We are almost to fourth quarter, peeps! How did that happen!?

If you click in the Unit 3 folder, there is a Unit 3 Summative Study Guide. This will give you directions for IXL to practice depending on how you are scoring on ELA skills. If you don't know, check Infinite Campus to help you get an idea of what you should be studying. The study guide tells you which skills to practice on IXL based on your assignments!

The following skills will help prepare for the argument section of Quarter 2 Finals (Level I/7):

G.3

G.4

K.1

K.3

The following skills will help you prepare for the poetry section of the Quarter 2 final:

• Interpret the meaning of allusions (7-E.3)

• Interpret figures of speech (7-E.5)

• Analyze the effects of figures of speech on meaning and tone (7-E.7)

• Which definition matches the sentence? (7-S.2)

• Which sentence matches the definition? (7-S.3)

• Positive and negative connotation (7-T.2)

• Find words using context (7-V.1)

• Determine the meaning of words using synonyms in context (7-V.2)

• Determine the meaning of words using antonyms in context (7-V.3)

• Use context to identify the meaning of a word (7-V.4)

Make sure to check the study guide in the Unit 1 folder for IXL skills to practice for your final! Follow the instructions on the document to decide which skills will be best and most helpful for you to practice based on your skill performance on formative assessments throughout the quarter.

Historical Fiction Assignment

Choose 3 events from the story, “The Summer Things Fell Apart” and discuss how each was presented in a historically accurate way.

 Create a Google Slide for each event.  

Each slide must contain the following information.

Excerpt from the story, “The Summer Things Fell Apart”.

Excerpt from your article that shows historical accuracy.  

Each slide must contain a graphic of some sort (picture, chart, symbol, etc).

You will have a minimum of 6 slides.  One slide for excerpt from story and one slide for the actual historical event that excerpt was based on.  

You must explain how the historical event applies to your excerpt to show understanding of events from the time period.

The following IXL skills serve as an excellent tool to practice for third quarter finals! 

Level I

Skills: A.1, C.1, G.3, G.4, V.1-V.4, E.5-E.7

IXL Skills for the Quarter 2 Finals on December 13th/14th:

Level I, Skills:

A.1

D.1-D.4

E.1-E.7

G.1

I hope everyone has had an amazing long weekend! You all deserved it!

Grades are up to date in Infinite Campus and are listed with standard and a description of the assignment. Please check grades, both students and parents, to make sure you have submitted all assignments. Missing assignments are flagged in the grade book, and IC counts them as 0s, so if you have not turned in assignments, they will hurt your grade. Help me help you so that you can see feedback on your learning! Students will receive these assignments back tomorrow and have the opportunity to ask questions and make corrections.

Friday, students will take a learning check over central idea. This will be their next formative grade and will help show their progress with central idea skills.

Have a great short week! Halfway to fall break! You all have made me so proud!

VERY IMPORTANT IXL UPDATE!

IXL has changed the letters of the skills available for student practice. Context clues skills have changed from K TO V. This means if students are retaking the context clues learning check, they will need to practice IXL LEVEL I, SKILLS V.1-V.4. Skills K are now argument writing skills; this won't help much with context clues. :)

Sorry for the inconvenience! IXL threw us all for a loop!

Our first learning check!

Students took their first learning checks today in class over context clues. Grades are now posted for those assessments in Infinite Campus. Remember, the purpose of formative assessments for students is to help them understand what they know and figure out how to recognize when they don't get it; therefore, formative assessments can be retaken after students practice their skills more. If a student wants to retake, he/she must practice at least 2 of the IXL Context Clues skills and reach a Smart Score of 80% on these skills. The skills can be found under Level I, and students may choose any 2 of the skills V.1-V.4. Retakes will be offered for students on Thursday, and they will check off their skills practice before being given a retake.

We will discuss the quizzes tomorrow in class, as well as any misconceptions students have or had. Students will receive hard copies of their Grade Cam sheets back so that they may see their grades as well. 

Practice the following IXL skills to help you prepare for finals.

O.4: Identify Supporting Details
P.1: Determine Main Idea
S.5: Read and Understand Informational Passages Q.2: Cause/Effect
Q.3: Problem/Solution
J.3: Difference Between Related Words
J.4: Positive/Negative Connotations
K.1: Finding Words in Context
K.2: Determine Meaning Using Synonyms
K.3: Determine Meaning Using Antonyms
K.4: Use Context to Determine Meaning
R.6: Interpret Figures of Speech
S.1: Match Quotes with Themes
S.2: Determine Theme
S.3: Analyze Short Stories

Our final exam will have 2 reading passages--an information passage as well as a literary passage. The IXL skills above will help you prepare for both. Final Exams will be Wednesday, May 30th and Thursday, May 31st.

This week in class:

Monday, we finished our last in class work day for our historical fiction narrative. These assignments are due on Friday and are outside of class work if they are not already complete! Students should complete their narratives and make sure they are located in their 7firstname.lastname.workingfolder. These instructions, and the revision checklist, are in the Unit 4 folder.

Tuesday-Friday, we will be reading the poem "Frankenstein" and the corresponding chapter of the novel. Students will complete annotations on the poem and answer questions about the prose text. The annotations slide can be found in Unit 4.

*This week: students are working on their historial fiction narrative writing pieces. These pieces are completed in Google Docs in their shared writing folders. Students have copies of the writing prompt and outline, but there are extra copies in the Unit 4 section of the website. 

*Grades are up to date in Infinite Campus. Please check for missing work and make sure to get it turned in as soon as possible. If an assignment is missing, it is posted as a 50%. Thank you to everyone who has turned in work dilligently!

We are in the home stretch! 7 more Mondays until summer, and 4 more until KPREP! 

Last week, students took their last STAR Reading test in Language Arts. Today, they take their last Reading Inventory test. 

In class, we are focusing on the last of our priority LA standards: comparing a historical account of an event to a fiction story. This week, we will be working through stories about the Civil Rights Movement. Students will be responsible for a reading guide in which they answer questions about a fiction text, then they will annotate a nonfiction article discussing the same time period. 

ALL 7 Blue students will all take STAR Reading on Thursday, March 1st. I cannot WAIT to see and show students how much they have grown since the last time they tested in November! I am so proud of how hard they work every day!

Almost another week down! 

We have had a busy week in 229. Monday and Tuesday, we completed an extended constructed response in which students analyzed arguments and made comparisons. These are now posted in Infinite Campus for students who have submitted them. If you do not have a grade in IC, please make sure that your ECR is submitted to me ASAP!

Thursday, students took a summative assessment to demonstrate their argument reading skills. This assignment is also now completed in IC. Please make sure if you were absent for the test, you arrange to make it up in a timely fashion. 

Root word bellringer quizzes have been posted for the last 3 weeks. Students should understand the process of these quizzes at this point. They count as formative grades. If you miss a day and need to catch up on the bellringers or the quizzes, please make sure you do so!

We have had an awesome week. Thank you for sharing your amazingly brilliant kids with me!

Happy Friday!

Some students have brought home the analysis paragraph from this week's activity for homework. In case students ask questions, remind them the directions for the analysis paragraph are as follows:

Use the information from the questions in the packet, web, and outline to create a paragraph analyzing the effectiveness of the argument. The analysis will be shared with a partner on Monday to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of argumentative writing. 

The paragraph should discuss 1) the paper's claim and whether or not it is effective, 2) the author's reasoning/evidence and whether or not it is effective, 3) whether or not the author addresses a counterclaim in their writing.

The purpose of the paragraph is not to agree/disagree with the argument or to summarize it, but to demonstrate understanding of a strong argument vs. a weak argument.

Please email me if you have any questions about the assignment! IT IS DUE MONDAY!

Have an awesome weekend :) 

We have (almost) made it one week closer to warmer weather! This week, we have been analyzing arguments about RFID chips. Students have been assigned different sides of two articles to read and annotate, and they are in the process of writing analysis paragaphs discussing the effectiveness of their arguments. These paragraphs will count as a summative 100 point grade, and they will be due on Friday.

Bellringer quizzes have also begun this week. Students will learn new root words on Monday-Wednesday, and they will take a quick quiz on Thursday in which they are responsible for knowing at least one root meaning and three words that contain the root. These are 100 point formative quiz grades.

Our IXL Challenge begins on Friday, February 9th-Thursday, February 22nd. A list of the IXL skills that students need to complete can be found in Unit 3. Students must complete the 10 IXL skills listed at 80% or higher mastery to earn the schoolwide reward on Friday, February 23rd.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

It feels like a lot of work to make it through a five day week, but here we are! :) This week, we have worked with finishing our activities with the chocolate milk articles. Students wrote short constructed responses comparing the effectiveness of each argument. These scores will be put into IC over the weekend. After this, we have begun to discuss what makes an effective claim. We rewrote the claims for the chocolate milk articles, and we will begin an activity next week in which students evaluate and rewrite claims for other pieces.

In the Unit 3 folder, you will find a copy of the SCR and the notes from today about how to write a claim. Have an AWESOME weekend; you deserve it!

This week, we have worked on argumentative writing vocabulary and rhetorical strategies. On Thursday and Friday, we are working on annotation of two articles about the health benefits of chocolate milk and evaluating the effectiveness of each. The notes for rhetorical strategies are now posted in the Unit 3 folder alongside the articles!

We have had an amazing first week of school after Christmas; thank you to all of you for making it so easy to come back to work! :) This week, we are beginning our unit on argumentative writing. Friday, we will be working on some vocabulary. The Keynote will be available in our Unit 3 folder!

We are ALMOST halfway through the year!

Students have answered some practice questions in class this week. The questions and answers are posted in the file "Unit 2 Final Study Materials" 

I've also posted specific IXL skills to work on based on the performance on these questions. This practice is the BEST way for students to study for Language Arts!

I know it's early to be thinking about finals, but three weeks will go by before we know it! The following IXL skills will be helpful for practice for the 2nd quarter final exam:

K.1-K.4

O.3-O.5

P.1

Q.1-Q.4

R.3, R.6, R.7, R.8

S.1-S.4

Thursday and Friday of this week, November 30-December 1, we will be taking STAR/RI in Language Arts to check for progress since the beginning of the year. I am so excited to see the growth I know our students have been working hard to achieve!

Happy November!

7 Blue will have their first Learning Checks  for the second quarter on Monday, November 6th. This will cover nonfiction text structure. IXL Skills for practice include Q.1, Q.2, Q.3, and Q.4. 

Listed are the IXL skills that will help students prepare for the final on Friday, October 13th:

P.1- Main Idea

Q- Story Elements

K- Meaning of Words and Phrases

O.4- Textual Evidence 

S1. S.2 and S.3- Theme and Analyzing Theme

There will be a Learning Check on Monday, September 25th covering RL.7.1, determining theme. I am uploading the Keynote that students took notes on in class! If students want to practice on IXL, they can use skill S.2 (Determine the themes of short stories). Enjoy the long weekend! 

Students have been practicing strengthening their skills in determining central idea and supporting details this week! Learning check retakes will be Friday. Students can practice with IXL skills P.1, O.3, and O.4.

We have been working SO hard on determining the central idea of a nonfiction text, along with identifying the supporting details and the topic of passages. Students will take a learning check on Thursday, August 31st to assess our progress on these topics so far. On Friday, students will receive their scores and have the chance to analyze their answers and change missed questions.

Students were given a worksheet with vocabulary words to complete by Tuesday. They will also need to have their composition books with their 3 Bellringers from this week complete for a Bellringer check! Each of these assignments will be worth a formative grade.

Please remember to bring back all of the necessary paperwork on Thursday, August 10th! 

• Students should return to their homeroom teachers:
• Emergency card
• Enrollment sheet
• Lunch Form
• T-Code Verification
• Email List
• BYOD Policy
• Student Handbook Receipt
• Ag Survey
• Student Directory Information