Capitalization

Capitalization:  Things You Need to Know (Copy these items into your composition book -- or onto a half-sheet to tape into your composition book later.)

Capitalize: 
Set #1 

1. The beginning of a sentence.
2. Proper Nouns
          - - specific names of people and    animals
          - - specific places such as cities, states, countries, stores, restaurants, rivers
               - - Brand names  

Set #2
3. Titles used before a person's name
       -- professional titles -- 
                Doctor, Professor
       -- government titles -- 
                President, Vice-President, Governor, King, Sir, Queen,   Princess, Lord, Lady, Senator
       -- personal titles -- Mr., Mrs., Ms, Miss


4. Proper Adjectives
           Proper nouns used as adjectives  [Italian dressing, German pancakes, etc.]

Set #3
5. Titles
     -- books  (The Son of Neptune)
     -- songs
     -- TV shows and movies
     -- poems
6. First word of a direct quotation
     -- dialogue
     -- quotes from other works when it's the entire sentence
7. Initialisms (DVD) 
8.  The personal pronoun "I" -- always! (Unless it's your iPod, etc.)

Expectations for Term 1

Seventh Grade

Language Arts/English Class

Ms. Dorsey  
Tentative Term 1 Plan:    

Term 1 (August 20 - October 26)      Can you. . . ?

• correctly use end punctuation (periods, question marks, exclamation marks) on the sentences you write?
• correctly capitalize the beginning of each sentence and capitalize proper nouns (names of specific people, places, or things)?
• correctly spell words and names you need to use in seventh grade, including seventh grade commonly confused words  (confused words chart.doc)?
• write a complete paragraph with a beginning, middle, and end, and transitions?
• support what you’re saying or writing with evidence (effective details)?
• recognize and write cause-and-effect and comparison-contrast text structures (paragraphs)?
• understand these parts of an argument: claim, warrant, and evidence?
• read novels and short stories and identify and discuss setting, plot structure, character, and theme? 
• Read and write poetry, summarizing meaning, recognizing theme and mood, and identifying poetic devices such as alliteration, rhyme, figurative language, word choice, and the creation of specific images. 
• participate effectively in whole-class and small group discussions, activities, and projects?
• write complete and varied sentences?
• correctly use commas when listing three or more things within a sentence (commas in a series), and when using coordinate adjectives?
• summarize literary and informational text?

By the end of Term 1, the expectation is that you will master the bolded skills and understandings, and that you will be well on your way to mastering the non-bolded skills and understandings. 


1st Term
August 21 - October 26 (Seventh Grade Day is on August 20.)
A days = 23
B days = 22
Total days = 45

[Term 2 -- main idea, summarize, fact vs. opinion]

Belonging

1.  Coming into junior high can disrupt feelings of belonging.  You belonged to an elementary school.  Now you don't belong there any more.  You belonged to a group of friends that may not hang out together anymore.  You belonged in the world of childhood and now, if you hadn't already, you're starting to move out of that world.

Where do you belong now?
Where do you want to belong?
With whom do you belong?
What do you need or choose to do to belong?
Are some ways of belonging better than others?

What about friendship?
Will your old friendships continue?  Will they change?
Will you find new friends?
What does it mean to be a friend?

legally-alien.blogspot.com

2.   from the book Because I Am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas:

They call us
Nopes
      the "out" crowd,
      we don't fit their
      dog-show guidelines
      wealthy-beautiful

We call them
Yups
      they have to
      all agree,
      yup each other
      every day on every thing.

And we say
Nope, don't
want any part
of your Yuppitude
     so tight
     society will burst
     with any change
     of thought.

But being a fractured, momentary gathering
and not an actual collective,
we say
Nope
individually
with scrambled cadence

and their
Yup
is way
louder.

Happy Birthday to J.K. Rowling (and Harry Potter)!

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/31/jk-rowling-facts_n_1722782.html?utm_hp_ref=books&ir=Books#slide=867257

Spelling: Stationary or Stationery?

Brian P. Cleary

Stationary or stationery? Remember: Stationary means fixed in one place -- not moving. Think: stationary bikes are “anchored" in place, so use the letter “a.” Stationery is the paper and “envelopes” used for writing, so use “e.”

Finding or Making Happiness?

‎"Happiness comes from giving, not getting . . . to get joy, we must give it, and to keep joy we must scatter it." - John Templeton

Interesting: ANADIPLOSIS

ANADIPLOSIS is a rhetorical repetition at the beginning of a phrase of the word or words with which the previous phrase ended; for example, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." -Yoda

 

Thank you to  Brian P. Cleary.