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Today was the first day back after our winter holidays. It wasn't too taxing~while I had developed lesson plans for these two days back, we didn't get to them. I spent part of each class period reviewing some old/new policies and rules. Don't we all seem to forget so soon what we have to do or what we shouldn't do?

After the review, we had our annual Spelling Bee. After twenty-two years with seventh-graders, I'm still amazed at the spelling skills (or lack thereof) of thirteen-year-olds. The ones who can barely keep their grades in the black are some of the ones who can spell the best. Why is that? Spelling is a skill that does take knowledge of our language~so why doesn't that transfer into other areas of my curriculum?

Speaking of curriculum~count down to standardized testing (sort of). I've been looking at the performance indicators and trying to determine which ones need to be taught in depth and which ones can be barely brushed upon. The students are finishing their unit on phrases and I'll test them next week. We've covered them sufficiently; I'm just not sure that they've learned them, but I suppose that is what the test is for.

Next week in language, the students will be learning about direct and indirect objects. I've always loved analyzing sentences and picking out the different parts. To me objects make so much sense, but experience has shown me that students have a difficult time with this skill. Does anyone have any good (read: different) ideas for teaching objects. I've only devoted three days to this skill; there is no way of knowing how in-depth it will be tested. All I know is that the student must "know and use appropriately nouns as direct and indirect objects." I'll probably kick it old-school on this one and diagram some sentences, then the students will write their own sentences using them.

In literature, the students will be reading "A Day's Wait" by Ernest Hemingway. I love the idea of teaching Ernest Hemingway~it makes me feel like such a literati. Any ideas on this one? The skills focus will be "how the author reveals character" and "making inferences and drawing conclusions". These are difficult skills to teach, especially with reluctant readers.

Enjoy your Friday dear Pedagogues!

Mrs. Etheridge

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