Mrs. Toomey's 7th Grade ELA
Beginning of the Year Newsletter
Reader's Workshop
Writer's Workshop
Collaboration
English/Language Arts
About 7th Grade ELA
Welcome! I am excited to begin a new school year!
Seventh grade is an exciting yet challenging year for students. They move to a new side of the building with new teachers, more classes, and the opportunity to participate in more extra-curricular activities and/or athletics. All of this can cause stress for students unless they learn to effectively manage their time both in school and at home.
Common Core and best practices encourage the integration of reading and language arts activities. Therefore, seventh grade ELA will be integrating our reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar units. This means that for each reading unit, writing assignments will be based on what students are currently reading. Vocabulary words will also come from the short stories, novels, and articles that we read throughout the year. Vocabulary in seventh grade will also be differentiated based on each student's level of knowledge. Grammar instruction will be integrated into writing instruction, making the grammar more authentic and meaningful for each student. Unit assessments will then have reading, writing, vocabulary, and grammar components to assess students' understanding of the unit as a whole. With the integration of reading and language arts activities, students will now receive only one grade for ELA. Although students will still have two periods of ELA each day, they will no longer receive two separate grades in Skyward.
As part of the district's 1:1 Technology Initiative this year, our class will be using the iPad almost every day! This will be the tool we use to complete assignments, keep course handouts and reference materials, review for tests and quizzes, practice grammar concepts, compose projects and book reports, and participate in discussions and group work. Although the iPad is a fairly new tool in education, 7th grade ELA still follows the same curriculum as in previous years. The iPad is simply the tool we will be using in our class to engage with the content being taught.
For specific policies and more detailed information regarding the District 103 1:1 Technology Initiative, please see the Daniel Wright Student Handbook.
I look forward to an outstanding school year!
What's coming up next...
Writing- While we will complete a variety of writing assignments this quarter, the writing focus will be argumentative. We will focus on choosing a claim and finding evidence from the text to support that claim.
Vocabulary- Vocabulary during first quarter will be taken from each of the short stories and classic stories that we read in class. All of these words will be assessed on the Elements of Fiction test. In addition to these words, we will be studying word parts such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots.
Grammar- Grammar mini-lessons will be taught during language arts. Grammar for this quarter will focus on sentence parts, and students will need to apply these lessons in their writing.
Parent Communication
How will you know what's going on in class?!
Twitter- I will post pictures and updates of what we are doing in class on Twitter! Follow me--- @mrstoomey103. If you are not on Twitter, you can view my posts from my Haiku home page.
Course Website- This is a great resource for general information and announcements regarding ELA and 7th grade activities and events. See my website for additional ELA resources and links if your child is looking for review or enrichment.
Skyward- Grades are updated in Skyward at least once a week. Check Skyward frequently with your child to stay up to date on assignments.
Mrs. Amanda Toomey
Email: atoomey@d103.org
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/d103.org/atoomey/
Location: Daniel Wright Junior High School, Lincolnshire, IL, United States
Phone: (847) 295-1560
Twitter: @mrstoomey103