Welcome Back!

Mrs. Skelton
3rd Nine Weeks Skills Agenda

Parents and Students,

Welcome back to school! My plan is for us to survive the cold by working hard to become better writers! We will begin the third nine-week grading period with a writing unit. During this unit, students will complete smaller writing assignments meant to hone their writing skills in specific areas and allow opportunities for creativity. Students will also complete more involved essay assignments. We will focus on organization, grammar, and sentence structure, as well as on sentence variety and creativity. Students will read examples of excellent writing and then have the opportunity to create their own examples of excellent writing. The unit will culminate in a Writer’s Portfolio that will display student progress and talent.

After our writing unit, we will complete a study of the genres of literature and their defining characteristics.

Throughout the nine weeks, we will work to expand vocabulary and improve grammar, writing, and reading comprehension.

We will work to master the following Alabama Course of Study Standards:

3. Distinguish among the major genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, plays, biographies, and
autobiographies, and subgenres, such as folktales, myths, parables, fables, and science fiction, based
on their characteristics.
4. Apply strategies that include setting purposes for reading, distinguishing fact from opinion, making generalizations, and reviewing to comprehend informational and functional reading materials.
• Determining sequence of events to enhance text
understanding
• Using specific context clues to determine
meaning of unfamiliar words
• Applying self-monitoring strategies for text
understanding
• Drawing conclusions to determine unstated intent

5. Recognize the use of textual elements, including main idea and supporting details, to gain information from various text formats, including graphs.

9. Compose in descriptive, narrative, expository, and persuasive modes with a thesis sentence and
introductory, supporting, and concluding paragraphs when appropriate.
• Using transitional words and phrases for coherence
• Using figurative language when writing in various genres

10. Apply mechanics in writing, including commas to set off nouns of address and following introductory
phrases and clauses.

• Using semicolons, conjunctive adverbs, and commas to join two independent clauses or to correct run-on sentences
• Demonstrating correct sentence structure by avoiding comma splices
• Using commas to set off nonessential clauses and appositives

11. Apply grammar conventions in writing to pronoun-antecedent agreement and to subject-verb
agreement with inverted word order and with indefinite pronouns as subjects.
• Identifying gerunds, infinitives, and participles in writing
• Identifying sentence patterns in writing
• Using compound and complex sentences in writing

15. Demonstrate listening skills, including identifying the main idea, detail, purpose, and bias in group discussions, public speeches, and media messages.