Week of January 17-20, 2012 - LA & SS - Return Report Cards w/ Parent Signature!

Plans are subject to change based on student mastery.  Please check back throughout the week for uploaded resources and homework assignments.

REPORT CARDS WERE SENT HOME ON FRIDAY, 1/13/12!  PLEASE SIGN AND RETURN.  THEY WILL SENT BACK HOME WITH YOUR STUDENT ONCE I VERIFY YOUR SIGNATURE!  THANKS!

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---------------------------------               Language Arts              ----------------------------------

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Upcoming Due Dates:

1. READ everyday - 30 minutes and/or 15 pages in your own PERSONAL chapter book.
2. READING DUE DATES:  Reading Log & AR test due by: FRIDAY, January 30, 2012. Goal: 420 pages. 
3. See individual days below for HW assignments.

Agenda for the Week:

• Monday - Student/Teacher Holiday - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 
• Tuesday - 1/17 - Mock Writing Exam Prep/practice
• Wednesday - 1/18 - 7th Grade Mock Writing Exam administered in 1st period.   Class:  Writer's Notebook title:  "Writing Exam Reflection" - Task:  Think about the writing exam and reflect on your performance.  How do you think you did?  Consider the rubric domains and rate yourself:  Writing Ideas, Organization, Style, and Conventions.  What did you learn through this practice experience.  What did you do best?  What were your weak areas?  How will you improve?  If you could do it again, what would you do?  Why?  EXIT TICKET:  On a separate sheet of paper, write a letter to your 8th grade self reflecting on this experience.  Give yourself advice on what you learned this year including what you want to remember to do next year.  Finished?  D.E.A.R. - Drop Everything and Read your non-fiction library book.
• Thursday 1/19-  Reading lesson from the Critical Reading Series, Rescued.  Think/Pair/Share.  Is this expository or persuasive text?  What is the author's purpose?  How do you know?  Examine the writing.  How is it organized?  Answer reading comprehension questions.  Review. Think/Pair/Share:  Using the above text, find a simple, compound, complex, and compound/complex sentence.  Identify the clauses.  Underline dependent clauses once & independent clauses twice. 
• Friday 1/20 - WU:  Writer's NB response.  What is expository text and how is it organized?  Read Reality Central "The Word on Bullies," beginning on page 21.  Analyze the text structure.  How is it organized?   


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-----------------------------------------              Social Studies              ----------------------------------------

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Upcoming Due Dates:

1. Africa Health Activity - Speeches due Friday, 1/20
2. Central/East Africa MAP quiz on 1/25 - Practice maps distributed on 1/13.
3. South Africa MAP quiz on 1/31.
4. Africa Vocab Packet - due Friday 1/27.   
5. Africa Unit II TEST - Thursday 2/2. Study Guides will be distributed on 1/25.

Map quizzes.  Study your large Africa map, the practice map, and the interactive map websites located under "Social Studies Resources."

Agenda for the Week:

• Monday - Student/Teacher Holiday - Martin Luther King, Jr.  
• Tuesday 1/17- Begin investigating health problems in Africa. 
• Wednesday - 1/18 - Shortened classes due to 7th Grade Mock Writing Assessment.  Africa Health Stations Activity.  HW - Finish two (2) stations - HIV/AIDS & TB or Malaria.
• Thursday 1/19- Continue working on the Health Stations Activity. Discuss Sub-Sahara Africa impressions regarding health, environment, conflict, education, etc... R.A.F.T. Task:  You will compose a speech (2 minutes) on South Africa's health crisis.  Role of the Writer: Who are you as the writer? You are a health minister in South Africa.  Audience: To whom are you writing? Your audience is the President of South Africa.  Format: In what format are you writing? You are writing a letter that you will personally read to the President. Topic: What are you writing about?  You have evaluated three strategies to improve the public health in South Africa and decided which strategy would be most effective:  improve education programs, improve access to health care, or improve access to medications.  Because South Africa has limited resources and money, your decision will have a lot of influence.  You must EXPLAIN the health issues that are most difficult to overcome in South Africa, your STRATEGY to improve the public health, and include the following:  why the strategy should get the most money and resources from the government, why the government should focus on that specific strategy (think about how it will help the people in the future), why the strategy is more effective than the orther two strategies (ARGUE your postion using appeals - emotional, ethical, logical, and call to action), and the short term and long term effects of the strategy on HIV/AIDS & cholera.  HW:  All stations - HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and TB must be completed.  Begin to draft your letter.
•  Friday 1/20 -  Discuss  health issues and answer "Explain some of the issues that affect human health in Sub-Saharan Africa."  Draft, revise, and finish your letter to the President of South Africa.  HW - Finish any part of the above including your letter over the weekend.  You will read it to the class on MONDAY.  Graded Task.  All Health Activity Station packets are due on Monday.     Download Station 4 letter template
• Copies of the Health Stations activity can be found on Mrs. Nix's blog:  Health Stations