This week in Language Arts we are focusing on close and critical reading.  We have been practicing talking to the text with the story, “The Two Brothers.”  Once this was completed, we focused on writing a summary that corresponds with the story.  We discussed what is important to include in a summary as well as the appropriate length of a summary (4 to 6 sentences).  The students and I also discussed the fourth component of close and critical reading, making a connection.

While making a connection, the students determined if the connection was text to text, text to self, or text to world.  This thought process was supported with text references.  This was put into a four to six sentence paragraph as well.

Tomorrow we will continue to work on close and critical reading skills as well.  We will turn in the work that we have been doing in class this week so I can monitor students’ progress.

Make sure you are reading at home!

I am still in the process of adding to this blog.  Eventually, I will have activities for the students to do as well as games available.

The following are our two journal choices for today:

• What is your favorite fall activity? Why is it your favorite?
• Use sensory detail to describe pizza.  This can be any kind of pizza you like but you need to specify which kind it is.

The Language Arts classes went to the library to swap out books today. All of the books from the book fair were available for students to check out.  Seeing all of the new books our school was able to purchase was very exciting!

Once we returned to class, the students continued to work on what it means to summarize a story in four to six sentences.  This is an activity we will continue to work on next week.  We discussed the story “Thank you Ma’am” as a class using the summaries we wrote to help us.

The students also referred back to their Thankful Webs that they created for homework on Monday.  Each child chose someone that has been helpful in their lives to write a thank you letter to.  The rough draft of this will be due tomorrow.

The Language Arts LAB class continues to work on their pre-writing for the Social Studies paper.  Some students continued to research, some focused on what they could do to receive a score of 6 using the 6+1 rubric, and others began to create their rough drafts.

Have a great evening!

I hope everyone enjoyed their day off yesterday!

The following are the two journal topics for today:

• Write a story that beings with, “The ride…”
• Write a story that beings with, “The trip was…”

Once we took time to do some writing, I met with students who had missing work.  This is a reminder that Progress Report grades will be submitted at 3pm on Friday.  Please make sure that all missing work is turned in.  Any student with a D or an E in the class will be getting a report.

We started doing mini spelling, grammar and punctuation lessons this week.  Today we focused on singular vs. plural nouns as well as possessive nouns.  There was a worksheet that students were asked to complete that corresponds to the lesson.  It will be due at the beginning of class tomorrow.

After our mini lesson, the students met with their partner to finish talking to the text with the short story, “Thank You Ma’am.”  When this was completed, there were four questions on the board that I asked the students to go back in the text and find.  They were to answer these questions in complete sentences on a separate sheet of paper.  Once that was complete, they were to use the questions and any other important information to create a four to six sentence summary based on the reading.

Some of the students have asked me to attach the questions that are to be used in the summary to the blog.  The following are the questions from class:

• What was the woman’s name?
• What was the boy’s name?
• What happens when the boy tries to steal the woman’s purse?
• Why did the boy steal the woman’s purse?

Language Arts LAB continued to focus on Write to Learn.  While half of the class was working on this program, the other half of the class was focusing on different components of their upcoming Social Studies papers.  These students were meeting in small groups to research their topic and determine what they can do to get the score of a 6 on each category of the 6+1 Rubric.

I hope that everyone has a good evening and gets all of their homework completed.

Hello,

It is Monday which means that Reading Logs were due in class today.  I hope students asked their parents to sign them over the weekend.  If you did not get it done, please turn it in Wednesday as a late assignment.  I will accept it for partial credit.  Please take a look at the grades for this marking period.  I will be submitting the names of students who have a D+ or lower for progress reports this Friday, November 8th at 3pm.  I have been doing my best to keep grades as updated as possible so parents are aware of their child’s progress in Language Arts.

Today in class the students worked on their journal writing when they entered the room.  The topic choices for today were:

What will you do with your day off tomorrow?

Write about a time when you were proud of yourself.  What did you accomplish?  How did it feel?

Once journal writing was complete, the students were given back their quiz on Story Elements that they took Friday.  I was pleased with most of the scores they received.  Today we focused on the story from out Literature Books called “Thank You Ma’am.”  We read the introduction to this story and predicted what the story would be about.  We shared these with a partner and discussed them as a class.  While reading with a partner, we were using the strategy, Talking to the Text.  The students were given a copy of the short story in order to take notes on their partner’s thinking.  The students then switched roles while reading.  Once the students were done reading, we discussed people who have impacted our lives.  For homework, the students are creating a web of people that they are thankful for or who have made a difference in their lives.  This will be due Wednesday.

All of the Seventh Grade Language Arts teachers have begun to teach mini vocabulary, spelling, and grammar lessons on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Today we focused on defining a noun.  We also discussed the difference between a Common Noun and Proper Noun.  They were given a worksheet that corresponds to the lesson.  It will be due Wednesday as well.

The Language Arts Lab students continued to work on the website Write to Learn.  They will continue doing this project work for the remainder of the semester.  This can only be done in class and all writing assignments will be due on Tuesday, November 26th at 2:55pm.  Other students began to focus on the research component of the paper that the seventh grade students will soon be writing in their Social Studies classes.  Some of these students were researching while others were looking at the rubric that corresponds to the paper.  These students discussed the vocabulary words in the rubric and what they can do to receive the best possible score.

Enjoy the day off tomorrow and make sure that you get all of your homework assignments (late ones too) completed for Wednesday!

Hello!

Welcome to my iBlog.  I have recently updated grades which includes the Story Elements Quiz.  Please check to make sure that you have all of your missing assignments turned in because I will be submitting them for progress reports on Friday at 3pm.  This is just a reminder that all Reading Logs are due in the morning.

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