Gretchen Buis - Language Arts

For the eights, March brings the conclusion of Great Expectations and Macbeth and the beginning of term papers.  The sevens are reading Anne Frank and the sixes, short stories.  All 3 classes are working in vocabulary workbooks and grammar textbooks. On Friday, March 5, the sixes will be  presenting  Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech following the 8:30 Mass at St. Benedict's.  All families are certainly welcome both to the Mass and the  short presentation.   

Somehow the last 3 weeks have been a bit chaotic.  Diversion, however, is fun and other than exams, I hope students have enjoyed themselves.  I will send home exams if parents would like to see them.  Please sign and return them.  The exams were a combination of "givens," questions students knew would be on the exam (approximately 60%) and essays which involved character, plot, setting, and theme which are the components (thanks to Aristotle) of our literary discussions.  In between spirit days, and snow days, we have returned to Dickens for the eights.

Hopefully, this week we will finish the short story sections we have been work in on in all three classes.  Vocabulary tests are also on the agenda.  After break, we will look to Greek mythology in the sixth and seventh grades and Homer's The Odyssey in the eighth grade.  I would also like to read Tom Sawyer and Tuck Everlasting in the seventh grade and Dickens's The Christmas Carol in the sixth grade.  Most importantly right now, I hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving.   

Just a note as we move into the  second grading period.  I think we are all ready to take a break from grammar for awhile and move into short  stories.  Both the sevens and eights have been given several of the short stories we will read over the next few weeks.  The sixes will also be working with short stories beginning next week.  We will continue working with vocabulary and reading comprehension passages.  Writing will be incorporated via written responses to literature.  The approach to literary discussions will be premised on character, plot, setting, and theme.

Today's entry is a short one summarizing this week as one of review especially in terms of grammar and vocabulary.  The objective with the vocabulary is to  turn these "memory" words into every day words. Families can help a lot by checking the words and then using them with your son or daughter in every day conversation.  The goal in grammar is to write precise, grammatically correct sentences.  In literature, we continue to consider works in terms of character, plot, setting, theme.

In preparation for Parent's Night Tuesday, students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades posted in the classroom assignments related to a "Who Am I" theme.  The sixes chose both to walk in and not walk in someone's shoes (the theme of Walk Two Moons: not fair judging someone until one has walked in his shoes). The sevens compiled a list of fun, light questions that by answering would introduce themselves.

 The Middle Schoolers are doing a wonderful job!  Thank you to all.  Last week in English we were getting straight logistically: English notebook, paper, tabs, inkpens, composition book.  Books will include new vocabulary workbooks, sixth and seventh grade Terra Nova comprehension workbbooks, grammar texts, and literature texts.  This week's writing assignment will be "Who Am I" types of writing which will be posted in the classroom for Parent's Night.  We will also begin work with the first lesson in the vocabulary workbook, preview the "Approach to Writing"  in the gramma

Have a safe, happy, relaxing, wonderful time.  Remember: "Stay gold."

Now that exams are behind us, this week, at least from an English standpoint, is intended to be a relaxing week focusing on jumpstarting summer reading.  The rising eights will be reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Animal Farm, and the first part of A Midsummer's Night Dream.  Rising sevens will begin Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry.  Though there is no assigned written work for summer reading, please remember that class assignments the first few weeks of school in September will be predicated on summer reading.  If students wait until September to do the reading, catching up becomes difficult.