ELA Lessons for Grades 6-8: Week 3
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…
Step-by-step directions for this lesson:
Grammar: (Steps 1-3)
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.
Step 3: Highlight, in light blue, the adjectives in between the yellow and the green.
The house was built on a large hill next to the high school. (Monday)
An elephant sat on the bale of hay near the circus tent. (Tuesday)
The last cookie sat in the container on the kitchen counter. (Wednesday)
A small dog ran in the front yard of an apartment complex. (Thursday)
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: Theme of a Poem
Read the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou. If you watch the video above, I have read an excerpt of the video aloud.
Key Vocabulary for this lesson (these are my own personal definitions)
Subject- what/who the poem is about
Theme- the message the author is trying to convey about the subject
Speaker- the narrator of the poem
Stanza- the paragraphs of the poem
Line- each line of written words in a poem
Repetition- something repeated that is important to the theme of the poem
Rhyme Scheme- how the lines rhyme at the end
Internal Rhyme- rhyming within the line of the poem
Theme: What is the message of this poem?
Before we find the theme, we need to find the subject. What is being repeated over and over again?
Hopefully you said, “I rise.”
The subject is rising. The theme is the message the author is giving about rising. What is the speaker of the poem rising above?
Hopefully you said something similar to rising above hardships or difficult times.
Now, we’re going to take this theme and support it with evidence from the poem.
Supporting Evidence: USe lines from the poem to prove the theme.
You need to find three lines from the poem to support the following theme: to rise above hardships and difficulties. Which three lines from the poem best prove this theme? Explain how each of these lines best proves this theme.
Paragraph Format: This is how I’d like you to write your seven sentence paragraph this week.
Begin with an IVF sentence and the theme.
Write your first piece of evidence.
Explain how that evidence proves the theme.
Write your second piece of evidence.
Explain how that evidence proves the theme.
Write your final piece of evidence.
Explain how that evidence proves the theme.
Conclude your paragraph by restating the theme.
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 poem, “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, the theme
Verb it: suggests
Finish the thought: how the speaker of the poem must rise above hardships and uncertain times.
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 poem, “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, the theme suggests how the speaker of the poem must rise above hardships and uncertain times.
Conclusion: Your conclusion sentence is almost exactly like your IVF sentence, except reworded. (Flip the order backwards.)
Example: In conclusion, the theme suggests how the speaker of the poem must rise above hardships and uncertain times in the poem, “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou.
Paragraph Scaffolding:
If you’re still stuck, use these sentence frames to help you complete this paragraph.
In the poem “______” by _______, the theme of the poem is ___________________. To begin with, the evidence from line # says, “______________.” This evidence proves the theme because _______________________________________________. Furthermore, the evidence from line # says, “______________.” This evidence proves the theme because _____ ___________________. Finally, the evidence from line # says, “______________.” This evidence proves the theme because _______________________________________________________. In conclusion, the theme of the poem, “______,” by _________, clearly is _________ based upon the evidence discussed above.
Draft, Edit, Revise, Final draft, Grade it:
Draft it: Remember the paragraph format from above? This will become the meat and potatoes of your 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.
Teacher Example:
Read through this teacher example to see how your paragraph should be formatted. Please do not just copy my example. Make sure to write your own.
In the poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou, the theme of the poem is to rise above difficulties and hardships. To begin with, the evidence from lines 3-4 says, “You may trod me in the very dirt/ But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” This evidence proves the theme because though the speaker has been stomped on by some enemy, he or she rises above the negativity, like dust. Furthermore, the evidence from lines 9-12 says, “Just like moons and like suns,/ With the certainty of tides,/ Just like hopes springing high,/Still I rise.” This evidence proves the theme because the speaker is rising up above uncertainty and compares this rise to the rising of the sun, moon, and ocean tides. Finally, the evidence from stanza 5 shows how the speaker must rise above certain attack. These lines show that people will say and do horrible things to one another, but that we, as readers, should rise above the hate and be better. In conclusion, the theme of the poem, “Still I Rise,” by Maya Angelou, clearly is about rising above hatred and hardships based upon the evidence discussed above.
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:
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).
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).
