April & May

Wow, I have been so consumed with getting the STAAR writing test behind us that I have neglected the blog a bit. Sorry about that! The good news is that it is DONE. We completed testing, and I am so proud of all my kiddos regardless of the scores because I know that everyone worked SO hard.

For the remainder of the school year, students will research children’s book authors in addition to writing and illustrating their very own children’s books!


Dates to remember:

  • April 19 & 22: holidays
  • May 1: 7th grade reward field trip
  • May 10: children’s books due
  • May 13: STAAR math
  • May 14: STAAR reading
  • May 15-17: Passion Projects shared
  • May 22: LAST DAY FOR STUDENTS!

March 25-29

This week students are practicing their skills with revising and editing of model essays as we gear up for our STAAR Writing test.

**7th Grade STAAR Writing test will be on Tuesday, April 9.

January 28 – February 1

This week is all about building vocabulary, looking at model essays, and learning ways to apply those skills to our writing.

Monday – G/L Roots

Tuesday – go over roots practice; share what student groups discovered about the model essays from last week; begin comparing their own writing to the model essays and discover what tricks they could apply from the model essays

Wednesday – lesson on expository introductions; brainstorm new prompt for next expository essay

Thursday – lesson on smiley face tricks (improving elaboration); drafting essays

Friday – continue drafting

January 22-25

I hope everyone enjoyed their three-day weekend! Today, students will practice revising & editing with STAAR-type passages.

Tomorrow is a half day for students; we will use this time to go over the work from today.

Thursday and Friday will be devoted to looking at the essays students wrote last week as well as breaking down model essays (anonymous essays released by the state that received 4s on last year’s STAAR Writing test). We will look at the score reports and focus on all the things they did right.

January 14-18

This week, students are finishing up the drafts of their essays explaining why it is important to keep the promises we make.

Once their drafts are complete, they will continue on to the revising & editing stages. They start by making certain they have answered the prompt. From there, I have given them specific things to look for to improve their writing. Ask them about Rainbow Revisions! (I have put a copy in their Google Classrooms).

Final drafts will be written on STAAR-lined paper so that students are familiar with how much space they have to adequately convey their ideas on the state assessment in April. It also provides an opportunity for them to practice their penmanship. An essay that cannot be read will be marked non–scorable.

Once they write them out by hand, we type them into Google Docs so that they have a saved copy for their writing portfolios. (Google Docs saves automatically as they work). We then copy and paste them into PEG Writing for instant feedback!

January 7-11

Welcome to the second semester!

This week, students will be working with new Greek & Latin roots in an effort to become better communicators in both writing and speech. Learning roots also increases their comprehension of unfamiliar words in other’s writing and speech.

They will also be reviewing the writing process and parts of the expository essay. I have some fun things planned to assist with this such as a digital word cloud and a game of word sneak!

December 3-20

Students participated in National Novel Writing Month during the month of November. This month, we are working on revising and editing those novels  while also practicing with STAAR-type passages and multiple choice questions.

Dates to remember:

December 14 & 15: semester exam review

December 18: 4th & 5th period semester exams; early release

December 19: 1st, 2nd, & 6th period semester exams; early release

December 20: 3rd, 7th, & 8th period semester exams; early release

December 21-January 4: Christmas Break!

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