Unit 1: Oct. 20, 2017

WOW! The first unit is usually the longest. We are getting reacquainted with one another, learning norms of the classroom, and being intentional with class time. However, the work that the students put in was amazing!

Students are expected to read, in English, every night. Unless I have assigned reading, the reading is their choice. They should be reading about 30 mins a day.

Year 3 students got their books last week. Year 2 students will be receiving their novel today.

Year 2 (G7)

Year 2 students examined three different genre’s of text to look for theme and connections. We started with songs, moved to short stories, and finally ended with speeches. During this time students completed annotation of the texts. After studying speeches, students were expected to write and perform their own speeches. Their focus was to inspire and motivate others. You can click on the link below to see their work and their performance.

Year 2 (G7) KAS

Year 3 (G8)

Year 3 students examined news and journalism for this first unit. We looked at student news and read a variety of news articles. For the news articles, students completed annotation to focus on what makes a news article. After analyzing news articles, students ventured out to write their own news article that affected their community. They focused on observing their every day life, seeing what issues affect the community, choosing a topic, completing research, surveys, and interviews. Once they had gathered their data, they worked in groups to create a newspaper. You can click on the link below to see their hard work!

Year 3 (G8) KAS

Thank you so much for all you you do to help your student(s) be successful. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or praise, please let me know.

New School Year 8-15-17

The school year 2017-2018 is going to be an amazing time for growth in Language & Literature. I am looking forward to working with parents and students to make this a great year! Please feel free to contact me with questions, comments, concerns, or praises.

I will update this website periodically throughout the year.

Success

Sylvia DuckWorth https://www.flickr.com/photos/sylviaduckworth/29051482771/

In order to be successful, there are many different components that take place. The image above is a great example of what makes someone successful. The hardest and most challenging parts are the ones we face that many may never notice. I want to encourage the students to have all the qualities that many people don’t see. Those are the things that will help them to be successful, not just in school, but life.

Reading Importance

In order for students to successfully learn a language, they need to read a minimum of 20-30 minutes (in English) everyday including the weekend. I do not typically dictate what they read, unless it is a class novel or other text assigned by me, except that it has to be in English. Please encourage your child(ren) to choose something that they enjoy to read.

As a reminder, we do practice English first. That means that students are communicating in English unless requesting further instructions from the teacher.

http://schenkgr4.blogspot.tw/2013/04/why-read-20-minutes-pinterest-inspired.html

Classroom Expectations & Course Outline

In order to help the school year progress nicely, I do have a few expectations. They can be found on the classroom expectations page.

One of the major skills that middle school students need to cultivate is time management. Assignments are not always due the next day.Therefore students need to prioritize their time to ensure that work is turned in on time.

I have also included the page for the course outline that will be used for this class.

If you are curious to know more about me, it can be found on Ms. Marcum’s Mind page on my blog.

Thank you in advance for all that you do to help your child(ren) be successful. This year will be wonderful as you, myself, and the student work together.

Unit 4: Dystopia, Identity & Culture Unit 5:IDU, Social Issue Unit 6: Poetry, Valiant Venture

Wow! I cannot begin to express my heartfelt gratitude for such a great year. Thank you so much for being kind, caring, and supportive parents and guardians. Students grew so much during this year. They grew academically aswell becoming more mature. I am proud of all the hard work and effort students gave this year. I hope that the good habits they have worked on will stick them into the next school year. Have a wonderful, relaxing, and enjoyable summer!

With summer around the way, make sure that your student keeps their reading progress going! KAS Library has created a summer reading program challenge. Students will read books and complete tasks. They will obtain online badges to help track their progress. The website is the Great Reading Adventure. They do not need to buy any books as many of the books are eBooks from our own library.

If students do not read over the summer, it is like going back to December 2016 in their progress for reading.

My expectation is that students will take part of this summer challenge and read about 30 mins a day so that they do not lose 6 months of progress.

Year 2 (G7)

Students completed a dystopia unit where they read a dystopia novel, compared it to a dystopia short story, and then created their own “perfect” society. It was really interesting seeing the types of society that students would deem as perfect.

Then, students began working on IDU between L&L and Science. Here students learned how to communicate scientific knowledge via social media. Students created population trend graphs, solutions commercial, and a implications screencast. They learned about other’s species by commenting on their posts and creations. Lastly, students began a short unit on poetry. They have created over a dozen or two dozen poems. Year 2 students have so much to be proud of!

Check out their work: Class of 2022 KAS Websites

YEAR 3 (G8)

I know you are all familiar with the latest project from year 3 students. You were extremely involved and I truly appreciate all the efforts to help put this project together. I loved it as I got to know so much more about my students’ and their

home culture. Prior to the interview video, students read a graphic novel dealing with identity and culture of those who might need to assimilate. Next, students researched a social issue. Once they had gathered their research, they created infographics to show the public information about their topic. Finally, they were allowed to choose a project to work on that was their choice, but must be related to L&L by one of the following: reading, writing, or speaking. Students attempted to choose something they had always wanted to learn or make. I’m excited to see what they finally produce.

Check out their work: Class of 2021 KAS Websites

Unit 3: Companion Book & Poetry

Students accomplished another unit of study for Language and Literature and should be very proud of their work.

Photo Credit: Rafel Miro Flickr via Compfight cc

As a reminder, please help students to learn and practice time management skills. Sleep is very important and staying up all night to complete a project is not what is expected.

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Year 2 (7th) Companion Book

Students re-read a favorite novel. Then, they took several components that create a novel and analyzed it to see a much deeper meaning. We worked on this daily for weeks as part of our writing unit. It was so amazing to check in with them everyday and see how much their understanding of writing as well as analyzing a text had improved and grown.

Photo Credit: Chris Piascik Flickr via Compfight cc

Be sure to check out their hard work!

7th Grade Websites

Year 3 (8th) Poetry

Students examine various ways to use poetry. They remixed, remade, imitated, and then were masters of poetry themselves. They read several poems and completed analysis annotations. Poetry required them to step out of the box and think about words and thoughts differently. Using figurative language can be complicated, but I am in awe of their attempts to use it and use it well.

Check out their work below!

8th Grade Websites

Unit 2: Lessons & Equity

What a great 1st semester. So proud of all the students are accomplishing. Please encourage them to keep up the good work! As always, please let me know if you have questions, comments, concerns, or praise.

ALL:

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Unit 2 took a little longer to finish, but I am impressed with the amount of work students have accomplished.

7th: Lessons From Text

Students learned how to annotate texts to show their thoughts while reading as well as being able to find and analyze literary devices and elements. Students analyzed songs, short stories, and finally speeches. Students compared speeches to find techniques to use when writing a speech. After all this analysis and comparing, students began writing their own inspirational speech based on the learner profiles of the MYP.

Be sure to check out their hard work!

7th Grade Websites

Photo Credit: imbaoroh Flickr via Compfight cc

8th: Equity & Equality

Students completed literature circles on different books. Students were grouped to read a specific book together. They had roles to complete to ensure that the discussion went well. They analyzed the book using TIEA as well as their reading journal symbols. Each book focused on being aware of rights for equity and equality. Some of the novels dealt with autism, cerebral palsy, bullying, adhd/add, and worker rights. Students completed this unit by creating a video to demonstrate equity and equality for a topic of their choice.

Check out their work below!

8th Grade Websites

First Unit: Realistic Fiction 10-13-15

Our first unit is finished! The students were excited about completing their story. We have parent-teacher conferences soon, and I hope to see you there. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or praise, please email me.

All:

Students should be reading 20 minutes a day 7 days a week. After reading, they complete a short entry into their reading journal. Most of the time, this is their only homework. Occasionally, they will need to finish something at home from class. Students choose their own books unless there is assigned reading from class.

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Parents are often asking about SAT prep. Here is a free resource I found at Freetech4teachers. If you click on this link, there will be others resources, but this one is free.

PrepFactory is a free service for high school students to prepare for the SAT and or ACT. PrepFactory offers students a series of tutorial videos and written tips to help them prepare for both tests. After completing a tutorial students can test themselves in a series of practice questions. Each question set is timed and and limited to chunks of ten questions at a time. Students can earn badges for completing tutorials or question sets. Click here for video of PrepFactory in action.

7th:

Students read and discussed Startgirl.

8th:

Students chose a realistic fiction book that had a normal, everyday person who was heroic in some way.

Both:

Students are finished their realistic fiction stories. We followed the Writing Workshop model for completing this story. 7th grade had to focus their story on identity and positive relationships. 8th grade had to focus their story on the main character becoming a here in some way. Students were expected to choose issues that middle schoolers typically have and then create a story to help resolve those conflicts. I am very proud of their hard work and dedication to these stories.

New School Year 8-19-15

Photo Credit: lucy.loomis via Compfight cc

I am always excited to begin a new school year with returning students as well as all the new students! I am looking forward to working with you and your child(ren). In order to help the school year progress nicely, I do have a few expectations. They can be found on the classroom expectations page. One of the major skills that middle school students need to cultivate is time management. Assignments are not always due the next day. Therefore students need to prioritize their time to ensure that work is turned in on time. If you are curious to know more about me, it can be found on Ms. Marum’s Mind page on my blog.

Photo Credit: Yilkee.net via Compfight cc

Last week we worked on building a class community as well as ensuring the school year will go smoothly. We are continuing that this week while also gearing up to be active learners who are also self reflective. We will continually refer to digital citizenship, academic honesty (citing sources), as well focusing on Reading, Writing, Speaking, Listening, and Presenting.

In order for students to be successful in my class, they need to read a minimum of 20 minutes (in English) everyday including the weekend. I do not dictate what they read, unless it is a class novel, except that it has to be in English. Please encourage your child(ren) to choose something that they enjoy to read.

Thank you in advance for all that you to help your child(ren) be successful. This year will be wonderful as you, myself, and the student work together.

6-10-15

One more day left of school! Wow!! I am still amazed at how I know it is coming and yet I never feel ready. I feel that the school year was really successful and that students have gained knowledge that exceeds beyond the four walls of the classroom.

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Without the support, trust, and encouragement from parents, this would have been next to impossible. Words are not enough to express my gratitude. Nonetheless, I am extremely appreciative that I got to work you all.

All

Students finished their Valiant Ventures for the year and gave an amazing TED Talk to showcase their process and learning. I am always amazing at what students accomplish and feel a huge sense of pride for the risks that many of them took. For their final, students are creating a screencrast to showcase and demonstrate all of the learning that they have done over the past year. I am really excited to see what create.

Photo Credit: christarampi via Compfight cc

If you wish to see their work throughout the year, just visit their blogs.

7th Grade Blogs

8th Grade Blogs

7th

Students finished reading and discussing The Giver. They completed analysis on the book and created their own utopian society for their assessment. Throughout this time, students have also been working on a piece of informational writing. They have went through the process of free-writing, drafting, revising and editing, and then publishing.

8th

Students finished reading The Chocolate War. They completed analysis on the book and then had to try to disturb the universe by doing something positive and self-less for 7 days. Students also created an infograph on to bring awareness on various social issues.

3-27-15

It has been a long time since my last update and for that I completely apologize. I hope that all has been going well since my last post. Honestly, I thought I updated after the last unit and just realized yesterday that I did not. It’s the last day before a long break. I hope that you are as excited as I am about the big move! The new building has me buzzing with anticipation. It’s great to have such a beautiful, technologically advanced building. Should you have any questions, comments, concerns, or praises, please email me. I am constantly reminded how fortunate I am that I have such amazing support from parents. Thank you for all that you do to help ensure student success.

All Students: Spring Break Work

Students need to watch several TED talk videos to have an understanding of how to do their own TED Talk for their Valiant Venture. Students also need to begin on their Google Presentation. It is also recommended that student continue to read, write, and speak in English every day.

All

Students have finished two units since my last post. I will discuss those individually under each grade. Today is also the last day in class that students can work on their Valiant Venture. They may continue over the spring break if needed, but no other class time will be given to work on this. Students will be presenting their TED Talk within a few weeks of returning. We would love to have you be present and support what they have accomplished. More details will follow via email once we return from spring break and I have an exact date and location.

7th

Students completed a unit on lessons they can learn from the text. They examined and analyzed how authors use connections to give readers a lesson on life. They read many short stories, songs lyrics, as well as inspirational speeches. Today students finished a short unit on poetry. Students wrote many types of poems over the course of the last several weeks. For their summative, they wrote a poem using the poetic devices they learned describing their culture and analyzed two poems about different cultures.

8th

Students finished a unit on bias. They examined different forms of bias that can be found throughout the media. The media they viewed consisted of news, songs, advertisements, commercials, TV, and movies. It was a great eye opening experience for them even though it was quite challenging. Students finished a short unit on poetry with an emphasis on performing. During their long block this week they performed two poems: inspirational and hope/dream. This was part of their summative as well as analyzing three poems that are meant to inspire or empower.

12-19-14

It’s the last day of school. While the break is welcome, I will miss all the students over the holiday. I hope that you enjoy this time with family/friends, and I wish it to be full of laughter and love. May this break allow the students to be rejuvenated and refreshed for the next semester. Please email me with any questions, comments, concerns, or praises.

All:

Students do have winter homework for me. They have a magazine to read and complete all the writing requirements for it. Also, they should continue their independent reading.

7th:

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The 7th graders played detective as they attempted to research and “solve” an unsolved mystery. I am truly amazed at the products they accomplished. They completed research, learned how to cite within text, keep track of a bibliography, draw conclusions and create their own theory, and then wrote a fiction story about their unsolved mysteries.

Their work is published on their blogs. Please take a look and a leave a comment or four on a few students’ work.

7th Grade Blogs

Please find your child’s name and check out his/her work.

8th:

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The 8th graders finished a unit on cultural stories. They examined urban legends, mythology, original fairytales, and proverbs from around the world. Each student tended to have a favorite genre that they felt a connection. After researching and reading a variety of texts from around the world, student had the freedom to choose which type of cultural story he/she wanted to create.

Some of their urban legends were super creepy.

Check out their proverbs too! Such wisdom for life was written by them.

8th Grade Blogs

Please find your child’s name and check out his/her work.

Thank you for all that you do to support your child and the learning that takes place in my classroom. That support helps out in ways that I cannot find enough words to express my gratitude.