Student Awards...

Every two weeks we come together for a Team Meeting with all students and teachers (at least we try to!). and give out awards, make announcements and recognize the hard work students are doing. I wanted to take a minute to let you know about the fine work Solstice Students have been doing and the awards they have received.  I apologize in advance, but I think there are a few recipients from the start of the year that may be missing. If so, please email me and I will add the name:

Student of the Month Awards
These are voted on by ALL four teachers. Names are published in the Newsletter.
       October:           Jonathan H & Jasmina J
       November:       Prince D & Rachel H
       December:        Robert S & Ena I

SOLSTICE Awards
These awards are also voted on by all four teachers and are given out at the end of each quarter. These awards are reserved for 8th graders and give 7th graders something to look forward to. Below are our recipients from Quarter 1:
           Scholar:                  Rachael D
           Optimist:                Brooke H
           Light Bulb:             Philip P.
           Sense of Humor:    Calvin B.
           Tenacious:             Amber D.
            Inquisitive:           Mabel P.
            Creativity:            Amila S.
            Enthusiasm:          Garrett H.

Citizen Awards:
These awards are decided by teachers and are given to a student who shows great citizenship within the classroom, school, or larger community. We have only had two recipients this year:
            Maddy D, Rory G,

Subject Awards:
These are given out by individual teachers every other time we meet:
       Science:              Gary F., Adje W.
       Social Studies:    Meagan W, Blaise R
        Math:                 Alyssa D, Fiona M, Cole V
       Language Arts:   Charlotte L, Tristan T, Taylor S

The Pearl - Quick Update

We started reading John Steinbeck's novel The Pearl last week. I chose this title for its rich description and beautiful writing. Today's young adult novels are often packed with action and mystery, but lack depth in writing. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Young Adult novels, but I wanted to give students an opportunity to see how using literary devices and figurative language can add to writing.

Throughout the novel we will:

• Discuss what is happening
• Analyze the story - character's actions - and use evidence to back up our ideas
• See how figurative language can add to writing (personification, onomatopoeia, simile, metaphor, etc)
• Keep track of the characters by using our character charts
• Write journal entries from a character's point of view

We are only on Chapter 2, so I will update more after the holiday.

Pre-Reading Activity - Google Docs & Google Sites

 Before beginning our reading of John Steinbeck's novella, The Pearl, students worked collaboratively on a pre-reading activity which involved the integration of technology and students as 21st Century learners!

With our new Gmail system, every Hunt Middle School student has a Google Account. Please note this is a secure account within the @bsd domain. This account allows students to email their teachers questions and use many of he Web 2.0 tools that require an email address. Additionally, it allows students to collaborate more on projects.

We started this project off  by spending a class period becoming familiar with Google Docs. To do this, we:

• Created a journal entry, which they shared (online) with me
• Drafted an email to me 
• Created a note taking graphic organizer within Google Docs  
• Students collaborated to research a pre-determined topic and create their online organizer. We had some trouble in Google Docs learning not to type over each other, but we're learning!

Students then created webpages to share their information with the rest of the team.

LINK to STUDENT WORK:
https://sites.google.com/a/bsdvt.org/solstice-la-the-pearl/


We discussed:

• Plagarism (not copying and pasting from the Internet), 
• How to cite our sources
• How to give credit to the pictures we use
• How to create a Works Cited page
• How to make the information on our site easy to read
• How to synthesize information and make sure we (and our reader) understand the information
• How to give constructive feedback to peers
• How to collaborate as a group

The webpages came out great and are full of information that will help students better understand the main character's culture and struggles. Students are now in the process of completing a scavenger hunt, where they use other students' sites to find the answers!!

Check out the student work!! Click the below link which will take you to my site. Here you can get an overview of the project, see how students were assessed and take a peek at the guiding questions they had to answer.

On the bottom left of my page you'll see links to student work. Just click on your student's topic (or take a guess). This will take you to the groups that researched that topic. I have names on this page.

Please know that the site is normally only open to persons with an @bsd email account. However, in order to allow access to parents the settings are open to anyone with the link. So, feel free to share the below link with grandparents, aunts, uncles, whomever you want to share your students work with!! Just copy and paste it!

LINK to STUDENT WORK:
https://sites.google.com/a/bsdvt.org/solstice-la-the-pearl/

Thanks for checking out our hard work!!

Saying Goodbye to Ms. Belofsky...

Friday December 2 was Ms. Belofsky's last day with us in the classroom. We will miss her infectious spirit and caring nature. Luckily, she will be back next semester, one day a week, while she finishes up her senior year at Saint Mikes. We will miss her!!!!!

Good Luck Ms. Belofsky!!!!

Mood...

Students just finished studying Mood within short stories. I started the unit by reading and discussing an adapted version of The Tell Tale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe. Students really enjoyed the spookiness of the story. I also used this as an opportunity to teach some reading comprehension by having them complete questions. The last of the questions allowed students to re-write the ending of the story from the point of view of a policeman or the old man (who gets killed). While some students struggled with the creative writing aspect of this task, it allowed students to become familiar with creative story writing, which is something we'll spend some time on this year.

Ms. Belofsky finished up the unit with lessons she created for her solo week(s).

Students:

• Explored the passages from novels, each conveying a different mood. Students had to work together to determine the mood of the story.
• Learned the difference between mood and tone.
• Read a short story (written by Ms. Belofsky) where students identify different parts of the story and the overall mood.
• Created and shared their own short story that projected a specific mood. They used graphic organizers to help develop the overall mood and plot.

Students demonstrated their learning throughout the unit through the use of exit cards, worksheets, journal entries and with their own short story. Ms. Belofsky conferenced with each student about their story, prior to typing, to ensure students were on the right track. Ms. Belofsky and I look forward to reading the stories. Students will continue to study elements of the story throughout the year and will have many more opportunities to write creatively!
PS... Be on the lookout for an upcoming post with student work from the WORD ID unit! 

Word ID Culminating Projects - Posters & Videos

 Check out the student work from our Word ID Culminating Activity. Students had six choices, that were based on the multiple intelligences, as ways to apply their understanding of prefixes and roots. Unfortunately, it was to hard to post any examples of the stories and songs, but below are great examples of posters and videos!

Choices included:
1) Writing a story that contained X number of prefixes/roots
2) Writing a poem or song that contained prefixes/roots
3) Creating pictures to go with real words that contain prefixes/roots or Jabberwocky words (made up words based on prefixes and roots)
4) Creating a prefix dance (that they preformed for the class)
5) Creating a video explaining what they learned
6) Determining the scientific name of various species and explain how the scientific name relates to the common name
7) I was open to other ideas - PowerPoints, Manga, etc.

Enjoy!!

Samples of Student Drawings:

Thu chose to create Jabberwocky words

Ena chose the Scientific project

Jonathan chose Jabberwocky words

Page 1 of Brooke's Manga!!

Maddy wrote sentences for her Jabberwocky words. Sorry - don't know why it won't rotate!!

Videos: 

There was some trouble uploading the videos. If you have trouble playing the video, just click on the link provided. It will take you directly to the videos, which are on a safe site called School Tube.  
 
First up are Prince and Yasin showing the prefixes they learned
Here is the link if the video doesn't show:   http://bit.ly/uMHf4h

Eli and Adriyel showing their prefix moves:
Here is the link if the video doesn't show: http://bit.ly/ruiGj3




Tristan discussing what he learned throughout the unit:
Here is the link if the video doesn't show:  http://bit.ly/uthCnm



Jeffrey and Liam trying to get the class to guess what prefixes and roots they are demonstrating:
Here is the link if the video doesn't show: http://bit.ly/w3d80A


Finally, Brie and Rachel's fast paced prefix dance!!!
Here's the link if the video doesn't show:  http://bit.ly/tpuNIg

Prefix/Root Sample Posters

Some sample "poster projects" students created showing the prefix/root, meaning, and offering a way to remember the meaning.  Students then went around to each chart and to help understand the meaning of the prefixes and roots. See the "Recap" Blog post for a more detailed description.

                                           By Andrea and Adrianna

Recap of the year thus far....

Greetings all! I hope this blog will help communicate what we are doing in language arts class. My plan is to update it every week or couple of weeks and give you a glimpse into what your students are working on. I have really enjoyed getting to know all of my new students and see the faces of returning students.  This post will be a bit longer than upcoming posts as I want to update you all on what we've done in class thus far.

Here is what we've done thus far:

Building Classroom Community

• Discussed classroom community - students wrote "I am" poems which they shared with a partner (who shared it with the class). We then decorated the classroom with these.
• Students wrote goals that they plan to focus on throughout the year. These included academic and personal goals. Some samples included "to eat healthier," "get outside and play with my dog more," "to make honor roll at least once" and "to turn all of my reading slips in on time." Students brainstormed ways to help them meet their goals. We will spend a day second quarter reflecting on how these are going.
• Students wrote letters to a 7th grade/8th grade Solstice pen pall. This helps 7th graders ask any questions they may have of a peer and allows 8th graders to be role models and share their knowledge with other students.  I hope to continue this throughout the year (time permitting).

Perfect Paragraph Writing

• We reviewed how to write a perfect paragraph. Ms Belofsky and I then held conferences with almost every 7th grader to help them revise their paragraphs in order to meet the District standard for LEAF (lead, evidence, analysis, finisher). Meeting with students individually helps students understand what we are looking for in their writing and it helps me understand any gaps students may have (and to help correct those). We will continue writing more paragraphs throughout the year.

Word Identification

• Students took a pre-test on roots and prefixes. From the pre-test they determined what roots and prefixes they didn't understand.
• In small groups students created charts on one root/prefix. The charts included the definition, examples, a picture to represent the root/prefix, and a way to help remember it. There were about 35 charts in total, which then decorated the classroom walls. 
• Students created "Jabberwocky" words (made up words) with the roots/prefixes.   An example was "antiject," which means "against throwing". Students then acted out their words to another group.
• Reading activity - students read a short story and applied their knowledge of using context clues and prefixes and roots to help determine the meaning of words.
• Culmination - students had the opportunity to apply their knowledge of roots and prefixes through one of six project choices. The project choices were based on the multiple intelligences. Examples of projects included: writing a story using prefixes/roots and/or jabberwocky words, with a partner, create a prefix dance and share it with the class; create a video demonstrating your knowledge of Word Identification; investigate chosen species and explain how the root/prefix of the animal's scientific name helps explain their common name.  

This unit was fantastic and I loved seeing students apply their new knowledge in their projects. I hope to post a few sample projects soon.
We've been up to many things in the classroom already this year. We've completed some paragraph writing and a unit on Word Identification. Ms. Belofsky is beginning her solo week today and will culminate with students writing a piece on mood.