SHOJ - English Language Arts

We had fun Friday putting together rosaries in House. Thanks, Mrs. Summers, for organizing this great service project!

7th grade, Here's the Kahoot you asked me to post for the test next Tuesday! https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=998495c6-b4c2-46ba-955b-9bf00900c5f2

We had a great time at the play! The 8th graders did a wonderful job of being respectful. Many of them said they really enjoyed it! Hopefully, they didn't come home in too much of a sugar coma after all the ice cream we ate at lunch. :) This week, they are working on their papers due this Friday and their study guides for the test next Tuesday.

7R,  Here are the links for the webquest.  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/

Both 7th and 8th grades are practicing close reading -- the practice of reading a text multiple times to pull more understanding from it. Eighth-graders carefully annotated pages of Christmas Carol , and then the class looked at each page to dig deeper. They did a great job! One class of 7th graders is also finished with Daniel's Story. They have been working on close reading with several passages in the story. This is a wonderful skill to take with them for high school! 

Congrats to all the students who read 50 or 100 pages over one night during October and November. Way to go! 

8th graders did a great job working on their FANBOYS (conjunctions - For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So). This year's are the most creative ones I've seen! We will have a test in the next two weeks.

8th-grade students, Remember that you are reading the rest of Stave 1 that we didn't finish in class for Friday. 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

l Membean Quiz l Blog: Comment on our Canadian friend’s. http://blogs.phrd.ab.ca/noreen.holt/ l What is a theme of the novel? Explain. l What is the fish a metaphor for? l What does it mean to be a globally aware citizen? l What does courage look like? Sacrifice? Global assistance? l NaNoWriMo

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

Last week, 8th graders worked on compound sentences. They made life-sized FANBOYS (conjunctions: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So), which we're finishing up this week. They will have a test in a couple weeks. We also read "The Tell-Tale Heart," and Mrs. Kelly dressed up as Edgar Allan Poe on the same day! This week, we have started writing our National Novel Writing Month project, where students are trying to write a word-count goal they set for themselves. We're also finishing our read aloud, Fish , and tying in some SCOPE nonfiction text about refugees and child labor laws throughout the world. We will be starting Christmas Carol next week!  7th graders finished up a month of SCOPE magazine today. I loved seeing their play presentations last Friday. Their costumes were creative! We will be starting our WWII unit this week. One class will be reading Daniel's Story , while the other focuses on background information about the time period -- and then we'l

8th grade, Here is the link you'll need: 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bXAkbCyjpo 2. Ideas for your blog:  l Write as one of the characters. l What will happen next? l Who is your favorite character? Why? l What has surprised you? l What does courage look like? Sacrifice? Global assistance? l What does it mean to be a globally aware citizen? 

8th grade, l STAR – username sarajewski , pw: shoj7  (try that !) l Membean quiz l Visit pen pal blog: http://blogs.phrd.ab.ca/noreen.holt/ l Blog: Tell this story

It's hard to believe that the first quarter has come to a close! 8th graders have been working hard on various items, like the Patriotism Essay and their research on refugees. We are reading the book Fish , which never actually mentions which country the refugees are fleeing from. Today, we practiced having a Socratic Seminar about the refugee crisis. The students' answers were really something: - "I learned that this is a much bigger deal than I thought. I thought there were a couple thousand refugees. There are 12 million from Syria alone." - "I feel so blessed to live in America." - "We should really be thankful for everything we have." -"We have to be kind to those around us who might seem different from us." - "I'm sad for these kids. They have to be worried about things that kids shouldn't have to be worried about." Students made connections from the pro-life forum and human dignity back to refugees. I

8th grade, Survey for today! http://www.advanc-ed.org/survey/public/4836308

Congrats, Scholars Bowl! They placed 2nd at the St. Thomas Aquinas meet today. Way to go!

8th graders played Mystery Skype today with two classes! This is like 20 questions. We tried to figure out their locations by just asking yes or no questions. They did a nice job!  These two classes will be reading and connecting with us on our October read aloud, Fish. We'll start reading tomorrow. 

Hello! This year, our class will be participating in a project called the Global Read Aloud.  This project will start October 5th and will run for approximately 6 weeks.  The idea behind it is very simple; teachers around the world read the same book aloud to their students and then use technology to share the reading experience with these other classrooms.  It is a free project and it fits perfectly into the standards we have to cover.  During the project, our class will be reading Fish by L.S. Matthews and connecting with students around the world who are reading the same book.  We will use technology tools such as Skype (as a whole class) and KidBlog with our couple partner “pen pal” classes to facilitate these connections and conversations. My students in years past have enjoyed the month. Students will not need their own copy of the book, but if you’d like to read along with us, feel free! We are very excited to connect with others, especially since  almost 500,000

Congrats to all students who read either 50 or 100 pages over one night (or weekend) this month! If you see your child on this Wordle, be sure to congratulate them. The students with their names larger completed this feat more often. I saw some GREAT reading this month. Keep it up! 

Siena House had a wonderful time at Harvesters on Friday. We sorted bread, and the students did a really nice job. Thanks to all the parents who helped drive!  Hard at work Setting up our assembly line Box-making pros What a great house! 

8th graders, We'll need these links Monday to make a practice Works Cited page in class: http :// www.relevantmagazine.com/current/hobby-lobby-and-religious-freedom http ://www.catholicnews.com /   http ://www.usccb.org /   http ://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/what-meeting-pope-francis-was-like-for-for-elementary-students-in-harlem-36137 /

7th and 8th graders wrote some very nice personal metaphors! Since we've been working on figurative language, they compared themselves to another  unlike object. These were fun to read. Way to go! 

What should I read next? 8th graders have lots of ideas!  Eighth graders spent the week working on the difference between clauses and phrases and how we punctuate them. They also analyzed exemplars and wrote their own book reviews. We have an awesome new binder in our class library with recommendations from their favorite. books. The reviews definitely make people want to read the books. Students are preparing for the test next week, and then we will be preparing to start SCOPE Magazine and a class read-aloud of the novel Fish through the Global Read Aloud Project. We'll be starting our Patriotism Essays too.  Seventh graders have also been preparing for a test. We've finished reading and analyzing the plot of The Treasure of Lemon Brown . We had a lot of fun singing yesterday -- not well! We were finding figurative language in songs. The students thought we should start a choir. After the test next week, students will be working on SCOPE Magazine and the Bag-a-Book

 I will be placing an order for Scholastic Friday, Oct. 2nd. To start off the school year, I encouraged the kids to find books that interested them.  Please check out the catalog or the reading brochures your students brought home to find books that interest them! Thanks for your generosity in the past. We received lots of new books for our classroom library.  To Shop Online: scholastic.com/readingclub One-Time Class Activation Code: L7ZJ6 Due by 10/2 *You can also click on the button below to take you to our class.    With Scholastic Reading Club: - Every book you buy earns FREE Books for our classroom library - You can choose from handpicked, grade- and reading-level-specific books for your child - You'll find the best values on a variety of formats, including eBooks Each month, your child will bring home Reading Club flyers. Together you can choose from books hand-selected by teachers and experts, and then order online or by returning your order form and payment to

Hola! 7th graders have been visiting the lab during study hall. They know how to log onto Rosetta Stone now. If students want to practice at home, they know their usernames and passwords. https://sacredheartshawnee.rosettastoneclassroom.com/en-US/

Students have been doing an awesome job in House this year! Every house is really trying to do their best. We've had such a hard time choosing the winners. Today we did chalk art.

To start the quiz: https://kahoot.it/#/ If you want to study at home: Connotation: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=bb705378-9f97-43b3-83ca-f804122e48b0 Allusions:  https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/7931da14-2013-4988-84e5-e45a60c134a5 Connotation:  https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=7f1b0c03-f0a6-4bfa-93b3-fdd7ac057cf1&user=rajewski&token=6e721ef5-de96-48ac-adf8-e76cd29c3a49 Analogy: https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=fa199fa7-8310-42eb-966e-7055c6660e87&user=rajewski&token=6e721ef5-de96-48ac-adf8-e76cd29c3a49 (8th) https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=7931da14-2013-4988-84e5-e45a60c134a5&user=rajewski&token=6e721ef5-de96-48ac-adf8-e76cd29c3a49 (7th) Figurative Lang:  https://play.kahoot.it/#/?quizId=20ca6fab-b7cb-461d-a0c3-3a295eef2b25&user=rajewski&token=6e721ef5-de96-48ac-adf8-e76cd29c3a49

We've had fun this week finding figurative language! 8th graders even decorated the halls with some "tearable" puns. They made us laugh as we found them. Figurative language tests for both 7th and 8th grade will be Sept. 30th, which is the Wednesday after our 4-day weekend next week.

The 8th graders did a fantastic job with the Bag a Book project, where they re-created their favorite book covers and wrote book reviews. It's always a joy to see them talk about a book that stuck with them. We also had fun trying to set up these class panoramic pictures and making everyone freeze -- in the windy Kansas weather!