7th ELAB
Creating a community of writers and critical thinkers one student at a time.
End-of-Year Question Inventory:Now that students have completed all course work for ELAB, they will reflect on their own level of mastery on all skills covered throughout the school year.
Click here to view the results of the End-of-Year Question Inventory. Using the charts and graphs on the document above, write two ACECES responses that answer the following questions:
Turn in your responses on the Form here. |
Multi-Genre Investigation:From now to the end of the school year, ELAB will center almost exclusively on a long-term project we like to call a Mutli-Genre Investigation (MGI). This project is meant to spur as many creative modes of writing into being as possible. We in ELAB believe that good writing is never just formal or informal, essays or stories, or even always grammatically correct.
Writing is simply about one thing: communication. With this in mind, students will create multiple genres, or writing projects, centered around an approved topic of their choosing. Each student will create an overarching question to guide their research on their topic, and they will create genres that answer guiding questions related to specific aspects of their topic |
Quizziz Challenge:Now that students have practiced their grammatical skills to avoid common mistakes such as misplaced commas and run-on sentences in writing, they will put their mastery to the test. By creating original questions using Quizziz, students will demonstrate their learning and challenge their classmates at the same time.
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Conventions Centers:Now that students in ELAB have covered all four categories of the state writing rubrics, they will take an in-depth look into the pickiest grading criteria of all: Conventions. Through four stations, students will practice their use of commonly confused words, revising and editing with commas, sentence combination techniques, and using mentor sentences to practice sentence structures.
Click here to the view the PowerPoint on "Commas and Colons and Semicolons, Oh My!" Center #1: Commonly Confused Words
Center #2: Practice RADAR with Commas
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Center #3: Combining Sentences Using Colons and Semicolons
Center #4: Practice Sentence Structures With Mentor Sentences |
Q3 Question Inventory:As we approach the final quarter of the school year in ELAB, students will take part in a comprehensive question inventory, which will gauge their familiarity with all skills learned thus far this year.
Click here to view the results of the Q3 Question Inventory. Using the charts and graphs on the document above, write two ACECES responses that answer the following questions:
Turn in your responses on the Form here. |
Out of the Park: The MLB's Possible Expansion to NashvilleTo begin the final quarter, students in ELAB will put to use all of the research skills accrued throughout the year thus far as they delve into Major League Baseball's upcoming expansion. With two new teams tentatively being added to the roster, Nashville is on the short list of new locations. If so, this would have a drastic effect on Middle Tennessee and the neighboring regions in the southeast.
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Writing Narratively:To explore the many skills of narrative writing, students will research Laura Dekker, the youngest sailor in the world ever to circumnavigate the globe. Using her adventures, students will craft a short story that incorporates various elements of narrative and structures.
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Writing Informatively:As students investigate Nazi Germany in ELA with a reading of The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, ELAB will discuss informational writing as they learn about the life and legacy of Anne Frank.
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Writing Argumentatively::Now that the second semester is underway, students will revisit the first of the three main types of writing: argumentative. At this time, schools around the country are debating the pros and cons of participating in "Shut Down Your Screen Week". In ELAB, students will weigh the argument, take a position, and support their side.
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Timed Writing: |
1st Semester Question Inventory:As the first half of the school year in ELAB comes to a close, students will take part in a comprehensive question inventory, which will gauge their familiarity with all skills learned thus far this year.
Click here to take the Question Inventory. |
Roll-a-Story:Now that students have studied how theme and tone are developed in a written piece, as well as how to construct a variety of sentences using mentor sentences from short stories, students will now construct their own original narratives.
Resources: Narrative Criteria:
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Dissecting Poetry:In our final major unit of the first semester, ELAB will delve deep into several poems. By doing so, students will better understand how theme is developed in poetry and how language may take on new meaning in new contexts.
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Blue Gold: How Different Sources Use Similar EvidenceTo wrap up our unit on the global freshwater crisis, students will view a clip from the documentary Blue Gold: World Water Wars by filmmaker Sam Bozzo. As they do so, they will compare and contrast how evidence is presented in the original "Beyond Thirst" article and the film.
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Freshwater Crisis Revisited:For the next few days, students will revisit last week's handwritten informational essay on the global freshwater crisis. In doing so, students will learn to evaluate anonymous student samples according to the four categories of the state writing rubric.
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Mentor Sentences:While ELAB focuses on the Language and Conventions portions of the state writing rubric, students will look back at several short stories they have read this quarter. Using exemplar sentences from each story, students will mimic the sentence structure to practice the mechanics of solid writing.
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Essay Practice:This week in ELAB, students will practice the basics of timed essay writing. They will learn how to avoid false starts and how to create solid final drafts in one try.
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Tracking Your Mastery:Before we enter the holiday break, students will review their writing thus far this semester. Using the resources below, they will track their mastery and reflect on their progress in each of the four categories of the state writing rubric:
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Mentor Poetry:In this mini-unit, students in ELAB will use two poems from William Carlos Williams to practice sensory imagery and diction. Following the format of "The Red Wheelbarrow" and "This Is Just To Say", they will create their own ELAB-related poem. Look below for examples from Mr. Allen and Ms. King.
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Climate Change:This week, ELAB will focus on the single most important issue facing today's youth and the human race as a whole: climate change. Through this issue, students will discover how various scientific outlets have gathered evidence on multiple fronts to create a broad overview of what life on Earth could look like only 12 years from now.
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Bonus Articles!
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Understanding Point of View:How you look at a story more often than not determines what you see in the story. Take, for example, the picture on the left: Is it a young lady or an old woman? As we will see throughout the week in a three-part unit, the same holds true for narrative.
Part One: Part Two: Part Three: |
The Science of Sleep:To kick off the second quarter in ELAB, students will tackle the argumentative essay. Using articles from multiple sources and media, students will argue whether or not to delay school start times to accommodate the natural sleep cycles of teenagers.
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Q1 Overview:
As the first quarter in ELAB comes to a close, students took part in a comprehensive question inventory, which gauged their familiarity with all skills learned thus far this year.
Click here for the Q1 Question Inventory Results. Using the pie charts and percentages from the inventory, write two ACES paragraphs: A - Draw a conclusion from the results. C - Provide evidence from the pie charts and bar graphs. E - Explain why students answered this way, or make a prediction how the results might change later in the year. S - Summarize |
The Psychology of Grouping
For the remainder of the first quarter, students will immerse themselves in the psychology behind grouping, stereotypes, and friendships among adolescents. We will use this research to learn the basics of informational writing.
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Writing Maps: The Basics of ELABTo begin the school year, students have handdrawn "writing maps" to help them brainstorm ideas for writing assignments. During this unit throughout the month of August, students will use these ideas to create a short memoir based on a personal life experience, which will use various elements of narrative.
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Rough drafts are due on 8/28. Final drafts are due 8/30. |
Responses to Literature:At the beginning of each class period, students will choose a book to read, followed by a written response. This time is intended to teach them to both read and write with a specific purpose in mind.
Click here to download all "Responses to Literature". |