Christmas Carol Essay

ELA 8 – Mr. Smith
“A Christmas Carol”

Critical Lens Essay

In class, we have read “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. In it, the main character, Ebeneezer Scrooge is visited by three spirits that work to put his life in perspective.
Write a critical essay in which you discuss “A Christmas Carol” from the particular perspective of the quote that is provided for you as the critical lens.
In your essay, provide a valid interpretation of the quotation, agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it, and support your opinion using specific references to 3 different literary elements from the text.

QUOTE
“No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has.”
Henry Ward Beecher

In your essay, be sure to:

•Provide a valid interpretation of the critical lens quote

•Indicate whether you agree or disagree with the statement as you have interpreted it

•Use the criteria suggested by the critical lens to analyze the work you have chosen

•Avoid plot summary. Instead, use specific references to 3 appropriate literary elements (for example: theme, characterization, setting, point of view) to develop your analysis

•Organize your ideas in a unified and coherent manner

•Follow the conventions of standard written English

This essay is due in class on Tuesday, December 21st

Back from Break!

Welcome back from your short rest! Our new unit takes us to the writing of one of the greatest authors in history, Charles Dickens! We will read some short stories in class, as well as a short Dickens biography, and then read the dramatic version of the classic "A Christmas Carol." We will take part in some readers theatre, write some short responses, and culminate the unit with something we've never tried before, a critical lens essay! More details to follow. For now, go get a hot cocoa and read a book!

Social Responsibility Assessment

Social Responsibility
& the Civil War

In class, we have been expanding our knowledge of the social studies unit focusing on the Civil War by reading various texts including, “Civil War Journal” by Louisa May Alcott, and “Abraham Lincoln Photo-essay.” The theme of this unit is to understand how social responsibility and how one person can make a difference.
The assessment for this unit will include two components, a journal and a photo-essay. Students will brainstorm a way to get involved in their school, their home, or their community in a positive way. You could try to clean up the school or your neighborhood, work to eliminate bullying in the school, volunteer to read in a classroom, or anything you think helps improve a facet of your surroundings. You will then write a journal chronicling your experience, including a few pictures that will become a photo-essay. Please make sure:

 100 points: Your journal includes 10 entries, each at least 2 paragraphs apiece that show your creation of a project, how you implement it, and your reflection on how it made you feel and what you learned.
 30 points: Your photo-essay includes three pictures of you taking part in your project or three downloaded photos relating to the theme.
 20 points: Your presentation of your photo-essay to the class, no less than one minute in length.

Your journal will be collected on Friday, November 19th, and your photo-essay will be presented and collected on Monday 22nd or Tuesday 23rd.

Social Responsibility & The Civil War

As part of the service learning component of "Generation Yes," our ELA class will engage in a cross-curricular unit with Ms. Ventresca to examine social responsibility as it pertains to the Civil War. Students will activate their prior knowledge from social studies class to frame our readings; one is a personal diary called "Civil War Journal" by Louisa May Alcott, and the other is a photoessay on Abraham Lincoln. The objective is to understand social responsibility by examining these pieces and the ways in which the authors got involved. Then, students will write their own journal and present their own photoessay that chronicles their own attempt to be socially responsible through service learning! If you want to get involved, email me at jsmith49@scsd.us.

The Monkey's Paw - SCAAAAARY!!!

This week, we will be reading the W.W. Jacobs classic tale, "The Monkey's Paw." We will use the story to revisit the elements of plot, including Freytag's Pyramid. Once completed, we will embark on our own scary story writing assignment for the season. OooooOOOhhhhhh!!!

The TTR this week: "There's "fun scary" and "scary scary"." What's the scariest experience you've ever had? Which one was it?

Memoir Unit Wrapup

Just as a reminder, all the components of the memoir unit are due Friday, October 22nd. Make sure students submit everything on time for success!

Memoir Unit

Mrs. Tkacz has begun the personal writing unit that will focus on memoir. Students should be doing a little bit of personal writing each night. This will culminate in our submission of pieces to the National Writing Project on October 20th.

Open House tonight!

Open house starts tonight at 6:30! It will run until 8:00, and you will have the opportunity to see all of the teachers in 7th and 8th grade. See you there!

Flowers for Algernon & Irony

Hello All-

Mrs. Tkacz and I will be coteaching this week as she prepares to take over full responsibility of the class. We are reading the classic piece "Flowers for Algernon," and using it to examine the difference between situational irony and dramatic irony. If you have any questions or want to get involved, email me at jsmith49@scsd.us.

Mr. Smith

Grammar Week Wrapup

Hello-

Just to check back in, we will be finishing our grammar unit this week. We have worked to develop a progression in class; we have examined words, specifically prefixes, suffixes, and roots. From there, we moved to the subject and predicate of sentences, as well as run-ons and fragments. Now, we are looking at topic sentences, support sentences and details, and concluding sentences. Finally, we will examine how to construct an expository essay.

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to introduce our student teacher, Mrs. Tkacz. She is a graduate student from Syracuse University. She will be with us until Thanksgiving, and she will assume all responsibilities for the month of October. Feel free to talk to her at open house.

That is all for now. Email me at jsmith49@scsd.us with questions, comments, or just to chat. Thanks!

Mr. Smith

Grammar Week - Starts Monday!

Hello all-

Silent Sustained Reading started today, and we will be in full grammar mode next week. Also, students should continue to return important signed documents, especially if they want their lockers!

Enjoy the first weekend of the school year!

Welcome Back!

Hello everyone! It is nice to be back to school. I am in my room preparing for a great 8th grade year. I have a student teacher starting off the year with me, Ms. Tkacz. Come say hello to us tonight at the Ed Smith Ice Cream Social.

See all of you kiddies Thursday!

Congratulations on a great 7th grade year!

The summer is just about here, and the year is almost over. Congratulations to all 7th graders on a good year, have a safe and happy summer, and one last thing: READ!



Mr. Smith

Last Full Week!

This is our last full week of school. We have four half days next week. In ELA, we will be focusing on finishing our Romantic poetry unit by completing poems focused on the beauty of the Ed Smith community. We will hopefully have a small poetry book finished by the end of the year!

Reminder-Half Day Today!

We have a half day today at school. Students will be dismissed at 11:20. Enjoy the day!

REMINDER! Portfolio due FRIDAY, JUNE 4th

Hello-

Our cumulative portfolio is due this coming Friday. Make sure all assignments are complete.

Mr. Smith

Portfolio Assignments #4 and 5

These are the remaining two assignments for the portfolio, due June 4th.



Page of Poetry

Directions: Earlier this year, we had the opportunity to examine various forms of poetry. Some examples are:

 Slam Poetry
 Free Verse Poetry
 Found Poetry
 Haiti Response Poetry
 Concrete Poetry
 Haiku (Covered in previous years)

You are required to complete a complete page of poetry in the form of one entire poem or a collection of multiple poems. Make sure to use strong detailed, figurative language. Similies, metaphors, alliteration, and rhyming are all great ways to improve the quality of your poetry.





Minute Speech

Directions: As part of our public speaking unit, we examined the 7 P’s of Proper Public Speaking. They are:

1. Peak
2. Posture
3. Projection
4. Pace
5. Peepers Contact
6. Pause
7. Practice

You are required to prepare a one-minute speech that describes your topic in detail. You can choose to share a portion of one of your other assignments, to bring in visual aids, or anything else that you think might make your speech a success. As always, it will be timed, and the elements of public speaking will be graded.

This speech is due as part of your cumulative portfolio assessment and will be performed ONLY on Monday, June 7th. You DO NOT need to submit any written work for the speech, although preparing a written draft is encouraged for your success.

Portfolio Assignments #1-3

Parents, Students, and Ed Smith Friends,

Here are the first three assignment sheets for the Culminating Portfolio Assessment. They are, in order: Nonfiction Expository Piece, Creative Writing Piece, and Personal Letter:


Nonfiction Expository Piece

Directions: Recently, we learned about the elements of nonfiction writing. The four types of nonfiction expository essay are:

 Chronological
 Cause and Effect
 Problem/Solution
 Similarities and Differences.

You are expected to write an essay of 5 paragraphs that uses one of these text structures to provide detailed, factual information about your topic. For example, you might write a chronological biography of Lebron James, or the similarities and differences between a Navy Seal and a regular Army soldier. The choice is yours.

Finally, it is also required to include a short “Bibliography” or “Work Cited Page.” On this page, you need to list the multiple internet sources you used based on the guidelines we learned in class.

This assignment is due, as part of your portfolio, on June 4th, 2010.






Creative Writing Piece

Directions: Earlier this year, we learned about the elements of plot, character development, and conflict. The four elements of the plot line are:

 Exposition/Introduction
 Rising Action
 Climax
 Falling Action
 Resolution/Denouement

You are expected to make up a creative story about your topic. THERE IS NO LENGTH REQUIREMENT, BUT MAKE SURE YOU TELL A COMPLETE STORY. This means you will develop characters and conflict, and you will fully-develop each of the elements listed above. Be sure to include lots of detailed language and specifics. (ex, similes and metaphors)

This assignment is due, as part of your portfolio, on June 4th, 2010.





Letter to a Teacher

Directions: Yesterday, we learned about the five components of a friendly letter. They are:

 The Heading
 The Greeting
 The Body
 The Closing
 The Signature

You are required to write a 3 paragraph letter, addressed to me at the school, which summarizes your topic, your portfolio, and your learning and research process. Be sure to:

*Introduce your topic and the titles of your pieces
*Explain, with detail, why you chose this as a topic
*Describe what was difficult in the process, and what you learned

This assignment is due as part of your cumulative portfolio assessment on June 4th.


Ed Smith School
Lancaster Avenue & Broad Street
Syracuse, NY 13210

Culminating Portfolio Rubric

Culminating Portfolio
English 7 – Mr. Smith
HOLISITIC RUBRIC

SCORE OF A (91-100)
An A portfolio is OUTSTANDING. It demonstrates a high degree of proficiency in response to the assignments but may have a few minor errors.
A portfolio in this category:
• completes 5 out of 5 assignments
• is well organized and coherently developed
• clearly explains or illustrates key ideas
• clearly displays outstanding use of language
• is generally free from errors in mechanics, usage, and sentence structure

SCORE OF B (81-90)
A B portfolio is STRONG. It demonstrates clear proficiency in response to the assignment and may have minor errors.
A portfolio in this category:
• completes at least 4 our of 5 assignments
• is generally well organized and coherently developed
• explains or illustrates key ideas
• displays strong use of language
• is generally free from errors in mechanics, usage, and sentence structure

SCORE OF C (73-80)
A C portfolio is COMPETENT. It demonstrates proficiency in response to the assignment.
A portfolio in this category:
• completes at least 4 out of 5 assignments
• is adequately organized and developed
• explains or illustrates some of the key ideas
• demonstrates adequate facility in the use of language
• may display some errors in mechanics, usage, or sentence structure

SCORE OF D (65-72)
A D portfolio is LIMITED. It demonstrates some degree of proficiency in response to the assignment, but it is clearly flawed.
An portfolio in this category
• completes at least 3 out of 5 assignments
• reveals one or more of the following weaknesses:
• inadequate organization or development
• inadequate explanation or illustration of key ideas
• limited or inappropriate word choice
• a pattern or accumulation of errors in mechanics, usage, or sentence structure

SCORE OF F (50-64)
An F portfolio is DEFICIENT. It demonstrates fundamental deficiencies in writing skills.An essay in this category contains serious and persistent writing errors or is incoherent or is undeveloped. It contains less than three assignments.

SCORE OF 0 (0-50)
A 0 portfolio is not submitted or grossly undeveloped.

MAJOR ASSIGNMENT! Culminating Portfolio

Culminating Portfolio
English 7 – Mr. Smith


As a way to wrap up our year in ELA and show our knowledge growth, your student will have the opportunity to work over the next few weeks to investigate and examine a topic of his or her choosing. The point of this project is to provide a tangible body of work that will show growth and development through the year. The project will be a portfolio that will involve the following assignments.

A creative writing piece with your topic as the focus
A full page of poetry devoted to your topic
A one-minute speech about your topic
A non-fiction expository piece about your topic
A letter to a teacher explaining your assignment


This portfolio is a major grade for the marking period, and as such,
we will spend a majority of the next three weeks devoted to finding a topic, researching it, peer-editing, drafting, and creating the portfolio.

The portfolio will be due before the end of the day on Friday, June 4th.

Reminder--School Leadership Conference!

This Wednesday is a half-day, and there will be a great activity from 12:00 pm until 2:00 pm at Ed Smith that will provide for some interesting discussion. It is a School Leadership Conference in the Cafeteria. Staff, students, and parents will have the opportunity to engage in dialogue to help make the Ed Smith school a better place. For more details, call the school and ask for Mr. O'Leary or Mr. Armstrong.

Non-Fiction Essay

To wrap up our unit on Non-Fiction text structures, we will be doing a short writing piece on Tuesday that we will be typing in class. All students are going to be asked to write an essay using one of the non-fiction text structures. They will be due at the end of the day on Thursday.

Non-Fiction Text Structures

In class, students will be analyzing the various types of non-fiction text structures that exist. We are learning about chronological, cause/effect, problem/solution, and similarities/differences. We are examining these structures through a non-fiction story about the bubonic plague titled "When Plague Strikes."

Next week, after we finish, students will write a short 3-paragraph essay using one of these text structures. We will then type them, and even take part in a short typing mini-unit! It should be lots of fun!

As always, any questions - email me at jsmith49@scsd.us

Mr. Smith

New York State ELA Tests COMPLETE!

Thanks to all parents for sending their 7th graders to Ed Smith for the NYS ELA test. We have about 99% of the tests completed, which is great! We will start a new unit on Wednesday, but for now, we are taking some time to relax and discuss the test.

Novel in a Nutshell due Thursday!

The Novel in a Nutshell group project is due this Thursday. The groups have been working together in class to finish, and the presentations will take place on Thursday. We have also been doing some preparation for the NYS ELA test on April 26th and 27th. I will post more information about this before break!

Literature Circle Wrap Up!

Literature circles will be finishing up this Friday, and next week we will begin workshopping our summative assessment piece for the unit, called Novel in a Nutshell. Students should be completing journal responses each night at home, and their role sheets are finished in class. The presentations will take place on Thursday, April 15th. The Novel in a Nutshell details will be up later this week.

Literature Circle Response #2

March 25th



What is the setting of your book? How do you know?

Literature Circle Response #1

March 24th

Describe the beginning of your book so far. Is it good? Why?

Literature Circle Unit

Over the next three weeks, our 7th grade ELA class will be taking part in a group reading unit called Literature Circles. The goal of literature circles is to have students select a text that they will read as a group, and then undertake roles that provide for discussion points. The roles are director, literary luminary, connector, and vocabulary enricher. Students will be expected to complete role sheets that chart their progress at their specific task, and then they will write at home in their personal response journal.

St. Baldricks Thanks!

Thank you to everyone that donated! I surpassed my goal by raising $1100. Again, thanks to the entire Ed Smith community!

Culminating Event - Poetry Blog

Mr. Spanfelner and I have created a new blog page devoted to our final poetry project: creating social/political poetry in response to the earthquake in Haiti. Students are writing poetry in response to this event, and those poems will be posted to the blog link below. We hope you like it.

http://poetryofhaiti.blogspot.com/

Slam/Lyrical Poems due Monday

On Monday, we will be collecting and presenting our second part of the poetry unit, slam poetry and visual poetry based on a social or political theme. Students received their rubric yesterday, and have seen many clear models of the assignments, so they should be clear on what is expected. If they have any questions over the weekend, email me at jsmith49@scsd.us .

REMINDER - SHAMROCK SALES!

Shamrock sales end tomorrow! This is a school-wide fundraiser for Muscular Dystrophy. The 7th grade could use some support!

Slam Poetry

In class this week, we will focus on rhyme and rhythm as they pertain to poetry. Ultimately, students will take part in rhythmical "Slam" poetry and performance.

Ed Smith Community - WE NEED YOUR HELP!

On March 21st, I will be shaving my head as part of the St. Baldrick's fundraiser for pediatric cancer research. The event has raised over $69 million dollars to date for kids with cancer. Please cut and paste the link into your browser, read some stories, donate, and pass it along. Thank you.

https://www.stbaldricks.org/participants/jimmysmith

Poetry time!

With the beginning of the new comes a new unit! We are starting our poetry unit that will span several weeks and encompass several forms. Also, my student teacher, Mr. Spanfelner, from Syracuse University will be taking over for the 4th period and 5th period ELA classes. We are very excited to have Mr. Spanfelner here. If you have any questions about the unit, feel free to ask.

Mr. Smith

Welcome Back!

I hope you had a restful recess! Now it is time to get back into the swing of school! We will wrap up our public speaking unit with speeches Monday and Tuesday of this week, and we will finish the week with a mini-unit focusing on some important reading strategies. And then, on to poetry!

Presentations RESCHEDULED! Acuity today!

We have rescheduled the speeches for the week after break. Early this week, we will be working on Acuity testing in ELA class, then Wednesday and Thursday will be devoted to watching famous public speeches and responding to them via an in-class writing assignment. Mr. Smith will be absent Wednesday through Friday for surgery. Then, enjoy your vacation!

Public Speaking Presentations Tuesday!

Our final presentations for our public speaking unit will take place on Tuesday, February 9th. Students are responsible for getting up in front of the room and delivering a 45 second to 1 minute speech about one of the following four topics:

*The availability of soda for lunch
*Valentines day at its merits/problems
*Hats being allowed in school
*The economic implications of the Super Bowl

All speeches will be graded as per the 7 P's of Public Speaking notes that we covered in class earlier this week. Good luck!

Public Speaking!

With the two remaining weeks before break, we'll be focusing our energy in ELA on learning the elements of Public Speaking! Students will be performing all sorts of speeches in front of classmates in the hopes of developing strong oratorical skills.

Dear Parents-

Today we had our first Middle Level Student Security Search. The searches are confidentially scheduled through our Security Office, under the direction of Tom Ristoff.

Students and/or families are not notified ahead of time when searches will occur. When students are at the high school or a middle level grade only school, searches happen monthly. There will be other searches throughout the spring of 2010 for our students and we will notify you after they occur.

This is one of the procedures we need to introduce our students to as middle level students. If you have any questions, please direct them to Tom Ristoff @ 435-4527.

Thank you.


Daryl Hall
Lisa Garofalo
Jason Armstrong

Dialogue, dialogue, dialogue!

In class this week we will combine our learning by utilizing our new information on dialogue construction, characterization, point of view, and bias by writing a creative writing piece based on a fun prompt from a specific point of view. This piece will be due Wednesday, January 27th.

PROPAGANDA!

In early January, ELA classes will be examining point of view and propaganda. We will learn about how this influences emotions and actions. We will also examine the connection to bias in writing. The purpose of the unit is to teach students how to examine how an author's perspective can influence his or her work.

Welcome Back!

As a heads up, girls modified basketball tryouts for 7th and 8th graders will be taking place this week on Wednesday, January 6th and Thursday, January 7th.