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Mr. Varela, Language Arts, 6th Grade

Posts

Week of 4/29

Hello Parents and Guardians
 
We are going to be finishing our last 3/4 weeks with a Film Studies unit where we read scripts and watch their accompanying films. Your student should have brought home a permission slip with a few films or tv shows on them that we'll be watching over the next month.
 
Thanks,
Richard

Week of 4/15

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
Due to CMAS testing, we will only have 2 days (Monday and Friday) of class this week.
 
Richard

Week of 4/8

Hello parents and guardians,
 
Due to the uneven nature of our class time over the next few weeks, we'll be tying up some loose ends from earlier in the year while working on some nonfiction writing on a topic of the students choosing. We will end our year with a Film Studies Unit where we will read scripts from films and watch portions or occasional complete films. This will allow us to bookend our year with fiction units and show how the skills we learn in reading are applied to different mediums including interpersonal relationships.

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
Poetry is over and speechifying is under way! Students are going to learn about persuasive writing in order to speak knowledgeably on a topic of their choice. They will write a speech (and give it) in order to advocate for their beliefs!
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela

Week of 2/5

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
We are finishing up our poetry unit with students having two days of slam poetry preceded by furious poetry writing days.
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela

Week of 1/29

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
This week we're continuing with Poetry and focusing particularly on mood and tone.
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela

Week of 1/22

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
This week we're beginning a short unit on Poetry in which we'll learn about figurative language, rhythm, rhyme, and repetition, as well as tone and mood. 
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela

Week of 1/17

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
We started off by looking at stories about mountains and are now looking at symbolism within the fictional stories we read. Greater understanding of nonfiction texts allows us to better understand the symbolism we come across in our fictional reading. If you are watching movies or reading books with your child, ask them about symbolism in what they're seeing to keep that information fresh!
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela

Week of 1/8

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
Students are getting back into the swing of thing. This quarter we're going to be working on integrating informational reading and fictional reading while using context clues to improve our understanding.
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela

Week of 10/23

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
Students are hard at work on writing their horror stories in preparation for Halloween. We've also been analyzing horror stories to better set the mood and tone of our writing. 
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela

Week of 9/18/23

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
Students have been working hard to learn how to analyze a text utilizing an Action Analysis structure. There is nothing to read this week as we'll be on Outdoor Ed on Monday and Tuesday and we have the Washington Street Clean Up on Thursday.
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela

Week of 9/5/23

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
We are beginning Flush this week! There will be homework that can be found on this page during the duration of our reading. Please make sure your students read each night as there will be a quiz to start each day.
 
Please follow the words on the PDF while listening to the read aloud.
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela

Week of 8/28/23

Hello Parents and Guardians,
 
We started our reading of World Without Fish by Mark Kurlansky last week and this week we'll be finishing it in chapter 5! The purpose of reading this book was to provide the students with background knowledge when we started reading Flush by Carl Hiassen on September 5th. This week, however, students will read through the last few chapters on Monday and Tuesday, taking an end-of-unit assessment on Wednesday, and getting introduced to Flush on Thursday.
 
Thanks,
Richard Varela