Syllabus
Seventh Grade and Honors 7th Grade Language Arts
Instructor: Kathy Patterson
Room: B-106
E-mail: kapatterson@okcps.org
Homework blog: http://kapatterson.wordpress.com
Homepage: http://www.okcps.org/teacher/kapatterson (Note that I am no longer able to edit this page. It is frozen at a time last year, but has some valuable links.)
Text: McDougall-Littell Literature 8
Required at home: a dictionary
Course Reading, required (these books are in the library):
Where the Red Fern Grows
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (No Fear edition recommended)
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Diary of Anne Frank (the diary, not the play)
Seventh Grade Language Arts and Honors 7th Grade Language Arts are courses that seek to perfect the basics of the written language through the study of literature and the writing of sentences, paragraphs, and short essays. Particular attention is given to basic study skills, grammar, literary and rhetorical devices, characterization, and world literature emphasizing various themes. We will also have units on spoken English and research skills.
Grading: Students will be evaluated in a variety of ways including, notebook work, exercises, and writing assignments that correlate to various aspects of grammar, essay skills, and reading comprehension. All assignments are not weighted equally. See Post #2 for more information about grades.
Seventh-Grade Reading List
The View From Saturday, E L Konigsburg [academic competition]
The Trouble with Lemons, Daniel Hayes [finding yourself, humor]
Eye of the Beholder, Daniel Hayes [humor, art]
Running Out of Time, Margaret Peterson Haddix [adventure]
Turnabout, Margaret Peterson Haddix [science fiction]
October Sky, Homer Hickam [science, nonfiction]
Shakespeare Stealer, Gary Blackwood [historical fiction, theater]
The Outside Shot, Walter Dean Myers [basketball, success]
Homecoming, Cynthia Voigt [growing up, family]
Izzy, Willy-Nilly, Cynthia Voigt [physical trauma]
Come a Stranger, Cynthia Voigt [finding yourself, dancing]
The Giver, Lois Lowry [science fiction]
A Step from Heaven, An Na [Korean American experiences]
April Morning, Howard Fast [growing up, historical fiction]
Across Five Aprils, Irene Hunt [historical fiction]
True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, AVI [historical fiction]
Lily’s Crossing, Patricia Reilly Giff [historical fiction, World War II]
Pictures of Hollis Woods, Patricia Reilly Giff [art, finding a family]
Wolf Rider, AVI [suspense]
Code Orange, Caroline B. Cooney [suspense, bioterrorism]
Touching Spirit Bear, Ben Mikaelsen [adventure, delinquency, anger, art]
The Princess Bride, William Goldman [adventure, romance]
Catherine Called Birdie, Karen Cushman [historical fiction, the Middle Ages]
Locked in Time, Lois Duncan [suspense]
Lupita Manana, Patricia Beatty [Mexican American experiences]
Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan [historical fiction, Hispanic experiences]
Words by Heart, Ouida Sebestyen [historical fiction, racism]
Al Capone Does my Shirts, Gennifer Choldenko [finding yourself, autism]
Out-of-Class Reading Novels and Major Works of Literature
Aug 21: Out-of-Class Reading #1 (student’s choice from the list given above, read during the summer)
Sep 8: In-Class Major Work of Literature #1: Where the Red Fern Grows
Oct 21: Out-of-Class Reading #2 (student’s choice from the list given above)
Nov 4: In-Class Major Work of Literature #2: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Jan 6: Out-of-Class Reading #3 (student’s choice from the list given above)
Jan 27: In-Class Major Work of Literature #3: To Kill a Mockingbird
Mar 24: Out-of-Class Reading #4 (student’s choice from the list given above)
Apr 20: In-Class Major Work of Literature #4: The Diary of Anne Frank
Literacy: Individual Novels and Projects
Each book will require one major project and/or a writing assignment. One of the summer reading novels will be the first book covered.
Literature Concepts
Attention will also be given to the varieties of literary genre–poetry, short story, drama, novel, and speech. These are organized into themes in the book and include authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou, Robert Cormier, Gary Paulsen, Shirley Jackson and Ray Bradbury. Emphasis will be placed on major British and American writers, multicultural writers, figurative language, style, and inference.
Vocabulary Expansion
–Vocabulary of Language Arts (academic vocabulary)
–Roots and origins of words
–Word families
Critical Thinking: Learning to Go beyond the Text
–Analogy
–Patterns and trends
–Note-taking
–Outlining
–Organizing, including compare and contrast, cause and effect, sequencing
–Discussion techniques
Major Grammatical Concepts:
–Parts of Speech
–Sentence types, clauses and phrases
–Punctuation
Writing Concepts:
–Sentence variety
–Paragraph unity, coherence, development
–Descriptive, narrative and expository writing
Homework
Seventh-grade students benefit from homework in a number of ways, including gains in achievement, development of independence and responsibility, and the establishment of good study habits and time management skills.
–Don’t ask your child if he or she has homework. Instead set aside a time and place where every evening the student gets out his/her planner and then make notes of what is due tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and later in the semester. Check that he or she updates this plan of action every evening.
–A big problem for many seventh graders is keeping straight whether the next day is A or B. Your student can be organized for tomorrow’s classes by having a calendar in the study area, finishing up the next day’s work (whether an A- or a B-Day), and then starting the work assigned on that day (which was either A- or B-Day).
–Make sure he or she takes the correct A- or B-backpack to school the next day.
–For this class, homework should always include a time for reading, preferably at least 30 minutes.
–The homework grade at SmartWeb is the percent of homework assignments completed satisfactorily and submitted. This grade is always more current than the most recent Progress Report.
Fall Semester—Speaking Concepts:
–Public Speaking
–Discussion
–Poetry reading
Spring Semester: Research Projects
-Web Quests
