These are crazy times, and though I’ve wracked my brain lately on how to help my students, and others, stay on top of their ELA standards, I’ve struggled to find a forum where I can reach every body. Then, I came up with the solution. I’ll turn my blog into a place of learning. Pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself.

Once a week, typically on Mondays, I’ll post lessons for middle school students. Each lesson will take anywhere from 20-30 minutes. I will provide structured education for different levels of learning, send links for online resources, and once a month, I’ll send out a newsletter, story, or quick tips to those subscribed to my website. Interested? Then, keep on reading…

Grammar:

Each day, you (the student, that is) will need to complete a grammar sentence. We will focus, primarily, on parts of speech.

• My suggestion, for students who perform better on the computer, is to copy the sentences below into a Google/Word document. Then, work on them from your computer.

• If you’d rather write this out by hand, be my guest. You will need a yellow and green crayon or highlighter, though.

By the way, if the sentences look familiar, don’t freak out. I will use the same sentences each week, so you can build on the grammar steps. Now, let’s go.

Step 1: Find the articles in the sentences below. Highlight the article in yellow. Articles are the words A, An, The. Their job is to tell you when a noun is coming in the sentence.

Step 2: Find the nouns connected to the articles. Make note do not find all of the nouns in the sentence: just the ones connected to the articles. Once you have found the nouns connected to the articles, highlight those nouns green.

1. The house was built on a large hill next to the high school. (Monday)

2. An elephant sat on the bale of hay near the circus tent. (Tuesday)

3. The last cookie sat in the container on the kitchen counter. (Wednesday)

4. A small dog ran in the front yard of an apartment complex. (Thursday)

5. Create your own sentence and highlight the articles in yellow. (Friday)

*Quiz for understanding: Grab the book you are going to read this week for silent reading. Count the number of articles you can find in the first paragraph. Ask your mom, dad, or guardian to quiz you on whether you got the correct number of articles in that paragraph. Well done, brilliant student. Well done.

Discussion: Summary Writing

Read the article here about misunderstood microbes. Then, ask yourself the questions below. After you have answered those questions, write a 7 sentence summary on the article you read. Click here to watch a video on determining the main idea of a text.

• Who/what is the article about?

• What is the problem?

• Where and when is the article taking place or written?

• Why is the article important for readers?

• How is the problem solved, or is the problem solved? Is there a solution posed?

TOPIC/IVF Sentence: To begin your summary, you will need a topic sentence, or what we like to call an IVF sentence. I stands for identify what you read or watched along with the main character. V stands for verb it. F stands for finish the thought. Here is an example below…

• Identify: In the online article about dehydrated fruit on the National Geographic website, the author

• Verb it: discusses

• Finish the thought: how dehydrated fruit is nature’s candy.

• Now, take what you wrote for your IVF sentence, and make it the first sentence of your summary. Example below…

IVF/TOPIC Sentence: In the online article about dehydrated fruit on the National Geographic website, the author discusses how dehydrated fruit is nature’s candy.

Conclusion: Your conclusion sentence is almost exactly like your IVF sentence, except reworded. (Flip the order backwards.)

• Example: In conclusion, the author discusses how dehydrated fruit is nature’s candy in the online article about dehydrated fruit on the National Geographic website.

Draft it: Remember the questions you answered above? Those will become the meat and potatoes of your paragraph. Remember, an objective summary only wants you to list the important facts. So, keep your opinions out of the paragraph.

Edit: Go through the paragraph and check your spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. Once you think this is all squared away. You’re ready for the next step.

Revise: Now, that you have a very rough draft of your summary, read it out loud, and see where you’d like to add some transition words (to begin with, furthermore, finally). Check to make sure the paragraph is how you want it to sound. Then, have someone else in your family read through it and offer suggestions. Once you have the paragraph where you want it, it’s time for the next step.

Final Draft: I always suggest typing out your final draft. I also suggest using MLA format when you’re typing. Click here to see an example of MLA formatting.

Grading: You can grade yourself. How cool is that? Use this quick rubric or choose one of these rubrics and make a Google copy. These rubrics will help you determine your grade on this summary writing exercise.

Silent Reading:

Every day, I’d like you to read for 20-30 minutes. After you read, create something based off of your reading. You can

• Journal using the summarization questions above.

• Draw a picture representing what you read.

• Write a letter to a character in the book.

• Discuss what you read with your parents.

• Create a Google Slideshow of your reading for the week.

• The options are endless.

Fun Friday:

If you finished all of your work for the week, you deserve a chance for a little fun. In my 7th grade ELA class, we have Fun Friday every week.

• We play educational games online (Kahoot, Nitro Type, Quizizz).

• A lot of the time we play board games. Who’s up for a Connect Four Tournament? Anyone?

Helpful Hints to Form Good Habits:

1. Break up your work in twenty-thirty minute increments, and give yourself a treat after a lesson (like twenty-thirty minutes of playing a video game).

2. Make sure that you only give yourself a treat for the same amount of time you work for, or else you will form a bad habit of wasting time.

Hopefully this was helpful. Comment below to let me know what you think, or if you have questions you would like me to address in the monthly newsletter. TTFN (Ta Ta For Now).