Seventh grade is off and running this month!

ELA

Our major project this month centered around summer reading.  The students wrote their first literary essay analyzing important moments in the book Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie.   Lessons included writing strong topic and closing sentences, analyzing specifics, and incorporating MLA formatted cited text.  To work through the writing process, essays were shown on the Smartboard, and revising was modeled.  All students were able to apply what was taught to their own writing.  We also studied punctuation for sentences and titles as these are essential writing basics. It is already evident how this 7th grade class works hard and wants to learn.  

We are underway with working toward the goal of reading twenty books this school year. (Hopefully you are seeing your son/daughter reading at least twenty minutes at home each night.) Each student needs to read at least one novel per month and will take a comprehension test on each. The reading goal includes class novels. 

Additionally, we are in full swing with vocabulary and have already completed three chapters. Along with the book chapter, prefix, suffix, and root word meanings will be incorporated into the study of the words. When students learn to decode words, reading, writing, and test-taking skills get stronger. ELA is always integrated, so vocabulary words will be incorporated into writing, such as with each student’s personal narrative.

Lastly, to further build reading comprehension skills, the students took Benchmark tests during our WIN period.  These tests will help illuminate which areas need more practice and development.  Our goal is to keep students growing with their reading comprehension, fluency, and interest.

Religion

Students began the year with a prayer project.  They found two unique prayers they particularly like and wrote three. The students get to choose from these prayers when they are class prayer leader.  We also jumped into Confirmation preparation. We looked at symbols of the Holy Spirit and learned about the seven Gifts and twelve Fruits. Students are beginning their saint project, which includes research on the saint and an analysis of Gifts and Fruits with the saint’s story.  

We also had our first Theme Day! For theme day, students work in collaborative groups, and once each trimester teach the class a particular theme, such as kindness, faith, forgiveness, etc. The mixed media presentation includes teachings using a song, videos, a Gospel passage, examples from life, and an activity. They ask questions and foster discussion among students. Theme Day is one of our favorite religion classes.