Dear Parents and Students,
Welcome back! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends. It was fun to be back with my 141 students today, whom I truly enjoy teaching.
I wanted to extend a big thank you for all the thoughtful and generous gifts I received this holiday season from many of my students. As a new 7th grade teacher, I didn't expect such an outpouring of kindness and it really made my season bright (and my kids LOVED all the goodies)! Thank you so very much!
I spent the break reading all the Personal Narratives that were turned in (which was from almost 100% of students). They were fantastic, I could not have been more proud of my talented student writers. As I explained to the students, the ability to express themselves through writing is one of the most important life-skills I can give them and; frankly, some of the writing blew me away. I cried, I laughed and I marveled as I read the narratives. I sincerely hope your child has shared their work with their family and friends as well. There were a few students who I knew were capable of writing better. I've asked them to sign up for a time to meet with me for a writer's conference to do some revision.
This week's focus is on reviewing (we played a very fun game of Jeopardy: Language Arts style) and doing some writing to bridge the gap from persuasion to argumentation. Next week, the LA team will begin our Argumentation Unit. As with many other units, we teach a heavy concept in a fun and relevant way. In my classes, students will select their favorite M & M type and embark upon a research project (either an essay, Power Point presentation or project board) to prove through facts how their M & M type is superior to the rest. The students will learn research skills to help them through the rest of their lives. I'm very excited about this fun project.
I'll be sending Progress Reports home tomorrow, please take a minute and look over your student's grade. While I strive for 100% accuracy, I do make mistakes or overlook things and I always appreciate an email, call or note to bring it to my attention.
Please remind your child to keep on reading and select a book they can use for their next book report, due on February 6th. I'm asking that students choose a different genre than they chose last time and that the book is at least 150 pages. Students can choose any book report type as long as they haven't done it before. I'll be adding some new options as well.
Thank you again for your support! Enjoy the next two weeks:)
I'll post Utah-in-the-News tomorrow for next week.
Thursday, January 3rd
Calendar Wk. 21, Holiday Reading Check, Mid Trimester Review Jeopardy
Friday, January 4th
Ebay Write, Gecko Time
Monday, January 7th
Calendar Wk. 22/Reading Check
Monday Write: Anti-Resolutions
Introduce Argumentation Project
Tuesday, January 8th
Argumentation vs. Persuasion
Argumentation and Advertisers
Wednesday, January 9th
Scope Magazine Activity
Library Day
AM/PM Reading Group
Thursday, January 10th
Argumentation "Taste Test"
Venn Diagram Writing Activity
Friday, January 11th
Utah-in-the-News
Random Student of the Week Spotlight
Argumentation Research
Gecko Time!
Geography Bee (during 4th period)
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