Monday:  We discussed the information contained in the Wasatch student planners and disclosure statement for English 7.  Both of these items have student/parent forms which need to be signed and returned tomorrow.  An internet user agreement also needs to be signed and returned immediately.  The daily action logs are due Friday.  Working in groups of 3 or 4, students did an introduction/team building activity where they wrote five things about themselves and shared within their small groups.

 

Tuesday:  I collected all signed student planner forms, disclosure statements, and internet agreements.  We then reviewed classroom procedures and seating configurations.   We began discussing the format that each entry in the daily action logs must follow.  Students took an informal assessment on literary terms that will be scored, but not recorded.  This was a diagnostic tool to help me in planning instruction for our first unit.  They also began working on a writing assignment- "Autopoem."  No homework assigned.

 

Wednesday:  Students wrote a practice reflection based on yesterday's class so that they become familiar with the format for daily action log entries (modified Cornell notes).  The second page of their daily action logs has a listing of every student in their class with a verb that begins with that person's first initial to the right of it.  More time was also given to work on AutoPoems.  The name/verb list and Autopoem were assigned as homework due tomorrow.

 

Thursday:  Autopoems were collected.  We talked about the format for vocabulary note taking and vocabulary tests.  Twenty words and their corresponding definitions were written in the daily action logs.  The first vocabulary test will be on Wednesday, September 9, 2009.  On test days, students will be required to spell the word correctly and write a definition in their own words (i.e. 7th grade language, NOT a memorized dictionary definition). 

 

Friday:  Students checked their vocabulary work from yesterday and were able to use a dictionary/thesaurus for further clarification.  As they worked independently, I went around the room and graded every single action log.  I had a mini-conference with each student on their work up to this point.  I pointed out both strengths and weaknesses.  Anything marked with yellow highlighter indicates something that needs to be corrected before the next daily action log check. 

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 Monday:  Today Mrs. Bennett gave us an overview of the Wasatch media center and assisted everyone with internet user names and passwords.  The daily action log entry for today needed to include a minimum of four pieces of information from Mrs. Bennett's presentation.

 

Tuesday:  We talked about independent reading book projects and I showed some examples.  A parent letter was passed out explaining all of this in detail.  We then did a textbook preview where students got to take a look at the literature book we will be using this year.  They answered a series of questions which required using text structures and  some which were based solely on personal opinion.

 

Wednesday:  School pictures were taken during English classes.  The remaining time was spent introducing our first story, "Rikki Tikki Tavi."  The assignment written in the daily action logs was to think about 3 characteristics of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, give the page number, and evidence (direct quote) from the text.  Looking only at p. 16 we did two examples together: "brave" and "animal-mongoose."  We will continue with this tomorrow.  Students had 10 minutes to work with a partner preparing for the vocabulary test next Wednesday, September 9, 2009.

 

Thursday:  We reviewed the daily action log assignment which was started yesterday.  This assignment will help with the pre-write/outline for a compare/contrast essay which we will be doing in a few weeks.  Students were given the entire class period to silently read "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" pp. 15-28 and work on their daily action log assignment.  

 

Friday:  We spent the period in the media center.  Half the class browsed for an independent reading book, while half continued working on the "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" characterization exercise in the daily action log.  We then switched. 

 

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 Sep 7-11 

 

Monday: No School

 

Tuesday:  Computer Lab- Students typed final drafts of their Autopoems.  While they worked on their Autopoems and studied vocabulary, I did 1:1 conferences on daily action logs.  There was a fire drill during 6th period, so this class will be given some extra time to complete their Autopoems tomorrow.

 

Wednesday:  Vocabulary test and independent reading.

 

Thursday:  Today I introduced the "power of 3" for writing.  We read a one page article from Read magazine titled "Add Rhythm to Your Writing: It's Easy as 1-2-3."  Students then spent 10 minutes writing a reflection in their daily action logs.  They needed to include the following information *what they learned, *how/why this information is important *what connections to past learning/assignments did they make?  The minimum standard to receive credit on this daily action log entry is 5 sentences.  A few students volunteered to do a group share so the class could hear what a strong reflection piece sounds like.  The remainder of the period was spent going over the textbook preview done the first week of school and highlighting some of the stories we will be reading this year.

 

Friday:  Vocabulary development/follow-up.  In the daily action log, students divided a page into four segments and wrote/sketched according to the following prompts:  1)(immensely)  Describe a time when you were immensely proud.  2) (cowered)  Draw a picture of an elephant that cowered before a mouse.  3) (valiant)  List three people who are valiant.  4 (impotent)  Draw a picture of a weightlifter who is impotent to lift a dumbell. Students did a group share with table partners.  We then went back to the "rule of 3" which was outlined yesterday and the related concept of parallel writing.  We did group practice on the overhead.

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Sep 14-18

 

Monday: We graded and recorded daily action log entries from Friday.  New vocabulary and definitions were given for the test to be given Sep 23, 2009 (access, thesis, sheepish, scapegoat, eccentric, adobe, dreary, agonizing, because, does).  Students were given a daily action log self assessment form/parent sign off to be returned Wednesday.  Also, anyone who has not yet paid the $8.00 class fee for English needs to take care of this immediately.  (This class fee covers the registration cost for our online writing program "MyAccess.")  The remaining 10 minutes was given to begin work on the self assessment form and/or illustrate Autopoem.

 

Tuesday:  Students were given an outline for writing a 5 paragraph essay (character analysis).   This outline was glued in the daily action log.  Working independently, and then with table groups for peer review, students wrote their introductory paragraphs.  Any revising needs to be completed tonight as homework.  At the conclusion of class, we previewed our next story "Three Skeleton Key" and talked about foreshadowing.

 

Wednesday:  "Book Club" and daily action log check.   During the last 15 minutes of the period, I read aloud a non-fiction news story regarding a place called "Rat Island," providing more background information for "Three Skeleton Key."  Students also played an oral language game called "What kind of...?"

 

Thursday:  Today we were on a shortened assembly day schedule so we hard to work quickly!  We followed along with the audio tape of "Three Skeleton Key," nearly finishing the story. We will finish this story first thing tomorrow.

 

Friday:  We finished reading "Three Skeleton Key."  The rest of the period was spent working on the second paragraph of the character analysis essay.  Students who have not yet paid their $8.00 class fee for MyAccess need to get this in to the office as soon as possible.  Parents, remember that parent/teacher conferences are next Wednesday and Thursday from 4:30-7:30 p.m.

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 September 21-25 

Monday:  Students began with an open book quiz on "Three Skeleton Key."  The remainder of the period was given for work on the Autopoem and 5 paragraph essay.  Tomorrow we will be in the computer lab to type the 5 paragraph essays-due date is Tue., Sep 29.

 

Tuesday:  We started with a review of the homophones their, there, and they're.  We then added 7 more words that will be part of the vocabulary test on Wednesday, October 14:  foreshadow, inference, goaded, imminent, perturbed, alleviate, confrontation.  To introduce the new words, I had a chart with phonetic spellings and part of speech only---I reviewed somoe of the most common phonetic markings and how to decode them.  Students then sounded out their vocabulary words before being presented with the standard spelling.  Using the glossary at the back of the Elements of Literature book and the vocabulary development box on p. 146,  students verified their understanding of each word and wrote a definition in their daily action logs.  The last 10-15 minutes of class were devoted to reading the background paragraphs (p. 148) introducing our new story "The Smallest Dragonboy" and drawing a picture with key components in the daily action log.  Tomorrow is "Book Club" and daily action logs need to be signed.

 

Wednesday:  "Book Club" and daily action log check.  During the last 10 minutes students I reviewed the due date and requirements for final book projects:  October 28, 2009.  Students wrote out a plan of action in their daily action logs to help them prepare for this.  In the last few minutes I taught the class "drill team spelling" and we practiced with our vocabulary words. 

 

Thursday:  Students were given a preview of the MyAccess program and how to log in.  Next Tuesday we will be doing our first timed writing using the MyAccess program.  We talked about inference and did some guided practice using the first paragraph of "The Smallest Dragonboy" (p. 148) as a prompt.  Students will write each of the 5 inference questions on the left side of their daily action log page and the response to the right.  Responses must each be at least two complete sentences. The inference questions are denoted by the open book symbol throughout the story. 

 

Friday:  Silent reading and making inferences: "The Smallest Dragonboy" pp. 148-160.  This is a long story so more time will be given for this assignment on Monday. 

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Monday: Continued reading "The Smallest Dragonboy" pp. 148-160 and answering inference questions in daily action logs.  As students completed independent work, I did 1:1 checks of daily action logs.  Fast finishers were able to practice for their vocabulary test, work on independent reading, or final book projects.  Tomorrow we will be meeting in the computer lab (rm.#207) for our MyAccess timed writing.

 

Tuesday:  Well, you gotta love technology! The MyAccess site was experiencing difficulties today and consequently, we were unable to complete the fall benchmark writing, though we certainly tried.  The parent signature page for tonight is the daily action log entry that details how to log in to MyAccess.  I had hoped you would be able to see the work from today, along with feedback and scoring. 

 

Wednesday:  vocabulary test and "book club"

 

Thursday:  We first read about the author of "The Smallest Dragonboy," Anne McAffrey.  Then, as a group, we discussed the element of conflict. We categorized conflicts into "man vs. man," "man vs. self," and "man vs. nature."   Working independently, each student had 5 minutes to skim the text ("The Smallest Dragonboy") and mark with a post it note every example of conflict they could identify in the story.  Then, working in table groups of 3-4 students took turns sharing their examples and categorizing what type of conflict it was an example of.  Finally, students completed a t-chart in their daily action logs with at least two examples for each category:  external conflicts and internal conflicts.  They could use the examples they had identified themselves, or use any that were shared while working in groups.  The last part of the daily action log entry was to answer the question: "Which conflict do you think was the hardest for Kevan?  Why?"  The response had to be a minimum of 5 sentences. Those who had their responses completed before the bell were able to share in partners/groups of 3, while those who needed more time were able to continue writing. 

 

Friday:  Students copied the phonetic spelling of four vocabulary words into their daily action logs.  As a group, students volunteered to decode each of the words.  I then wrote the conventional spelling which was added to the daily action logs. (The four words are: transfixed, intelligible, assent, and idiosyncrasy.  We are only doing these four words since book projects are also due on Oct. 28).  Students were then able to go to p. 58 in their textbooks and see the definitions as well as an example sentence using the vocabulary word in context.  They were to write the definition in the daily action log next to the phonetic and conventional spelling.  Then, I gave them a few minutes to look for words within the word, prefixes/suffixes, unusual spelling patterns, double letters, etc. and think about any clues they could see that would help them remember either the spelling or meaning of the word.  These were shared with the whole group.  Students were given just a minute or so between words to jot any notes, pictures, or prompts that will help them in studying for this next test which will be Wed., Oct. 28.  A sign up sheet was passed around for students that would like to present their final book projects next week, ahead of the Oct. 28 deadline.

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Monday:  We did a quick introduction to teleplays and read about conflict and inference. We listened to an audiotape of "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."  I paused the audiotape at each open book symbol and students wrote the inference question on the left and their response on the right.  We were able to finish Act 1.  This week we are also starting book project presentations (due date is October 28, but I am encouraging students to get them done early so they don't have to worry about it!)

 

Tuesday:  In the daily action logs, students wrote: setting (then described in detail the setting for "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"), characters (then listed 3 characters from "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"), and plot (for this they drew a line resembling a mountain and listed 5 significant events that have happened in the story up to this point.).  I then continued with the audiotape through to the end of the story.  We did a very quick vocabulary review for next week's test and prepared parent signature pages. 

 

Wednesday:  Book projects and "book club" in the media center.

 

Thursday:  Book projects.  Students took a quiz on analyzing a textbook and vocabulary development (both of these were review pages from units we had already covered and taken non-scored quizzes on.).  The daily action log heading for this quiz was "Analyzing a Textbook" p. 37 and questions 1 and 2, then below that "Vocabulary Development" p. 80 and questions 1-5.  We then started a discussion of visualizing while reading.  I shared a nonfiction science article on "Frankenfish," which students read silently and then illustrated based on the specific details in the article.  As they finished their drawings, I  read aloud from a fascinating science book titled Phineus Gage. 

 

Friday:  Students did a group share of their Frankenfish illustrations, telling what specific details from the article they included in their drawings.  I then showed a picture of the actual Frankenfish.  We then talked about the elements of a story: character, setting, plot, conflict, etc. and listened to a song to identify each of these parts.  The song was Billy Joel's "Billy the Kid."  I did two play throughs to allow students enough time to jot notes in their daily action logs.  They were prompted to specifically listen for three things 1: setting 2) character's name 3)details about the character and his/her life

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 October 26-30

 

Monday:  Book project presentations. We played "Billy The Kid" one more time, then went around the room with every student naming one detail they picked up from the song--the object was to listen and not repeat anything another student had already mentioned.  The balance of the period was used to individually conference with any students who still have work which needs to be made up.  The deadline for turning in assignments is Thursday, October 29.  There will be after school remediation on this day from 2:45-3:30 in my room (#203). 

 

Tuesday:  Book project presentations.  Choral reading "Is That You, Edgar?" and poem "Frankenstein."

 

Wednesday:  Book project presentations.

 

Thursday:  Book project presentations.

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Monday:  Game Day-- we played the games that were created for independent book projects as well as the commercial games Apples to Apples, Boggle, and Scrabble.

 

Tuesday: MyAccess- round 2!!  Thankfully the program was up and working this time!  Students completed their first timed writing and were able to print out a scoring report for you to view.  In lieu of looking over the daily action log,  please review their essay online and sign their scoring report.  All of the tools were turned off for the benchmark assessment.  In future writings, students will be able to use any/all tools.

 

Wednesday:  KWL- parts of speech.  Working in table groups, students created a giant post-it  based on their understanding (no dictionaries allowed) of verbs, adverbs, nouns, and pronouns.  They had to include both a definition and example words.  The last twenty minutes was used for "Book Club."

 

Thursday:  We followed up on our KWL- parts of speech posters from yesterday.  As a group we reviewed each poster to clarify any misconceptions and come up with an accurate definition for each of the four parts of speech and a minimum of 5 example words.  Students had to write the part of speech, definition, and 5 example words in their daily action logs.  We then went to the computer lab and spent 15 minutes practicing parts of speech through games on the UEN homepage.  These can be accessed by going to www.uen.org - click on k-12 student interactives, then go to 3-6 or 7-12 interactives.  The three specific games we explored were:  "Grammar Gorillas," "Clean Up Your Grammar," and 'Road to Grammar Quizzes."  Our final assignment of the day was to write a 5 minute reflection on what was learned.

 

Friday:  Today I started giving some direct instruction in the use of MyAccess.  Primarily we looked at how to access past work and some of the pre-writing tools.

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 November 9-13 

Monday:  Four new vocabulary words were given: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory and discussed in detail (Elements of writing pp. 415-416).  The four vocabulary words from Oct. 16: transfixed, idiosyncrasy, assent, and intelligible will also be part of the next test Wednesday, November 18.  Students independently completed p. 417 exercise #14 #1-10 in the Elements of Writing textbook.  They had to write out the sentence in the note taking section of their daily action log, then identify which of the four types of sentences it represented on the left hand side.  I read aloud a short story from this same textbook pp. 116-121 ("The Jacket" by Gary Soto).  We stopped at different points along the way to discuss what makes this an effective narrative.  Tomorrow we will be working on the prewriting for our MyAccess assigned narrative writing: "A Special Day."

 

Tuesday:  Today we spent the period in the computer lab working on the prewrite for our "Special Day" narrative essays. 

 

Wednesday:  We corrected p. 417 #1-10--identifying the four types of sentences: declarative, imperative, interrogative, and excalamatory.  "Book Club."

 

Thursday:  Today we were back in the computer lab working on our MyAccess essays: "Special Day."  I feel like it is important to reinforce not only the product, but the process of writing as well, so scoring on this essay will be as follows:

15 points for completing a pre-write using "narrative wizard."  25 points for the final essay.  The scoring rubric on the final essay is as follows (I will be looking at the holistic score): 5.8-6.0= 25; 5.6-5.7= 24; 5.4-5.5=23; 5.2-5.3=22; 5.0-5.1= 21;

4.7-4.9= 20; 4.5-4.6=19; 4.2-4.4=18; 4.0-4.1= 17; 3.8-3.9= 17; 3.5-3.7= 16; 3.0-3.4= 15; 2.5-2.9= 14; 2.0-2.4= 13; anything below a 2.0 receives 0 credit.

 

Friday:  More writing time in the computer lab.  I demonstrated the use of "revision plan," "my tutor, " and "my editor" in the MyAccess program.  All students should now have a prewriting outline completed. 

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Monday:  We are back to parts of speech, more specifically clarifying the use of adverbs.  Students took notes in their daily action logs on information presented in Elements of Writing pp. 454-455.  They need to understand that adverbs don't just modify verbs, but also adjectives and other adverbs.  I copied some examples from the textbook and had students first go through independently marking all nouns and verbs with a colored pencil.  Then, they partnered with their 11 o'clock partners to check answers.  From there, we were able to identify adjectives (which modify nouns) and then determine which words were adverbs (modifying verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs) as a group.  During the last 7 minutes students partnered with their 7 o'clock partners for vocabulary test review.  Tomorrow we will be in the computer lab finishing up "A Special Day" narrative essays.  Any further revisions will need to be completed outside of class time.  The final draft is due on Monday, November 23, 2009.

 

Tuesday:  We were in the computer lab the entire period revising the narrative essay "A Special Day."  Final draft copies are due on Monday, November 23, 2009.

 

Wednesay:  Vocabulary test and "Book Club." (shortened periods due to talent assembly)

 

Thursday:  Review of class MyAccess performance so far.  Interestingly, the strength of each period was different, but across the board "content and development" and "organization" were the weakest areas.  We read a Gary Paulsen short story titled "Girls," (Elements of Literature pp. 131-134) paying attention to how he uses "content and development" and "organization."  To do the read aloud, we formed a large circle and passed the microphone around--each person chose how much they wanted to read(minimum of one sentence and a maximum of one paragraph).  Next we looked at 2 sample paragraphs from a different short story (Elements of Literature pp. 123 #1-4)--Students wrote out the complete questions and then just the letter for their chosen answers in the daily action logs.  During the last 10 minutes we watched clips from the video "School House Rock"- nouns, pronouns, verbs, and adverbs.

 

Friday:  NO SCHOOL

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Monday: We corrected  Elements of Literature p. 123 #1-4.  We then talked more about pronouns and how they can be confusing in writing (unclear antecedents and using pronouns in compound sentences).  The practice exercises were  elements of Literature p. 173 #1-3 and p. 283 #1-5.  Students wrote out the complete corrected sentences only in their daily action logs.  Fast finishers started reading our next short story: "Hearts and Hands."  We corrected the practice exercises together.

Tuesday:  We started with a review of what a "theme" is in literature.  I then read "Hearts and Hands" (pp. 239-242) aloud, stopping along the way to clarify some of the subtle inferences and clues.  Most 7th graders don't understand the twist on the first read through.  We had 20 minutes left and I introduced prefix/suffix word dominoes.  Students played with partners for the remainder of the period. There was no daily action log entry for today.  In December we will be working on parts of speech posters, so students need to start thinking of a theme and collecting 8 pictures to go with their theme. (I showed them an example.)

Wednesday:  NO SCHOOL

Thursday:  NO SCHOOL

Friday:  NO SCHOOL
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Nov. 30-Dec. 4

Monday:  We talked about omniscient point of view and did a vocabulary preview (Elements of Literature p. 356) prior to reading our next story.  Students then silently read "After Twenty Years," stopping at each of the 4 open book prompts and writing a complete response (with the question back in the answer) in their daily action logs. We then listened to the audio version and discussed each of the prompts.  Daily action log entries will be graded tomorrow.  (Next week we will be creating parts of speech posters and students need to choose a theme and bring in 8 pictures (magazine pictures, photographs, internet images, etc.) that correspond to their theme.  These pictures will be due on Monday, December 7.

Tuesday:  Parent signature page dictation.  Students were given a plain white sheet of paper which they needed to divide into four sections--one for a header and the author, title of the story, one to list the main characters in the story, another to describe in detail the setting (time and place), and the fourth to write down the theme of the story (This story reveals to me...)  On the backside of the paper, students were instructed to draw a color picture of one of the events in the plot of the story.  I then read aloud another O. Henry story "The Gift of the Magi" and they listened for the details to include on their paper.  Final papers are due tomorrow.

Wednesday: "Book Club" and 1:1 conferencing.

Thursday:  We did a group share of the illustration and theme statement from "The Gift of the Magi" that each student prepared on Tuesday.  Students then worked in table groups to complete a word sort puzzle that had 20 of the words from past vocabulary tests and 5 new words.  I keep trying to reinforce the point that when we study vocabulary and word attack skills, the purpose is to use those words and skills in everyday conversations, writing, and reading--not just memorize them for a test.  As a whole, they are doing extremely well with this!  Tomorrow they will be taking a quiz on "In Twenty Years"--any student who wanted to check out a textbook to re-read the story prior to the quiz was given that option.

Friday: "After Twenty Years" quiz.  The 8 pictures for the parts of speech posters are due on Monday.
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December 7-11

Monday:  Students were given back the graded essay portion of the quiz on "After Twenty Years."  The comprehension/vocabulary portion was self-graded together as a class.  We then went to the computer lab and students began typing the text portion of their parts of speech posters.  (Students who were unprepared need to type out a word strip for each of the eight parts of speech:  noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, conjunction, interjection, preposition and one sentence to go with each of their eight pictures--the part of speech being illustrated should be in boldface or italics.)

Tuesday: