Something Upstairs

We started our first novel of the year today, Avi's Something Upstairs, a historical fiction novel set in Colonial times in Providence, RI.  This novel connects to the Colonial America unit we're about to embark on in Social Studies and to our theme of freedom.  Readers talked about the various ways in which reading is thinking.  Using sticky notes we will practice active reading by marking up the text.  We found a few new words in the prologue, which we recorded to later use as spelling words.  Everyone agreed the prologue left us in suspense, although there was some disagreement as to whether the prologue is true. 
Parents who want to read the novel can- just ask me for a copy. 
Eliana and I agreed that students should spend  five to ten minutes learning something about the mid-east peace talks, which began today.  Watching this video might be worthwhile: http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/09/02/mideast.peace.talks/index.html