Back to School!

I am glad to welcome you to the 2014-2015 school year, and grade 7 ELA class!
Here's an excerpt from the opening day handout that I will send home with ELA 7 students:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Welcome to grade 7 ELA class!

I’m looking forward to working with you to help your student have a great school year.

Here are some expectations I’ll share with your student related to behavior in my class:

1. We listen respectfully when someone is talking.
2. We arrive at class ready and prepared to learn.
3. We show respect to each other at all times.
4. We work to the best of our ability.

I’m hopeful that you’ll find these rules fairly straightforward and easy for your student to follow.

In addition, I’ll enforce the rules of student conduct as explained in the middle school handbook.

While the majority of assignments will be completed during class time, occasionally there will be work for the student to do at home. Typical homework assignments may include independent reading, writing/revising essays or other written assignments, etc.

I'm looking forward to meeting your students tomorrow and then you on September 16 at "Open House and Meet the Team Night."

Please don't hesitate to reach out sooner if you have questions by emailing me at carlistdon@slcs.org.

In the meantime, please check out this back to school message from one of my favorite authors, John Green, as it captures some of the sentiment that I'd like to share with students at this time of the year.

Extra! Extra!

We're working through a mini-unit on "newspapers" which started last week with a scavenger hunt and a discussion of local, national and world news.
The students also have the option to read the Adirondack Daily Enterprise during independent reading time.
Soon students will be writing various kinds of articles, op-eds, etc.
We appreciate being able to use our community's local paper as a text to study in the classroom.

"First Line Contest"

We're looking at great first lines this week; specifically those that were submitted for Scholastic Scope Magazine's "First Line Contest".
Here are some winners from previous years.
The story based on this year's winning first line is called "People Call me Crazy" and was written by Gary Paulsen. We'll read it in class this week.

Thematic Unit: Human Nature

We'll be ending April and beginning May by considering "human nature."
Among the works we'll study together are an adapted version of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stephenson.
We'll also read a personal essay in the author relates to the fictional Jekyll and Hyde, "Confessions of a Former Hazer" by Courtney Davidson.
Similar in theme, we'll read and discuss the short story "The Fan Club" by Rona Maynard.

Book Talks: Graphic Novels

Mrs. Kennedy joined us today to talk graphic novels.
I admit it; when I first started teaching I was a bit snobbish about graphic novels. I looked down on them and didn't appreciate their value in the classroom.
Since then, I've watched as year after year, reluctant readers beome inspired by and hooked on graphic novels.
Here's the list of titles that Mrs. Kennedy presented today:
Explorer: The Mystery Boxes
The Storm in the Barn
The Secret World of Arietty

WildAid: Shark Conservation

"Saving the Great White Monster," an article from our "animals" mini-unit about shark conservation, introduced us to the organization WildAid.
We watched several of WildAid's commercials from their campaign to end the overfishing of sharks (here, here and here).

A Bunch of Animals!

Any glimpse into the life of an animal quickens our own and makes it so much the larger and better in every way. — John Muir

We launched a thematic mini-unit on human/animal interaction by discussing the above quote.
Next, we read a short story by Eliot Schrefer called "Animal Distress Calls" about a teen's life changing encounter with a sick ostrich in a zoo.
It was then on to Gary Paulsen's "Caesar the Giant," in which the well known author tells of his experiences with an adopted Great Dane.
Also on tap is a non fiction article about Great White Sharks and the practice of hunting them for shark fin soup.