Last Day of Mock ELA Testing

The day started off with a nice surprise in my mailbox from Elmer's Teacher Club.  What a nice way to end a long week as to get surprise goodies in the mail.  I felt so lucky!

Today was also the last day of ELA Mock Testing.  Boy, am I glad!  Sitting still for 70 minutes straight is VERY hard for some of my boys.  I can also tell that the anxiety that comes with testing is rough on my kids.  We had more arguments and silly fights this week than at any time this entire year.

• 1st period - ELA Mock Testing Prep
• 2nd Period - ELA Mock Testing
• 3rd Period - ELA Mock Testing and pick up materials for return
• 4th Period - as soon as everyone returned from testing, we finished reading the last part of chapter 15 and the very last chapter, chapter 16 of The Indian in the Cupboard.  Man, what a good book!  I have to say, I am not quite sure why... but me and a few of the kiddos started crying toward the end of the book.   When the book was over students went one table at a time to take the AR comprehension test.  Almost all the students passed!  That is a sign of a good book!  
• 5th Period - in honor of "FUN FRIDAY" and the end of testing, I told the kids they could watch the movie The Indian in the Cupboard since it would be too cold to go outside today.  Mr. Hoffman had them for 5th period and he agreed to let them watch it during their time with him.  Mr. Hoffman remembers that movie fondly!  I somehow had never seen it, and thanks to Momma McDougall, it arrived yesterday in the mail, JUST IN TIME!  Momma McDougall sent a huge box of goodies that the kids will get to enjoy including books, stuffed animals, games, toys, pens, pencils... all for the goodie box!
• 6th period - lunch!  This was my first week back to doing "Table Points" and the table getting the most points during the week having Pizza With McD as a reward.  Table 2 had just one more table point than Table 1.  We enjoyed our pizza and soda and talked.  After they finished their lunch, they were allowed to play games in the room until lunch was over.
• 7th period - We returned to the room and attempted to watch the rest of the movie.  I wasn't sure if the kids picked up on why I kept asking - "was this like the book?  Is that how the book handled it? Is this the same?"  As the announcements came on to beckon us to head downstairs for dismissal, I passed out two homework tasks.  One should be quite easy, a 10 question (front and back) quiz on The Indian in the Cupboard.  The second was a sheet where they had to use the text and movie to cite 4 ways the two were alike, and 4 ways they were different.  They then had to decide which one showed the relationship between Omri and Little Bear the best and explain why using examples from both pieces.  (GUESS WHAT - that is basically the performance task they will have to write next week for ReadyGen Unit 2b.  That task is to compare and contrast  Native American life is presented in The Birchbark House and Northwest Coast People and then decide which one did a better job at showing it and why. This way, the performance task wont seem as scary!

Homework:

1. Reading:  The Indian in the Cupboard Take Home Quiz
2. Writing:  How were the book and movie alike and different, and which one did a better job showing the relationship between Omri and Little Bear