Ms. Kenah

7th Grade Language Arts and Reading

Persuasive essays were due this week, and students are now working on a visual piece to accompany the written assignment. Students will receive their papers back with comments and a score on Monday. If dissatisfied with their grade, students will have the option of revising and editing the paper once again in an effort to encourage and reinforce the "process" involved in writing.

Students were introduced to Glogster, an online poster site, which allows them to use creativity and technology to create an advertisement for their chosen non-profit organization. The results are an impressive mix of pertinent information, persuasive language, and originality. Glogs will be due early next week when students will share and present the information and organizations they have spent the last few weeks investigating.

7th Grade Language Arts and Reading

Students are working their way through the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, taking notice of character development, setting, internal and external conflicts, writing techniques (foreshadowing, first person point of view, retrospect), and themes through class discussion. If your child misses class, please encourage them to read the next subsequent chapter in the book so that they are able to rejoin the class when they return. I recognize that it is a complicated book to get through as a seventh grader, am happy to answer any questions they may have after independently reading a chapter,and recognize the need for the class discussions as supplementary to understanding the novel's themes and messages. I am encouraged by the enthusiasm most are expressing for the story's humor and characters; they are genuinely enjoying the story. We will continue to read it together and will have writing responses as we progress through the end of the year.

Students will have their last one page response to independent reading due on Thursday, May 31. Please continue to encourage independent nightly reading, even in these warm, summer-like evenings!

7th Grade Social Studies

Students are working on a written report centered on one of the many individuals our textbook names as playing an important role in the civil and women's rights movements of the mid-1800s. The hope is that students will have a more in-depth appreciation for the struggles and successes of the pioneers of both movements during the age of reform based on a more rigorous study of one individual. The papers were assigned with very clear written instructions, will take the place of a chapter 14 test, and are due on Tuesday, May 8.  We will then share what we've learned and move forward in history, marching ever closer to the Civil War.

7th Grade Language Arts and Reading

It's difficult to fathom that May is upon us, and that, according to many reliable sources in the seventh grade, there are 25 school days left until summer vacation!  In an effort to make good use of the time we have left, we have been busily working on research and prewriting activities for the persuasive writing piece that will carry us into the end of the year. Each student was required to choose a topic or issue from a brainstormed list of many, then choose an aspect of that issue they's like to see solved. Some examples included cancer, obesity, natural disasters, and peer pressure. They also needed to find a charitable organization that serves a community with efforts to educate or otherwise help ease the suffering caused by the chosen issue. Some of the statistics are shocking, but the kids are learning so many ways to help those who need it. More importantly, they are sharing the information with one another. Students will work through a persuasive essay with a more formal structure than they have used in the past in an effort to convince an audience that a donation of time and/or money is necessary to combat the problem in society. It is an in-class assignment.

We have started our final seventh grade class read aloud, To Kill a Mockingbird. While it is a challenging book, our class discussions of the colorful characters, integral themes, and difficult vocabulary are extremely helpful to a solid understanding of the book's content. If your child is absent, please encourage them to read one chapter per missed day and come back with questions. I am happy to spend a few minutes, or as long as it takes, to get them caught up upon their return. The book is a favorite of mine and as such would like their first experience with the book to be a positive one; being lost and confused is not the goal. They will have reading comprehension checks along the way and a final written response when we finish. As a culmination of the study in June, we will view the 1962 Hollywood version of the book. It also happens to be the 50th anniversary of the film.

As always, please continue to encourage nightly reading!

 

7th Grade Social Studies

This week we began reading and discussing the four decades preceding the Civil War. The time of rapid economic growth, political conflict, and territorial expansion was instrumental in dividing the nation and its people along geographic lines.  This week students will discuss the innovations in industry, travel, and communications that changed the lives of Americans in the 1800s as well as the impact of immigration on cities, industry, and culture in the North.

Students have an article of the week assignment on immigration due this Thursday, April 19.

7th Grade Language Arts and Reading

I hope everyone enjoyed a bit of quiet and relaxation over the well-deserved break.

This week students were introduced to the concept of persuasion. Each student analyzed a time they tried to persuade one or both parents into buying or allowing something they wanted. We then discussed elements of successful persuasion which some were dismayed to learn does not include "everybody's doing it" or "everybody has one!" They will learn the basic structure for a persuasive paragraph and choose a topic or issue from a lengthy list to formulate their own. In addition, we will begin prewriting activities for a persuasive essay that will be assigned in the coming weeks.

Over the past few weeks I have opened class on Monday with a freewriting activity, asking each student to recall one event or experience from the previous weekend and write two single-spaced pages relaying the memory. I am pleased with the attention to grammar rules and separation of ideas into paragraphs that most are remembering to use, as well as having a blast reading about your kids' lives outside these four classroom walls. It is an exercise in planning, creativity, descriptive writing, attention to detail, and has most students willing to write even more than the two required pages. In this case, encouragement to share experiences and ideas breeds enthusiasm for writing. 

Students set fourth quarter goals for themselves just before we headed into the spring vacation. Each student is required, as set forth in August, to read a minimum of forty books during their seventh grade year. We took an inventory of our progress and determined that some students need to dedicate more time to the nightly reading than they have in previous quarters. Some set goals for at least 45 - 60 minutes of reading per night, while others aim to bump up their weekend reading time. I encourage you to ask your student about their goals and how they plan to meet them in the coming weeks. I also ask that you remind, when necessary, that they have a standing reading homework assignment of thirty minutes each evening. Thank you for your continued support.

 

 

7th Grade Language Arts and Reading

The end of third quarter is in sight: Friday, March 30.

With that in mind, any student with a current B or below in Reading class is eligible for some extra credit work, due Thursday, March 29. The 20 point assignment was presented to students this week with the added instruction that "extra" credit requires extra effort. Points will not be awarded for simply completing the assignment; it must be quality work: organized, revised, edited, and reread before being turned in. It is not required, but is optional for those who wish to accept the challenge.

We finished a short unit on newspaper articles this week, and all seemed to enjoy the experience. Topics ranged from homework to African travel to Marlins baseball. The products of the students' labor are displayed in the middle school foyer and have amused and informed all who have stopped to read them.

Next up is another short unit, this one on ode poetry. April is National Poetry Month, and we will be celebrating by using wit and wisdom to bestow praise on an object that wouldn't be necessarily considered praiseworthy. After the spring break we will delve into the persuasive writing project that will carry us into the end of the year.

7th Grade Social Studies

As we head into the last week of Constitution study, there is only one piece of information I need to share:

The United States Constitution test will be on Monday, March 12.

The test date was originally planned for Friday, but the democratic majority determined that students want the extra weekend days to prepare. The test will be a combination of 100 true/false, matching, multiple choice, and fill in the blank responses. The blue workbook is an excellent source for studying as ALL test questions come from the book. We will finish up the last few pages on Monday and spend the rest of the week reviewing in the form of quizzes, study guides, and games. While I firmly believe that all students are or will be prepared and will pass with flying colors, those who may not will take it until they do so to satisfy the state requirement.

7th Grade Language Arts and Reading

Students are working on a final revision of their memoir writing project, due this Friday, March 9. They were a joy to read, and I look forward to sharing them at Spring conferences.

This week we will begin a short  unit on newspaper article writing. Students will become familiar with the who, what, where, when, and why of a news article by first reading and analyzing a newspaper and then by working through the process of observing, interviewing, writing, and editing a their own short news article. The process should result in our very own 7th grade newsletter, available near the end of March.  Please keep your old newspapers as your children will be looking for one this week! If you don't subscribe to any, please pick one up from a newsstand before Tuesday afternoon. Thank you for your help.

In working our way through Mississippi Trial, 1955, we have been paying close attention to the news articles in the novel that inform the local citizens of the events, witness accounts, and progress in the trial involving Emmett Till's murder.  Some students have been struggling with the reading comprehension questions assigned for the book's chapters. The assignments average 75% comprehension and 25% interpretation. All students have a reading guide glued into their composition books to help guide them through the chapters' main ideas and important details. We will finish the read aloud this week, and students will have a final essay project to complete for March 19th.  Students with a B- or below in reading will have an opportunity for third quarter extra credit after that date.

Upon finishing the novel, we will be viewing a PBS documentary which highlights the details of the case, uses actual footage and interviews of the people involved, and discusses the events that followed and progression of civil rights through the South after 1955.  Included in this production is a graphic visual of Emmett Till's face after he was pulled from the river he was dumped into following his murder. The graphic is blurry and grainy, but I will warn the class that it is gruesome and allow them to put their heads down or look away when it is shown on the screen. The reality is that racism in this country was ugly and vicious. We have been discussing this fact in our novel responses as well as our social studies discussions of Martin Luther King Jr.  Last year's class was stunned at the brutality of the murder of a fourteen-year-old boy, but the image simply solidified their contempt for the murderers.  If there are any concerns, please let me know.

7th Grade Social Studies

Students continue to work their way through the Constitution workbook and are currently learning about the legislative branch of the federal government. They are surprised by many of the facts shared including, but not limited to: the salaries of the members of Congress and the president, the unlimited number of years Supreme Court justices and congress people can serve, and the requirements for holding those positions. Ask your student to recall the names of the Illinois Senators and their US representative for Wilmette. I hope they can impress you. There is a lot of information to digest and understand; in an effort to make it more appealing, we spend a lot of time in discussion about the hows and whys of the facts listed in the workbook. Today I showed my age and some viewed "School House Rock" episodes on the Consitution and how a bill becomes a law ("Oh I'm only a bill, and I'm sitting here on Capitol Hill"). They were not nearly as entertained as I hoped, but a little reinforcement of the text pages was helpful. The reality is it is taking a bit longer than originally thought to complete the required elements. Our test date is still undetermined, but is within reach.

Their article of the week this week deals with religion and politics. It is taken from a Scholastic magazine for students and is written more to their level than either of the last two week's assignments. I like to challenge them to come to me, or you, and ask questions and instigate conversations about the issues. They may or may not have questions this week, but I look forward each week to the Friday discussions.