Reading. We will be working a lot with Junior Great Books this trimester. We will also be reading the novella “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” If we have time this trimester we will also begin Animal Farm. Aside from these in class activities, we will continue the literature reports due each Friday, and you will have three new non-fiction books to read this trimester. The topics this time are History, Current Events and Pacific Northwest. The forms are on the Moodle site.

Language Arts. This trimester we are working on persuasive writing and speaking. The majority of the trimester will be working on learning forms of rhetoric, performing historic speeches, and writing original speeches. Students need to select and practice an historic speech of their own choosing. They need to write a speech on a constitutional issue connected to our history curriculum. And, they need to practice using different forms of rhetoric in their writing. As we get into the later part of the trimester we will be converting our speeches into legislative bills to use in our 8th grade mock senate. In addition to these tasks we will be continuing our work on understanding the English language and spelling.

History: We are working on the foundation of the new nation, the writing of the Constitution, the structure and workings of the Constitution, and responsibilities of citizenship. We will be completing the state required Classroom Based Assessment this trimester, which involves creating a product based on taking a position on a constitutional issue. This is the topic we will use in our speech unit in Language Arts and also for the Mock Senate. The chapters in the book will include 8-11 and the Constitution Handbook following Ch. 8.

Reading:

• Don’t forget your Literature Reviews. These are due every Friday. Remember to log onto moodle from the link on this blog to enter the weekly Lit. Reviews. The books you report on must also be listed on your nightly reading log.
• You have your Non-fiction required readings to keep up on as well. These can be used for your Literature Reviews so you can be accomplishing both at the same time. Remember 1st trimester’s required readings are books on Writing, Sports or other competitive activity, and science or nature. The due dates and submission instructions are on the moodle site.

Language Arts.

• We have not had weekly homework packets while we prepared for the summative test for the material included in the homework packets. Packets will resume when I have returned the tests to you so you can retake if necessary and not have competing information to study.
• You should now be finishing up the “Who Am I” project. The final essay is due this week and the final project is due Nov. 14th. This is when you should resubmit any corrections to previously graded essays.

History

• Research project to be turned in Wed. Nov. 5th.  Remember the paper must be typed, double spaced, and have a bibliography. You must also turn in your notes compiled for this paper.
• History test over Ch. 6 will take place Friday. You may use your paper as a study guide during the test.

Reading:

• We are taking our first in class test on Friday. We read Ray Bradbury’s “Drummer Boy of Shiloh” and discussed it focusing on the theme of coming of age. We worked with discussion questions in class and had some homework from the book (p. 9).
• We have literature reports due every Friday. These are the evidence that students are completing their assigned nightly reading. Students are to read for at least 1/2 hour a night, 5 nights a week. Reading should be recorded on the school wide reading log. Lit reports must reflect books recorded on the reading log.
• Non-fiction reguirements for this trimester are; writing (an author discussing his or her thoughts on writing, Sports or other competitive activity, and Science, math or nature. Forms to record these readings are available on moodle,

*Armstrong, Jennifer. Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World: The True Story of Shackleton and the Endurance. During a 1914 Antarctic expedition, the waters freeze and crush Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance, forcing his crew to make a long, perilous journey across ice and stormy seas to reach inhabited land. (NF)

Auch, Mary Jane.  Ashes of Roses. An honest and compelling story of a young girl’s newfound independence: from her entrance to America via Ellis Island to her frightening involvement in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911.

Baroness Orczy, Emmuska. The Scarlet Pimpernel. A classic story tells of daring and adventure during the French Revolution.

Bauer, Joan.  Hope Was Here.  When 16 year-old Hope and her aunt take new jobs as waitress and cook at the Welcome Stairways diner, they become involved with a political campaign to oust the town’s corrupt mayor.

*Benedict, Jeff.  No Bone Unturned: Inside the World of a Top Forensic Scientist and His Work on America’s Most Notorious Crimes and Disasters.  Look at the incredible work of real forensic detectives. (NF)

*Braithwaite, E. R. To Sir with Love. A teacher in a poor section of London changes the lives of his cynical and jaded students. Although he combined several years into one and it is not technically a true biography it is a depiction of actual events and I will accept it as non-fiction. (NF)

Brontë, Charlotte.  Jane Eyre.  Jane finds terror and romance when she becomes governess in a mysterious mansion.

Bruchac, Joseph, Code Talker. After being taught in a boarding school run by whites that Navajo is a useless language, Ned Begay and other Navajo men are recruited by the Marines to become Code Talkers, sending messages during World War II in their native tongue.

Card, Orson Scott. Ender’s Game. In the future, intelligent children are sent to be trained by the military in an off-planet school. One boy seems to have more promise than any other.

Deuker, Carl.  Night Hoops.  While trying to prove that he should play on the varsity basketball team, freshman Nick Abbott must also deal with his parents’ divorce and erratic behavior of a troubled classmate who lives across the street.

Donnelly, Jennifer.  Northern Light.  This is the story of 16 year-old Mattie Gokey, an early 20^th century writer in-the-making, whose personal pain of losing her mother morphs into a dose of writer’s block, as she must help raise her younger sisters.

DuMaurier, Daphne.  Rebecca.  First published 1938.  The timid new mistress of Manderley is haunted by her predecessor. A suspense story.

Garland, Sherry.  Shadow of the Dragon.  As three generations of a Vietnamese family live together, Danny Vo is buffeted between his desire to please his grandmother’s strict adherence to their culture and his desire to fit in socially.

Farmer, Nancy. House of the Scorpion. The story of a clone boy living in a country that gets its money from the sale of drugs.

*Filipovic, Zlata.  Zlata’s Diary: A Child’s Life in Sarajevo.  This is a true account of a child’s experience in war torn Sarajevo beginning with everyday concerns and evolving into the story of an innocent bystander in war-torn Bosnia. (NF)

*Hasson, Kevin Seamus. The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the Culture War Over Religion in America. An historical view of the argument over religious freedom, in the United States, and one author’s ideas of how to end the continuing arguments. (NF)

*Hatch, Robert and William Hatch. The Hero Project. When they were ages 11 and 14, brothers Robert and William Hatch embarked on this ambitious project: to interview their heroes and write a book about “how they made America a better place.” (NF)

Hughes, Dean.  Soldier Boys.  Two boys, one German and one American, are eager to join their respective armies during World War II, and their paths cross at the Battle of the Bulge.

Jimenez, Francisco.  The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child.  This book is a collection of stories based on the author’s own experiences as a child in a migrant farm worker family.

London, Jack.  The Call of the Wild.  First published 1931.  Set during the Gold Rush, this is the story of Buck, a dog stolen from his home and transported to Alaska where he must survive in a pack of wolves.

*McClafferty, Carla Killough. Something Out of Nothing: Marie Curie and Radium. Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, was also the first person to win it twice. This biography explores Curie’s achievements in an era when women scientists struggled for recognition. (NF)

Nix, Garth. Sabriel. A girl, whose father is a magician who sets Dead creatures to rest, must follow in his footsteps to set him free from Death.

Patterson, James. The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride, Book 1)

“The funny thing about facing imminent death is that it really snaps everything else into perspective…”

*Ray, Delia.  A Nation Torn: The Story of How the Civil War Began.  This book includes letters and photographs that describe events leading to the war and the unforgettable individuals of that era. (NF)

*Robinson, Sharon. Promises to Keep: How Jackie Changed America.  Jackie Robinson’s daughter draws an intimate portrait of her father as a child, young man, athlete, businessman, civil rights leader, and national hero. (NF)

*Silverstein, Ken. The Radioactive Boy Scout: The True Story of a Boy and His Backyard Nuclear Reactor. It really is true. He was really into his science project. (NF)

Stewart, Mary  The Crystal Cave (The Arthurian Saga, Book 1) Initially published nearly thirty years ago,

Mary Stewart’s The Crystal Cave has been spellbinding readers and converting them into serious Arthurian buffs ever since. The first in a series of four books, this novel focuses on the early life of Merlin the magician, and the political developments of fifth-century Britain. Not for the fainthearted, this verbose text pays careful attention to historical details and methodical plot development.
 

*Taylor, Peter Lane and Christos Nicola The Secret of Priest’s Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story

During World War II, as the Nazis closed in, several Jewish families disappeared into the underground labyrinths of Western Ukraine. (NF)

*Truss, Lynne Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. This often humorous book takes a very funny look at the hazards of bad grammar. (NF)

Voigt, Cynthia.  Izzy, Willy-Nilly.  Izzy’s drunken date crashes the car, crippling her and changing her young life forever.

* denotes Non-fiction books.

In addition to expecting you to read the books, I also expect you to complete the following assignment, which will be collected the first week of school next September. You are required to read a total of three books from the enclosed list, at least one of which must be non-fiction. You must choose books you have not previously read.

This assignment is to help you enhance your abilities in the following learning standards as well as inform me of areas of possible concern.

• Build vocabulary through wide reading
• Demonstrate evidence of reading comprehension
• Understand and apply knowledge of text components to comprehend text
• Read to learn new information
• Read for literary experience in a variety of genres
• Develop interests and share reading experiences

The culminating writing activity will be completed in class. However, you are required to bring notes (described as followed) to class. You will turn in your notes to me with the writing assignment.

Book notes:

• A description of the main character(s): You should write one paragraph for each of the main characters.  Each paragraph should describe both physical characteristics and personality traits of the main characters. For the non-fiction book describe of the focus of the book and characters of importance. You should write one paragraph describing the topic, the structure of the book (how it is organized), people who may be important in the understanding of the story, and what field or discipline it describes.
• A description of the setting: In a detailed paragraph, you will need to explain where the action of the story takes place. This is possible even with the non-fiction books.
• A list of the main events: As you make this list, try to place the events that occur in chronological order. This works with the non-fiction books as well except Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which will require a discussion of problems discussed.
• An explanation of the conflict: In a detailed paragraph, you should identify problems that the characters face. How do the characters react to these problems? How do the characters resolve these problems or conflict? For the non-fiction book describe the same information for the individuals discussed, the historical events that occurred or the problem addressed in the book.

For each book, record title and author of the book you are writing about. Each book is to be reported on a separate sheet of paper. All work must be typed or written neatly in blue or black ink. This assignment will be counted as 5% of your grade for the first trimester; half from the notes take on the books, half from the in-class assessment.

Reading: We will have a test over two stories Finish of Patsy Barns and Tears of Autumn on Friday, Dec 14. The focus of these two stories is the setting and how the setting helps us understand the story.

Language Arts: We are working on the requirements of a formal research paper to support our work in history class.

Reading: We are working on the Jr. Great Books selection “Summer of the Beautiful White Horse.” Class discussion will take place Thuraday, Dec 13, and post discussion written questions will be completed in class Dec. 15.

Language Arts: We are working on the requirements of a formal research paper to support our work in history class.

Language Arts: Sentence Diagraming quiz will be on Friday over simple and compound predicates and subjects. In class we have worked on descriptive language and you were assigned a worksheet on Monday. This is due now.

History: We have a test over Ch. 1 sections 1-3 on Tuesday Oct. 9th. Be sure your homework for chapter 1 is completed. Check your homework sheet for details.

Language Arts: Sentence Diagraming quiz will be on Friday over simple and compound predicates and subjects. In class we have worked on descriptive language and you were assigned a worksheet on Monday. This is due now. Also, you have had paragraphs due which follow-up the worksheet on Conclusions. These are also due.

History: We have a test over Ch. 1 sections 1-3 on Tuesday Oct. 9th. Be sure your homework for chapter 1 is completed. Check your homework sheet for details.

Language Arts: Complete paragraph on Main Idea and supporting details, if not completed and turned in, in class

History: Quiz over the southwestern states tomorrow. Final regional test will be on Monday. Test of all 50 states will be on Wednesday.