Ms. Abene

Learning Behavior Specialist

Special Education Teacher:

English Language Arts Gr. 7-8

Meet Ms. Abene

Ms. Abene is a Chicago native who grew up in CPS and graduated from Lane Tech. She earned her teaching degrees from DePaul University and Northeastern Illinois University and knew from a very young age that she wanted to be a teacher. Her favorite thing about teaching is creating positive and lifelong learning experiences with students and the opportunity to inspire and become inspired each day. In her free time, she is planning engaging activities for students, taking care of her 3 dogs, writing, singing, teaching yoga, and baking chocolate chip cookies.

ELA Class Description

Middle school English Language Arts (ELA) for Special Education students is a modified curriculum that helps students develop strategies for reading and writing, and prepares them for high school English courses. Our learning objectives cover a wide range of topics, including:

Reading: Students learn more complex reading comprehension skills, such as reading fiction, poetry, and essays.
Writing: Students learn to write poetry, expository writing, and creative writing. They may also be asked to prepare daily assignments, complete outside reading, and give speeches.
Grammar and semantics: Students learn about grammar, usage, and semantics.
Vocabulary: Students expand their vocabularies.
Visual representation: Students create visual media, such as posters, charts, and films.

ELA also includes listening, speaking, and viewing texts, which can be narrative, informational, literary, or visual. The goal of ELA is to help students develop language skills, cognitive development, and critical thinking abilities.

Homework:

Students will be expected to finish incomplete classwork at home. Homework assignments may be digital via Google Classroom or printed on paper, depending on the task. Please read homework expectations below:

Students will receive a passage every Monday to read aloud in class on the following Friday. Students should practice reading their passage each night to deliver their best reading performance.
Students should read an independent text each night for 30 minutes.
Students should study a given list of words for bi-weekly spelling tests.
Students will perform monthly book talks, based on their independent reading books. Presentations should be prepared and practiced at home.