SHOJ - English Language Arts

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 Mo...

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 poe...

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!

 It was fun to see all the students with their pets today!  Loving the K-State leash ;)  So many animals! 

Hello,  There is a mistake on the calendar regarding the end of 1st quarter.  It does not end Oct. 9th as stated in the calendar.  It ends Oct. 17th!  However, for book talks because the date has been set since August, the last day to book talk will still be next Thursday, Oct. 9. We will use the extra week to get a jump start on reading for the second quarter. Thanks!  Next week, 8th graders will have their Patriotism Essay due Monday. Students will have a Membean quiz at school on Wednesday, and I will be checking their notebooks. Any extra credit for the Membean words can now be turned in Oct. 16th with the change in the end of quarter.  After the review day and the test, we will be working on close reading next week with our SCOPE Scholastic Magazine. It features wonderful literature and informational text!  Remember, if you would like to place a Scholastic order, I am placing those on Tuesday! I have buy one get one coupons if you are inter...

*Students will be receiving this tomorrow. Seton and Siena students will receive it on Friday.  Format of the test: -           Fill in the Blank: You have the definitions of the 17 words on pages 24 and 25 in your notebooks (8th) and 15 words on pages 19 and 20 in your notebooks (7th). You will be listing the word to the definition without a word box. -           Multiple Choice (Application): You will choose which type of figurative language is being presented and what effect it has. Ex: “Life is like a box of chocolates.” You would choose simile. Questions from your Straight Ace practice quizzes will show up here. -           Essay: Write a paragraph of six complete sentences to answer what is the metaphor in this passage, why you think the author used it, and what effect it creates in the writing. You will use evidence from the text ...