Students are currently reading the non-fiction book, I am Malala.  This ties in with our Geography curriculum, as well as teaches current events, character education, and ELA topics like genre, vocabulary, reading strategies, etc.  As we go, students are again completing jobs in literature circles, which allows students to cooperatively practice their skills of vocabulary building, connecting text to past experiences, summarizing, and locating literary devices in text.  Students also get to interact online through blogs in a way similar to online college classes they may take in the future.  Once their assigned job is complete, each student responds to the posts on their partners’ blogs, adding to the conversation.  Job descriptions are as follows:

Group Leader	Develop three open-ended discussion questions about today’s reading and post them on your blog.  Each of the other group members should respond to the post with their answers/thoughts on the questions.  Suggested question starters: Compare and contrast… What evidence shows… How would you solve… What approach would you use to… What other ways could _____ have ________ What would you have done differently when…. What questions would you ask in an interview with… How is _____ related to _____ How would you or how did _____ in the book justify ______ How would things be different/better if _______ What would you do or choose when _______ Evaluate the pros and cons of ______ How would you improve…. Predict _____________
Literary Device Locator	List 3 examples of simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, idiom, etc. from the days reading on your blog.  Other group members can comment with another that you didn’t include on your list that jumped out to them.
Connector	Your Job is to post to your blog three connections between the day’s reading and other books/articles we’ve read this year or to quotes or warm-ups that we have talked about, or to something that has happened to you or your friends outside of school.  Other group members should each comment with one connection of their own.
Summarizer	Write a three sentence summary of the day’s reading and post onto your blog.  Each partner should comment with one additional detail that wasn’t in the summary.
Word Wizard	Choose three challenging words from this days reading selection and post them on your blog along with their definitions and parts of speech.   Other group members should comment with a sentence for each word.

Blog assignment dates:

4/27/16	p. 1-36
4/29/16	p. 39-65
5/3/16	p. 69-85
5/6/16	p. 86-130
5/10/16	p. 133-156
5/13/16	p. 157-193