A Peek at My Week and a Lit. Circle FREEBIE

Well, where did last week go? Thanks to the polar vortex I was without internet for several days and stuck home for three days. I was so looking forward to returning to school and celebrating my favorite part of the Christmas season with my kiddos (see this post). No internet + no school = unhappy teacher. All's well, however, now. I'm linking up with my bloggy friend, Jennifer from Mrs. Laffin's Laughings for her weekly A Peek at My Week party.

This coming week is a full week of learning and fun. The fun part is really for me! You see, I have a student teacher working with me for the next 15 weeks who just happens to be one of our school graduates and a former student of mine. Her university suggested she just observe and do small jobs in the classroom like grade papers, work one-on-one with a student, etc. for the first four weeks. Bah humbug! I'll have several photos next week of Ms. Murphy in action! She's going to do a Language Arts lesson with my eighth graders at the end of the week. Here she is timing the Wise Men SCOOT activity for my eighth graders. She is grading their papers this weekend also, bless her heart!

Meanwhile I'll be finishing up this Citing Text Evidence lesson from Erin at I'm Lovin' Lit with my eighth graders on Monday and Tuesday. It comes from her Interactive Writing Notebook product. However, this Citing Text Evidence lesson is offered as a FREEBIE. She explains it well on her blog at this post.

My sixth graders will be finishing up My Side of the Mountain... hopefully! We have had so many interruptions what with Christmas programs and parties and snow/cold days (four already) that we got far behind. This was their first full-fledged novel done completely with Literature Circles so it was a tad slow going. I'm going to speed them through the last one-third of the book  lickety split so Miss Murphy can take over afresh in two weeks.

My fifth graders will just be introduced to Literature Circles this week. On Monday, I'll teach them the six jobs as outlined by Harvey Daniels in his book, Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student Centered Classroom, a book I've used since 1998. We'll also watch a brief video of a small Literature Circle in action.

On Tuesday, the fifth graders will create this interactive notebook foldable to help them remember the six jobs they will be completing as they work in Literature Circle groups. If you would like a copy just click HERE or on the graphic below.

We'll practice these jobs on Wednesday through Friday with some winter/snow related picture books, and be all set to start our first novel the following week. That's my school week in a nutshell. On the homefront... I have been on cat patrol for six weeks! You might recall that I brought a sweet, young feline (Lulie) into my home six weeks ago. 

 My incorrigible old queen, Daisy did NOT like her at all!!!!

After numerous chases, hissing and growling matches, calming treats and spray, and brandishings of the squirt bottle, progress is being made... I think... I hope! Where once the two could not bear to be in the same room, we now have the old queen coaxing the young feline to play, I think. Lulie does not trust Daisy and will not respond to the coaxing. Lulie knows that Daisy might just be coaxing her to come closer for a good thrashing! LOL! 

Anyway... I will still be on cat patrol this week as well! Soon, I hope, this job will fade away. I hope everyone has a great week! Be sure to stop by Jennifer's blog to read more A Peek at My Week blog posts. Happy Teaching, Angela The Teacher's Desk 6