Dear STM families in 6-9 homeroom, 6-9 and 6-7 Reading and LA and 7-6/7-3 Reading:

 

Happy May!  Here are some 6-9 homeroom updates, then 6th grade Reading and LA class updates, and then 7th grade Reading updates:

 

6-9 Homeroom: You can ask your student for it and if they say they don't have it, they're right...6-9 will receive their interims from me on Monday.  It was their turn for safeties this week so our time is limited during the last class of the day. It was quite a surprise for them to see that they only have a few weeks left on the green sheet! 6-7 begins their month as safeties on Monday. Additionally, Scantron testing begins next week.  The students have their STM laptops here at school charged and ready to go.  Last, Mrs. Meehan has communicated to the 6th grade families via two emails last week that Greek Day has been delayed due to poor social behavior and self-control. On that front, I'm preparing and praying for a kind, cooperative week!

 

6th Reading and LA: We are on the homestretch of the Sentences Unit, Chapter 6. Challenging material included lots of work with prepositions, prepositions that work as adverbs, and prepositional phrases used as adjective or adverb phrases.  To make grammar even more fun, we finished our lessons with identifying independent and dependent clauses using subordinate conjunctions as adverb clauses.  Hooray!  The students may do the Sentences Challenge by Thursday and will take the Sentences test on Thursday.  We completed our Persuasive Writing project with print or video ads.  The videos were definitely a hit. Thank you for participating in the advertising challenge!

Reading has been myths, myths, myths.  The Hercules test has been graded and returned and now the students have a collection of myth quizzes, a feature analysis chart, and an original myth to write (which we will do during LA this week.)  

 

7th Reading: How many short stories can 42 7th graders juggle in one week?  Three!  Four! We've completed a study of The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, The Ransom of Red Chief by O. Henry, The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant, and fan favorite The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs.  We will begin a Mock Trial activity next week to determine guilt or innocence in The Monkey's Paw, then move onto a daylong study of The Fun They Had by Isaac Asimov, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, and All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury. I will begin working with the students on a structured essay on a short story/topic. Side lessons have continued in study skills (note-taking) and paraphrasing, summarizing, and citations. At some point we will revisit the Informational Article and add in-text citations.  We have continued with the Wednesday mentor writing and our most recent work, a poem, is featured on STM social media. 

 

We are all working hard.  We know the students are going through a lot right now, socially and academically. Thank you for your patience and understanding, for your support and for your kindness as we navigate the end of this weirdly normal (but weirdly not) school year!

 

Sincerely,

Mrs. Morgan