Language Arts Newsletter 
Week of February 27th  
 
 



 
 
 
 
 
 

Team ELA Is Ready for Gameday! 


Cycle 3C Instruction Week Two :

(ISTEP+ Applied Skills Assessment Week)


6th-grade focus standard(s):

6.W.5


The Big Idea:

Research


I Can Statements:


I can conduct short research projects that use several sources to answer a specific question.

I can gather information from multiple sources (print and digital) and assess credibility of those sources.


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7th-grade focus standards:


7.RN.4.3


The Big Idea:

Comparing & contrasting informational texts


I Can Statements:


I can compare and contrast the perspective of two or more authors.

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8th-grade focus standards:

8.RL.2.3

8.RL.3.1


The Big Ideas:

Dialogue propels action

Comparing and contrasting literary texts


I Can Statements:


I can analyze how dialogue or specific incidents reveal information about characters and move the plot forward.

I can compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts.


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Carlyle was a Scottish historian, philosopher and teacher. 1795-1881
 
 

 



6th Grade: 

 

No PLCs (ISTEP+) 

 

7th/8th Grades: 


No Friday Meeting (ISTEP+) 
 
 
 
 
Cycle 3C mini-assessments

Preliminary Cycle 3C mini-assessments are ready for your consideration. You can find a link on our instructional calendar and on our weekly focus page. Your feedback is always appreciated. Thank you.  

2017 Highland ISTEP Schedule

Click here for daily testing instructions

Day 1 - Wednesday, March 1

7:30 — All students to testing location - 1st period teacher

7:50 — Begin Math 1 - 41 minute test

Begin ELA 1 - 25 minute test

9:25 — Students released to 1st Period class by the PA

9:30 — 2 hour delay schedule begins


Day 2 - Thursday, March 2

7:30 — All students to testing location - 1st period teacher

7:50 — Begin ELA 2 - 65 minute test

9:20 — Students released to 1st Period class by the PA

9:25 — 2 hour delay schedule begins


Day 3 - Friday, March 3

7:30 — All students to testing location - 1st period teacher

(8th grade students to gym or auditorium)

8:00 — Begin 6th Grade Science Test - 45 minute test

Begin 7th Grade Social Studies Test - 35 minute test

9:10 — Students released to 1st Period class by the PA

9:15 — 2 hour delay schedule begins
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Comparing and contrasting informational texts (7th)

and
 

Comparing and contrasting literary texts (8th)

Resources 
 
 


Our students need to start reading various fictional and informational texts. Reading a variety of texts (poems, short stories, articles, short passages from novels, news stories and others) with similar themes, topics, structures, or opposing points of views with varying structures or other elements, will help our students move towards reading and comprehending more complex texts. 

ReadingWorks Digital has an excellent collection of paired texts. Click here to browse their collection. 

Another great resource is CommonLit. Over the past few months, CommonLit has been adding lots of great articles and features. One of the cool new features is the ability to assign a text to a small group of students within your class. You can even assign a text to an individual student. That means you can now group students strategically by reading ability and assign them different passages that are at their level, or assign texts individually for tutoring and extension work. 

Please check out their library of new texts and the new cool feature at CommonLit — just Click here.
 
 
 
 
 
 
Click here to visit the Language Arts Portal