Thursday, January 9, 2014

Hello!

I hope everyone enjoyed the break as well as the additional three snow days.  I know that I enjoyed them. I now feel refreshed and I am ready to be back at school.  The marking period ends two week from tomorrow.  I cannot stress how crucial it is to be making sure that all assignments are be completed and submitted on time.

Today in class, the classes finished watching the movie, “A Christmas Carol.”  We will be writing a compare and contrast paper.  The topic is to compare what Scrooge is like at the beginning of the story to how he is at the end.  Students did a Thinking Map of their choice while watching the movie the Friday before break.  Today the students worked on an IBC chart to help organize their thoughts for writing.  This needs to be completed for class tomorrow.  We will be working on Rough Drafts in class tomorrow and they will be due on Monday,  Make sure that you have your Rough Draft prepared for Monday because we will be doing some editing with our peers.  The following were our two journal topics for today:

  • What did you do over the break?
  • What was your favorite part of break?  Why was this your favorite part?

I am collecting journal entries from December 16th through tomorrow.  Please make sure your journal is ready to be collected.

Have a great evening!

Friday, December 20 ,2013

Hello Everyone!

Today in class we continued to watch A Christmas Carol.  Some classes finished the movie.  Most have about twenty minutes left.  When everyone returns from break, we will continue watching it.  I gave all students a Thinking Map to complete over break.  Students are to compare and contrast Scrooge from the beginning of the movie/play to the end.  What things were similar?  What was different about him?

Each student was also given a double-sided Reading Log to complete while on break.  This will be worth ten points when students return.  It only requires one signature.

I received many gifts today and I cannot thank all of my students enough.  It has been a wonderful semester and I look forward to what the year has in store for us when we return.  I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful break!

 

 

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Good Afternoon!

Today in Language Arts we continued to read the play, “A Christmas Carol.”  I am hoping to finish this tomorrow and then watch the movie during class on Thursday and on Friday.  There are questions that go along with each scene in the play.  Yesterday I posted the questions for scenes one and two.  Today I will be posting the questions for three and four.  The following are the questions that students are expected to answer:

  1. What memories of Scrooge’s past make him sad?
  2. Who is Fezziwig?  What lessons did he teach his apprentices?
  3. Who are the young man and the woman in the scene? What does Scrooge wish would have happened?
  4. Where does the Ghost of Christmas Present take Scrooge?
  5. How is Tiny Tim different from other little boys?
  6. What do you think Scrooge is feeling from watching the Cratchits?
  7. How does Mrs. Crachit feel about Scrooge?
  8. Why does Mr. Cratchit defend Scrooge?

I will be collecting these questions at the end of class on Thursday.  Please make sure that you have them.  Have a great night everyone and I hope you read.  Three more days!

Monday, December 16, 2013

Hello!

I would like to begin this post by saying that we have four more days until break!  I know how excited many of you are.  I must admit that I am excited to spend time with friends and family as well.  As excited as we all our about the break, we do still have four more days of school and we need to make sure that we are focusing in our classes and completing our homework on time.  Progress report grades are due on Wednesday.  Students that have a C minus or lower in my class on Wednesday afternoon will be receiving progress reports.  Please make sure to get all late work turned in because I do not want to give one to anyone.

This week in Language Arts we are focusing on the play, “A Christmas Carol.”  Today students read the Prologue and Scene One.  Most classes started Scene Two today.  This is where we will pick up tomorrow.  If you were absent, try using the online textbook to catch up.  While reading, I asked students to answer a few questions to check for understanding.  The following are a list of questions that I will expect students to have answered (in complete sentences) and submitted by Thursday, December 17th:

  1. What does the term “Bah! Humbug!” mean?
  2. How are Scrooge and his nephew’s views about Christmas different?
  3. What does Scrooge value most in life?  What does Fred value most in life?
  4. How does Scrooge deal with the gentleman visitor that visits the office?  What does this say about how Scrooge feels about the poor?
  5. Why does Marley visit Scrooge?
  6. When Marley disappears at the end of the scene, how does Scrooge react?  How does this differ from how he normally acts?

I am very proud of the actors and actress in my class and I am enjoying reading this play with each student.  I look forward to continuing the play tomorrow.  I hope everyone has a great night!

 

Monday, December 9, 2013

Good Afternoon,

Today in class we wrapped up our American Sign Language Presentations.  I was very impressed with the work the students did to prepare for this.

With our remaining time in class, the students broke into their Talk-to-Text groups and read the story, “A Mother’s Words,” from our textbook.  The students were given a copy of the story to write down their thoughts while reading.

Once the students were done reading with their partners, they verbally discussed how they would create a summary for this story.  This is similar to the Close and Critical Chart that we have been working with in our classroom.

After the discussion, students got back together with their table mates.  When they got back, a giant post-it note was on the table for the students to create a summary of the text as a group.  Tomorrow the students will continue to work on this and present their findings.  We will also be going to the library tomorrow to get books for reading over the break.

Have a great evening and make sure you are reading tonight!

Friday, December 6, 2013

Hello!

Today the students presented their name and two adjectives in Sign Language to the class.  We discussed what it means to be a respectful audience member.  Additionally, we talked about what it means to be a professional presenter.  Students were given two opportunities for extra credit.  If the students volunteered to present, I gave them one point of extra credit.  If the students did not look at their alphabet sheets while presenting, they were rewarded another point of extra credit.

This is a reminder that the iLearn responses are due by 9pm TONIGHT!  Please make sure that you have yours submitted. I have been reading the names of the students who have submitted their responses each day during class.  Lastly, Reading Logs will be due on Monday.  I attached a copy of the Reading Log to a post earlier in the week.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlbnGSMJQbQ

 

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Good Afternoon!

Today during Language Arts the students continued to read the story “Zebra” from our textbooks.  This can be done online for students who may need to reference the text.  I also allow students to rent textbooks for an evening.  In small groups the students discussed their thoughts on the story as well as examples of motivation within the story.  During a whole group discussion, the students determined how motivation relates to the moral of the story as well as how to write this in a paragraph format.  We discussed how to format the paragraph as well as how to add a direct quote to our writing.

Tomorrow the students will be presenting their Sign Language Presentations.  Additionally, their iLearn summaries will be due at 9pm.

The following were our two journal topics for today:

  • How do you feel you would adapt to life if you were deaf?  What kind of changes would you have to make?
  • How do you feel you would adapt to life if you were blind?  What kind of changes would you have to make?

Have a great night and remember to READ!

-Ms. Traylor

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Good Afternoon!

During Language Arts today, the students were introduced to a new story from our textbooks, Zebra.  We also began reading the story.  This can be found in the online textbook if students need to reference it while at home.

This is a reminder that we will be doing our Sign Language Presentations on Friday. Third hour will be presenting on Monday due to the assembly.  Please make sure that you are prepared to present two adjectives that describe yourself.

Lastly, iLearn posts for the movie, “The Miracle Worker” are due by 9pm on Friday.  Please make sure to post!

I hope everyone has a great evening!

December 3, 2013

Hello!

I hope everyone enjoyed their break!  I was thankful to have time off to spend with friends and family.  Now we are back at school and a new marking period has begun!  Grades are now up to date.  I will no longer be taking late work from this past marking period.  The only grade we have thus far for this marking is the first Reading Log.  Please make sure that students are completing these on time.  Students should be reading 100 minutes each week which breaks down to 20 minutes each day.  Students do need to get these signed each week.  I have attached an additional copy to this blog post.  There are also extra hard copies on the While You Were Out board in the back of the classroom.

For the past few days, we began to the introduction to our new unit, “Life Lessons,” by watching the movie “The Miracle Worker.”  We watched the Disney version created in 2000.  Here is the The Miracle Worker on youtube.  Students have been asked to write a summary of what they saw through iLearn on the school website.  Students should log in using their student ID and birth date.  This is the same as logging into a computer at school.  Once logged in, students are to search “Traylor” in the search box.  All of the 7th Grade Language Arts teachers are sharing one class this year. Please click on the class when it is found.  From there, students will need to put in a password to join a class.  This only needs to be done the first time students are entering the class.  The following are the passwords for each of my class periods:

1st Hour- Traylor1

2nd Hour- Traylor2

3rd Hour- Traylor3

5th Hour- Traylor5

Once this has been done, please look for the last topic that is titled “The Miracle Worker.”  Click on this link.  Once this is done, you can attached the summary  from a word document or type it directly.  This assignment will close at 9pm on Friday night.  I am encouraging students to get it done early.  This will help us to avoid technological errors while completing the assignment.

The summary was started in class today.  I modeled what strong introduction and conclusion sentences would look like when writing a summary.  We also discussed the important events in the story that could be incorporated into the summary.  Students can use the notes they took in class to help them create their summaries on iLearn.

Lastly, the students were given a copy of the American Sign Language Alphabet while in class today.  They will be presenting their names and two adjectives that describe them in class on Friday.  The audience members will be asked to figure out which two adjectives the presenter is using to describe themselves.  The students will be allowed to have notes with them while they present but they may not rely solely on the notes.  It has been exciting to watch students practice their Sign Language in the hallways today!

I hope everyone has a great evening!

Reading Log Template 2013-2014

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Hello,

I was out of the building today at a training session.  The note left by the substitute informed me that all of my classes were well behaved.  To my students, THANK YOU! Due to the behavior of my classes today, I will be giving students more time in class tomorrow while we continue to work with our informational text.

Today we focused on Close and Critical reading with an informational text.  We discussed how to talk to the text with a partner, how to create a summary, what the author’s craft is, what they learned from the text, and how to make a connection to it.  We will continue to work on this idea tomorrow.

The verb worksheets from our mini lesson were due today.  If you did not turn yours in, please make sure to do so tomorrow.  This is also a reminder that I will be checking journals tomorrow.  Please make sure you have yours completed.

Have a great evening everyone!