Welcome to 7B Language Arts!

Welcome to our website, a place where you can visit to learn all of the important information about what is going on in our classroom and at school. I hope you are able to find everything that you need, keeping you informed of the procedures, events, and learning activities for the 2012-2013 school year. This year we will be working with the Common Core Standards for English Language Arts.  With these new standards, students will be encouraged to read different genres of texts and transfer their knowledge outside of the classroom and into the "real world".  Several types of technology will also be used to incorporate literacy. 

Weekly assignments for Language Arts and Advisory information will be listed below. To the right is information about me, classroom documents, and links to important pages we use in class. Please click on "calendar" to see upcoming assignments, projects, activities, tests, etc. 

By the end of this course, students will:

• Read with understanding and fluency.
• Read and understand literature representative of various societies, eras, and ideas.
• Write to communicate for a variety of purposes.
• Listen and speak effectively in a variety of situations.
• Use the Language Arts to acquire, access, and communicate information.

Do You Tweet? Students, follow me on Twitter at:

@MrsKateRyan

Assignments & Our Week Ahead

READ, READ, READ! All students have a book they've rented from the library. Students are also aware of their reading Lexile, so all books chosen should be on their level. 

7th grade Language Arts has completed our unit on Poetry and Expository Writing. When you get a chance, ask your son or daughter to show you the poems they've composed, the expository writing they did, their Poetry Google Doc, and their Summative Assessment. 

Next up in Language Arts is our Argumentative and Baseball Unit. Three different baseball-themed novels will be assigned and we'll focus our writing on argumentative writing. This unit is interdisciplinary connected, with a culminating Thing Link activity to conclude the unit. Throughout the unit students will summarize their novel through a Domo Animate, and BLOG on their Kid Blog account. 

Our essential questions for this unit are: What are the unique characteristics of argumentative writing? What makes a good argument? Does a country's passion for their sports define the people, culture, and belief system?

The Power Standards for this unit are: W.7.1, RI 7.3, SL 7.5. Our supporting standards for this unit are W.7.1a, W.7.1b, W.7.1c, W.7.1d, W.7.1e. Click here for a full list of the 7th grade Common Core State Standards. 

It is important that students transfer the skills and knowledge of what they learn in this unit to the real world. Students will be able to independently use their learning on a long-term basis to: *Research a topic of their choice to determine their point of view. *Write an essay which persuades a specific point of view while negating counterarguments. *Acknowledge a country's passion for their sports and discuss what defines them.

Monday, May 20th: Students will read their novels. Then we will revisit our Learnist Board and continue our online research on the nonfiction topic they chose. Presentations start this Friday. 

Tuesday, May 21st: Students will read their novels and work on their Thing Link. We need to connect our Kid Blog posts, Domo Animate, our nonfiction research, interviews, and argumentative essays. 

Wednesday, May 22nd: Students will finish their novels and work on their Thing Link. We need to connect our Kid Blog posts, Domo Animate, our nonfiction research, interviews, and argumentative essays. Our summative exam is tomorrow and presentations of our Thing Links start this Friday. 

Thursday, May 23rd: Today students use their research to compose their argumentative essay answering the prompt they chose. 

Friday, May 24th: Half Day. Students will still switch classes and begin presentations. 

Language Arts Dates: Novels must be completed by Wednesday, May 22. Argumentative Essay in class is Thursday, May 23rd. Thing Link presentations are Friday, May 24th and Tuesday, May 28th. 

Advisory Announcements:

Don't forget to work on your Community Service Hours.

Field Trip is Wednesday, May 29th

PTSA Field Day is Thursday, May 30th

Last Day of School is Tuesday, June 4th