished this unit on poetry, I want to ask you one last time, what is poetry?  Does it even matter what poetry is?  What have you learned about yourself through this process?  What did you like?  What didn’t you like? 

Use your journal and your previously created concept maps to help you construct your essay.

Thoughts to consider:

• How your definition and perception of poetry changed
• How you are similar or different from the character of Jack in Love That Dog
• How the blackout and headline poems changed your ideas of what poetry is
• Where you found poetry hiding
• How memorizing and reciting a poem in front of an audience impacted you as a student and as a reader of poetry

MLA Tutorial: Basic Paper Formatting

8th graders, be sure to remember you need to format your research paper using MLA guidelines. Here are two videos to help you with how to go about doing that.