November 22-23, 2016

Tuesday-

• Students will complete a creative entry task that requires them to build a story using the following words:

Turkey, Larry, cranberry, dirt road, hammer, grandma, explosion, "So now what?", and magnificient.

These stories are hilarious and showcase the fabulous creativity that is in this class!

• Students will read "Magic and the Brain".
• This weeks focus is text features and their purposes.

HOMEWORK:  Students will create a 1-page assignment using the following text features:

1. title
2. subtitle
3. 2 full sophisticated paragraphs
4. bold words  with definitions on the page
5. headings
6. visual aids and captions
7. For elite points:  footnotes, additional paragraphs, professional display

Here is a link to slide share that may be useful:  EXAMPLE

Wednesday-

• We will gallery walk our 1-page text feature assignments.
• A model lesson of annotating a text rich non-fiction piece

HOMEWORK:  Students will read, answer questions, and ANNOTATE p 31-34 in their close reader

Conference Week

Thank you so much to all of you who came in for conference week.  I really appreciate the opportunity to talk with you about your student.  I love the family/school connections that build during these opportunities.

Sincerely,
Susie DeRousie
↞↠

Q2-Week 1 November 8,9,10

Tuesday, November 8th

• Students will finish assessment from last week.
• We dive in to our new collection in the text book,"The People Could Fly".  Our focus is identifying elements of a folk tale and summarizing.

HOMEWORK:  Latin suffix page -ure, -ery, -ary, -ence, -ance,-ive,-ative,-ion,-ation

Wednesday, November 9th

• We will craft a summary of "The People Could Fly" using SBWST strategy.
• Analysis of two poems, "The Song of Wandering Aengus" and "Sonnet 43"

HOMEWORK: #1-3 p.76 textbook (analyzing and comparing two poems)

Thursday, November 10

No school

11/1-11/3 End of Quarter 1!

You should be proud! Your students completed a major essay and used multiple pieces of evidence to support their thinking!  This week we wrapped up the quarter by taking an end-of-unit assessment, scoring our essays to the state rubric and finalizing any missing pieces.

Week 7 10-10 to 10-14

This week's focus will be completing an argument paper.  We read 4 stories, and watched a newscast on youth taking bold actions.  Students will be taking a stance and supporting their thinking with evidence from the text.  They are using the rubrics from the state to guide their work.  They will publish their writing.

Tuesday-

We analyzed the state's rubric to guide our work.  Students also wrote practice mini-claims using data on education in the United States. They also began learning about attention getting techniques.

HOMEWORK:  Students will write 6 attention-getting sentences using the "imagine" technique learned about in class.

Wednesday-

Short day (early release).  We will continue working on introduction techniques and gathering data for our papers.

HOMEWORK:  Gather 15 pieces of text evidence from both sides of the issue using the stories in the text book, close reader, and newscast.

Thursday-

Students will learn concession/rebuttal strategies, elaboration techniques, and begin applying the learning to their papers.

HOMEWORK:  Finish frames for paper.

Friday-

Map making and US Regions

Week 5

MAKE SURE YOU VISIT OUR ONLINE TEXT AND RESOURCES WITH YOUR STUDENT (MY.HRW.COM)

This week we focus on author's claim and using evidence to support our thinking.

Monday

• Read and annotate "Big Things" short story found in their CLOSE READER
• We will revisit some challenging homework and reteach.  Students ALWAYS have the opportunity to re-do an assignment.

HOMEWORK:  Modify or add to Facebook assignment as needed

Tuesday

• Block 2 will be making PB&J for needy students
• Read and annotate "Finding Your Everest" for claim

HOMEWORK:  Finish "Big Things" with annotation

Wednesday

• Begin writing a claim paper on the theme: BOLD ACTIONS
• Annotate and discuss Nisqualli text (5W and H-review)

HOMEWORK:  REVIEW-setting on plot

Thursday

• Continue working on claim paper
• SBAC Performance Task-walk through as a class

HOMEWORK:  Read and annotate Circle (Native American Text) 

secret word: annotate

Friday

• Wrap up claim papers
• Finish reading any text left behind
• Grade Checks
• IR time with conferring

HOMEWORK:  Any missing work or re-dos from week

Week 4

This week WE GO HEAD TO HEAD with another 7th grade class in a "What Really Happened in The Elevator" short story ending.

FOCUS:  Annotating non-fiction text and finding main ideas and supporting details
FOCUS:  Finding an authors claim
FOCUS:  Evaluating an authors claim for validity

Monday

• ENTRY:  What is one book or movie that that setting played a large role in the plot?  Explain. 
• Read short story, "The Elevator" while annotating for character and plot

Here is a link to the story   The Elevator

• Craft an ending to the story (to be used in the competition)

HOMEWORK:  INFERENCE #1  and if you want to challenge yourself, GIFT O MAGI INFERENCE PAGE

Tuesday

• ENTRY:  What text evidence did the author use to show that Martin is not a confrontational person who is not secure in himself?  Note what paragraphs you found the evidence in. 
• Computer Lab-students will have a chance to explore their e-books and complete a who, what, when, why, and how chart on a non-fiction article of their choice.  
• Independent Reading time.  

HOMEWORK:  INFERENCE #2 AND CHALLENGE:  USING INFERENCE IN WRITING

Wednesday

• ENTRY:  Focus on Latin.  What is mar, nav, ology, er, or, and bio
• CONTEST!!!  We will head over to Mr. K's classroom and read their Elevator endings and vote.  They will be in our room reading ours.
  

• Claim mini lesson
• Read 2 short stories on a teen sailor

HOMEWORK:  WHY I HATE FACEBOOK (AUTHOR'S CLAIM)

Thursday

• ENTRY:  Review-List and define the elements of plot.  
• We will learn how to annotate news stories.  "Was Abby too Young?"  
• Independent Reading
• Extend and Review-Students will be given time to review concepts that they have been struggling with and will work with me in small groups.  Students who are at mastery will have a chance to extend their learning with higher level texts. 

HOMEWORK:  Read and annotate 2 stories on Teen Sailor and complete attached charts (5W's1H) and fact vs. opinion.  **Just pick 1 story for Thursday and 1 for Friday.  DUE MONDAY

Friday

• ENTRY:  Read paragraph and make an inference using text based thinking.
• SBAC-we will walk through a performance task (what they complete at the end of the year as their state-based assessment).  We will not get through the entire process, but we will continue next Friday.
• LIBRARY-Don't forget to bring your books back and exchange for new books!

HOMEWORK:  Complete Teen Sailor work