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!

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