What Will the Future Hold?

We have been analyzing different views of what the future looks like.
First, we discussed the bleak future that is portrayed in the short story "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut.
We compared that depiction with the fantastic, flying-cars world of the 1960's TV series The Jetsons.
Next, we'll read an article in which top scientists predict what life will be like in the year 2113.
What will be in our immediate future in ELA class? After Thanksgiving, we'll tackle Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol."

Fairness, Equality, Sci-Fi and Trophies

We spent last week exploring the issue of homelessness, reading an article called "I Was Homeless" and watching a clip of a story of 60 Minutes: "Hard Times Generation".
We discussed the matter in terms of "fairness" and "equality" especially in light of statistics like this.
But does "equality for all" mean equal outcomes for all or rather equal opportunity under for all?
This theme is central to the story we'll read this week, "Harrison Bergeron", by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
We'll follow that short story with a non-fiction article which lays out the debate, "Should Everyone Get a Trophy?"

What We're Reading

Grade 7 students have been reading a lot.

Here are some books that they've said they liked in October:

Change Up: Mystery at the World Series by John Feinstein
Thousand Words by Jennifer Brown
The House of Hades by Rick Riordan
Warriors: The New Prophecy by Erin Hunter
If I Stay by Gayle Forman
Crossed by Ally Condie
The Year We Disappeared by Cylin and John Busby
Rapunzel Untangled by Cindy C. Bennett

October Recap

Where did October go?
Here are some spooky, Halloween related activities that we did in class this past month:

• We read "The 11:59" by Patricia McKissak, a short story about the "death train" of Pullman Porter lore.
• We wrote the ending of a Halloween story by author Bruce Coville.

We also marked the anniversary of Super Storm Sandy and wrote about the independent reading we'd done in October.

It's Beginning to Look Like Halloween...

in ELA 7, at least when you consider the play we've been reading this week.
It's called "The Dead Rising" and it tells the story of Mercy Brown, the alleged New England Vampire.
I've suggested a field trip to visit the cemetery where Mercy is buried, but I'm not getting my hopes up!

EXTRA CREDIT

It's time for another extra credit assignment.
Students who wish to earn extra credit can complete the following by Tuesday, October 15:
1). Visit the interactive map of vampire incidents in New England.
2). Choose three separate locations and read about the vampire incidents that occurred there.
3. After you "get the gist" of each incident, write a paragraph for each in which you retell or paraphrase what happened.
4. Type your assignment.

What's Up? (week of 10/1)

Here's "what's up" in ELA class this week:
We've been reading narrative nonfiction in the form of an article called "Dying to be Strong" about the dangers related to steroid and performance enhancing drug use.
Also, we heard from several students who shared books they've been reading lately. Among the titles that students shared were Scorpia Rising, Thirteen Reasons Why, and Orleans.