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May 14, 2012
We have had our Medieval Feast. Thanks to all who submitted extra credit food tasting items. The food was delicious and many dishes were amazingly like what we eat today though some did not fit our modern taste buds. I hope you had as much fun making them with your children as we had at school eating them! So the Medieval Project is over. The students are left with their Poetry Project, literature circle book reading, and Portfolio work as well as their vocabulary work. This vocabulary work includes one more lesson, 17, and the final. Lesson 17 assessment will be May 23 with the Final on May 24. Today, Monday, we will take the Terra Novas and Tuesday will be our final SRI testing.
April 30, 2012
The OAA's are over. I feel confident that the students gave 100% of their effort to do the best that they could. We have one month to pack in as much learning as possible before they leave for the 8th grade. I am not looking forward to seeing them go as they have been so much fun to work with this year.
Interims come out this coming Friday which means we have 4 more weeks. In that 4 weeks we will have 2 vocabulary assessments, a vocabulary final, a medieval project, and a poetry project. We will also be finalizing our writing portfolios and reading a Junior Great Book story as well as exploring sentence structure with sentence diagraming. These activities will help to prepare them for success in 8th grade. We continue our free choice book literature circles. I thank you for allowing them to choose their own books and read some very interesting literature.
We also have the Terra Nova tests one day in May as well as the SRI post testing. We will then be able to map their reading improvement this year. I look forward to some great scores.
I apologize for dropping the ball on the million page project. Mrs. Adkins usually heads that up and I did not pick up for her when she left on maternity leave. I just couldn't find the time in my schedule to pick it up. The students will have next year to strive for that prize.
April 20, 2012
The OAA's are here! Your children are ready to take them on! Please make sure that they have a good night's sleep all week and eat a balanced diet (I know, that's difficult for a teenager, but we can try!). Tuesday is the language arts test and Thursday is the Math test. We are on a test schedule Monday through Thursday of this week and Monday, Wednesday, Thursday of next week.
On the days when the students do not test they will have a choice of four assignments to work on quietly during the testing time period. They have their literature circle free-choice book to read, two short stories in their text with questions to answer, a medieval project, and a math challenge. The remainder of our day will be on a shortened schedule.
April 9, 2012
With only two weeks left before the OAA we are delving into a thorough understanding of all tested skills. This is an intense time when students are required to teach, tell, talk, and solidify their understanding of everything we have studied this year. They are working towards 1200 points in order to be able to participate in our OAA reward day in May. Each academic subject will give each student 100 points per week for the three weeks before the OAA. The student must earn an 80%, or 960 points, in order to participate in the reward day. Points may be given or taken away at the discrepancy of the teacher. They may be for behavior, work completed, classroom participation, game points, homework completion, or any other activity that is significant to OAA success.
March 19, 2012
It's Common Assessment week. This week we will be administering the social studies, science, math, and language arts third quarter common assessment. We will be testing Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Friday will also be our third quarter reward day where we will have a special movie in the afternoon.
To close out our Rick Riordan author study we will be penning two essays about this work. The students choose 2 topics out of 8 and will write a well written response to literature on both topics.
When we get back from spring break we will be deep into test preparation as well as choosing our own books for literature circle work. This will be a time when the students may choose a book from a selection within the room and use all of the literature circle skills to enjoy their choice of literature.
Have a wonderful vacation!
March 12, 2012
This is always a difficult week for students and teachers alike. Getting used to the time change will be a challenge!
There has been a minor change in scheduling beginning this week. I will be seeing the Lemguins a minimum of three times per day, periods 3, 5, and 6 until further notice. The Cowmelons will have language arts periods 2 and 4. Enrichment classes have been switched with Mrs. Ogden so that I can see the Lemguins an extra period a day. This decision was made based on testing data and growth points. If you have any questions regarding this change, please contact me.
February 27, 2012
As a culmination of our mythology unit we begin an author study of Rick Riordan and his Percy Jackson series. If your student has not read this series, we will begin with The Lightning Thief. Otherwise, they will begin with whichever book they have not read including his other series. If they are a Riordan aficionado then the Lord of the Rings series will be their choice.
We continue our OAA preparation using Pro-Ohio web tests as well as small group reteach and practice. This ensures that all students receive the support they need in their area of weakness. We will continue this format for the next 8 weeks before OAA.
February 21, 2012
What a relaxing four day weekend. Hopefully, yours was the same! We have our second night of conferences this week. This night is reserved for parents we have requested to come in to see us. If you missed last week's night, and you would like to speak with me, please contact me for an individual conference.
We continue our mythology unit with some research on mythological figures. We will study their role in Greek/Roman mythology, their 'story', and their symbol.
February 6, 2012
Pro-Ohio B scores are back. The students have seen and analyzed them. They understand what their strengths are and what skills they have to place their focus. We will be using these results along with the Pro-Ohio Web test scores to keep our students focused on the prize.
They realize that there needs to be growth throughout the year in all skills and are working hard to keep this growth going. As a class I was very pleased with the scores. The students have worked hard all year and their scores illustrated this hard work. It's now time to buckle down and get the rest of the year done!
We continue our study of Mythology looking at six myths this week and practicing our comprehension skills of connection to self, text, and world as well as analyzing inferential and literal comprehension questions. We continue our vocabulary study of word origins or etymology.
January 30, 2012
Our second quarter common assessments went well last week. We will now analyze our results this week and strengthen what test taking skills need to be strengthened. For most students that means working on breaking apart the 4 point questions to make sure all parts are answered. For some it means including an opening statement and a closing statement. For others it means proving 3 multiple choice answers wrong instead of picking 1 correct answer.
Our Mythology Unit gets into full swing this week. We begin studying the whys and hows of mythology in Greek and Roman culture. The skills covered this week will include distinguishing between fact and opinion, summarizing vs. retelling, text structure of cause and effect, as well as inference, etymology, and figurative language.
Enjoy our unseasonable warm weather!
January23, 2012
Pro-Ohio week is over. The students worked hard and we anxiously await the results. These results will allow me to focus in on areas that need to be mastered so that we are ready for our OAA test in the spring.
My Enrichment classes embark on a mythological web quest this week. We will also learn about the debate format of discussion and use it to practice OAA questions. During our web quest time, I will be tutoring students in small group on topics in need of mastery.
My other classes will complete our God, Flag, and Country unit with speech competition on Wednesday. The best speech in each class will move on to school wide competition. We will also begin our Mythology Unit this week. This unit will focus on the purpose of myths and how they were developed to answer some of life's unknown questions. This unit will continue for a couple of weeks.
We will also complete our Language Arts and Math common assessments for 2nd quarter.
Our fundraiser ends this Friday. We are asking that everyone sell at least 2 items. This money helps to supply a good breakfast during our OAA testing weeks.
We will be sending out conference information soon. Please remember that I would be happy to speak with you by phone or in person most days after 1:30 or before school. Please do not feel that you have to wait for conferences to see me. I'm here to answer any questions or concerns that you have.
January 9, 2012
We had a good week reading a very disturbing story about someone's Utopia that wouldn't fit a normal human's concept of Utopia. This general's Utopia included hunting real people in his 'game'. It definitely illustrated the degrees of personal Utopia. This week we will study historical Utopia's beginning with Thomas More's 1516 book by the same title. This nonfiction selection will help us practice our reasoning web as we delve into the intricacies of nonfiction format.
We will also begin our God, Flag, and Country essay/speech unit with a look at American ideals and symbols.
Our Lesson 9 vocabulary assessment is this Friday and the Anchor activity is due this Friday, also.
It is my hope that these Anchors are allowing your child to expand his/her horizons into the realm of American poets and authors. We have such a plethora of writers in our history that it would be impossible to cover them within our curriculum. The anchor activities are one way to ensure that these authors are not forgotten.
January 3, 2012
Happy New Year!
I hope this finds everyone rested and healthy.
The next two weeks will be a mini unit themed 'Utopia'. We will be exploring this concept and discussing how one person's utopia may be different from other's. We will review all strategies that good readers employ while unlocking intricate text. These strategies include inferring, predicting, connecting, questioning, and understanding vocabulary. Within each strategy your child has all the tools they need to master text. Why not ask them what these tools are!
We will also be reviewing all graphic organizer tools and deciding when to use each effectively.
Our writing assignment will be the God, Flag, and Country theme. We will explore what makes America, America, and what it means to be an American before we write our own essays.
December 12, 2011
We continue our study of A Christmas Carol and hope to be complete with it this coming Friday. The students have gotten the hang of Dickens and are doing quite well with his challenging vocabulary and sentence structure. The Plum Pudding was very tasty! Some of the students wanted to go home and make some more!
Our vocabulary assessment is this Friday.
Next week's short week will have us watching A Christmas Carol video on Tuesday and comparing/contrasting the video version with the book. We will also have a lesson on Hannukah traditions on Monday including a game of Dreidel.
Wishing you all a very happy holiday season, a restful vacation, and a happy New Year!
Our last day of school is Tuesday, December 20, 2011, and we return to school on Tuesday, January 3, 2012.
December 5, 2011
We are now reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Dickens' style is challenging in its descriptive nuances, but the students are settling in to his genius. The vocabulary is intriguing, the allegory and use of metaphor is distinct, and the author's purpose for writing keeps us in the nineteenth century and the study of historical culture as did Fever, 1793. We are practicing our own descriptive writing using family traditions as the theme.
Are your children cooks? Well, they will be Friday when we make a modern version of Plum Pudding.
Our formal vocabulary study continues with Lesson 8. This assessment will be December 16.
November 14, 2011
Fever, 1793, is getting very interesting, sad but interesting. We will analyze the major and minor plot elements within this story.
We continue to use the sticky note method of interacting with the text predicting, inferring, questioning, connecting, and analyzing vocabulary. Lesson 6 vocabulary will be assessed this coming Friday.
We will also use our iPods/phones for an interactive game using the story vocabulary and major and minor plot events.
This marking period's anchor authors are: Toni Morrison, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Alex Haley, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Phillis Wheatly, and Wilma Cather. Anchor activities are due January 13, 2012.
November 9, 2011
We are well into our novel Fever, 1793. We are exploring the differences between our current culture and the culture of the late 1700's. We are also exploring new vocabulary and practicing the good reading strategies of predicting, inferring, questioning, and connecting. Why not ask your student the difference between a prediction and an inference. It's a subtle but important difference.
We are also exploring the complicated definition of genre.
Our mystery/suspense stories turned out very well. Your children can really write interesting tales!
In fact, they love to write so much that we are actually practicing how to shorten our writing into succinct summary form. This is a difficult art that the students are actually perfecting as we read our novel.
Enjoy the long weekend!
October 31, 2011
The play Frankenstein was enjoyed by all this past week. We compared the story in poem form and found some interesting differences to the age-old story. This week we write our own mystery/suspense/horror story. Our story must follow 7 elements of a mystery. It must have a crime, evidence within a creepy setting, an alibi(or two), incriminating evidence, a red herring(a clue to throw you off the track), a turning point, and a conclusion. It must also have at least five characters who fit the category of victim, sleuth, suspect, witness, and decoy.
We introduce Fever, 1793, this week. This is a novel set in Philadelphia, PA, that struggles with a yellow fever epidemic.
October 17, 2011
We continue our study of monsters with a teleplay from way back, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. This is part of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone series from the early 60's. We will also read a play version of Frankenstein, before starting our next novel, Dracula.
October 6, 2011
I would like to offer you the opportunity to order books through Scholastic online. The link is:
www.scholastic.com/bookclubs
If you use my account, we will earn points so that I may buy more books for our classroom library.
These books are usually discounted nicely, so enjoy the shopping!
August 31, 2011
The end of our single digit days of the school year! Wow, that went fast...
I just wanted to touch base with you as I have not begun my regular emails yet. I should have that up and running by next week. If you do not receive emails from me by the second week of September, please let me know and we can rectify the issue.
- Hopefully, your children are sharing with you all that we have been doing. They are currently in the middle of 'Harrison Bergeron', a Kurt Vonnegut short story that defies explanation!
- Please check the agendas for work due. There is a vocabulary assessment on Lesson 1 vocabulary words this Friday and that should be noted in all agendas. This was added last Monday when we began the unit.
- We do attempt to move students toward independence and responsibility in seventh grade but it is still important that you, the parent, keep tabs on work due.
- Another long term assignment that is due the end of the marking period is the Anchor Activity. They should have an author that they are studying and reading by now. The list should be in their binder.
- They should be also keeping a record of all reading in their log. The option is striving for the Million Page reward, but reading is required daily.
Have a good Labor Day Weekend!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
It's great to be back for another school year! I'm looking forward to getting to know your children and facilitating a great year of learning. We have discussed goals for the year and the importance of moving ahead at least one year in academic growth. No matter where they were academically when they walked in the door on August 19, it is my goal to help them move at least a year ahead in their understanding of the English language. I am impressed with their drive and enthusiasm, though one student admitted to being less industrious than he should be (I bet you're hoping that wasn't your son! At least he was honest).
Our goals for the remainder of August are as follows:
- To learn the routines and methods of vocabulary study. We have formal and informal word study so if you come across an unusual word or an unusual usage of a known word please pass it on to your child so that it may be shared
- To assess spelling development. This will allow me to formulate a program of study so that they may move ahead at their own pace
- To discuss, analyze, remember all there is to our summer reading book
- To discuss, analyze, and enjoy our choice summer reading book. Hopefully, some recommendations can come out of this discussion so that the students have even more books to place on their 'I Want to Read' list. This discussion includes a review of plot elements and characterization
- To develop a reading goal for the Million Pages Project.
- To read, study, enjoy, discuss the short story 'Harrison Bergeron'
- To review the elements of a Literature Circle
- To write informally
If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email me. My email address is prittsa@goshenlocalschools.org and I can be reached after 1:30 at 722-2226 ext. 6029.