It's a Wild Ride Project!

Drop in on the Language Arts Classroom...

"I have been a part of several committees for our district and our school. This includes the district language arts curriculum committee. This committee develops standards, benchmarks, and an end-of-year assessment for all 8th graders in the district.."
--Jill Whitesell

Jill Whitesell's students are immersed in reading and writing. Mini-lessons are incorporated daily to address the reading process and the skills and strategies for reading literature. Students read a variety of fiction and non-fiction independently. They learn to set and achieve reading goals based on their individual reading ability.

The writing process is used daily complimented by lessons on composition, grammar, and the mechanics of writing to increase students' writing skills. Students are often involved in integrated units, which involve purposeful reading and writing designed to address specific content areas and tasks such as in the roller coaster project. Integrated units are the result of focused planning on the part of the team's language arts, science, social studies, and math teachers.

Jill developed language arts goals for the It's a Wild Ride project which align to the Idaho State Standards for Language Arts.

Technology Integration
 

Each Language Arts classroom is equipped with six networked computers. All computers are set to print off of one teacher printer. Her students have access to 30 Alpha Smarts, which are shared by the entire 8th grade. They are stored in one classroom and checked out as needed.

Jill's classroom is located across the hall from the library which contains 25 computers with Internet access. Students in her classroom hone their research skills using both traditional print materials and Internet resources.

Class Data
 

Jill shares the same group of students with Meile and Theresa, as well as planning and lunch time.

Daily Schedule
Primetime 8:20-8:37
Block 1 8:41-10:06
Block 2 10:10-11:35
Block 3 11:39-1:31 (Planning Time - Red Days)
Block 4 1:35-3:00

Primetime 8:20-8:37
Block 5 8:41-10:06
Block 610:10-11:35
Block 7 11:39-1:31
Block 81:35-3:00 (Planning Time - White Days)

   

Visit Jill's classroom through a panorama image.