6th and 7th Grade ELA

I will be hosting live online classes to periodically check in with students, explain assignments and review concepts for work assigned. I will post a link to “Zoom” on GoogleClassoom, and you can join the live class session.

Times are: Monday 1-3 and Wednesday 1 pm – 3 pm, as well. Just a reminder though, if you click the link at another time, other than those listed above, no one will be in chat, so it won’t work. I will try and post the recorded videos to Classroom, in case anyone needs review on the IXL concepts for the week.

https://zoom.us/join

Check out our new class poetry collection: Voices from the Middle 3rd edition

Use the link below to access our weekly reading log. Make sure you are completing one log per week, minimum.

https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/blogs/genia-connell/migrated-files/reading_response_making_connection_chart.pdf

Dear parents and students,

My name is Ms. Lauren Reynolds, I will be your/your child’s English teacher for the 2019 – 2020 school year. This will be my third year at Salina Intermediate. I am a graduate of both Wayne State University and Western Michigan University, with a bachelor’s degree in in English and art, a master’s in English, and a second master’s degree is higher education. I have spent several years working in the Office of Admissions at Western Michigan University.

My other teaching endorsements include k-12 Art and ESL. For the past 2 years, I taught 6-12^th grade art at Star International Academy. Before that, I was an assistant art teacher at the Dearborn Heights Montessori Center, for k-8^th grade students. My interests include: writing poetry, reading, painting and learning new recipes. I live in the Dearborn area with my husband, and my cat, Simba. I look forward to getting to know you and your student this year!

Last year, we had 86% of students show reading growth. This year, I plan to have 100% reading growth for our kids! But, in order to do this, we need your help. Supplemental reading will be assigned all year. 20 minutes per night, documented on our nightly reading logs, and culminate in a book-talk, third card marking. Additional logs will be available in the classroom, and on the Iblog and Google Classroom (where assignments are regularly posted). For the 3^rd and 4^th card markings we will have required IXL assignments each week. This means that they can never say, “I don’t have homework.” Nope, not true!  Reading, is homework! We want reading to be fun for your child, going to the library together, picking out books, reading and talking about the stories together, this is a great way to make reading logs the most painless homework ever!

Sincerely,

Ms. Lauren Reynolds

Recommended Supply Lists:

• pencils, erasers, blue and red pens and highlighters
• pencil case to store supplies
• three ring binder with pockets and loose leaf paper
• college-ruled composition notebook (for 6^th grade reading response journal only)
• spiral notebook with at least 4 subjects (for interactive writing notebook)
• 8 color set of crayons or colored pencils (for interactive writing notebook)

Recently, I have been receiving a lot of e-mails concerning the summer work. I was informed that your book talk rubric would be sent to you as an attachment in your report card, which is why I didn’t pass it out. But, in case you missed it, I will include the rubric and suggested book list here. The idea is: you must be reading this summer! Don’t just make us a pretty poster board. Join a library reading contest (it’s free!), read multiple books that you are actually interested in. Read graphic novels for yourself, just in addition to this, not instead! So, make sure that the one book you choose to present on is all of the following:

1. A chapter book, not a graphic novel (should be grade level appropriate)
2. You have not read it before (Not “the Giver” if you’re going to be an 8th grader. And not “The Hunger Games”, “Where the Red Fern Grows” or “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, if you are going into 7th.)
3. On the summer reading list below, or something that has not been made into a movie!
4. summer book list

If you have me next year, (and even if you don’t), I plan on starting the presentations the week we get back, so please, have your project prepared, and ready to present. We don’t do our homework in class! It can be a Google Slide presentation, a poster board, or another type of 3D art, which identifies the author’s message in the book, in addition to summary, characters, etc. Summer book talk rubric Theme

Possible themes list:

7.Theme_ThemesList-1

• You must use examples from the story to prove why it fits with the theme selected. Don’t just tell me, “Don’t judge a book by it’s cover, that’s the theme.” Why? How do you know? Think “evidence” and reasoning in everything you do! Also, this is not an exhaustive list of themes. If you think of one that is not on this list, that’s perfectly fine.
• If you have any questions about whether or not a book is appropriate for your reading level, or you would like to read something which is not on the above list, please feel free to shoot me an e-mail at: ReynolL@dearbornschools.org

Have a great summer 🙂

Sincerely,

Ms. Reynolds

7th graders:

As we prepare to take out final, on Monday, June the 10th, know that I am expecting quality work! So, make sure you’re finishing the novel, and putting forth your best effort. If, for any reason (field trip, absence, or travel abroad), you must notify me ahead of time, in order to take your final. Exemptions will not be made. The things you should be prepared to know are:

1) The following vocabulary words: (Look them up, study at home, and be prepared to use/identify them in a sentence)

1. astonished
2. fascinated
3. empathetic   (not sympathy, empathy!)
4. empowered
5. solemn

2) There will be ten multiple choice comprehension questions, from the beginning of the book until the end (ten points each)

3) Four short answer questions (3 sentences, minimum)

• You will need to explain how the community uses “euphemisms”.  These are things that seem harmless, but mean something much worse (such as “release”).

4) There will also be a heavily weighted final essay (50 points), so be ready to use you text evidence! The topic is, “why is choice important? And when is it okay to take choice away?” This is essentially a CER, so you will have to state a claim, provide text evidence, and back it up with reasoning. Be prepared to write, so come prepared with a pencil, not a pen!

For my 6th graders. This is a sneak peak at the specific words that will be on the Root Words final this Friday. You are still free to study the foldable that we made in class, but if any of these look unfamiliar, it couldn’t hurt to look them up, so you know what exactly to expect.  You will be expected to match the word to the best definition.

1) Spectacle

 

2) spectator

 

3) spectacular

 

4) asteroid

 

5) astrological

 

6) intersection

 

7) dissect

 

8) bisect

 

9) trisect

 

10) mortuary

 

11) mortal

 

12) mortician

 

13) teleport

14) telemarketing

 

15) telegraph

 

16) calculation

 

17) articulation

 

18) communication

 

19) annotation

 

20) biology

 

21) biographical

 

22) microbiology

 

23) microscopic

 

24) multicultural

 

25) multilingual

 

 

 

 

6th Grade:

As we near the finale of our year together, we will have a quiz each Friday, on a different chapter of “The Hunger Games”. Some quizzes will purely be comprehension based, while others will be a combination of comprehension, and vocabulary.

*Tomorrow will be quiz on chapter 12, finished in class on Wednesday. It is your responsibility to sign out a book and complete the reading, if you are ever absent, or for whatever reason, have missed the day’s reading.

Please make sure that you’re doing your weekly IXL standards! They are 20 formative points each, what makes a significant difference, up to a full letter grade! Also, extra work on reading skills throughout the year is what will help us improve on reading levels by spring.

There will be two standards per week, you must get 80% or higher to get the full 20 points! I mention this again, because you had 3 weeks now, and over half of you have not done this. There will be no “late points” for this, so make sure that you’re keeping up, because we’re only going forward on this one!

So, in advisory block, we voted on our next 6th grade book, which we will read for the first 15 minutes of class each day. The students have selected “the Hunger Games”.  This is a fun, but challenging book, because it is science fiction, and contains a lot of made up creatures and vocabulary that can be confusing. If you need to re-read, or need to catch up on your reading, I have included the link to the full-length audio book here. However, it is your responsibility to find out what chapters you missed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aP2-A1GzwO0