7th Grade ELA

SAT quiz #5 was passed back to students. We went over the quiz paying special attention to clarifying any confusion. Retake is scheduled for Wednesday during lunch. Make sure you bring the required paperwork: Quiz with a parent signature, a letter explaining why you earned this grade and your plan to avoid the cycle, and an activity to show you studied.

We continued working through “Dirk, the Protector” chunk by chunk: reading, highlighting, annotating, sharing with table group, then sharing as a class. Note that you are expected to provide well written annotations.

H.W. Finish the reading of “Dirk, the Protector” by highlighting, annotating, and completing the vocabulary wk.sheet. Review your SAT 6 for Friday’s quiz.

Notebooks will be checked in the next week or so for Bell Work and SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) Reflections (we have 11 so far).

We continued to work through “Dirk the Protector” by tackling this memoir in chunks with the hope of doing our best in highlighting, annotating, discussing, and checking on our understanding. We will continue to this the next few days.

H.W. SAT 5 quiz is tomorrow, be ready! Please make sure you have your novel with you to return or rec-check out from the library.

Are you reading every night at home? You should be reading for 30+ minutes every night!

SSR #9 was assigned in class today. Make sure you are keeping up with your readings and reflections.

SAT 5 worksheet was checked in. Turn in tomorrow for late credit. SAT 4 quizzes were entered onto student connect but not yet returned. Please make sure you check your scores and plan for the retake on Wednesday, October 16 if need be. Make sure you have an activity completed to show me that you reviewed, get a parent signature, and draft a letter. Anyone who earned a 5.5 or below may retake.

Continued working on “Dirk, the Protector” and practicing annotation guidelines. We will continue to work on this in class.

NewsELA article (annotations, writing, and quiz) “Quitting NFL for Math Career” is due tonight.

Study your SAT 5 words and continue working on SSR and reflections

Students took SAT 4 quiz and received SAT 5 wk.sheet. Time was given after the quiz to work on NewsELA.

H.W. Finish the NewsELA article (annotate, complete the writing, and the quiz) – due Monday

Complete SAT 5 Wk.Sheet

Continue to read in SSR mode

Have a great weekend!

Reminder that tomorrow is a 1/2 day.

Reminder: tomorrow is the SAT 4 quiz

Make sure you work on the NewsELA article for Monday.

In class, we continued with our notes on Memoir and the vocabulary from “Dirk, the Protector”. We will continue with the read next week as we continue through annotations and close reading skills.

Collected the “Thank You, M’am” cold write reflection.

SSR #8: Choose an excerpt that is of great significance and explain what makes it important.

Introduction to Memoir: discussed and shared notes on Memoir along with focus on the difference between autobiography, personal narrative, and memoir.

H.W. NewsELA, SAT 4, and SSR (30+ minutes)

Hour was dedicated to breaking down the essay rubric and reflecting on the “Thank You, M’am” cold write as students had to rate the 8 skills in their essay and give their essay a score (1-4). STudents were also required to look up their Mstep writing score and total score on student connect. Note that 1600 total for ELA is a passing in 6th grade.

If a student did not finish this in class (applies only to 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th hours, they must finish it for homework).

This reflection is worth summative points and is a really important part of the writing process. They wrote the essays 3+ weeks ago, we spent almost 3 weeks going through the writing process as I sampled how to approach writing, complete graphic organizer, and bring it all together. They now have new information and skill to look at their cold write with a new eye. The idea is that they see their writing for what it was and understand that there is room for growth and improvement. THIS REFLECTION IS DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE HOUR TOMORROW. See below – format is off but for your information.

H.W. SAT 4 terms, reflection sheet, SSR, NewsELA

Writing Skill	Reflection:  Does your paper reflect this skill in an effective way, adequate way, inconsistent way, or minimally.	Explain what makes it effective, adequate, inconsistent, or minimal.	What can you do to make this part more effective?
Your writing reflects in-depth understanding of the text.  (If you analyzed, annotated, did close reading this should be effective)
It is organized in a logical way
Your writing reflects your understanding of the implicit and explicit part of the text
Direct references to text both in textual evidence and referring to events
Solid thesis and topic sentences and details that reference your thesis
Skillful use of transitions (not just first, second, in addition, according to)
Precise and subject specific language used
Grammatically and mechanically there are only a few errors (spelling, capitalization, punctuation…)

After reflecting on these various skills, what score would you earn on your essay?  4     3    2    1

Please reflect on what you realized along the way:

M-Step writing score (2019 Spring):   4     3    2    1   your thoughts: 

Overall Score:  

Reminder: You should be done with 7 SSR Reflections thus far.

In class, we spent time going over SAT 4 worksheet, working on KWL (Topic: memoir), and breaking down essay requirements based on the Essay Rubric (M-Step).

NewsELA article has been assigned for this week. It is due on Monday, October 14th. Please make sure you follow the directions and avoid procrastinating. You should be doing a part of it every night. If you have yet to join a class, make sure you do so using the codes below to JOIN YOUR HOUR. You must go through your account to access the class and article.

Houry 1st hour	Grade 7	English/Language Arts/Reading	V7ETCB					…
Houry 3rd hour	Grade 7	English/Language Arts/Reading	MGJ6BC					…
Houry 4th hour	Grade 7	English/Language Arts/Reading	MSBARY					…
Houry 5th hour	Grade 7	English/Language Arts/Reading	UFRZPX					…
Houry 6th hour	Grade 7	English/Language Arts/Reading	FXR7VM

H.W. SAT 4 list, NewsELA, and 30+ minutes of SSR

Took SAT Quiz #3 today.

Yesterday SAT quiz #2 was returned to students. The Retake for quiz #2 is on Monday, October 7 during lunch. Reminder: students must have a letter of explanation with a future plan of how s/he will avoid getting a low score. Must have 5 or below to retake. Make sure there is parent signature and the activity that was done to review (if a quizlet, must show me it). If this is the second time a student wants to retake, they were required to see me to discuss whether or not they are allowed to do that. It cannot become a cycle where the student is failing and retaking every week.

SAT 4 was passed out and is due on Monday. A “different form” column was created. For example, for empathy, there could be empathetic, empathize, and emphatically. For column 3 it should say write 5 times!

Library time: students spent time in the library either renewing or checking out another book. SSR Reflection #6 has to be completed – topic: Summarize what you have read thus far (must have 12-15 sentences). Reading must happen at home as the time spent in sustained silent reading in class is not sufficient.

We are done with our first round of writing with me modeling the process. Students should have their graphic organizer completed as most was done in class; however, there were some who were behind. Students also got a copy of the graphic organizer we worked on in class. It took about 3 weeks to go through this process but the hope is that we have all gained clarity and direction with the expectations in writing an essay/PBW. We will revisit their pre-writing cold write next week for some reflection.

H.W. SAT 4 worksheet and SSR reading (30 minutes a night)

Have a great weekend!

Continued working through Body paragraph 3 in re-teaching and sharing good examples. We will pick up with the same focus tomorrow and move into the conclusion.

Reminder that you should be reading at home for 30 minutes a night. Make sure you are caught up on SSR reflections in notebook and Bell Work

Retake for SAT 2 quiz is schedule for Monday, October 7 during Lunch

You must follow re-testing procedure: letter telling me what happened and your future plan with the activity you did to relearn the terms. Note that if this is your second re-take we will need to have a discussion prior to the test as I will determine whether this is a good idea or not. Some of you retested and still failed the retake. You cannot make this a continuous cycle.

H.W. SAT 3 terms & finish up your 3rd body paragraph if it is still incomplete