Welcome Back

All - Welcome back! Hope you had a good holiday and are ready to begin again!

We're almost half way through the school year, and I'd like to congratulate each you who have conscientiously completed the grade level reading assigned to date. I understand that our reading list at Xavier is challenging, and I appreciate the effort you put into coming to class prepared and ready to engage in discussion.

This next semester we will be working on making connections between detail and overall theme in our reading. You will begin a journal in which you will record your impressions (no summaries!) of your reading. Are there descriptions or literary devices the author uses that you enjoy? Don't enjoy? What detail do you notice, and how is it related to one of the book's general themes? Does an incident make you think about larger life questions? Does something remind you of other reading or something that's happened in your own life? What do you like, or not like, about the subject/style/voice/information presented? Your reflections may include anything pertinent to the text.

So, if you haven't already brought one, by January 19 please bring a tape-bound composition book (available at Target--please no spiral bound notebooks or notebooks with perforated pages) for your journal. I'll make a rubric so you'll know exactly what's expected. Meanwhile, in addition to keeping a reading journal this semester, you will continue to learn to:

1. Take notes and underline while reading: Ninth Grade will be expected to read about 60 pages per week, Eighth Grade will be expected to read about 50 pages per week, and Seventh Grade will be expected to read about 40 pages per week.

2. Learn how to do a "close read"

3. Write through a series of drafts

If you have any questions or concerns about the above expectations, please feel free to contact me.

See you tomorrow!