SHOJ - English Language Arts

Thanks for a great year! As a middle school team, we feel blessed that we get to interact with your children. We'll miss them over the summer and for our 8th graders as they head off to high school.  As we all relax this summer, one of the best things you can do to help your child keep learning and growing is to encourage summer reading. Our school participates in the Scholastic Reading Challenge, so be sure to log your minutes. Each middle schooler made a list of 5 books they would like to read over the summer. If he or she is looking for other ideas, feel free to check out any of the sites below!  Have a wonderful summer.  The middle school team Whichbook Booklamp.org  (the Book Genome Project) \ YALSA’s Teen’s Top Ten: 2013 Whatshouldireadnext.com Good Reads                                             *Check the Listopia section for various lists.  Digitalbookworld.com Top 10 Reading Recommendation Platforms

In 8th grade and 7B, all book talks must be finished by next Thursday. In those same classes, students can bring in books for extra credit in either grade book. They can earn up to 5 points each in reading and writing. They know the details! We submitted our order to Price Chopper for the reward of reaching 50,000 pages in these three classes. Eighth graders were excited to finish their last quiz of the year in ELA. Some even felt a bit nostalgic for a bit! Next week, we'll be finishing up our read aloud for this quarter, which is excerpts from  The Princess Bride. We will watch part of the movie next week. The last grammar topic of the year will be misplaced modifiers. (Ex: Incorrect: Picking weeds, several worms crawled to the top of the soil.)f Some 8th graders were interested in writing one last paper about The Princess Bride , so they have an optional literary analysis essay. This will be with 40 points if they choose to do it. It's not extra credit, but it is an add

*Tomorrow is the last day 8th graders can send in their "If you really knew me, you'd know me that...." facts.  If I don't have it, they will not be included in the final product.  Again, students were given over a month to turn this is.  Please email me a Word document or type in the facts in the message. The NED show assembly: Today we had an awesome award assembly in the gym. The entire school sat in faith families to hear about The NED show. It was a great way to wrap up our positive behavior system at Sacred Heart. An option they do have is to purchase yo-yos.  Several children did.  You may still come in before school, after school or send in money with your child for during lunchtime to purchase one if they want.  The yo yo is $7, $10 and $15 depending on what to get and there are accessories available like a holster or replacement strings if wanted/needed.  Please make checks to Sacred Heart.  The items will be available for 5 days. The children a

As our 7th and 8th graders wrap up, the teachers wanted to make sure everyone finishes the year strong and knows what is due for them. This schedule includes tests, quizzes, and projects, but not daily work. We tried to make the schedule as concrete as possible, but it is subject to change. 8 th grade: *Students working in class on dissection in Science *On-going presentations in Math (2 per day) Thursday, May 8 th —Stages of a Hero/Sentence Fluency quiz for ELA Friday, May 9 th – Quiz on Prayer Monday, May 12 th – ELA Notebook check Tuesday, May 13 th – Finished group projects for Social Studies (all work time is in class) Wednesday, May 14 th – Social Studies Quiz Thursday, May 15 th – ALL MISSING WORK DUE, ELA book talks must be finished, Math Final over presentations, Science Notebooks collected For 7th grade some upcoming things are:  7 th  grade: *Students working in class on Science project *On-going presentations in Math (2 per day)

8th graders, Here's the survey. Please answer honestly. It's anonymous. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/18Jdb8ev5ZGtPNHz5zZ-yJje_UdGZjgXo4nsGfOAZ9ec/viewform

Middle school families, In English class 7th graders have finished writing their literary analysis papers! They'll be starting the last work that we're reading this year, which is the story "Flowers for Algernon." It brings up many good topics to discuss, such as the power of intelligence and science and the value society places on them. In 8th grade, we're in a pretty intense part of The Princess Bride ( the book) plot. We connected Joseph Campbell's 12 Stages of a Hero's Journey to other books and movies last week. The students will have their last quiz grade for reading on Thursday. They will need to have the 12 Stages memorized in order, like we talked about in class. The other side of the quiz will be identifying sentences as simple, compound, complex, and compound complex. I'm always available if the students have questions! These games below are some we used in class and can be a good study tool:  The two games we used this week: 

The 7th graders had a great trip to the Capitol. The tour of the dome got all our hearts beating a little faster, but the view at the top was pretty great! The students also had a tour of the Capitol, heard from a state senator and representative, and participated in a mock committee meeting. Thanks to Mrs. Bright for helping us coordinate the day.