7th Grade ELA Week at a Glance

 This is the last week of the 9 weeks. Students will begin a new book this week, The Duel . This book will be used to teach a wide variety of skills and standards including differing portrayals of information, historical texts vs. fictional stories, and argument. We will learn about bias, tracing arguments, and review denotation and connotation as well this week.   

 Welcome Back! This short week will be spent doing remediation and makeup work. Students will be given a chance to finish any missed assignments. If a student is up to date, then they will work on practicing skills such as writing, recognizing themes, and multiple-choice using the short story, "The Sniper." 

 The week before the holiday break has arrived!  Students will spend this week finishing up their poetry projects, taking Mini Cold Assessment 2.2, and writing an on-demand essay/workshopping it. Any student that has been out will have an opportunity to make up work and/or take the NWEA. Friday will be a 60% day where students will make sure all assignments are complete. 

 NWEA will be administered on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  The rest of the week will be spent working on a poetry project. Students will have to study a poem and analyze at least 5 of his/her's poems. After doing this, they will consider how the author's life impacted his/her poem and write a response to this topic.  Mini-lessons on paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting will be taught as well. 

 Welcome back!! We have a 3-week sprint before Christmas break.  Poetry week has arrived! Students will learn about poetry form and structure, review figurative language, and have an introduction to sonnets.  Students will have a chance to review and practice narrative skills for RWITD. Informational skills will be practiced during flex time. 

 This is the final week before Thanksgiving break. Students will demonstrate what they have learned by taking Cold Assessment 2.1 and writing a literary analysis for a test grade. They will spend 3-4 days on this writing. 

 Literary Analysis writing is the focus of this week. Students will learn about the purpose and structure of this type of writing in addition to how to write introductions and conclusions.  Theme will be reviewed from last year and new concepts related to this topic will be introduced including its development over the course of a text.  They will use "The Golden Windows," "The Scholarship Jacket," and "Sleepy Hollow" to practice these skills.  Students will take a cold quiz on a poem on Monday. 

 Students will take a practice quiz with a writing component about poetry on Monday. Then, they will finish any lessons/work from last week. The rest of the week will be divided between writing lessons and comparing literary works to their multimedia formats (movie scripts).  Prompt dissection and selected the best evidence will be the writing lessons taught. In addition, students will continue to read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and practice analyzing literary elements with it.  Finally, they will practice poetry skills in preparation for a cold quiz the following week. 

 2nd 9 Weeks is here! Lessons in class will shift from understanding narrative/ informational texts to analyzing literary/informational texts through writing in this 9 weeks.  Teachers will review analysis writing strategies for body paragraphs in addition to teaching skills associated with mood(diction/connotation) and perspective. Students will practice these skills with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" as they begin the short story. Some poetry terms will be reviewed while reading "The Raven" as well.   On Friday, students will take a practice cold quiz on poetry. 

 As a continuation of last week, students will learn about soliloquy and monologue from dramatic form. A variety of media (plays, television, movies) will be used to practice recognizing and understanding these dramatic elements.  The end of the week will be spent writing a soliloquy for a test grade. This graded assignment will be the first test grade for the 2nd 9 weeks.  RWITD will review the most missed questions from Mini Assessment 1.1. 

 Fall Break is Monday and Tuesday! Enjoy your days off. This week will be spent learning about Dramatic Form/Structure. Students will analyze excerpts from dramas and a novel ( Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet ,  Romeo, Juliet: Vampires vs. Werewolve s, and Call of the Wild ) to understand the form and how it is similar to and different from other literary forms.  In addition, they will learn how the form impacts meaning. 

 Nonfiction skills are the focus of week 8. Students will learn about the different text structures, part to whole for development, and the connection between informational text and literature.  On Thursday, students will practice these skills in preparation for a mini-assessment that will be given on Friday. 

 Flex Week Different assignments as needed per class and teacher

 Narrative Writing  Students will write their narratives this week. They will go through the entire process of writing including planning, drafting, revising, peer editing, and individual editing of their final draft. A mini-lesson on transitions will be given to assist students in writing their stories. Assessment 1.1 will be reviewed as well. 

We are at the halfway mark for the 1st 9 weeks. Students have learned skills associated with characterization, plot development, inferencing, central idea, and summarizing, Therefore to assess these skills, students will take their first cold assessment, Assessment 1.1, on Tuesday.   Diction, connotation, and plot structure will be the focus of this week's mini-lessons. Using excerpts and The Call of the Wild, students will practice skills associated with these topics.  Starting Thursday, students will select a narrative prompt and begin to draft a narrative. They will continue this on Friday after the skills check on diction and connotation. 

 We hope you enjoyed Labor Day! Narrative development will be Week Four's focus. Imagery, characterization, and dialogue are concepts that students will learn about and practice recognizing, understanding, and using. They should understand how these elements develop a narrative by Friday.  Students will read the final chapter, 7, of The Call of the Wild . On Friday, students will take a skills assessment. 

Week 3's mini-lessons will focus on skills associated with RL7.3, Analyze how particular elements of a literary text interact. RWITD will focus on Greek and Latin roots.  Using Chapters 5-6 of The Call of the Wild , students will independently practice analyzing character traits, actions, and interactions so that they understand how these develop plot.  On Friday, students will take a skills check quiz on character traits/plot development in literature and interactions in informational text. 

The Fall NWEA for ELA will be given Monday - Tuesday (24-25) of this week.  Central Idea and Summary are the focus in class on Wednesday and Thursday. Mini-lessons on these topics will be followed up by guided and individual practice so that students can practice the skills.  Chapters 3-4 of The Call of the Wild will be read and discussed. In addition, students will use this text to practice skills learned during the mini-lessons. On Friday, students will demonstrate their comprehension of the chapters they have read by completing a standard based quiz on Chapters 1-4. Finally, they will work on a mini comprehension check for Chapter 4 that is project-based. 

Stagger start days will be spent going over rules and procedures, learning about Google Classroom, and getting to know one another. The remainder of the week students will review explicit and implicit comprehension with mini-lessons, guided practice, and individual practice using The Call of the Wild . They will read Chapter 1-2 this week.   On Friday, the students will take two practice assessments that will gauge their knowledge of the skills they learned during the week. 

Week 7 will be a week of daily challenges. There will be no formal work this week. May 11 - Spend some time outdoors today. Write a description of something you saw or did. May 12 - Look through old photos from your childhood and/or ask someone to share stories about your childhood. Share your favorite picture and/or story.  May 13 - Solve the following riddle from The Hobbit: Q:  What is being spoken of in the following verse? Thirty white horses on a red hill, First, they champ, Then they stamp, Then they stand still. May 14 -  Show your appreciation of someone you love by doing something for them, giving them a homemade present, complimenting them or spending some time with them. Share what you did in the comments.  May 15 - Try to find the funniest (clean) video on YouTube.  Post it on Padlet. The video with the most hearts wins.  A note about grades...Per Mr. Hogan: "We will have to add the 1st 3 nine weeks grades and d...