Vernon SchoolElizabeth Thiel
Elizabeth Thiel, Room 301
7th Grade Language Arts, Social Studies, and Reading Support
Contact me:
503-916-6415
Student grades and assignments are updated weekly and accessible on Engrade.com. All students have an account to view their own grades. Contact me for your student's access code .
Language Arts
7th grade Language Arts focuses on the development of sophisticated reading and writing skills, building toward the expectations of high-school-level classes.
We will focus on:
- using reading strategies to understand and analyze text
- writing academic essays
- using evidence to support ideas
- organizing essays and stories
- exploring themes in literature
- using figurative language
- building an understanding of grammar and conventions
Social Studies
The Medieval World
Our units in Studies this year will include the following:
- Medieval Europe
- Islamic Civilization
- African Kingdoms
- Imperial China
- Feudal Japan
- American Civilizations (Inca, Maya, Aztec)
- The Renaissance in Europe
We will be using our textbook, History Alive: The Medieval World, as our main resource.
Homework
To become more fluent and skilled readers and writers, students should build the habit of reading and writing everyday. For this reason, homework is the same all year: 150 minutes of reading at 90 minutes of writing each week.
Students should READ at home for about 30 minutes a day, or a total of at least 150 minutes a week. They may read novels, non-fiction books, newspapers, or magazine articles. Each student has a Reading Contract, which has individual goals developed by the student. A parent signature is required each week to verify minutes spent reading, and to provide an opportunity for students and parents to talk about books.
In addition, students should WRITE at home for at least 90 minutes a week. Each students has a spiral notebook for writing homework. 90 minutes of writing typically looks like 5-10 handwritten pages. Students can use the writing prompts we develop in class on Mondays, or they can write from their own ideas. If writing is done on the computer, or doesn't appear in their homework journal for any other reason, they can list the topic and the time spent writing, and get a parent signature to verify their work.
Reading and Writing homework is checked each week on Fridays.
