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Miss Keiser

7th Grade Language Arts


2015-2016 Syllabus
Miss Keiser
Email: kkeiser@brownsurg.k12.in.us [email is the best way to contact me]
Website: http://keiserenglishclass.weebly.com/
Phone: 317.852.2386 ext. 2286
Welcome to seventh Language Arts. Language arts (Literacy) can be defined as the ability to use language to read, write,
listen, and speak. Language, in all of its many forms, is our foundation for purposeful communication and understanding.
In this course, you will build upon what you already know about language and develop new strategies for effective
reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Please take some time to read through this course syllabus and share it with a
parent/guardian at home. I look forward to getting to know you throughout our school year together!

Writing-Reading Workshop Goals:


To write as much and as well as you can.
For you to become skilled, passionate, habitual, critical readers (Atwell, 2007).

Workshop Objectives:

For you to read and write freely and daily


For you to experience different reading and writing genres
For you to learn about writing crafts and conventions and practice them
For you to attempt to be published
For you to learn about various reading strategies and skills, and practice them
For you to appreciate both classic and contemporary literature
For you to become a lifelong reader and writer

Supplies:
Please bring the following to class each day:
Assignment notebook (passport)
Paper
Great Ideas
Independent reading book

Binder
Favorite Writing utensil

Assessment:

70% of your grade will be based on the following:


o Writers/Readers Notebook evaluations
o Formal Writing Pieces
o Reading Quizzes and Tests
o Grammar/Vocabulary Quizzes and Tests
20% of your grade will be based on the following:
o Select WNB/RNB entries
o Bell Work (4 level analysis and vocabulary) completion
o Anecdotal record of small group book discussions
10% of your grade will be based on the following:
o Classroom participation
o Whole group discussions
o Effort to grow as a writer and reader

Expectations (For Students)

You, the student, are essential to our classroom environment. Your special talents, the energy
that you bring to class each day, and your contributions in class will have an impact on everyone
around you. Here is what I expect from YOU each day:

Expectations for Writing

Find topics and purposes for your writing that matter to you, to your life, to who you are now and want to become.

Keep a writers notebook that includes: the topics, purposes, audiences, genres, forms, and techniques that are your
specialties or that youd like to experiment with.

Initiate the 6+1 Writing Traits: Ideas, Organization, Sentence Fluency, Voice, Word Choice, Conventions, and
Presentation.

Adhere to the following notebook/binder expectations:


Good writers write whenever time is provided in school and at home.
Try strategies from the mini-lesson before continuing with your own work for the day.
Respect the integrity of the notebook/binder by taking care of it, writing legibly, and having it in class
every day. The good news is that these will be kept in class. You should respect other notebooks by only
reading entries you are invited to read by the author.

Try new topics, purposes, audiences, genres, forms, and techniques.

Make your own decisions about what is working and needs more work in pieces of your writing. Be the first
responder to your writing, and read yourself with a critical eye and ear.

Listen to, ask questions about, and comment on others writing in ways that help them move their writing forward.

Take notes over writing mini-lessons in your writers notebook.

Plan to spend time outside of school working on your writing each week. Remember that writers build quality upon a
foundation of quantity.

Take risks as a writer.

Recognize that readers eyes and minds need your writing to be conventional in format,
spelling, punctuation, and usage. Work toward conventionality and legibility, and use what
you know about format, spelling, punctuation, and usage as you compose.

Understand that writing is thinking. Do nothing to distract me or other writers. Dont put your
words into our brains as we are struggling to find our own.

Work as hard in writing workshop as I do.

Expectations for Reading (For Students)

Find books, authors, subjects, and themes that matter to you, to your life, to who you are and who you want to
become.

Keep a list of the books you read including: titles, authors, genres, number of pages, and Lexile score of the books.

Try new authors, subjects, and genres; expand your reading possibilities.

Develop and articulate your criteria for selecting and abandoning books; find your purpose.

Go inside your books and respond to the writing you are reading; decide what is working and needs more work in the
books you read.

Read as much as you can, as often as you can.

Take notes over reading mini-lessons in keep them in your WNB/RNB.

Take care of books we have provided for you. Return each book you borrow to the classroom libraries in good
condition.

Establish and work toward significant, relevant goals for yourself as a reader each nine weeks.

Complete (cover to cover) each novel we read this year in 7 th grade.

Work as hard in reading workshop as I do.

7th Grade Learning Objectives (For Parents)


Reading Workshop
Your student will learn new ways of thinking within (literal understanding), beyond (making predictions and
connections, inferring and synthesizing), and about (analyzing and critiquing) different texts.
Students will also study the features that characterize each particular genre of literature. For instance, your student will
study the features that characterize narratives when reading stories, novels, and personal experience essays.
The reading of informational texts and the understanding of their text structures, ways in which they are organized
(chronological order, cause and effect, classification schemes), will also be an important component of this class.
Along with reading across the disciplines, your student will work toward greater fluency, continue to expand his/her
knowledge of literary terms and devices, and acquire new vocabulary that he/she will be able to use correctly in reading
and writing.
Writing Workshop
Writing workshop is designed to provide your student with opportunities to write frequently in a variety of forms and for
a variety of purposes and audiences. This year, your student will write extended compositions, short pieces on demand,
and informal reflections, both to communicate with others and to focus his/her own thinking.
Through process writing, your student will learn to apply strategies for organizing a first draft (brainstorming, planning,
mapping, and clustering), writing successive versions, revising, and editing. Graphic organizers and models of expected
student writing outcomes will help to guide your child through the pre-writing and drafting stages.
Your student will learn to revise his/her compositions by reorganizing sentences or paragraphs for clarity, adding or
deleting information, and finding precise words. Daily modeling and mini-lessons will help with this step by providing
direct and explicit instruction on the attributes of 6+1 writing traits and other qualities of writing.
On-going instruction will review, reinforce, and extend what your student has learned in his/her introductory grammar
lessons in English class in order to help with understanding how to self-correct for grammar, spelling, and mechanical
mistakes so that your student will begin to apply editing skills as he/she writes.
Your students Writers Notebook/Binder is designated as a place for your student to reflect, explore, and clarify ideas in
all content areas. It will also contain your students practice with writing on demand (Quick Writes) wherein he/she will
be required to write quickly, clearly, and succinctly typically in response to a question with the goal of producing a
concise and comprehensible first draft.
Your seventh grader will also engage in research writing using multiple sources and learn criteria for evaluating the
quality of on-line information as well as standards for ethical use of the resources he/she finds.

Types of Writing in 7th Grade

Literary Essay: The literary essay is a journey of a readers thinking about literature and how
literature illuminates life and humanity. It takes the reader through the hypothesis (ideas, hunch) in
steps, unfolding thinking as it goes. It acknowledges and refutes opposing views. It is organized and
clear, containing ordinate (greater) and subordinate (lesser) ideas.
Essay: Randy Bomer defines an essay as something written to take readers on a journey of thought
as the writer tries out an idea. And most major news magazines publish something with the label
essay on it each week, often on the back page. Essays can be about any topic, so depending on
the topic, there are sub-categories of essays: personal, political, cultural, historical, media and literary.
Persuasive letter: The persuasive letter is defined as presenting reasons and examples to influence
action or thought. Effective persuasive writing requires a writer to state clearly an opinion and to
supply reasons and specific examples that support the opinion.
Commentary: This is the writing the syndicated columnists do, the men and woman of the op-ed
page of the newspaper. Its the writing Rick Reilly does on the back page of ESPN the Magazine
each week. Their job is to comment (hence, commentary) on whats going on in the world. The
writing in them ranges from reflective essay to playful topical writing all the way to the clear
positioning of an opinion-driven editorial.
Poetry: The words of life.
Research: A research paper is the culmination and final product of an involved process of research,
critical thinking, source evaluation, organization, and composition. It is, perhaps, helpful to think of the
research paper as a living thing, which grows and changes as the student explores, interprets, and
evaluates sources related to a specific topic. Primary and secondary sources are the heart of a
research paper, and provide its nourishment; without the support of and interaction with these
sources, the research paper would morph into a different genre of writing (e.g., an encyclopedic
article). The research paper serves not only to further the topic in which it is written, but also to
provide the student with an exceptional opportunity to increase his or her knowledge in that topic.
Narrative/ Memoir: A type of autobiographical nonfiction where a writer take a reflective stance in
looking back on a particular time in his or her life. This kind of writing has a significant memory/event
attached to quality reflection. Readers do not just get the authors experience, they get a sense of the
person who is remembering.
Argument: We've all used some form of argumentation at one point in our lives. Whether it was
asking parents for permission to go somewhere, seeking more money at a job, or begging for a
second chance after a big mistake, we've examined different evidence to determine which approach
is best to make our case for what we want in life. Though they may not have taken a formal style,
these strategies of persuasion form the basis of argumentative essays. An argumentative essay is a
type of writing that requires a writer to defend a position on a topic using strong logic and evidence
from personal experience, literature, historical examples, and research to support his or her
viewpoint. The writer usually uses several different arguments to prove his or her point.

What is a readers notebook anyway?

The Reader's notebook is a new concept for many students and parents. A reader's notebook is a place
where the reader communicates his/her thoughts and feelings about the book he/she is reading, and
utilizes reading strategies taught during mini-lessons. The notebook is a storehouse about reading, a place
to archive thoughts so that a reader can return to review and reflect upon them. A reader can return to a
prediction that was made at the beginning of the book and adjust it, or go back and answer that tough
question he/she asked himself/herself five chapters ago. It is also an ever-progressing portfolio of reading
and thinking development.
With that said, the primary use of the notebook is to help individuals become better readers by:
Engaging in critical thinking
Applying Best Practice reading strategies
Engaging in meaningful independent work while the teacher works with smaller groups.
Connecting reading and writing in a meaningful way
Formulating thoughtful and personal responses to what is read
Collecting, examining, and using interesting words and language patterns
Examining the writers craft and recording the techniques noticed for later discussion and
application in writing
Sketching and drawing to express understanding in images as a support for discussion or writing.
What is expected in my childs readers notebook?
Because every reader is different and come from different reading histories, entries may vary from student
to student. It is very difficult to set a standard for the size and word count for every entry. As for the
assessment piece of the reader's notebook, I have developed several criteria that measure success. Here
are the main indicators I look for in a RNB:
Detailed entries vs. short, choppy underdeveloped entries (quantity of entries).
Clearly communicated thinking vs. unclear and assumed thinking. (quality of entries)
Accurately applying the reading strategies that were taught through mini-lessons during class
(predicting, questioning based on opinion, and connecting vs. irrelevant entries.)
Reading maturity (thinking about the larger context of the book; the theme the author is
addressing) vs. thinking about only the sequence of events.
How can I help my child at home with his/her notebook?
Go purchase or check out the book your child is reading. Read along with him/her. Show your child
that you are a reader, too.
Read your childs RNB and respond to it with a letter or a post-it note in his/her book.

Dear Mark,
Isnt it amazing when you realized you are a lot like the main character in the book you are reading. I bet
the main character has done some the same funny stuff you do. I think the main character will like
baseball and motorcycles. How else is the main character like you? Also, tell me why you think the main
character will get rescued. How do you think it will happen?

Have your child make revisions to entries that you think are confusing or too vague. Encourage
your child to show evidence and proof from the text; look for direct quotes from the text, page
numbers and summarized passages that support your childs RNB entries.
Encourage your child to read other books at home.

THAT WAS

THEN
When I learned to write...
Teachers usually gave the students topics to write about. Students
wrote because the teacher said they had to.
The teacher told students WHAT to write about, how long to write it,
and when it was due.
Teachers controlled the assignments, walking the whole class through
the entire writing process all at the same time.
Every writing assignment was started on Monday and finished
(published) on Friday.
Students wrote, turned it in, and didnt know if it was good until they
got it back from the teacher with a grade on it.
Good writing included correct spelling, capitalization, grammar,
punctuation, and neat handwriting. (This only addressed the trait of
Conventions.)

THIS IS

NOW
When my child learns to write...
Teachers reveal why people really write for a purpose/reason, to an
audience, about an important topic/subject.
Teachers balance no choice writing with free choice writing.
Teachers show students HOW to write. Teachers demonstrate how to
incorporate particular skills into their writing.
Students work more independently at their own pace. They move their
own writings through the process, seeking support at various stages.
Students often write first drafts only, to honor what real-world writing
looks like.
Students learn the qualities of good writing. They can self-revise,
self-edit, and even self-assess their own writing. They know if its
good before they turn it in for an evaluation.

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