Re: Organizing a Gr7 LA class? Lit. circles? Sentence Diagra

Jo Ann

Posted on 9/02/09

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Hi Krys,

Congratulations on your new job. It can indeed seem
overwhelming to try to fit in everything when teaching
language arts.

To brush up on your grammar skills, please visit my website,
grammargator.com. There is a big red button on the homepage
that lets you instantly download a free 30 page Teachers'
Guide to Grammar.

Next, you are definitely on the right track with your idea to
incorporate grammar instruction in your novel units. To do
this, also on my website are Grammar Guides to many popular
young adult novels. They use sentences from the novels
themselves to teach 12 key grammar skills for middle
schoolers, while reinforcing reading comprehension at the
same time. If you plan to do literature circles, students can
be reading different books yet still learning the same
grammar skills in context.

Good luck in the new school year!

Jo Ann

On 9/01/09, Krys wrote:
> This is my first year teaching Gr 7 Language Arts and I am
> excited, but I do feel out of my element, as my comfort is
> Math (which I also get to teach this year). I have only 21
> students as of right now and we start next week. I have
> gone back and forth about how to set up my actual teaching
> time for LA. I'll do reading here...for this long.. teach
> this Write Trait...do this vocabulary activity...I have a
> lot of ideas (many from these chatboards - thank you) but
> I do have a mathematical brain and so I'm trying to figure
> out a method to teach LA that makes sense to me and
> therefore the students. We do have 3 themes to cover - so
> one per term makes sense to me...I have a tentative plan
> to "cover" the 6 Traits of writing so that we can use the
> language and the skills to improve our writing...But how
> much time do you set aside for grammar? Spelling? I was
> thinking about incorporating both into our novel studies
> and theme work, especially since there is no "Speller"
> persay for Grade 7. I'd also like them to have time to read
> independently, something of their choice...I want to do a
> read aloud...We'll be reading novels, short stories,
> newspaper articles as appropriate, poetry...we have certain
> forms of writing to cover: friendly letter, opinion piece,
> review, autobiography...etc. etc. How do you plan your year
> to make you get everything covered? (I'm also in PEI,
> Canada and we have to "high stakes, standardized tests,
> persay - so that's a comfort as far as covering everything
> goes...not the same type of pressure...)
>
> Another related question...literature circles? Do you do
> them? Do you like them? How do you manage and organize them
> effectively, so that the curriculum is met, and chaos does
> not ensue?
>
> Lastly, I was told that there are no stupid questions...so
> here goes: What's sentence diagramming? I was not taught
> grammar directly EVER and my degrees are not in English.
> These boards say that it is very worthwhile and I know that
> I could google it - but you are the experts...so...I assume
> the sentences are deconstructed...nouns, verbs, articles
> etc. identified perhaps? How do you suggest doing this
> effectively, while keeping Grade 7s engaged and also,
> having them believe that they really do "have to know this"?
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Krys

Grammargator

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