Friday, March 25, 2011

Week of April 4 - April 8

Upon returning from spring break students will be busy! We will begin our "Career Unit."


Students checked out new book report books Friday, March 25th. If students are in my periods 6 & 8 class they should try to complete the book over break - Everyone should have 20 minutes a day to devote to reading. The goal is for students to be finished or about finished so they can take advantage of the 2 in class book report work days given on April 8 & 15. I am stressing to students how important it is to follow through or else they will find themselves overwhelmed with trying to finish the book report and complete the career unit. Students should be managing time and remembering they are getting a month to read/complete the book report project as well as getting 80 minutes of class time to accomplish this task.


I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing spring break!

Monday, March 21, 2011

March 21-25

Advanced LA & LA periods 5 & 7
As we wrap up the week before Spring Break, seventh graders will be going over how to read text and complete an outline. We will discuss how to use sub-topics correctly and this will help prepare students for the "Career Unit" upon returning from Spring Break. More details to come after break about the "Career Unit."

Advanced Reading
All week students will be using class time and homework time to complete their final projects for
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas". I am looking forward to interesting and creative projects. Each day in grade book a "grade" of 'X' or '0' will be entered. This is the parents and students way to see how well they used their class time to work on the project. Students are not receiving any points it is just a "check" grade. Feel free to contact me with any questions and/or concerns about the project.

Reading - periods 6 & 8
We will continue reading Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie this week. This is a great book which explores adolescences through an 8th grader's eyes. Steven has just learned his brother, Jeffrey, has leukemia and we will see how the family reacts to this horrible news. This book offers humor and real life perspective as well and the students are asking daily, "Are we reading more today?" I am glad they are enjoying the book as much as I do!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas - Final Project Choices

Due Friday, March 25th

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Monday, March 14, 2011

Week of March 14-18

Language Arts - periods 5,7
Monday - completion of pronoun lessons
Tuesday - Picture prompt - see attachment

End of Unit Picture Prompt

Wednesday - Friday - ABC Fairy Tale Assignment - see attachment

Fairy Tale ABC



Reading - periods 6,8
Monday - Pre-reading activites for new in class novel Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie
Tuesday - Begin vocabulary for Section 1 of Drums, complete Ch. 1
Wednesday - Chapter 2
Thursday - Chapter 3
Friday - Accelerated Reader book report due

Advanced LA
Monday - Introduction of Fairy Tale Assignment - partner or individual option
- Students create an outline of their plan of completion for the week
Tuesday - Friday - Create, write, illustrate and bind Fairy Tale



Advanced Reading - Fairy Tale Rubric


Advanced Reading
Finish reading The Boy in the Stiped Pajamas
Monday - Read Ch. 18 in class and complete the Ch. 18 ws & poem/poster option
Tuesday - Finish the novel
Wednesday - Bruno's Misunderstandings worksheet
Thursday - Complete Bruno's misunderstanding discussion
Friday - File Folder book report due on Monday - last day to work on project in class


Book Folder Rubric

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Thursday, March 3, 2011

March 8-11

Advanced LA
We will be finishing up our pronoun unit and having a short test on Friday, March 11. Students have been creating poems, writing a journal and completing some review sheets to practice pronoun use.

Advanced Reading
We are more than half-way through The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Students will review for half of the period on Tuesday and take a quiz over Ch 11-14. I anticipate we will get through Chapter 19 by the end of the week. Some activities will include a "Reader's Theater" for Chapter 17, discussion of chapters and predicting and lastly looking in depth at our main character Bruno and how naive he really is!

Language Arts - periods 5,7
Classes will begin a pronoun unit in which they will create a poem using the subject or theme of water. Students will also work on a proofreading activity to practice correct pronoun use.

Reading 6,8
With the completion of our classroom novel The Wanderer, we will introduce the final book project. It will be explained in full detail to students on Tuesday, but I have also attached the assignment details and rubric below. The final project will be due on Monday, March 14, and is worth 80 points. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the project.

Wanderer Final Project

Wanderer Final Project Rubric