I love the energy of the last-unit-of-the-year, and that’s what we started in both of my preps this week. In 7th, we are doing one more nonfiction reading unit to review what we practiced in the fall and start to move into main ideas.
Eighth graders are getting a final project for English and history in lieu of a final exam (it still counts as their exam grade). So, we took my Kwame Alexander picture book project and bumped it up a notch by adding a 5-minute informational podcast component. So NOW, students are choosing a global crisis, doing research, and explaining it in a brief podcast to adults and to children in a picture book. I am SO excited about this project, and I will plan to share the final details with you sometime!
(Pssssttt…you might also be interested in my Moving Writers post this week about a new way I am using the single-point rubric to make feedback more conversational and easier.)
Here’s the daily nitty-gritty breakdown of how we got through the last 9 days of school: