English Class Newsletter

Edition II

Fly Team Eagles Fly!

Team Eagles students are showing their support for the 2018 Super Bowl Champions-The

Philadelphia Eagles!

Like many of you, I am on cloud nine celebrating the amazing victory of the Philadelphia Eagles.

What an awesome game! The last several weeks here at school have been exciting as students

have come into school pumped up for the weekend games by talking football and wearing gear

showing their support for The Birds!

6 Word Memoirs Continue

This year we have written 6 word memoirs, which tell a story in just 6 words. I mentioned this on

Back to School Night, as students had written their first memoirs on “What Middle School is

Like So Far.” The day after the Super Bowl, students wrote new ones. Some of their thoughts are

below.

December Unit – The Eight Parts of Speech

In December students learned the eight parts of speech. This was a very difficult unit that

involved a lot of work! Students learned nouns, adjectives, pronouns, conjunctions,

interjections, verbs, adverbs, and prepositions. Every student created a Parts of Speech packet

like the one below! Students are encouraged to hang on to these packets (which are currently

in their writing folders) as they will come in handy in 8th grade English.

Test your knowledge. What is the part of speech of the underlined word? 1. The boy ran toward the house.

A. verb B. noun C. adjective D. pronoun

2. Love is something we celebrate on Valentine’s Day.

A. verb B. adverb C. preposition D. noun

3. Soon it is time to get ready for spring!

A. verb B. adverb C. adjective E. conjunction

4. The furry rabbit was on the boat.

A. preposition B. verb C. noun D. adverb

Which is correct, I or me?

5. The teacher gave the gift to Bobby and ( I , me ).

6. Can Tori and ( I, me) go to the library after school?

Answers on last page

January – Edgar Allan Poe Unit

Edgar Allan Poe is best known for his Gothic tales of horror and is considered one of the best

writers in the genre. Poe’s tales are cryptic, dark, and sometimes even terrifying! Students

studied the language used by Poe in his tales through vocabulary exercises, and students

further discussed Poe’s brilliance and madness by writing essays. Grammar study continued in

this unit, with particular attention to the various sentence types. Students also learned about

identifying and reworking run-ons and fragments, as well as identifying subjects and

predicates.

Did you know Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday is on January 19th? This year our classes celebrated

Poe’s birthday by eating Poenuts! (really tasty donuts from Yum Yum!)

During this unit, students also recorded their New Year 6 Word Memoirs. Watch them on

Flipgrid! You can scan the QR code from the bulletin board picture below, or visit here

https://flipgrid.com/e3c18a ,or by visiting my Homepage on RMS’s website.

Password: Do you want to build a snowman?

February- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

In the novel The Westing Game, students are charged with the task of trying to find out who

murdered Sam Westing! Some super sleuths are able to deduce the whole plot early, while

others will have to wait until the end of the novel to learn how the entire story unfolds! Either

way, this story is a classic that proves to be a favorite each year.

Other topics covered during the unit are listed below.

Vocabulary Study—words selected from the novel

Grammar Lessons—subjects and predicates, dependent and independent clauses, and phrases

Writing—five paragraph essay written about three characters from the novel

Whole Class Guess Who— daily deductive reasoning exercise where students use skills to

guess classmates (see picture below). Can you guess the students below?

Welcome to our student teacher Mr. Klock!

Below is a message from Mr. Klock.

My name is Logan Klock, and I will be a student teacher this year with Dawn Donmoyer in her English

Language Arts classes. I am currently a graduate student at Arcadia University pursuing my secondary education

certification in English. I am a native of Bucks County as I grew up in the neighboring town of Yardley, PA and

graduated from Pennsbury High School. Prior to Arcadia University, I received my bachelor’s degree in English

from Elizabethtown College in May of 2016.

Other than pursuing my teaching certification, I am also currently an assistant basketball coach for the

Pennsbury High School girls’ basketball team. This is currently my second year helping out with the program. I

also have spent the last couple of springs coaching a 7th and 8th grade boys’ travel spring team that is based in

Newtown, PA. Basketball, as well as becoming a teacher, are some things that I am very passionate about.

I look forward to this journey in my educational career and I am pleased to have you and your son/daughter

a part of my experience.

Pictured above is Mr. Klock teaching his first lesson.

As always, stay tuned to my website

https://www.crsd.org//site/Default.aspx?PageID=29471 for more information on our

units of study. Here you will find helpful information to better understand the novel

as well as information and helpful quizlets for upcoming tests.

Thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter. It has been an exciting year

for these seventh graders so far and we’re looking forward to an eventful spring as

we prepare for the closing of RMS!

Parts of Speech answers:

1. B 2. D 3. B 4. A 5. Me 6. I