Off to a Great Start

We have finished our PBIS activities that reviewed our Panther Paw Laws (Safe, Responsible, Respectful and Positive).  This has allowed us all to develop a common language of expectations and behaviors at North Middle.  Today we began getting into the Communication Skills Curriculum beginning with pre-writing.  Students have begun their writer's notebooks and should have one entry at least.  If your child does not yet have a composition notebook or a spiral notebook exclusively for my class, they will need that as soon as possible. 

As we are beginning our pre-writing activities, students have been asked to create a collage at home tonight.  This collage should include images that represent who the student is.  These can be printed, drawn, cut and pasted from magazines or stickers.  They should be no bigger than 8 1/2 by 11.  Once the student has chosen their collage images, they should explain, in writing, why they chose each image.  These are due tomorrow, 8/18/11. 

In class today we practiced this activity a bit by making name tags.  However, we did not get a chance to finish these.  Students were given a choice, they could do double homework and finish these at home, or they could finish them in lieu of their quick write tomorrow.  For those who chose the double homework, here is the link to the directions and scoring guide:  https://acrobat.com/#d=ektP6Spoqmbx0*jS5d3-aA 

All of my students seem to be adjusting well to seventh grade.  Not too many locker issues and all of them getting to class in plenty of time!  I am very impressed with them all and am looking forward to a fantastic year.

REMINDERS:

Book Fair Tomorrow

We are beginning our unit on narratives and kids will be writing their first piece before Labor Day.

Welcome Back

I had a wonderfully relaxing summer.  Did some travelling, studying, reading and lots of writing.  I am very excited to get back in the classroom though.  This year, I have been given the opportunity to participate in a study conducted by our own Mr. Wren.  I will be teaching one class of all girls, one of all boys and one class that is mixed.  We will be observing the differences in their learning styles and providing lessons that will fit those styles.  This is a very exciting opportunity for both me and the students.  Stay tuned for updates and articles relating to this adventure.

Students this year will again be utilizing blogs as a way to share their growth and showcase their writing talent.  If your child does not already have an e-mail address they will be needing one this year in order to create the account on Blogger.  If you  and your child would like to make their blog over the next week please feel free to do so.  We will have a day that we make them in class, but this day is generally hectic, so making the blog at home may be easier.  To make the blog, students need to go to Blogger.com and follow the direction for making a new blog.  If they make it early, I would appreciate and email that tells me the blog address so I can attach it to my blog.  This way all students will be represented on this blog.

Our first unit of study will be personal narratives.  Students will choose one event in their life and create an organized story, focusing on their word choice, voice and comma usage.  A scoring guide will be attached in a future post about this assignment.  Be sure to take some time to read the page about me and the page about this class (Welcome Letter).  If you have questions about any of the things we are doing in class, please ask.  You can e-mail me at cbenson@hazelwoodschools.org or comment on the blog. 

I look forward to working with your family this year as we support your child on their journey.

Mrs. Christine Benson

7th Grade Communication Arts

Hazelwood North Middle

Paul Harris Online: 30 Books Every Kid Should Read Before Graduating High School

I was attempting to work on a summer reading list for my students and I came across this blog post.  These are classic books and authors that are referred to often in text books, college, movies and on standardized tests.  Even if the work itself is not referred to, the vocabulary found in these books most definitely will be needed as the kids progress their education.  I will still continue my search for a summer reading list, more specific to middle school, but this information seemed too important to pass up.  Mrs. Benson

Paul Harris Online: 30 Books Every Kid Should Read Before Graduating H...: This list was inspired by a story about a high school teacher in Virginia who says that she doesn't have her students read "Catcher In The Rye" anymore, because she doesn't think it is relevant to their lives. I couldn't disagree more. It is the teacher's job to get the kids to relate to a great story. You don't have to have grown up on the Mississippi River to enjoy and learn from "Huck Finn," do you? Of course not. Here then, is a list of 30 classics that should be must-read for every American kid:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Alice In Wonderland

All Quiet On The Western Front

Black Like Me

Brave New World

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

Catcher In The Rye

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

Diary of Anne Frank

Fahrenheit 451

The Grapes of Wrath

The Great Gatsby

Gulliver’s Travels

The Hobbitt

Little Women

Lord Of The Flies

Lord Of The Rings

Moby Dick

Old Man & The Sea

Old Yeller

Oliver Twist

Pride & Prejudice

Robinson Crusoe

Romeo & Juliet

Roots

Tale Of Two Cities

To Kill A Mockingbird

Treasure Island

The Yearling

Multi-Genre Book Analysis

The kids have been reading whatever they wish all year and their only accountability has been recording their pages read.  In class, we have been studying the elements that make up all pieces of literature and we have been responding to those elements.  Did you know that every novel has multiple conflicts and it is through those conflicts we learn lessons that are called themes?  The kids have learned this and have practiced how to explain the conflicts in writing and express what themes were learned from them.  Did you also know that the words an author chooses, creates the mood of the book (or at least for a certain part of a book)?  In class, we went through poems and noted the moods we felt.  We then indicated what words gave us those feelings.  This process helped us decide what the poem meant and how the poet felt about that topic.  Point of view, flashback and plot structure were also studied as well.

Students have been asked to demonstrate their understanding of these elements through a project.  Students are to generate five texts, each one representing a different part of their book (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution).  they should partner each of the stages of plot with one of the elements we have studied in order to show they understand how the author has used them.

There are examples of these on the left hand side of the blog under Tom Romano, Multi-Genre.  There is a great deal of info there to go through and the samples take forever to load, but it is helpful to check it out. 

Projects are due on March 31st and can be turned in on the blog, through e-mail or in class.  Below is a link with directions and a scoring guide.


Multi-Genre book Project Scoring guide

Reading Update

The kids have been challenged to beat me at pages read.  As of now, I have read approximately 2200 pages.  I am sharing book trailers with the kids of the books I am reading, so they have an idea of the variety of books that are out there.  Here are some of the trailers we have seen so far.  The first one is from the Book Thief.  This is an excellent book about how reading helps us escape our struggles and survive hard times.  It is set in World War II Germany and is told in 3rd person omniscient from the point of view of Death.  The first few chapters can be a bit confusing at first, so give yourself some time to start the book.  After that, it is a great read.  The second video is the Official movie trailer for The Book Thief.

The last book trailer is from Fallen by Lauren Kate.  This book is another love triangle style book that fits the Twilight formula and the first in a series of four.  I did not particularly like the writing style of this author, as I felt she skipped big chunks of time.  Overall though it is a good story.  The main character, Luce, has been sentenced to reform school after being suspected in a suspicious fire that resulted in the death of a friend.  At reform school, she meets several fellow students and connects with them quickly since they are all there due to some sort of injustice.  In fact, she feels a very strong connection to Daniel who regards her in very confusing ways.  At times he seems repulsed by her and tries to keep a distance and at others he is very kind and tender, as if they have known each other for a long time.  The problems begin when Cam, another boy at the school gives her a necklace and asks her out time and again.  Which boy will she choose?  Will she ever escape the shadows that haunt her?  Will the mysterious behaviors Luce keeps observing ever be explained?  Not until a long battle rooted in history can be fought.

Gettin' Fluent

My AE kiddos are working on their reading fluency.  I initially had them participating in repeated partner readings with short, teacher selected texts.  A few of the students began creating beats on their desks as they read and they said it helped them read it faster and smoother.  More kids began to try it and they asked if they could read something different.  I rode with their enthusiasm and gave them a few guidelines they had to follow. 

Students piled through poetry anthologies and other books with poetic rhythm, looking for that magical piece.  Once they found a poem they loved, they read it alone, in pairs and/or with Mrs. Benson so they could get the feedback they needed in order to read the poem fluently and with emphasis in the right places.  Students learned how to read the pauses and listen to the beat or rhythm of the poems.

Once they had it, they went to the website, Incredibox.fr and built their own beat to go with their poem.  Once they were confident they had practiced enough, students performed these "Poetry Raps" in front of the class.  This has been an amazing experience for all of us.  We have really bonded and laughed and grown as readers.  I have one example here and there will be more to come. 

Please leave Mel'Vontae some feedback and/or congratulations (as he volunteered to go first and be videoed) here on the blog. 

New Year, New Way of Learning

With the return of the students comes new goals, new challenges, new celebrations.  Now that we have taken the Tungsten test four times, we have very solid data on our individual strengths and weaknesses.  We will be shifting the ownership and responsibility of our learning from Mrs. Benson to the students now that we have this data.  Beginning with a few days each week, students will be working in learning centers that will allow them to focus on their own weaknesses and build up their skills in those areas.  Think of it like circuit training at the gym.  If you want to build up your arms, you don't use a leg press machine.  It is the same thing in Communication Skills class.  If you want to build up your use and understanding of figurative language, you don't do it by studying non-fiction. 

Students have analyzed their own Tungsten data and identified their three lowest areas.  Next week, we will set goals for improvement in those areas and students will begin working in the stations that are designed to strengthen those areas.  Students will also be getting individualized homework, if necessary, to assist them in these areas as well.  Running and supervising stations is going to be a bit challenging at first as we all get used to it.  If there are any parents who would be interested in hanging out and helping kids in the stations, that would be awesome.

The other days of the week, we will be working on analyzing literary elements in texts.  Students will be looking at the plot, point of view, conflict, theme, mood, and flashbacks of texts and analyzing how these elements influence the characters in the story.  You may hear your students talking a great deal about heroes as we will be using this theme as a common thread in the texts.  This is a large unit of study that will require a lot of reading and analysis work. 

While all of these great things are going on, the kids will continue to study vocabulary.  We still have something like 80 words left to learn.  Wish us luck!  I know that I am excited to be done with school, as I can focus more intently on teaching, but I am not so sure the kids will be.  I will be pushing them rather hard the rest of the year.