Ms. Rejent AC

September 2007

It’s hard to believe that school has only been in session for a little over a month when considering the amount of learning that has taken place in advanced content language arts. I’m so impressed with the students’ willingness to push themselves to expand their knowledge and skill base. They’ve loved the literature selections, have almost mastered the narrative elements analysis process, and have worked to refine their already good writing skills. Take some time to talk with your child; you’ll be very proud of his/her development.

As the unit draws to an end, the students will have several graded assessments to demonstrate their narrative reading and writing knowledge and skills. The following list is provided to keep you informed about the assessment plan.

• Performance Assessment  – Friday, September 21^st – 30 points  - Students will be given a very short (2 pages) story to read and analyze in a class period.

• Writing Assignment - Group short story -  30 points  - Working in student-selected groups, the students are writing a realistic fiction short story. The work will be completed entirely in class and will be evaluated using the attached rubric, which was provided to the students before the writing process began.  Download narrative_writing_rubric.doc

• Constructed Response – Friday, September 28^th – 30 points - Students will take a test over the narrative poetry selections covered in class. It will include information about the authors, the vocabulary studied, as well as short essay questions about the narrative elements of the poems.

• Timed Writing – Personal Narrative - Week of October 1^st – 20 points  -  After instruction and practice in how to analyze a writing prompt, budget time, draft, and revise a timed writing assignment, the students will write a personal narrative essay. (They have already written three essays of this nature this year, but have not had the time constraints.)

As you can see, it will be a busy next few weeks. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kathy Rejent

August 2007

Welcome to Seventh Grade!!

It’s only been a few days, but I can tell that it is going to be a great year. The students have settled in nicely and are busy learning new material and seventh grade standards. After a brief introduction to technical writing, the next six weeks will focus on narrative reading and writing. The students will be introduced to SOAPSTone, a pre-AP strategy that examines text in terms of narrative elements, and review the traditional short story elements.  The literature selections include short stories by Gary Soto, Kurt Vonnegut, and Russell Baker as well as narrative poems by Emerson, Tennyson, Noyes, and Robert Service. The writing assignments will include a group short story as well as several personal narrative pieces. The students will use one of the personal narrative pieces as the basis of a timed writing activity to culminate the unit.

I believe that seventh grade is the best grade. I look forward to working with you and your child. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Kathy Rejent