Another quick week! First, I would like to thank our 7B parents who attended Back to School Night. I am looking forward to a successful school year for my students, and your collaboration is always appreciated! As we had the day off on Monday, Tuesday we kicked off our launch to Writer's Workshop. We talked about how really great writers get ideas for their stories from their own lives. We discussed how Steven King has lived in Maine his entire life and how he incorporates his knowledge of the state in most of the settings in his stories. His knowledge of the state allows for his imagery to make the reader feel like they are in Maine when reading one of his stories. We also talked about John Green, author of The Fault in our Stars and how he was inspired to write the story after a friend of his became terminally ill. The students began to list out "small moment ideas," these focused in snapshots of certain times or events in their lives. The following day, we began to write our true life, small moment stories. In writing our stories, we came up with ideas for our future realistic fiction stories. The students did a great job! We ended the week with Reader's Workshop and 2 lessons in Character Study. We talked about how EXPERT READERS select important details about their characters from the text; the details could be things the character did, said, or felt. Then we take these details, make patterns, and draw inferences or theories about what type of person our character is or their background. We will continue on with our character study in the coming week, as well. Students and parents... please remember that next week is another 4 day week! We will have off from school on Wednesday in observance of Yom Kippur. Have a wonderful weekend and come back ready to work on Monday!