I am excited to again be teaching 7th & 8th grade this year. New for this school year, I will be integrating VISUAL LITERACY into reading and writing. I want the students to be as good at reading pictures and documentaries as they are at reading text. This is becoming an increasingly important 21st-century skill!
This quarter in reading, 7th & 8th grade students can expect to begin with lots of review of reading strategies (including the Sign Posts), plotline, context clues, word analysis, and genre. All middle school students will now participate in Shared Inquiry using Great Books. This is a method for teaching students to read closely and find evidence to support any argument that they have about a text. Each week-long unit ends in a Shared Inquiry Discussion. We will read poems, fiction short stories, and nonfiction articles. Toward the second half of this quarter, 7th grade will be starting The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton while the 8th graders will delve into a science fiction unit.
Students should be reading and logging EVERY week night beginning the second week of school when the library will officially open! You can help your son/daughter with this by letting them choose books to order from Scholastic. This way they will have new books to read, and I will earn points to buy more new books for the students to check out! You can also help by providing a quiet place for their 60 minutes of reading and then asking them if they filled out their log at the end. Also, find time to ask them about what's going on in their book. See if they can tell you the character's problem and how he or she is trying to resolve it.
For 8th grade writing, we will begin getting into grammar in the first week of school and build quickly. I will be focusing much of my time on familiarizing them with and preparing them for what will likely be on English section of the Selective Enrollment Exam.
Students can expect to be doing copious amounts of writing from the very beginning. They will interview and compose a Profile Paper about a classmate as a getting-to-know-you activity. They will also present information about their classmate to the entire class, a warm-up for many more speeches to come throughout 8th grade.
Every Friday in writing, the students will have a visit from Mrs. Oliva, our school counselor, to prepare them for the high school application process. Following the Profile Paper, we will begin high school essays that will help them think deeply and analyze their high school choices. All students will also write a paragraph about why they want to attend Chicago Academy High School, which will accompany their application.
It's going to be a busy year! I look forward to working with your children!
Please contact me by
email at [email protected] with questions or
concerns.
This quarter in reading, 7th & 8th grade students can expect to begin with lots of review of reading strategies (including the Sign Posts), plotline, context clues, word analysis, and genre. All middle school students will now participate in Shared Inquiry using Great Books. This is a method for teaching students to read closely and find evidence to support any argument that they have about a text. Each week-long unit ends in a Shared Inquiry Discussion. We will read poems, fiction short stories, and nonfiction articles. Toward the second half of this quarter, 7th grade will be starting The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton while the 8th graders will delve into a science fiction unit.
Students should be reading and logging EVERY week night beginning the second week of school when the library will officially open! You can help your son/daughter with this by letting them choose books to order from Scholastic. This way they will have new books to read, and I will earn points to buy more new books for the students to check out! You can also help by providing a quiet place for their 60 minutes of reading and then asking them if they filled out their log at the end. Also, find time to ask them about what's going on in their book. See if they can tell you the character's problem and how he or she is trying to resolve it.
For 8th grade writing, we will begin getting into grammar in the first week of school and build quickly. I will be focusing much of my time on familiarizing them with and preparing them for what will likely be on English section of the Selective Enrollment Exam.
Students can expect to be doing copious amounts of writing from the very beginning. They will interview and compose a Profile Paper about a classmate as a getting-to-know-you activity. They will also present information about their classmate to the entire class, a warm-up for many more speeches to come throughout 8th grade.
Every Friday in writing, the students will have a visit from Mrs. Oliva, our school counselor, to prepare them for the high school application process. Following the Profile Paper, we will begin high school essays that will help them think deeply and analyze their high school choices. All students will also write a paragraph about why they want to attend Chicago Academy High School, which will accompany their application.
It's going to be a busy year! I look forward to working with your children!
Please contact me by
email at [email protected] with questions or
concerns.