7th Grade ELA
Mrs. Smith and Ms. Allen
Breed Middle School English Teachers
You're going to 8th grade!!!
ENJOY YOUR VACATION!
It was great getting to know all of you and we hope you have a safe and happy summer break. See you around the halls!
End of the Year Survey
Take our End of the Year Survey by clicking this link:
Or - Fill out the survey to the right to give us feedback on your year.
Night Back - Tuesdays!
We will stay back on other nights if you speak to us in advance.
Quarter 4 is halfway through...
May 21, 2018
Hello Families and Students,
This quarter is well underway. Many of the students have taken advantage of our night back along with resources within the classroom to complete their work and take care of their grade. Please keep in mind that this is last quarter, which means we do not have the luxury of make up work after grades close, so please keep up with your work!
Within the quarter we have four major assignments: The Wonder Packet, The Triangle Fire Project, The Cumulative Independent Reading Project (CIRA), and the Research Project. The CIRA and Research Project are both due on June 1. This early due date is by design, as it allows for students to rectify any misconceptions, incomplete, or missing work before the end of the quarter.
As always, if you are interested in getting in touch with either Mrs. Smith or Miss Allen, please contact the Guidance Office and speak to the 7th grade Guidance Counselor, Lauren Phelps. The school can be reached at 781-477-7330.
We're halfway there!
Andrea Smith and Susie Allen
Grade 7 ELA, Breed Middle School
Quarter 3 starts Monday, January 29, 2018
January 28, 2018
Hello Families and Students,
HAPPY NEW YEAR and New Quarter! Remember: Every quarter means a fresh start. The first half of the year is behind us, and the second half ahead. If you're first half wasn't stellar, this is the time to make a real effort. High schools are going to see that you turned it around and that may make their decision to accept you even easier. Help your future self!
As was the case with second quarter, students will have grades that are for work they did during the previous quarter. Additionally, if you remember our reasoning from last quarter, we want to give students the opportunity to make changes, correct mistakes, and improve their work so they can earn the best grade possible and learn from their errors. In the next few weeks, when you log into HAC, you will see a grade for the first major essay from this year. It is a five paragraph Literary Analysis on the characterization of Mrs. Stevenson from the radio play Sorry, Wrong Number written by Lucille Fletcher. Students used their higher level thinking skills of analysis, evaluation, and synthesis to create a character analysis that compared Mrs. Stevenson's perception of herself with how other characters perceived her. Furthermore, through a close reading of the text, classroom discussion, and pre-writing organization, students they were able to decipher and explain the way a character and his or her characterization can drive a plot to its resolution. For example, they demonstrated how these contrasting perceptions led to (spoiler!) Mrs. Stevenson's ultimate demise, and are now using that knowledge to create their essays.
The next unit will be focusing on Nature at Work. Students will read and analyze memoirs, scouring them for examples of figurative language to better understand precise word choice and how it can help an author create connections in to others' personal experiences. We will also explore how imagery is a powerful tool for engaging readers. Students will evaluate and analyze excerpts from the memoirs Mississippi Solo by Eddy Harris and Polar Dream by Helen Thayer, after which they will be applying their knowledge of precise language and imagery by writing another Literary Analysis comparing how both texts employ these abstract concepts to create concrete images. Additionally, they will practice Literary Analysis when comparing the poems Ode to Enchanted Light by Pablo Neruda and Sleeping in the Forest by Mary Oliver, also looking at them for their use of figurative language. Throughout the collection, we will be reminding students that these writing skills in particular will prove very useful come April (*cough* MCAS is coming *cough*).
As always, if you are interested in getting in touch with either Mrs. Smith or Miss Allen, please contact the Guidance Office and speak to the 7th grade Guidance Counselor, Lauren Phelps. The school can be reached at 781-477-7330.
We're halfway there!
Andrea Smith and Susie Allen
Grade 7 ELA, Breed Middle School
LETTER FROM QUARTER 2 COLLECTION 2
November 13, 2017
Welcome students and parents!
It's officially second quarter, which means we are all starting fresh. If you or your student didn't have a great start to the year, that doesn't mean there is no hope. In fact, it just means we need to learn from our mistakes and make better choices this quarter.
The start of second quarter brings with it some interesting challenges, including but not limited to keeping our focus through vacations. We have two this quarter: Thanksgiving and Winter Break. Just because we get to go home and have some brain-break time with our families, doesn't mean that school is over. It's called a break for a reason; it interrupts the year, but it doesn't end it.
Students will have grades that are going into second quarter for work they did during first quarter. You may wonder why this is: we want to give students the opportunity to make changes, correct mistakes, and improve their work so they can earn the best grade possible and learn from their errors. If you log onto HAC, you will see the major writing assignment where the students practiced their creative writing after reading Leo Tolstoy's "The Two Brothers". By using their knowledge of narratives, style, and the plot line, they generated new and original conclusions to the story (for the actual ending go here). Also, students will have a grade for a graphic comic. This is what we used to assess understanding of the myth "The Flight of Icarus". Students were given choices but all had some kind of graphic component. Some chose to create their own graphic comic by hand while others took to computers to create PowerPoints and the rest opted to write out the events of the story using the class plot line organizer while drawing a scene on the back. If you are interested in seeing examples, we will hopefully be putting those up on the site soon.
The next unit will be focusing on Perception and Reality. As a class, we will be delving into how our perceptions may skew the realities of life. During the Collection we will read texts such as "Sorry, Wrong Number", a classic radio play, "The People Could Fly", an old slave narrative, and an excerpt from classic Dicken's novel "A Christmas Carol". Along with the last text, we will be taking students to the North Shore Music Theater's magical production of the same tale in the first weeks of December (price yet to be determined). We are very much looking forward to this Collection and know the students will really connect to many of the texts.
As always, if you are interested in getting in touch with either Mrs. Smith or Miss Allen, please contact the Guidance Office and speak to the 7th grade Guidance Counselor, Lauren Phelps. The school can be reached at 781-477-7330.
Here's to new beginnings!
Andrea Smith and Susie Allen
Grade 7 ELA, Breed Middle School