SHOJ - English Language Arts

Here are our rockstar readers for this month!

Students and families, Quarter 2 is wrapping up! Students, thank you for your hard work this quarter. You've done some great learning, which you've shown in a variety of ways. Here are the standards that were introduced this quarter: 8th grade standards 7th grade standards Have a wonderful, relaxing Christmas break! You've earned it. :) Remember to read! Merry Christmas! I'm blessed to work with you. Miss Rajewski

Thank you so much to our parent speakers today! The kids learned so much from your stories. Thanks for making history come alive!  Mrs. Wentzel told about her family's experience in Belarus as Germany came through the Soviet Union.   Mrs. Farley shared her dad's experiences as a fighter pilot on his plane "Stardust."  Mrs. Farley's dad made a rosary for her mom from the Plexiglas of an airplane window.  Mrs. Hess read from her dad's letters while he was stationed overseas. Mrs. Janatello explained the experiences of her uncle during his time as a Prisoner of War.

We enjoyed watching the scenes the students prepared for today! They are looking forward to the play tomorrow.

This week, 7th graders turned in their Anne Frank projects. I'm excited to read them. They worked really hard on them! Their test will be next Thursday, and they have received their study guide. They also have a notebook check coming up and should finish up their book talks. We had fun talking about Dr. Seuss and comic books this week, which connected back to the Holocaust and WWII. We're looking forward to our parent speakers next Tuesday. If students are planning to do extra credit, they have about a week and a half to get their 10 Membean words found. One class has found 142 words this semester. Wow! Eighth graders are progressing well on their projects, which I checked in with them about today. Projects are due 12/15. This week, we finished Stave 5 and had good discussions about poverty and its connection to the novel. We learned about round vs. flat, and static vs. dynamic characters. Next week, we will be going to see Christmas Carol , which is always a highlight!

7th graders, Here are the journal prompts from this week! Some of you requested that I post them for your project. 8:  After seeing pictures of concentration camps and learning a little about the Holocaust and Anne Frank, I feel…  9: Anne’s diary was published in more than 50 countries.  The play, based on her diary, won a Pulitzer Prize and was made into a movie.  Why do you think Anne’s diary and her story have attracted so much attention? 10:  The last quote that Mr. Frank reads from the diary is, “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”  What does this tell us about Anne’s character?  What do you think about this quote? How does it relate to you?  Happy typing! 

8th-grade students, Some of you were trying to get Bitstrips comic creator to work in the lab with little success. I found another site called ToonDoo. You do have to create an account, but you could save your comic to your "Toons" and print it from there.  http://www.toondoo.com/ Remember, making a comic is just one option! You can also draw a scene, which I know many of you are doing. Great work today on your projects!

In eighth grade this week, we've been reading Stave 3 of  A Christmas Carol.  They will be reading Stave 4 Monday. We took a Membean assessment and will finish developing our thesis statements for the project essay by Friday. I'm also checking to see that they've started their project on Friday!  For any students who want to take advantage of their project work day on 11/24 (the Monday before Thanksgiving), they should be caught up on Membean. I also challenged the students to participate in the parish reading book with  33 Days to Morning Glory.  Any students who read the consecration portion can count that as double pages for a book talk (since it bears both academic and spiritua fruit!) when they come back from Christmas break. The parish is planning to finish it by Jan. 1. When we get back from Thanksgiving break, we will finish Stave 5 and get ready to go see the play, which the students will enjoy!  Upcoming due dates: Christmas Carol Check In 12/5 Project 12/15 Te

7th grade parents, We will be having an exciting day on 12/9 at 12:50 when family members with a WWII story will be coming in to share about that time with your child. I have five speakers but if you're free this day and have a connection that you could talk with the students about, we would love to have you. The students will be in groups and rotate through each station. I'm sure they'll remember the stories long after this unit is over. :) Hope you can join us! -- Miss R.

In 7th grade this week, we've been reading A Diary of Anne Frank.  Students voted to finish their maps of the attic by next Wednesday. We will be finishing Act 1 in class, and they will be reading Act 2, Scenes 1-2 for next Friday. We will be taking a Membean quiz next week too. For any students who want to take advantage of their project work day on 11/24 (the Monday before Thanksgiving), they should be caught up on Membean. I also challenged the students to participate in the parish reading book with 33 Days to Morning Glory. Any students who read the consecration portion can count that as double pages for a book talk (since it bears both academic and spiritul fruit!) when they come back from Christmas break. The parish is planning to finish it by Jan. 1. Seventh graders did a wonderful job with their Socratic seminar on Monday. They are deep thinkers! Upcoming due dates: Project 12/5 Test over Holocaust and Anne Frank on 12/11  In eighth grade this week, we&#

Students, Remember to mark our work day on 11/24 (the Monday right before Thanksgiving). We will be in the lab. Bring flash drives and any supplies you need for your projects. Make sure you're caught up on Membean by that point if you're wanting to work on your project for the whole class. You will be at 390 minutes for the semester by that point. Thanks! Miss R.

Students received their quarter two projects today. We will work with these as we work through our reading this quarter. I've posted them in case you need an extra copy! 8th graders, for your vocab words, some of you wanted to type them and asked me to post the template.  Please work ahead!  Due Dates: 8th -- Dec. 15th, Check-in days -- Nov. 21st, Dec. 5th 7th -- Dec. 5th 7th grade rubric 8th grade rubric 8th grade vocab box template  (Once you click on this, click the download button at the top, which looks like an arrow pointing down). 

8th grade families,  I showed this to students today, but if you want to save their video for future viewing, click on the download button when the student is logged into his or her account. Then select the MP4 option. This will be fun for the student to look back on someday!  Thanks,  Miss R.

8th-grade students, Remember that you are reading the rest of Stave 1 that we didn't finish in class for Monday. If you are interested in listening to the audiobook as you annotate, this link will be helpful for you:  https://librivox.org/a-christmas-carol-by-charles-dickens /. Please take your time! The optional Stave 1 questions will be helpful for you! Thanks, Miss R

Lab First lab activity: Visit  http://www.pat heos.com/blogs/markdroberts/series/christmas-according-to-dickens/ . Scroll down to the second entry " Dickens: The Man Who Invented Christmas?." Read that whole entry (until you see "The Real Business of Christmas, according to Charles Dickens.") Summarize this article in a post on your blog. If you are interested in this topic, feel free to read other sections on the page.  Second lab activity: Visit the Kidblog site and create another post for the day. I've given you an optional prompt.  Third lab activity (if you have time): Quiz yourself (under Spelling Bee or Learn this List) on Act 1 vocab words.  https://www.vocabulary.com/lists/232629#view=notes  My username is sarah.rajewski@shoj.org, and the password is learn. 

Way to go! :)

I enjoyed celebrating Halloween today with everyone. There were some great costumes! This week in class, we've enjoyed watching 8th-grade students present the video narratives and read their poems. This project always highlights the wonderful aspects of each child! Seventh graders learned a bit about The War of the Worlds  and the panic it caused on Halloween in 1938. They did a great job presenting the scenes as skits. Next week we'll be working on building background information for the 8th graders on Charles Dickens and the Victorian Era as we begin A Christmas Carol . Seventh graders will be continuing to learn about the context of the Holocaust before we begin our play about Anne Frank. Reminder to all 8th graders, your permission slips for A Christmas Carol are due Monday. Have a great Halloween weekend! -- Miss R.

The past two weeks have been full of days where students had the chance to learn something outside of school! The next upcoming field trip will be the 8th graders trip to see A Christmas Carol. The permission slips for this are due Monday. Let me know if you have any questions! Congrats to our Scholar's Bowl students who competed at either the tournament at St. Thomas Aquinas or Bishop Miege. They were fun to watch as they showed lots of knowledge! The last group (due to rainout) recently attended Timber Ridge. They had to work as a team to complete obstacles and keep each other safe on the tower. The group I was watching took great skills back, which they can use to work together as a house. Finally, the seventh graders visited the National Archives for an exhibit on the Holocaust. We didn't know this until we visited, but all students are welcome to contact the National Archives if they are working on a project and want first-hand documents for

Check out the narratives from this year's 8th grade! Colin  Mica   Hunter   Jacob  Kaley   Jack David   Tristan Audrey Kaija Lauren Amanda Mary  Connor   Matthew  Cole  Jackie   Brianna  Tony  Briana  Caleb   Thanks for sharing your children with us. Katie   Cait  Sam Tim Jacob   Sarah Madeline Andres  Knox Joey   Maya Peter   Page   Rebekah Rachel Logan Audrey   Alexis   Chase Cole Addi

These are all on your worksheeet about Charles Dickens. Here they are so that you don't have to type them!  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/olivertwist/dickens_timeline_text.html http://charlesdickenspage.com/dickens_london_map.html http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/VictorianEngland.htm http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/dietwh.html http://www.logicmgmt.com/1876/schoolday.htm http://charlesdickenspage.com/reading_dickens.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens http://www.mytimemachine.co.uk/dickens.htm http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/victorians/flash/start_flash.shtml http://www.pbs.org/wnet/dickens/tour.html

For students in  my Cardinal Time group, we will use this link to continue learning about how our brains work! http://www.exploratorium.edu/memory/index.html

If you weren't able to come to conferences, here are the ELA standards that 7th and 8th graders have been introduced to in Quarter 1. The Archdiocesan Standards do an awesome job of infusing faith into the various concepts! We'll keep working to master a couple of these standards during this next quarter, as well focus on some of the other ones. Seventh standards Eighth standards  Have a nice night!

http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/Holocaust/timeline/nazirise.htm http://www.ushmm.org/learn/introduction-to-the-holocaust http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005142 http://www.graceproducts.com/fmnc/main.htm http://annefrank.com/

Students have been working this week with a great resource we have called SCOPE magazine! Here the 7th graders present a play. The magazine helps us dig into all types of text -- informational, fictional, poetry, essays, arguments, and grammar practice -- while keeping us updated on both historical and current events. All grades for 7th grade reading and 8th grade reading and writing have been exported. Onto quarter 2! Crazy to think how fast the year is flying. Congrats to the students who found Membean words this quarter. They found 160 words! One class alone found 110. Way to go! Next week, 7th and 8th graders will be continuing with SCOPE magazine. Eighth graders are also working on their narrative projects that were assigned today. We will be starting to write the accompanying poem in class. Seventh graders are headed to the Holocaust field trip on Tuesday. It will be a great preview before we start  Anne Frank.  Siena and Seton are out at Timber Ridge on Monday. C

Snapshots Unit: Narrative Reflection Dear 8 th -grade families, In the upcoming weeks, students are looking at one of the purposes of writing: to express ourselves and reflect on life. One of the most powerful tools for expression of memories are photographs. Over next week and the week after, we will be creating a narrative/descriptive poem with an accompanying video. Tomorrow we will talk  about the videos and the expectations, which we will continue to cover over the next week.  Videos will be due on Oct. 30th, so students have two weekends to work on the project. We’ll work with the poems starting Monday. The poems will be typed at school. Students will have some time in the lab to work on the videos at school, but some of the work will be done at home. We are working to create Animoto videos, which will be presented to the class. If you do not have any digital photos, I have told the student to let me know and we will work together. The video and poem combine

The 7th and 8th grade had the chance to hear from some of our students from last year! We talked a lot about being ready for high school and what skills would be helpful for our middle schoolers, regardless of what high school they choose. Thanks so much to our 9th graders for this great information! Feel free to talk to your child about what he or she learned.

Students worked hard this year on Price Chopper's Bag a Book contest. I love seeing what they choose! We talked about quality and using strong voice in reflecting on our favorite books. Here are a few. Price Chopper selects a winner from both 7th and 8th grade. Way to go, students!