Our devotions this morning were based on Ephesians 4:2--"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Sometimes these commands can be hard ones for middle-schoolers to put into practice! We know, though, that it's important to work at living according to God's commands, and it's exciting to see these students trying to put God's word into practice.
We got a chance to practice being humble and patient in our group work this morning. We read the story "Only One Woof" and were impressed by James Herriot's ability to tell a story well and by his command of the English language. The author used quite a few words that were unfamiliar to many of us, and today we took the opportunity to practice our dictionary skills. Students were given a list of vocabulary words from the story, and they worked in groups to alphabetize the words, look them up in the dictionary, and create definitions. It was a pleasure to see groups work well and efficiently together, and we all learned some new words in the process.
One requirement of our narrative essays is that they contain dialogue, and today we took time to go over some of the uses and rules of quotation marks. Students took notes on the various uses of quotation marks and wrote down examples of correct punctuation and capitalization when using quotation marks. They'll get a chance to practice their skills in writing dialogue on Friday!
We didn't have a lot of time for reading today, but we did squeeze in a few minutes with our books. For most students this is the most eagerly anticipated activity of our day! We enjoy immersing ourselves in our books, and it's encouraging to see students discussing books and recommending them to one another. We have a great reading community here in our classroom!
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