This year's class, though, your kids...they're making me love teaching even more. They came to visit me last May promising that I'd hate them. They were the worst class ever, and their teachers had told them that for years. I laughed at them, assuring them they were not the worst class ever. (I already HAD that class, haha!) I told them how excited I was to learn and work together, and now here we are....the end of October!
You should be so proud of your students. In 10 short weeks, I have seen so much improvement in their writing skills, their behavior, and their attitudes! They have rocked out 7th grade so far. This group of kids learns so fast - they're like sponges just soaking in the small writing tips and suggestions, and they're such clever thinkers, making connections between texts and carefully analyzing the novel. Every day is so exciting (even when they do freak out and whine about new or slightly scary writing tasks!).
Now that I'm done bragging on them, let me catch you up on what we've been working on!
We have finished our historical fiction novel, The Darkest Hour, and now the kids are reading their own personal historical fiction novel. They set up a reading schedule yesterday so everyone has a set number of pages or chapters to reach each day. This way we will all finish our novels at the same time and be able to discuss! As they read, they will complete WNBs about their novels that focus on the skills that we learned and used during our class novel study. They'll be researching the historical event or time period that their book is set in and will present that information to their classmates. The unit will culminate with a book review that we can publish online! (And of course a unit test....) While they read, we will continue our class work on things like allusions, ways that setting impacts plot, types of characters, how authors use and change history to create their work, and clauses/phrases.
Your student has hopefully mentioned their Patriot's Pen essay to you! We are in the final stages of this activity, and revisions will be completed by Friday so I can submit the essays to our friends at the VFW. Three winning essays will be selected by the veterans at the VFW post in Mansfield, and other students will have the opportunity to read their essays aloud at our Veteran's Day celebration on November 11.
We continue to work on our iReady math and reading intervention program, and as always, we are working on creating positive study habits and scheduling skills. This is why we complete our assignment book at the end of each ELA class, and if your student has me for 5th hour intervention, we complete it then, too...with every class's work listed!
Thanks again for sharing your students with me this year. They are impressive learners and nice people, and that's what makes my job the best in the world.