11/5/12-11/9/12

Next week we begin our annual Read-A-Thon fundraiser, and this year my homeroom will receive fabulous rewards for participating! See the hot pink poster for details.

And take some time this Monday to thank a veteran for all he or she has done for our country. My grandfather fought in North Africa and Italy in World War II and I always made sure to call him on Veteran's Day. He passed some years ago and I still have questions to ask him. Honor them on Monday.

10/29/12-11/2/12

A big thanks to all the parents who made sure our junior high students had some fun on Halloween! Baking, supervising, crafting late into the night, setting up, cleaning up: you are to be commended!

And on behalf of the teachers, thank you for the special treats this week to help us make it through!

You all made the kids and the teachers feel special and cared-for. Grazie!

10/22/12-10/26/12

10/15-10/19

10/8/12 - 10/12/12

10/1-10-5

This week's big event is the Unit 1 test on Friday. There will be no spelling test, as Lesson 6 is a review and there will be questions on the Unit test on Spelling Lessons 1-5. Scroll down to Monday, September 10 for tips on how to prepare your child for the Unit test.

Also, the Unit 1 Workpacket is due this Friday.

Monday: Reading Log, Spelling Lesson 6, Classic Authors Research Project, Study for Unit 1 Test, and Unit 1 Workpacket due Friday

Tuesday: RL, SP6, CARP, Study for Unit 1 Test, finish Unit 1 WKPKT, due Friday

Wednesday: RL, SP6, CARP, Study for Unit 1 Test, finish Unit 1 WKPKT, due Friday

Thursday: RL, SP6 due tomorrow, CARP, Unit 1 Test and Unit 1 WKPKT due tomorrow

Friday: RL due Monday, CARP (presentations begin Monday, October 22)

Good luck on this week's Unit 1 Test!

9/24-9/28

Homework for this week:

Monday: Reading Log, Spelling Lesson 5, Classic Authors Research Project
Tuesday: RL, SP5, CARP
Wednesday: RL, SP5, CARP
Thursday: RL, SP5 due tomorrow & test, CARP
Friday: RL due Monday

Long term project: Classic Authors Research Project presentations begin Monday, October 22.

Unit 1 Test: Friday, October 5 (Scroll down to Monday, September 10 for instructions on how to prepare your child for the Unit 1 Test.

9/17-9/21

My apologies for the wacky formatting. I am looking forward to my new iphone so the photographs of the homework board will do all the talking!

So nice to talk with you all at Back-to-School Night! It is definitely one of the high points of the year for me to get to meet you and discuss your child's spirit. This week we delve into our Classic Authors Research Project. I heard kids down by the office this morning talking about Ernest Hemingway: I love my job!

Another high point of the year for me is the Annual San Francisco Public Library Big Book Sale. I go every year and never fail to find amazing treasures. I will give extra credit to any student who goes to the sale with their family and reports back to me on what they find. A flyer went out to the kids today (Wednesday). Have fun!!!

Monday: RL (Reading Log)
               SP4 (Spelling Lesson 4)
               CARP (Classic Authors Research Project) research to be done in class & at home. The
               library is an excellent resource for your child: take them!

Tuesday: RL
               SP4
               CARP

Wednesday: RL
                SP4
                CARP
                Extra Credit opportunity: Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day! Write a pirate
                story and turn it in to Mrs. Minor tomorrow.

Thursday: RL
                 SP4 due tomorrow & test
                 CARP

Friday: RL due Monday

Welcome Back to School!!! 2012-2013

Hello Clifford Parents!

The year is off to a fine start and the students are focused on their learning. We are well into our first unit of study for the year.

          Unit One consists of:

• Spelling Lessons 1-5

• Greek & Latin Affixes & Bases: uni/mono, bi, tri, quad/quart, pent/quint, hex/sext, hept/sept, oct, nov, dec, hecto/cent, kilo/mill, poly/multi, medi, and hemi/semi.

• Grammar focuses on Parts of Speech, Types of Sentences, Capitalization, Clauses, & Subjects & Predicates. Ask to see your child's "Unit Booklet".
• "Zebra Workbook" pages to complete for this unit include: 1-8; 13-19; 21-24; 31-34; 37-40; 41-44; 45-54; 83-88; 145-148; and 175-188.

• Literature focuses on "All Summer in a Day" by Ray Bradbury, "Papa's Parrot" by Cynthia Rylant, from "An American Childhood" by Annie Dillard, and "My First Free Summer" by Julia Alvarez, among other textbook stories. Some skills developed: recognizing idioms, following technical directions, and studying characterization.

• Writing focuses on 5-step Essay Format, writing a summary, using descriptive language, and recognizing narrative elements. Your child will learn to write a bibliography, use proper bibliographic form, and fine-tune a thesis statement.

• Long-Term Project: Author Studies (begins Tuesday, September 11 and lasts until presentations begin on Monday, October 22). This is a group project and requires outside research. Please help your child plan a schedule of time devoted to research. Ask to see the Author Studies guidelines which were given out on Tuesday, Sept. 11.

Normally I take a photo of our Homework Board and post the photo. However, a few weeks ago a water bottle leaked in my purse and my iphone was damaged. : ( I am waiting for the upgrade to iphone 5, which is expected to be released later this month.

If you subscribe to this blog, you will be alerted whenever it is updated.

I look forward to working with you this year!

Gwen Minor

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MONDAY 9/10
Reading Log
Spelling Lesson 3

TUESDAY 9/11
Reading Log
Spelling Lesson 3
"My Dream Room" essay due tomorrow, completedBegin work on Classic Author Research Project (CARP) (due Mon. 10/22)

WEDNESDAY 9/12
Reading Log
Spelling Lesson 3Work on Classic Author Research Project (CARP) (due Mon. 10/22)

THURSDAY 9/13
Reading LogWork on Classic Author Research Project (CARP) (due Mon. 10/22)
Spelling Lesson 3 due tomorrow
Spelling test tomorrow

FRIDAY 10/8
Reading Log due Monday, completed
Lesson 3 Spelling Test todayWork on Classic Author Research Project (CARP) (due Mon. 10/22)

Homework Board 4/16-4/20

Homework Board 4/9-4/13

 Before Spring Break the seventh graders were given a poetry assignment. Ask to see their "April Is National Poetry Month" assignment sheet. Students are to choose a 100 word poem written before World War II, print out 2 copies (one for the teacher), and memorize it by the end of the month. Poetry recitations in front of the class begin on Friday, April 27th. This is one of the most memorable activities we do in this class and former students of mine who are adults can still recite their poems! Enjoy!

Homework Board 3/26-3/30

Homework Board 3/19-3/23

3/12-3/16

CONGRATS TO OUR 7TH GRADERS FOR ALL THEIR HARD WORK ON THE STATE WRITING TEST! CHECK OUT THE PICS FROM OUR CELEBRATION!

3/5-3/9

Homework Board 2/27-3/2

7th grade students have a Unit 4 test this Wednesday. Their Unit 4 Work Packets are due the same day. We will be working on them in class, but they will need to finish them at home. Let's see how many can turn them in on time!

The big news coming up is next week's California State Writing Test on Tuesday, March 6th. Make sure your son or daughter gets plenty of sleep Monday night and a nutritious breakfast Tuesday morning. The test will start at 8:30 a.m. in the MUB and takes about an hour and a half. We don't know what kind of writing prompt they will get, so quiz your child on the various essay formats we have practiced this year.

Finally, next Friday, March 9th, to celebrate all their hard work, we will have our Third Annual End of the Writing Test Celebration! This is an entirely student run affair at lunchtime in our classroom! You would be amazed at how they've matured since September! It is a special rite of passage for them to organize, carry out, and clean up after this special celebration! We are all very excited!

Homework Board 2/20-2/24

Homework Board 2/6-2/10

What an amazing experience we had this Wednesday! The San Francisco Shakespeare Company performed Macbeth for our junior high students. Don't forget: each summer you can take a blanket & picnic lunch and see Free Shakespeare in the Park. One of the best activities around! Here are some students from our first period with the performers.

Homework Board 1/30-2/3

Wild Bird Release

Last Tuesday a woodpecker that lives in a bird box outside our house ran into our living room window. I went outside and found him on the ground with his eyes closed. I gently put him in a little box and took him to the Peninsula Humane Society/SPCA's new Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. The wonderful people there put him in a special incubator for birds with head trauma and nursed him back to health.

This morning I picked up the woodpecker, brought him home, and released him back near his bird box. As you can see from this video taken by my husband David, the woodpecker is as good as new!

He is a Downey Woodpecker, and so I've named him Robby after one of my favorite actors, Robert Downey, Jr.! I'll keep you posted on his activities. And if "he" is really a female, well call our friend Roberta! I'll be seeing some of you today at the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center's Open House at 1450 Rollins Road in Burlingame. See you there!

The Oxford English Dictionary

A very special thanks to Owen who brought in his family edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. The original, like I told the students, is in 20 volumes, and university libraries usually have a set in their reference sections. Demand the best! Especially in your dictionaries! The edition we saw today in class is the 2 volume Compact set that comes with a Bausch & Lomb magnifying glass to read the tiny print. There are other Oxford Dictionaries of shorter length for daily use, but it is now possible to access the Oxford Dictionary online.

And for those of you interested in the history of the dictionary, you can read this amazing New York Times bestseller: The Professor and the Madman.

Homework Board 1/23-1/27

Dear Middle School Parents,

Thank you so very much for the generous holiday gifts. I plan to use the Amazon card to get some music I had when I was a teenager. And perhaps a fabulous scholarly book on the ancient world! Thank you. I am grateful beyond measure! And especially, thanks for everything you do to help me help your child.


Molto Grazie,
Gwen Minor

“I will prepare and some day my chance will come.”---Abraham Lincoln
This has been one of my favorite quotes and has guided me in difficult times. It is a very positive message about working hard and knowing that your time will come eventually.
Mrs. Minor’s 7th grade students are preparing for the Tuesday, March 6th California Writing Standards Test. They have learned how to write a variety of Narrative Essays, Descriptive Essays, and Expository Essays. February is reserved for the learning of Persuasive Essays. A good way to help your child is to ask him or her to show you the Essay Writing unit booklet, which shows the structures we are using. Help with Response to Literature (an expository form) can be as simple as talking to your child about character, setting, theme, literary techniques, and lessons learned from any story we have read. This will develop their thinking skills and help them to respond when the time comes.

Response to Literature Essays

On Tuesday, March 6, all 7th grade students in the state will be taking the California Writing Standards Test. That's just over a month away!!! We have covered Descriptive Writing, Narrative Writing, and Expository Writing. Persuasive Writing is covered in February. Here are some photos of our classes working on our Response to Literature Essay activities. Response to Literature is a form of Expository Writing and analyzes a work of literature. Ask your child to show you his or her Essay Writing unit booklet we made in class.

  

Homework Board 1/16-1/20

Homework Board 1/9-1/13

Whoops! I erased Monday's agenda before I took the photo! Sorry! Believe me when I say it was packed with activities, having just come back from vacation! 

A WORD ABOUT UNIT WORKPACKETS:
Unit Workpackets are to be worked on in class AND at home! A Unit Workpacket is handed out when we start the unit and is due, completed, the day we take the unit test. The pages are not done in order, but Reading skill pages are in the front of the packet and Grammar skill pages are in the back. There are usually a few pages that can't be done because we didn't get to a story in the book, but by and large, they all should be completed. Some pages have story titles on the top but only because they use examples from a story to demonstrate a reading skill or concept. A lot of kids will say they can't do it because they haven't read the story, but they can do it, they just haven't read the directions. In the back of each Unit Workpacket there are a number of grammar pages that can be completed at any time.