Agenda+2012-2013

Here you will find what we did in class today. It is complete with powerpoints (as appropriate) and a description.

08/27/2012

Today we learned the expectations for seventh grade. Parents also need to sign all assignments that students were given today.

08/28/2012 Today we reviewed the expectations, learned the consequences and rewards, and began our first Type 1 in the Collins Writing program.

08/29/2012 Today we continued working on our Type 1, a letter to Mrs.Thompson. It is due tomorrow. We also began talking about computers and how to appropriately use them. Students should have, or be in the progress of getting, access to googledocs and edmodo.

08/30/2012 We completed our Pre-test in Grammar and Mechanics. We also completed a student survey all about you!

08/31/2012 No School!

09/03/2012 No School!

09/04/2012 Today we complete accessing google docs and edmodo. Students took a brief poll on edmodo. Please visit hershey.edmodo.com and log in to complete the poll. Please see the expectations for computers in 08/29/2012 agenda for more details.

09/05/2012 Today we completed our Collins Word pre-test. These should be kept with corrections from today in your binder.

09/06/2012 Today we are beginning our discussion circles and what that will look like for the year. We will also begin discussing heroes and who we think is a hero.

09/07/2012 Today we will finish our discussion on successful groups and begin looking at heroes. Students will complete their anticipation guide for the hero unit. In it they will state whether they agree or disagree with the statements in the guide. Then they will defend their opinion with any facts they can list.

09/10/2012 We will make a list of heroes and then see if they are still a hero based on the definition of heroes and and character traits that all heroes share. Students will learn what characterization, character traits, and heroes are. Students will use the character traits to decide if someone is a hero or not. Then students will decide which character trait best represents a hero to them and give reasons why. Notes can be found in the powerpoint below.

09/11/2012 Students will discuss the events of September 11th, and who the heroes are that emerged from that day. They will evaluate them based on our character traits. Following students will choose one thing that they will do as an inspiration from these heroes.

09/12/2012 Today students will read "Boy, do we ever need a hero" and write a brief essay in which they state their main idea or opinion as to whether or not we do need heroes. They will defend their answer with supporting details. Students will analyze the piece for main idea and supporting details. Following that they will generate a main idea and details on their own.

09/13/2012 Today we continued exploring main idea and supporting details. Students began their piece answering this question: Do we need a hero? Why or why not? What two pieces of evidence do you have? We also completed a survey for the Vocational Tech School of Dauphin County.

9/14/2012 Today students worked with subjects and predicates. They explored how these parts make up a sentence. Next Friday we will explore them further at station activities where we have to use them to make simple sentences. See this powerpoint for any notes.

9/17/2012 Today students discussed the question: Are heroes born or created? Then students pre-read the poem "To Be a Hero". While reading this poem students implemented the idea of visualizing, evaluating, and used the graphic aids to help them better understand the poem. Tomorrow we will finish discussing it and students will conduct research on their own heroes.

9/18/2012 Today students finished Reading "To Be a Hero". Following that they did a guided practice search on a hero. Now, students will be completing their own research on a hero of their choosing based on our character traits of a hero. Please use edmodo to complete.

9/19/2012 Today we will review the research we did yesterday and for homework. Use your class time to research a second hero. We will also spend half of the class at the Book Fair!

9/20/2012 Today we will begin looking at our next reading, "Man in the Water". Students will learn reading strategies to help them as they read this selection. We will also discuss author's purpose, point of view, and how the facts in this article support the author's goal (opinion).

9/21/2012 Students will practice correcting simple sentences and generating them. They will also practice identifying the subject and the predicate.

9/24/2012 Today we will finish reading "Man in the Water" and also review complete sentences. Students will complete a type 2 on complete sentences.

9/25/2012 Students will complete a Type 2 evaluating how the man in "Man in the Water" is a hero. Students will use TDEDEC: T-Topic D-Detail E-Explanation D-Detail E-Explanation C-Concluding Sentence

09/26/2012 No School

09/27/2012 Students will finish anything left they need to do with their Type 2. Then, they will read an article and discuss the different points of view from that article and "The Man in the Water". Students will be evaluated by the teacher, peers, and themselves on their discussion skills. We may continue this discussion into Friday.

09/28/2012 Students will finish their discussion today comparing articles about the crash of flight 90. They will also evaluate themselves and group members on discussion skills. I will also circulate and give them feedback on their discussion skills.

10/01/2012 Students will wrap up their discussion and begin pre-reading "The Hero's Test" or Theseus and the Minotaur.

10/02/2012 Students will begin reading "The Hero's Test" as a group in class and evaluate it based on the conflict. They will also have discussion questions to prep for Wednesday's discussion. See powerpoint.

10/03/2012 Students finished discussion in small groups today. Tomorrow we will have a larger group discussion and clarify the story.

10/04/2012 Students worked on discussion and clarifying "The Hero's Test" with their group.

10/05/2012 Simple sentences quiz.

10/09/2012 Students will begin to define plot and categorize the major events within plot.

10/10/2012 Students will finish discussing and using plot to categorize the major events. Then we will review the TDEDEC structure for student writing.

10/11/2012 Students will continue discussing and review TDEDEC structure. They will use a guided example from the teacher, and they will do a group example. To help them understand weak vs. strong evidence students will have a homework assignment to decide what is a strong paragraph and what is weak. Students can use their notes from class to help them.

10/12/2012 Students will review weak vs. strong writing with paragraphs. Following that they will answer this formative TYPE 3 prompt: Using your ability to analyze indirect characterization, infer 3 traits about one character (Theseus, King Minos, the Minotaur, or Ariadne). Then support each trait with specific evidence from the text to show how the character demonstrates that trait. Lastly, explain, in your own words, how the evidence shows the trait. [Topic--include the three traits, Details--include the trait and the evidence, and Explanation--explain how the evidence shows the trait] Formative FCAs: FCA #1: Write with a clear focus and organization. (TDEDEDEC) 75 FCA #2: Use the serial comma to guide the organization of your details. 10 FCA #3: Make logical inferences based on evidence from the text. 15

They will receive these with feedback on Monday.

10/15/2012 Students were able to finish their summative if they needed more time. Those who were done received feedback, and they had to write a reflection on their feedback. Following the feedback reflection I reviewed the components of the formative with them. I also informed them they will have a very similar summative on these fcas this coming Wednesday and Thursday. I also shared with them they will have a quiz on commas in a list and with adjectives. That quiz will take place Friday, or if we need more time I will push it back until Monday.

10/16/2012 We will finish our work with commas at stations. Following that students will read "The Teacher Who Changed My Life" along with taking notes on the characters. This is the story they will have their summative on.

10/17/2012 We will practice commas some more. Students will complete their summative on "The Teacher Who Changed My Life"

10/18/2012 Students will finish the summative and have more practice with commas.

10/19/2012 Students finished their summative or took their comma quiz.

10/22/2012 Students took their comma quiz and began reading about Jesse Owens.

10/23/2012 Today I reviewed the story they read with the sub. In addition, I introduced compound sentences. Edmodo has all of the notes. However, it is not working at the moment, so here is the definition of a compound sentence. • Compound Sentence-When you combine two independent clauses or simple sentences together with a coordinating conjunction. These are also know as the fanboys words. • For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So. • Example: • I love to dance, and I love to sing. • *Note: You ALWAYS need a comma before the conjunction in a compound sentence.

10/24/2012 Students will complete a small group discussion on Jesse Owens and review compound sentences. In their discussion they must use evidence/facts from the text to support their answer.

10/25/2012 Students will complete a formative on compound sentences and we will finish the discussion on the story.

10/26/2012 Students will finish the formative.

10/29/2012 Hurricane Sandy

10/30/2012 Hurricane Sandy

10/31/2012 Students began reading "The Unknown Hero" and analyzing it for main idea and supporting details. We also discussed and practiced the semi-colon.

11/01/2012 Students will finish analyzing "The Unknown Hero" for main idea and details.

11/02/2012 Compound sentence quiz

11/05/2012 Wrap up of "The Unknown Hero" and main idea.

11/06/2012 Students used their reading strategies as they began reading "Time for a Hero". Students were looking for who the hero and villain could be as they seek to tell the difference. Students will eventually use their opinion to persuade their classmates and teacher of who the villain and who the hero is of the story.

11/07/2012 Students will continue to read "Time for a Hero" and complete the reading comprehension/discussion questions with their group. They will post their responses on edmodo. If time allows, we will begin looking at persuasion.

11/08/2012 Students will learn about persuasion, techniques, debating, facts, and opinions. They will then begin to formulate their opinion about who is a hero and who is a villain in "Time for a Hero".

11/09/2012 Students will continue their discussion on who is a hero or villain in "Time for a Hero" and begin creating opinion statements.

11/12/2012 Students will look at how persuasion is used in commercials and the different techniques they use to persuade someone to believe their opinion.

11/13/2012 Students will analyze opinion statements addressing protesting and "The Unknown Hero". They will also create their own addressing questions their classmates created.

11/14/2012 Students will complete a formative answering this question: Who has had more of a lasting impact on society, literature heroes or real life heroes? They will just write an opinion statement and list three reasons/facts to support their answer. If time allows we will evaluate an opinion statement in a paragraph and how it acknowledges the opposition.

11/15/2012 Students will evaluate a paragraph on its use of persuasion and how well it defends its opinion. If time allows they will begin their formative on persuasion answering this question: Are the doctors heroes, villains, or neither? They will complete it as a comic strip, paragraph, or graphic organizer.

11/16/2012 Students will finish their formative on persuasion.

11/19/2012 Students will finish their formative and move onto drama

11/20/12 Students will act out the play about Elizabeth Blackwell and decide whether or not she is a hero.

11/21/2012 Turkey Trot

11/27/2012 Students will review, reflect on, and revise their formatives. They will then decide what FCAs they need to work on in order to achieve their best on the summative.

11/28/2012 Students will begin reading "Hero's Return" and create a t-chart where they decide whether or not Junior is a hero or villain.

11/29/2012 Students will finish reading and begin writing their persuasive paragraph based on their t-chart.

11/30/2012 Students will finish their persuasive paragraph.

12/03/2012-12/05/2012 Students will begin working on their final assessment for the Hero Unit. In addition each group will complete a group discussion on whether a real-life person is a hero or not. Group 1: Thomas Jefferson Group 2: Floyd Landis Group 3: Andrew Jackson Group 4: Lance Armstrong Group 5: Marion Jones

For more information please visit the discussion group articles page.

12/06/2012 Students will begin looking at the ecology unit.

12/07/2012 Team Breakfast-No classes

12/10/2012 Final project for Hero Unit is due tomorrow. Students will begin reading poems about nature and define figurative language as well as sensory detail. *Project was extended to Thrusday

12/11/2012-12/13/2012 Students will be finishing their final project and reviewing the feedback given on their graphic organizer through google docs.

12/14/2012 Students will begin their new unit: Ecology. We will begin by discussing our thoughts on nature and imagery to prepare for their next summative: poetry.

12/17/2012 Students finished their discussion on imagery by describing bacon as they looked at it before, during, and after it was cooked. In addition students began reading a poem, "For Richard Chase" and analyzing the poem for its use of imagery.

12/18/2012 Students will finish reading "For Richard Chase" and discuss/analyze it as a class.

12/19/2012 Students will discuss their relationship to nature and either connect it to "The Lorax" or a poem in our Ecology Reader called "Baptisms"

12/20/2012 Students will use what they have learned about imagery to describe a favorite scene, nature, or moment in time. Then, they will switch with their partners and see if their partners can draw it in detail from the description. In addition, students will create an "If I were in Charge of the Environment" poem to express their relationship to nature, changes they would make, or things they would keep.

12/21/2012 We will be attending the High School Concert, cleaning lockers, having a cookie exchange, and watching "A Christmas Carol" as a team. Students will complete a reflection on the movie once it is completed. Happy Holidays!

01/03/2013 Students will complete a formative on imagery, finish their poem from 12/20/2012, and begin discussing line breaks.

01/04/2013 Students will review and discuss their "If I were in Charge of the Environment" poems, and practice using line breaks.

01/05/2013 Students will receive their work from unit one back and reflect on their performance. Students will then edit as necessary. Following their reflection, students will begin to brainstorm ideas for their poem next week.

01/07/2013 Students will do a review of imagery and line breaks. Then, they will be introduced to different types of figurative language. Finally, students will create their own metaphor or simile in which they compare themselves to nature. This will prepare them for their summative at the end of the week.

01/08/2013 Students will continue identifying and creating figurative language.

01/09/2013 Students will begin their graphic organizer for their poem summative.

01/10/2013 Students will continue their graphic organizer.

01/11/2013 Students will begin their poem.

01/14/2013 Students will finish their poem and complete a gallery walk to receive feedback on their poem. (Poems are due by the beginning of class Wednesday.)

01/15/2013 We will continue or evaluation of our poems as seen above. In addition, students will complete a reflection on their formatives and change their summative based on the feedback and reflection.

01/16/2013 Students will review Collins words and begin creating complex sentences.

01/17/2013 Students will complete their Collins quiz. Following that students will begin discussing folklore and what it looks like in America.

01/18/2013 We will continue looking at folklore with the story "The Growin' of Paul Bunyan". We will also discuss the text structure of cause and effect. Students will identify its role in "The Growin' of Paul Bunyan".

01/21/2013 No School

01/22/2013 Students will finish their reading and analyzing "The Growin' of Paul Bunyan".

01/23/2013-01/25/2013 I apologize for not updating the wiki this week. I have been out with the flu. Students continued to read "The Growin' of Paul Bunyan" this week. They retold the story using cause and effect. They also analyzed the moral of the story since it is the first folklore we have read.

01/28/2013 Students will look at signal words for cause and effect. Following this students will begin a formative on cause and effect. They will watch a video, complete a t-chart on the causes and effects they see. Then they will write a cause and effect paragraph giving at least two causes and two effects, a topic sentence, conclusion sentence, and include signal words.

01/29/2013 Students will finish their formative.

01/30/2013 Students will begin to read "When Nature Comes Too Close" and analyze it for cause and effect. They will also ponder the question "Who is invading who: humans or nature?

01/31/2013 Students will review their formative and reflect on what they need to work on for their summative. Students will finish reading "When Nature Comes Too Close".

02/01/2013 Students will construct their summative cause and effect paragraph based on "When Nature Comes Too Close". (Moved to Monday)

02/04/2013 Students began their summative today after reviewing their formatives and extra practice.

02/05/2013 Students will finish their summative and begin comparing cause and effect to other text structures. What are the differences? What are the similarities? How do I determine which one to use?

02/06/2013 THON Assembly--For Mrs. Thompson's advisory wear blue! Students will continue looking at other text structures, particularly problem and solution.

02/07/2013 Students continued reviewing problem and solution

02/08/2013 Students will begin reading "Wisdomkeepers" and think about what they understand about the Native Americans view on nature and what they have questions about still.

02/11/2013 Students will review the article and identify challenging words, the main idea, and begin comparing themselves to Native Americans. In addition, they will compare themselves and Native Americans to American Society.

02/12/2013 Students will continue comparing Native Americans, themselves, and American Society.

02/13/2013 Students will finish their comparisons, AND we will spend the rest of class in the library with Mrs. Arnold looking at books, reading, and picking ones for our reading competition!

02/14/2013 Students will review the feedback on their formative venn diagram. They will then complete their summative on Wisdomkeepers.

02/18/2013 Period 3: Will complete the summative from last week. All other classes will watch videos about nature problems in our world, and the solutions they see to fix them. This will be a review and formative of problem and solution from 02/06/2013. By now students should know cause and effect, compare and contrast, problem and solution, and main idea and supporting details.
 * If you need to finish your quiz from last week, please see me during flex sometime this week.

02/19/2013 Students will choose one of the videos from the previous day, and create a poster showing that problem and solution. It will be a formative.

02/20/2013 Students will begin reading "Battle for the Rainforest" and look for the problem and solution. They will also look through vocabulary, do a pre-search, and t-chart to help them with background knowledge

02/21/2013 Students will complete a summative paragraph in which they identify the problem in the first section of "Battle for the Rainforest" and what the tribe believes in the solution.

02/22/2013 We will continue reading "Battle for the Rainforest" and focus more heavily on main idea and details.

02/25/2013 Students will continue reading "Battle for the Rainforest".

02/26/2013 Students will complete a formative on the main idea and supporting details in the second section on "Battle for the Rainforest".

02/27/2013 THON! Students will prepare for the thon, and they will review their formative in preparation for their summative. Then students will finish reading "Battle for the Rainforest".

02/28/2013 Students will complete their main idea and detail summative. After the summative, students will begin reviewing the descriptive text structure.

03/01/2013 Collins word quiz Read Across America Day--Bring in a book to read for after the quiz!

03/04/2013 PSSA Practice

03/05/2013 Review description and chronological order text structure

03/06/2013 Fact and Opinion Begin reading "Remediation" article for the side of Texaco.

03/07/2013 Finish read "Remediation" and complete a t-chart showing the facts for each side. Choose a side.

03/08/2013 Finish explaining the side you chose and why. Review description and chronological order.

03/11/2013 Text Structures Practice quiz Review persuasive strategies.

03/12/2013 Collins Word Practice Quiz #2 Continue to review persuasive strategies.

03/13/2013 Students will be assigned their presentation on the question "Should we be stewards of nature?" Begin research.

03/14/2013-03/15/2013 Students will continue to research and prepare their presentation.

03/18/2013 Text Structures Quiz Summative. Continue to prepare your presenatation and put it together.

03/19/2013 Begin putting your presentation together. Teacher and student examples will be given.

03/20/2013 Continue working on presentations. Collins word summative quiz

03/21/2013-03/22/2013 Students will have time to practice their presentations with a partner and get feedback.

03/25/2013-03/27/2013 Presentations

03/28/2013-04/01/2013 Have a wonderful Spring Break!

04/01/2013 Students will finish presenting their presentations

04/02/2013 Students will wrap up the ecology unit by reflecting on a speech given by a young girl to the UN. They will analyze her speech for tone, mood, purpose, and main idea. Following the speech students will create a poster with their partners to show what nature is and how it relates to us. This activity will wrap up our unit.

04/03/2013 PSSA Practice

04/04/2013 Students will review the PSSA practice. Then, students will begin reading an introductory story to our new unit "Friends and Enemies."

04/05/2013 Students will finish reading our introductory story.

04/08/2013 Students analyzed "Take Your Best Shot" for setting, main characters, and conflict.

04/09/2013-04/11/2013 PSSAs Students were assigned new group seats for the fourth marking period. Students discussed Frankenstein's monster. Then they read "Creating Context" in their "Friends" book about Frankenstein's monster, and students analyzed how he illustrates friendship.

04/12/2013 Students will watch movie clips and identify the relationship in the clip as either enemy, stranger, acquaintance/friendly, friend, or best friend. This will help them define friends and enemies for our class definition and unit discussions.

04/15/2013 Students will finish our introductory story from before PSSA testing, "Take Your Best Shot." They will use it to learn about leads, how an author begins a story.

04/16/2013 Students will begin to discuss what they would write for their own narrative. They will look at poor examples and great examples. Students will analyze each.

04/17/2013 Students will create a heart map. A heart map is where they think back to possible events in their life that could turn into a short narrative. They will put the events close to their heart on the inside, and the negative events away from their heart.

04/18/2013 Review from previous day. Students will discuss possible story ideas, and students will identify theme(s).

04/19/2013 Students will complete a Google Doc form to share the outline of their story. Feedback will be given Monday. If students have not completed their outline by the end of class, they will need to do it over the weekend.

04/22/2013 Students will review the FCAs for their narrative. They will review and reflect the feedback on their outline.

04/23/2013 Students will begin writing their 3 leads.

04/24/2013 Students will comment on each other's work. This feedback will help them edit and revise their beginnings.

04/25/2013 Beginning of your story is due. Students will begin reading "The Kayak" and discuss dialogue.

04/26/2013 Students will finish "The Kayak".

04/29/2013 Students will use "The Kayak" to discuss personal thought and theme. Students will begin to think about theme in their own narratives.

04/30/2013 Period 3: Finish "The Kayak" Period 4, 6, 7: Finish reviewing theme and begin working on the middle of their narrative.

05/01/2013 Students will review fragments, run-ons, and all sentence structure to apply it in their own writing as they review the feedback on their narrative.

05/02/2013-05/03/2013 Students will begin looking at "Dawn" and see how the author applies theme. Students will also look at student writing to see how they implemented theme and a reflective ending. Students will have an opportunity to do this in their own writing the following week.

05/06/2013-05/07/2013 Students will finish "Dawn" and write a Type two analyzing the relationship between the main characters.

05/08/2013-05/09/2013 Students were given class time to work on their first draft of their narrative.

05/10/2013 First draft is due Students began reading "Hey, Jealousy" and analyzing the relationship of the characters and how the conflict affects them.

05/13/2013 Students wrote a type two on their analysis of "Hey, Jealousy" showing the narrator as a friend and non-friend.

05/14/2013 Students received their first draft back graded, completed their feedback section, and began reviewing the second draft FCAs.

05/15/2013 Students will review dialogue in preparation for their second draft. Students will complete their second practice quiz on their Collins words.

05/16/2013-05/17/2013 Students will read "War Game" and analyze the relationship between the main characters as friend or enemy.

05/20/2013 Students will finish "War Game" and complete a type two analyzing the narrator as a friend or enemy.

05/21/2013-05/23/2013 Students will have received all Type twos back and need to review these formatives for their summative on Puss in Boots. They will analyze the relationship of Humpty Dumpty and Puss.

05/24/2013 Students will take their graded summative assessment on their Collins words. The rest of their time is for them to complete their friendship continuum if they need more time and finish their second draft of their narrative.

05/28/2013 Second draft due--NO exceptions! Students will complete a prep exercise for the Philly Zoo trip.

05/29/2013 Students will complete observations of animals at the Philly Zoo. Take pictures and pretend you are the animals! What characters would you give them? Why? What did they do? What are they thinking? Be creative and have fun with it!

05/30/2013 Students will write in the point of view of the animal of their choice.

05/31/2013 Students will complete their FINAL Collins word quiz and FINAL sentence structure quiz!

06/03/2013 Team Jupiter Pool/Rec Center Party!
 * Due to the party schedule: All students will receive their graded second draft narrative tomorrow.

06/04/2013 All team math final. Students will receive their graded second draft narrative today! Students will also have an opportunity to write an introductory letter to their eighth grade teachers OR a welcome note to incoming seventh graders.

06/05/2013 Locker Clean up and awards assembly Students will finish writing their letter.

06/06/2013 Last Day Have a great break!