Happy April and Acrostic Poems!

Hi, All,

 Happy April and two weeks before the April Spring Vacation.  The photos show work done by my ESL ELA and Math classes; acrostic poems on the main characters in the Gary Soto Author Study and math stories (on number sense)!

 All the students are diligently working and striving to write thoughtful and clear sentences that express what they want to communicate to their readers!

 Enjoy this beautiful weather!

~Mrs. MacDougall

 

Author Study: Gary Soto

Hello Cool Cats,

    ELA MCAS testing is finished for the year and we are now focusing our attention on our author of the month, Gary Soto!  We are reading several of his novels, including Taking Sides, The Cat's Meow, and Chato's Kitchen; as well as several poems. 


 Within this author study is a plethora of rich vocabulary
that will add to our oral and written conversations in class.

                                    Thank you, Mr. Soto!

Bring on the April Showers!
~Mrs. MacDougall

Shamrock Summaries!

  "Time is a great storyteller" - Irish Proverb

  Happy Saint Patrick's Day!  In class, we finished our class novels and created Shamrock Summaries as a culminating activity.  The students did a great job synthesizing their thoughts - Go, 7th and 8th graders!!

 I am really impressed with their focus, dedication, and determination in learning English.  Keep it up!

~Mrs. MacDougall

 

Happy March!

Welcome, March 2014,

 We missed your sunshine!  We are gearing up for the ELA MCAS now and are creating more complex sentence structures, using varied and more sophisticated words, and using paragraph structures to communicate thoughts and evidence.  Continue reading for information!  HOORAY! 

 We are currently writing short stories in class and attempting to add in our own figurative language to create fantastic mental pictures for our readers.

 More to come....

Watch out for the Ides of March, right before Saint Patrick's Day! (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/ides1.html)
 and (http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day).

~Mrs. MacDougall