Resources for English Language Arts

English can be tough! As we tackle some of the challenges of English, I will post what we've learned here.

End-of-Semester Project

For the next three weeks, we will be working on a student choice writing project. When completed and polished, this project can be used to replace an English portfolio in your core English class.

Details about the project can be found here.

Click here to access the grading rubric.

If you still have questions, refer to the class recordings and come visit with me during In 'n Out.

In ELA Support this week, we talked about being critical readers. There is a lot of information out there! As readers, it is our job to think critically about the information presented and do additional research if necessary to better understand a topic.

Tackling Any Writing Assignment!

Writing can be overwhelming! In ELA Support, we are learning how to tackle any writing assignment by thoroughly preplanning our work. We have learned to analyze a prompt, determined the scope of a piece of writing, identified reliable sources for research, and created outlines to guide our writing.

We are partnering with the South Utah Valley Animal Shelter to write blurbs for the pets available for adoption. We continue to write, revise, and edit these blurbs. Soon they will be posted on the shelter's website!

(To review the preplanning writing process, click this link to access the slides.)

Strategies for Reading Informational Texts

When reading informational texts, it can help to do the following:

1. Begin by reading the text. Don't worry about remembering everything or knowing every word. Just read it through.

2. Utilize close reading strategies

go back to the text and identify words you do not know. Use context clues to understand the words.
find the main idea of the text. Imagine that you are talking to a friend who has not read the text. How would you tell them what it is about in one sentence?
list supporting details. These details support the main idea and help us better understand the topic.