Today we covered what Cooperative Learning Groups are and had our first group work session. Everyone received a rubric. (A rubric is a scoring tool that tells everyone exactly what they have to do to get certain point levels on an assignment) Our rubric today was our Literature Circle Assessment Rubric and is how we will grade each others efforts in our cooperative learning groups. To get all your points someone must:
Participate enthusiastically in group discussions. Offer insightful and thoughtful opinions and make pertinent connections to the text.
Complete all the role tasks for the role they are assigned independently and on time. Their tasks must be thoughtfully done demonstrating extension of the activity.
Complete all of the assigned reading on schedule.

Mrs. Scales gave each group a packet with a role assignment for each person in the group and a sheet that the whole group works on together to review craft. Craft is something that we are all familiar with because Mrs. Milliner did such a fantastic job teaching us craft last year. We all know that an author’s craft is the literary devices that they use to make their writing good. In our groups today we reviewed Simile and Metaphor and found examples of both in the books we are reading. We reviewed the definitions and examples as a whole class.

Simile
Comparing two unlike things using the words like or as. Used to create imagery and to compare the subject of the simile to something else in an interesting way.
Example: He ran like the wind. She was as pretty as a rose. From The Call of the Wild with a roar that was almost lionlike (15) or the Narwhal crossed Queen Charlotte Sound and rolled and pitched and bucked like a thing possessed. (p20) or It bit like fire. (p21) From Tuck Everlasting would have trembled on its axis like a beetle on a pin. (p8)

Metaphor
Comparing two unlike things without using like or as. Also used to create imagery and to compare the subject of the metaphor to something else in an interesting way. Example: The boy was a tornado destroying everything in his path. From The Call of the Wild Buck was truly a red-eyed devil (p14) From Tuck Everlasting and by far the best example of the day… a potato of a woman. When Mrs. Scales held her arms out big and round and kind of shook her whole body as she repeated, “a potato of a woman” Gray began laughing so hard that his face turned red and he couldn’t catch his breath.

We didn’t actually do it today, but Mrs. Scales explained that the next step will be to look at our own writing and find places to add both simile and metaphor to it. We will look for ways to incorporate each specific form of craft into our own writing.

Our root word for today was geo. Like all of the other roots we have had so far, geo is Greek. Geo means earth, soil, or ground. We had the following example words:
geography – the written record or science of the earth and its life.
geothermal – we know geo is earth and we will have the root therm soon and it means heat so geothermal means heat coming from the earth.
geometry – is a math class that studies the measurements of the earth like in angles and such.

Mrs. Scales also gave us a little lecture today about using the information she had given us. We had to pull our class syllabus paper out and read some of the technology use information on the back. We were all reminded of the following:

Our blog exists as a public space on the Internet. When you put something on the Internet, odds are really good that it will ALWAYS stay on the Internet. If you are not careful about what you write, what you write now could come back to haunt you in the future.
In order to preserve your personal privacy and safey it is important that the following procedures are followed when posting comments:
• Only use your first name and last initial (joaquin a)
• Never post any personal information (phone numbers, home addresses, IM screen names etc.)
When posting comments observe the following protocol:
• Use proper English (check over your post for spelling errors, grammar errors, and your use of words).
• Refrain from using text language and shortcuts
• Respect other opinions and use sentence starters such as, I respectfully disagree, you make a good point, I support…………. Never disrespect anyone or anything in your blog posts. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a person, an organization, or just a general idea. When you write your opinion on a topic, you don’t want someone making a stab at what you are passionate about. So, don’t do it to someone else. Try your best to make sure you’re not going to offend anyone in your posts.
• Don’t write about other people without permission; if you can’t get their permission, use first names or initials only. Never share someone elses last name.
• Make sure things you write about are factual. Link to your sources. But never link to something you haven’t read and understood completely. When you link to something, make sure it is something that you really want to be associated with.
• Be aware of copyright — especially with sounds and images. Make sure what you use is copyright free !! (Just because you find it on the internet does not mean you are free to use it without permission !!)
• Keep it education-oriented. Stick to tasks set in class. Unless it pertains to the assignment, stay away from discussing plans for the weekend, general rambling, or diary entries about nothing. Chances are your responses to class tasks will usually be far more interesting!!
Any profane language or postings that are inappropriate will result in disciplinary action. These blogs are for academic purposes so please respect our intentions.

Today we had to turn in our first revision of our first writing assignment as we entered the classroom. Some students had already turned theirs in, but there were lots of us who had to do it today. Mrs. Scales reminded us that she had told us on Friday and written in the blog that we had to have it ready when we came to class and that we would not have more time to work on it during class. Almost everyone had it ready. There were just a few who had to have some extra time, but Mrs. Scales said that this was the last time she is not taking points off for not following directions and having it ready on time.

We learned about Expository Writing today. These blogs are examples of expository writing because they are written for the purpose of informing or explaining something to someone. All expository writing is for one of those two purposes: informing or explaining. The way to know if something is a good example of expository writing is to ask yourself the following questions:

Has the most important information been collected?
Has the reader’s questions been predicted and answered?
Is there enough detail to thoroughly inform the reader?
Does it teach the reader something new?
Have unusual words or terms been explained?

We looked at different blog entries to see if they were good examples of expository writing.

Mrs. Scales gave us each a tally sheet to keep track of our Classroom Community points for this grading period. We each need 25 points each grading period but we can choose how we earn those points. Everyday now someone will be assigned as the daily logger. They have to take notes during class and turn a log into Mrs. Scales by the end of 6th period the day they are assigned as the logger. If Mrs. Scales uses their log as the daily blog, then they get to add 5 points to their Classroom Community points. Conner is assigned to log for first period tomorrow, Robert for second period, and Andrew and Zach volunteered for fourth and sixth period respectfully. (respectfully means in that same order, so Andrew volunteered for fourth period and Zach for sixth period).

We also learned that the Master-at-Arms is the person who answers the phone and takes care of anyone who comes to the door. The Master-at-Arms has to do the job for the full month. When they answer the phone they have to say, “Mrs. Scales’ room, student speaking. How may I help you?”

The other classroom community job that last for a month has to do with our computers. There will be three tech team members in each period. They have to be the people to help other students when they have a problem with their computer. You have to be someone who doesn’t normally have computer issues to get this job.

Our root word for today was micro, which means small. We had a lot of example words to chose from. Lot of the example words came from just putting two of the roots we have had so far together, such as microscope, microphone or microwave.

Everyone checked out the book they are reading for class, either The Call of the Wild or Tuck Everlasting. We have reading assignments from this week’s lesson plans and tomorrow we are starting to work in cooperative learning teams.

It’s hard to believe that we have finish another full week of school already, but when we look at all we have accomplished in just 11 days you have to feel good.

We took our first AR test as a whole class today. Nearly everyone earned the four points possible on the A Writer’s Notebook test. Three 7th graders have already earned all of the 25 AR points needed for this grading period and their stars are shining brightly on the board. Only two more, “Mama will be so proud of me” magnets available for this nine weeks.

We also finished all 18 questions on the Writer – Reader Survey we have been taking. On Monday everyone has to turn in their W-R’s notebook and Mrs. Scales will grade all of the 18 questions to make sure each one is a well-written response. She reminded us today that we have the bright yellow handout that explains what a well-written response is and we can have the weekend to check our work. She really wants us to get all of our points. She will also grade our three required homework entries on Monday.

If you haven’t already turned in your revised writing assignment that is do on the way into class on Monday.

Our root word today was the Greek root, scope, which means to view or examine as in telescope, miroscope, or periscope. We have had five root words now.

Book orders are due on Monday.

It has been said that all good things must come to an end. I don’t know if I actually believe that or not, but one good thing has come to an end for us. We finished reading Ralph Fletcher’s book, A Writer’s Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You. Tomorrow we will all take the AR quiz over the book, and Mrs. Scales made it pretty clear that she expects each of us to earn all four of the possible AR points for this book. We have reviewed the book and shared how many of the suggestions from the book have already helped us better understand how to use our own W-R’s notebooks, so the AR test should be a piece of cake.

Our root word for today was graph or gram, which means to write or something written. Everyone seems to be doing pretty well with our root word procedures.

We had most of the class period today to work on our revisions. Some of the students finished and turned in their work. Mrs. Scales reminded us that the revision is due no later than the start of class on Monday and that we must staple the revised copy to the top of our first draft. She reviewed again exactly how our header needs to look.

Today everyone got back their first draft of their first writing assignment. We talked about revision and what revision is and what it isn’t.

Revision is making big changes to our writing, adding, rearranging, or deleting parts. Revision is NOT fixing the spelling, grammar or capitalization, that comes in the editing step.

We got into pairs and read each others first drafts. Then Mrs. Scales walked us through the four big questions to ask when having a revision conference with someone:

1) What’s the best part?
2) What do you want more of?
3) What is fuzzy?
4) What do you want less of?

We have a red handout in the Writing section of our English binders that offers more specific questions under each of the four big questions. We talked to each other about our writing how we might want to make revisions. Mrs. Scales reminded us, “It’s not the reader’s job to tell the writer how to fix or change the writing. The writer wrote it: the writer should decide how to make the changes. However, using these four big questions can help strengthen the conversation between reader and writer.”

We did our third root word today: peri
Peri is a Greek root word and it means around or near. We had several example words to pick from:
periscope
perimeter
perigon
period
After we made our root word card, we all put the root peri in our light green glossaries in our English binders.

Mrs. Scales reminded us to finish reading the book A Writer’s Notebook because tomorrow we will have another quiz and then on Friday we all take the AR test. She expects us each to earn the full 4 AR point for this book.

Today was our first BookTalk Tuesday. Mrs. Scales modeled two different types of booktalks that we could do. She read her W-R’s notebook entry from last June when she read Ruined by Paula Morris. You can read her entry and watch book trailers on the BookTalk Tuesday page of this blog. She also showed us what a purposefully direct discussion about a book might look like as a BookTalk by talking about by Stephanie Meyers. BookTalks are one of the ways we can earn out required Classroom Commuinity Participation points each grading period. Mrs. Scales said she will do one more BookTalk next Tuesday and then it will be our turn.

We also took our first quiz on moodle today. It was as much a practice on how to get into moodle and take a quiz as it was a test over the book we are reading, A Writer’s Notebook. We will be doing alot on moodle so it is important that everyone knows how to use it.

Finally, we learned how we will do our Root Word Study this year. Mrs. Scales read to us from our bright orange handout and explained that we will write a root word card and log the root word in our light green glossary for each new root word. Our first root word was tele, which means far away. We did our root card for tele just like the example pictured on our bright orange handouts. Then we practiced by doing our second root word, phono, which means sound or voice.

Today we put our English binders together. Mrs. Scales has her own English binder that will always be kept up to date, so anyone who misses a day or gets confused on where handouts go can look at hers. Unless someone else is using her binder it will be on the red crate in front of her desk.

The order of the binder so far is as follows:

Name on Front and Spine
Your Guide To Getting The Most Out of Mrs. Scales’ Room Blog
Syllabus / Technology Use (2 page red)
Well – Written Responses / Assignment Format (bright yellow)
Writing / Composition Divider
Revision Cards (red)
Student Instructions for drawing Mr. Stick (2 page goldenrod)
Reading / Literature Divider
Grading Period Genre Wheels (white)
Any Finished AR Summaries
Poetry Divider
Mythology Divider
Words / Vocabulary Divider
Root Word Study and Procedures (bright orange)
7th Grade Language Arts Glossary (3 pages pale green)
Document Protector

Everyone practiced logging into moodle today. We reviewed the lesson plan and answered three more Writer – Reader Survey Questions (6, 7, & 8).
Mrs. Scales reminded us that once we finish all of the survey questions she will pick up our W-R’s notebooks and grade the well-written responses.
We read chapter 7 of A Writer’s Notebook and Mrs. Scales reminded us that we will have a quiz tomorrow.

We have a homework assignment to make three entries in our W-R’s notebook response section this week. We can write the three entries any time, about anything, but they must be at least 1/2 page long and have the date written and a big H beside each entry.

We didn’t have enough time to get started on our Root Word Study today, so tomorrow we will do the first two words.

I am so pround of my 7th graders this year. Friday was such a good day in class. I was able to give almost everyone all of their participation points because they had all of their writier’s notebook entries done and in the correct sections of their notebooks. Only a few people lost some points but and we got them all straightened out so that they could correct their notebooks before Monday.

We also distributed moodle usernames and passwords. Review the class sylabus handed out earlier to understand what we use moodle for and be ready to view the lesson plans on moodle beginning Monday.

Star Reading Parent Letters were also printed. All sixth period students were given their letter to take home to parents this weekend. All other periods will recieve their letters to bring home on Monday.

News Flash – Irksome really is a word. Just so everyone knows that.

Everyone in 7th grade took the STAR Reading test today. Only one person was absent and one person had trouble getting into the program, but other than those two people, all of the 7th graders are done with taking first STAR Reading test. Mrs. Scales will be printing letters for our parents on how our beginning of the year reading levels are.

We read chapter 4 of A Writer’s Notebook today and made another entry. Tomorrow we can get participation points if we come to class prepared. That means coming into class with:
Our English Binders
Our W-R’s Notebooks (with 5 entries in the Response section and well-written responses for the first 5 questions of our Writer’s – Reader’s Survey in the Notes section)
The book A Writer’s Notebook
And something to write with.

Easy points – everyone should be getting an A in English right now.

Mrs. Scales also reminded us that anyone who did not get their first writing assignment draft turned in yesterday needs to get it in to her before Friday. We are going to work on them again next week and she wants to read all of them over the weekend.

Open House is tonight and Mrs. Scales said that she hopes to see all of us there with our parents.

Today was another awsome day in English class. We all used our computers to read yesterday’s blog and looked back at the weekly lesson plans for our quick write. We are still working on Well-Written Responses to a Writng / Reading Survey. We have answered numbers one through five now. Mrs. Scales keep reminding us that our well-written responses to the survey questions go in the Notes section of our W-R’s notebooks.

Today we used the back side of the bright yellow handout on Well-Written Responses. We learned about how to set up the header at the top of all of our assignments and the format that we should use for all of our assignments.

Name
Course & Period
Date

Assignment Format

• Work must be neat and legible.
• Use pencil, blue or black ink only.
• Staple multiple pages once only in top left hand corner.
• When a rubric has been provided it must be stapled as the last page of the assignment.
• Write your title in the center of the first line. Do not underline your own title or place it in quotation marks. Skip a line between the title and the first line of the assignment.
• All typed assignments must be double spaced in 12 point Times New Roman font. Use of any other font for creative purposes must be approved by Mrs. Scales prior to the assignment being turned in.
• Indent all paragraphs five spaces or use block style with extra space between paragraphs. There is no space between indented paragraphs.
• All work being turned in must be headed as shown on example below.

We spent most of the class period working on our first draft of our first writing assignment. We had to pick a topic to write about from one of the three entries in our W-R’s notebook Response section. We talked about the five steps in the writing process:
Pre-Writing
Drafting
Revising
Editing
Publishing

The entries we have been doing in the Response section of our W-R’s notebook are our pre-writing. Now we are ready to begin the second step in the writing process, writing our first draft. Mrs. Scales explained that because this is our first draft we should focus on our ideas, voice, and organization. We will have plenty of time during the revision step to make changes and during the edit stage to fix errors. Mrs. Scales is excited to read our first pieces of writing.