If you haven’t read the book yet, be sure you do before the movie comes out!

We made it. All the semester exams are over. School is out for two weeks and we all get to enjoy Christmas. I am flying to Washington state to spend Christmas with my daughter, son-in-law, and three grandchildren. I can’t wait to bake the cookies and decorate the gingerbread house. I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas break. See you all next year.

Today we reviewed poets and mytholody. Today was the last day to turn in writing and to get AR points. It was a close race again, going down to the final hours. Two students from 4th period broke the tie resulting in 4th period winning the AR party for this grading period. Congradulations!

What a day! We had book talks by students in every class period. Nineteen books were covered, some more than once. Among the list of talked about books were both familuar titles and a couple of new titles. Several series were promoted by student readers: The Harry Potter Series, The Shadow Children Series, The Maxium Ride Series, Houns and Me and of course The Twilight Series. A few of the individual titles recommended by students included: Blind Faith, Lilys Crossing, Touching Spirit Bear, Eldest, Everlost, Crush, Abarat, Nothing But the Truth, The Sign of the Beaver, Vladimir Tod and Paint the Wind.

We also reviewed craft and literary terms and genre today. Study guides are due tomorrow.

Today we began to review all 37 of the root words from the first semester. Those root word cards came in handy. We played Jeopardy for extra credit points and it seems that most of the 7th graders know their root words pretty well. Remember, tomorrow we move on to the craft review. Study your craft folders and be able to pick out examples.

Today was a very good day, several students started posting comments on our blog. I love hearing what you are thinking. Keep the comments going.

Today we graded our English binders using the rubric presented to each student earlier this week. There were 56 possible points for the final binder check. After finishing with the binders, we had our final Writing Workshop Day for this semester. That means that there will be no additional class writing time for students to finish any of the three writing assignments required for this grading period. All writing must be turned in by next Wednesday, so if you haven’t finished all of your writing, you will have to do the work as homework.

Writer-Reader’s Notebooks due tomorrow.

Today, Mrs. Bragg talked to all of the 7th graders about what to expect in the next few years of their schooling, college options and careers.

Today was a good day in class. We talked about several good books.

Also all of the 7th grade students were given three very important
handout today.

1) The rubric for their final semester points for both their English Binders and
Writer-Reader’s notebooks. (This is a blue handout.) All of these points are for
simply keeping their binder and notebook up to date. There are no cognitive
requirements to receive all of these points. Anyone who has listened in class and
participated by doing or coping down the information as we went along will have
what they need to earn all of these points. Binders will be due this Thursday.
Notebooks with this week’s homework will be due this Friday.

2) A print out of all the AR quizzes taken this grading period. This is information
needed to complete the binder and notebook requirements. 

3) Semester exam study guide. (This is a salmon colored handout.) Answers to
every question on the study guide can be found in one of three sources:Craft
Folder, English Binder, or W-R’s Notebook.  This handout covers all of the possible information for the semester exam.

The race is on! We did a top 10 countdown of the students who have earned the most AR points this grading period and started the graphing of class percentage of students who have earned all 25 AR points for this grading period.

I took advantage of the book fair. There are several new books available on the shelves in our in class library. Check them out.

STORMBREAKER
by Anthony Horowitz
illustrated by John Blackford
Philomel
ISBN: 0399236201
Ages 10-up
208 pages

Fourteen-year-old Alex has always been told that his uncle was killed in a car accident. But Alex starts to unravel the mysterious truth when he discovers that his uncles windshield was riddled with bullet holes. As Alex ventures deeper into his uncle’s secret life, he finds himself running from terrorists and working for the government. Can he handle the mission? The fate of England depends on it.