SHOJ - English Language Arts

7th graders did a great job on their skits today about Sherlock Holmes and Greek mythology! 

8th graders worked hard today analyzing an awesome article by Eric Hosmer! They made really insightful annotations about the quality punctuation and sentence fluency he uses. Hopefully, we can apply this to our writing too. If you want to read the article, here it is:  http://www.theplayerstribune.com/eric-hosmer-royals-world-champions-still-no-fluke/ . 7th graders finished up their creative writing and plot charts for "The Most Dangerous Game." They seem to have a really firm grasp on the story! Next week, now that 8th has finished our narrative unit, we'll start reading two short novels called The Richest Man in the World and The Ultimate Gift . We'll focus more on the life lessons than literary terms in these books, as they contain awesome messages for the students moving into high school. If you'd like to read along, I'd really encourage it. I can send copies home. 7th grade will start SCOPE magazine next week, working on nonfiction text and dramas, wh

Mason Adkins Sydney Barragree Michael Bezek Molly Book Aiden Bourman Kellan Bright Olivia Brown Will Coup Maddy Dwyer Brady Feldman Katie Free Adam Gammill Danielle Gephart Katelyn Hall Molly Haymaker Alex Heinking Mary Katherine Hess Anthony Janatello Abby Koehler Paul Lee Arden Leiker Genevieve Luther Maddie Mayfield Annie Menghini Gen Monslow Andie Morrissey Harrison Mosburg Blair Muder Wyatt Parsons Andrew Peters Madison Plattner JD Reece Ana Rojas-Plumberg Adam Rowcroft Jordan Schneider Zach Schreifels Bob Stapp Ellie Steere Brady Steffens Natalie Stork Brock Varzaly Cole Warlop Graham Wilkinson 

8th graders did an awesome job with these Blackout Poems, as part of our Narrative unit. I loved the finished products!

It's been a good but busy week in Reading. 8th graders finished their "Where I'm From" poems and started working on their narrative videos. We've been having fun planning our class magazine. Today, for April Fool's, I walked in, and my 8th graders decided we'd be having class faced the other direction!  April Fool's, Miss Rajewski!  7th graders finished reading "The Most Dangerous Game" this week. Many of them said it was their favorite short story they've ever read. We spent today working on a creative writing project in partners that ties into the story. Next week, we'll work on mapping the plot and figuring out theme and conflict. They've been very engaged! Working hard on their posters

I will be placing an order for Scholastic next FRIDAY April 8th. With state tests, I encouraged the kids to find books that interested them since we have had lots of time to read in the lab.  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 4/8 *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,

Dear 8th -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. The past couple weeks, we have been creating a narrative/descriptive poem and next week we will be working on an accompanying video. Students had a heads up a couple weeks ago that they would need pictures, so hopefully they've told you! :) If you don't have many pictures/videos available electronically, please don't stress. Students and I will be working Monday on the videos in class. Students can bring any pictures for me to scan in then. The video program we use also has clip art students can add in. All the students will be fine! We always find a way to make it work.  Next week, we will be presenting our videos and our poems in class.   Here is an example of the video I made of my life.   Animoto accounts are pri