CURRENT VOCABULARY: irrational, infuriating, furtively, delicacy, expedition, repulsive, implore, permeate, protrude, underestimate. **Some 7th graders are actually working with the 8th grade words.
Things to do: As our current IB Global Context is Orientation in Space and Time, Monday we will write in-class autobiographical essays with the prompt, "Because I live in Nashville, TN, in the year 2015, I..."
Tuesday, we take the district mandated Language and Literacy benchmarks assessments. They are multiple choice tests taken online, and they are meant to assess students' level of mastery of the current CC standards.
Throughout the remainder of the week, students will be finalizing their final narrative assignment. All scholars have received rubrics. The standard for an 'A' is pure excellence. Students are also expected to be annotating their novels. I will be checking for purposeful, meaningful annotations that show close active reading.
Also, I will be grading writing journals again, very soon. They need to be up-to-date and left in the proper box before fall break. Thanks for checking in. - JN
This week, students will have their vocabulary test on Tuesday. I am also giving the young scholars regular reading accountability quizzes (about two per week) on The House of the Scorpion. My first period class should be past chapter 10 by now, and my other 7th grade class shouldn't be too far behind. All quizzes are open-note, not open-book. They know they are to be taking notes on their reading.
This week, we will be focusing on purposefully annotating texts for the purpose of writing both objective summaries AND deeper analyses of texts regarding theme, central idea, and supporting details.
New vocabulary will go out in the middle of the week.
Thanks for checking in! Have a great week. -JN
New Vocabulary: Desolate, Seldom, Cower, Ensue, Hazy, Bewilder, Torment, Demean, Contract, Distinct, Diffuse, Disposition, Credible, Contrive, Endow
We officially start a new unit this week, with The House of the Scorpion as our anchor text. The first three chapters were assigned to be read as homework. If you can provide your child with his or her own copy of the book, that's great. If not, we are providing one; however, the young scholar is financially responsible for this book - it is a loan.
Students will receive a new IB rubric for their next major narrative assignment. I am in the process of grading final drafts of the last narrative, as well as the essay tests for the last novel we read. Look for those grades to appear in Gradespeed in the next few days.
In the meantime, students will be writing short narrative poems, reading the new novel (with reading assigned as homework), taking short reading accountability quizzes, annotating articles, and composing objective summaries of texts throughout the week.
We are going to have some assessments! Students will take an essay test on Flipped, and will get to use notes, texts, etc. I may even let them take the test home. We'll see. Scholars will also take a test on the words listed in last week's post. That will be Thursday.
We begin a new unit with an IB Global Context of "Orientation in Space & Time." I will post more specific information about the unit over this coming weekend. Finally, we will read "The Highwayman" and discuss how narrative elements can be well developed in a poem, in preparation for their next little narrative assignment - they will write a poetic narrative!
New vocabulary words will be delivered to the young scholars by Friday, and posted here over the weekend. I'll be in touch.
In My Class:
All students are expected to behave as scholars. I am dedicated to fostering a safe, supportive, fun, rigorous academic environment. I love my job, I love your kids, and I'm going to do my best for them. I expect them to do their best as well.