September 26 - September 30

English
Periods 1, 4, 6, & 8

This week will be a little different.  We will be participating in Classroom Diagnostic Testing (CDT) in the computer lab on Thursday and Friday.  Therefore, we will not have a grammar skills test on Friday this week.

We will focus on conventions on Monday and Tuesday.  Specifically, students will be learning about adverbs.  We will connect this concept to "A Simple Act" located on page 34 of the textbook.

Link to adverbs worksheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DF9Dt3Dsbxt4RL7CIyAp-av_lQyV11tQjuz_LrO9J50/edit?usp=sharing

If your child needs additional practice with adverbs, you can practice with them using the following link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RxoHiD0KPLJoCX8MfXSn0_DE0a5QbnM47yBx8Y7w26g/edit?usp=sharing

We will have a test on "A Simple Act" on Wednesday.  Your student received a study guide for the test last Wednesday (September 21, 2016).  If your student has not brought home a copy, you can access a copy by using the link provided below.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QyEaouZpowCrrCOm4A1NJnJa_mJtu_7awKqCjJlP158/edit?usp=sharing

Author's Point of View additional practice:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ErwHBjAsGrJoVqI1aMNeQ1LYCgkSPWg_dw6DzKlcTeM/edit?usp=sharing


PSSA SSR
Period 2

Students will read from bell to bell.  As students enter, they should open their books and begin reading.  Reading stops when the dismissal bell rings.  As students finish reading their book, they should write a book recommendation and post it on the bulletin board.

Career Exploration
Periods 3 & 7

Students will be participating in an entrepreneurship unit this week.  Students will explore what it would be like to take this career path via a simulation activity.  Students will be developing an idea to help other students be more successful in school and presenting that idea to a panel posing as investors.    

September 19 - September 23

English
Periods 1, 4, 6, & 8

Students will continue to improve their grammar skills through daily paragraph editing.  We will continue to apply the comma rules that we learned last week and will add a few new ones.

• Use quotation marks around a word or phrase being discussed.
• Example: The word "pinata" is written with a special letter.
• Use a hyphen between numbers in a fraction
• Example: One-half of the candies have walnuts, and one-quarter have almonds.
• Avoid run-on sentences.  A run-on is a sentence in which two or more independent clauses (complete sentences) are joined without an appropriate punctuation or conjunction.
• Example: It is nearly half past five we cannot reach town before dark.

We will have a grammar quiz on Friday.  On Thursday, we will take a practice assessment.  Students will analyze the results of the practice assessment and highlight (on their study guides) what they need to work on for the quiz on Friday.

Students will begin reading "A Simple Act" this week.  The narrative is located on page 10 of their textbook.  Students will analyze the author's choice of using the third-person point of view.  We will discuss the advantages of using third-person point of view when writing a narrative.  Students will be asked to think of a recent anecdote in their lives and write a one-page account of it using third-person point of view.  They will highlight details in their writing that would've been excluded in a first-person narrative.  Class discussion will center around the wider perspective that is possible using third-person point of view.

There will be no homework this week unless a student fails to complete their work during class.




Attention Parents,

You can now access your student's textbook online.  Go to www.pearsonrealize.com.  The username is ns followed by your child's first initial and then their last name.  Example: nsmfowler
The password is ns followed my period ____  Replace  the underscore with whatever period I have your student.  Example: nsperiod6






STUDY GUIDE for test NEXT WEEK on "A Simple Act"
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QyEaouZpowCrrCOm4A1NJnJa_mJtu_7awKqCjJlP158/edit?usp=sharing




PSSA SSR
Period 2

Students will read silently for the duration of the period.  Students should have a book with them when they enter the classroom.  Students are expected to read from bell to bell.  As students begin to finish their first book, we will move into book recommendations.

Career Exploration
Periods 3 & 7

Students will reflect on their time with Friday's guest speaker, occupational therapist, Stephanie Fowler.  We will move into the health science career cluster this week.

Additionally, we will finish the five part interview.

September 12 - September 16

English
Periods 1, 4, 6, & 8

This week we will be focusing on comma usage.  Some rules that we will look at are:

• Use a comma to separate items in a list or series
• Use a comma after a short introductory word or phrase that comes before the main idea of a sentence
• Use a comma before and after a word or phrase that interrupts the main idea of a sentence
• Use a comma before the conjunction in a compound sentence

We will continue unit one with  the nonfiction narrative model "Grounded."  Students will explore the essential question: What can one generation learn from another?  The narrative will help scaffold students as they work toward the performance task that will require them to write a nonfiction narrative.

PSSA SSR

Period 2

Students will read silently for the duration of the period.  Students should have a book with them when they enter the classroom.  Students are expected to read from bell to bell.  As students begin to finish their first book, we will move into book recommendations.

Career Exploration

Periods 3 & 7

Last week students spent time in the computer lab typing their resumes.  This week students will peer edit the resume and use it as a tool for the interview process.  We will have a guest speaker from the occupational therapy field on Friday.  Students will also spend time completing a career cluster survey to get an idea of what type of career may match their personal interests.

September 6 - September 9

English Periods 1, 4, 6, 8

This week students will begin unit 1 in their textbooks.  We will start with the unit 1 introduction on page 4.  Students will set goals for themselves and track their progress on the learning goals as the week progresses.  We will work on academic vocabulary, analyze a nonfiction narrative model, and begin to lay the foundation to write nonfiction narratives.  

There will be no homework this week unless a student fails to complete his or her work during class.


Career Exploration Periods 3 & 7

Last week, students completed standard applications for employment.  This week students will continue to learn about the importance of speaking and listening effectively in an interview and participate in mock interviews.  Prior to the mock interview, students will  build a resume for use in the mock interview.

There will be no homework in this class.

SSR Period 2

Students should bring their reading material and read independently.

There will be no homework or projects this week.