This week Speech/Language students at Lakeview have been finishing up extended response activities. The children read an article about high school students in Oakland, California who work at a coffee cafe to earn high school credit and useful business skills. The student employees raised money for a local youth project while earning a salary. Our Jr. High students were asked to write an essay on "Should high school students be allowed to participate in a work program rather than go to school?" The young writers had to use evidence from the article to support their opinion. They practiced citing facts from the text and interpreting them to draw conclusions. The students used graphic organizers to outline
their ideas and explain cause-effect relationships. Many of them were challenged to extend their thinking to explain how working at a job may or may not provide a valuable educational experience. In the process they were encouraged to recognize an author's point of view and elaborate on ideas. They often needed assistance thinking of words to describe character traits of student employees. Many of the students used laptops to type and edit their essays. These skills will continue to be addressed in language group in the coming weeks.
