7th Grade English (Fall) (Period 7) Assignments

Hello students and parents: If you're subscribing to this to get the second semester (spring) homework--you need to go to back to the LACES website and subscribe to the class for Spring Semester. This is the Fall class and no homework will be added for spring semester.
Thank you, Kristen Sandberg

Hello to all students!
Please make sure you are subscribing to the correct class for this semester (Spring) so that you receive the homework updates! You may have to re-subscribe to your class for this semester. --Ms. Sandberg

Study for your final exam!!
Review the characters, settings, and events of each of the chapters of The Outsiders.
Think about the themes and lessons that are learned through the book.

Finish the final draft of your short story.
Bring your typed final as well as all drafts and editing paper and staple them together with the newest on the top (oldest on the bottom).  You may add pictures and artwork that contributes to your story for extra credit.  Make sure to proofread for mistakes and have lots of detail, description, dialogue, and use sensory language like similes, metaphors, idioms...

Revise your personal narrative (story) using ideas from the peer editing and also inspiration from the two short stories we read in class.  Remember to include more character details, descriptions, dialogue, at least one metaphor, one simile and one idiom.

You will need to turn in the following:
1) clipboard brainstorm handout, if you did this
2) draft 1
3) peer editing sheet (filled out)
4) draft 2 (must be an improvement on draft 1 to get credit--details and dialogue must be included!)

Bring all drafts, brainstorming and peer editing to class.

Finish reading the excerpt from "Barrio Boy" that finishes on page 527 in your textbook.  Then, complete the story questions 1-5 on page 527.  You do not need to write the questions, but turn each question into a sentence which you then answer.

No homework for today if you turned in your mandala and your story. If you didn't finish these, make sure to finish and bring them to class Wednesday.

Create a mandala (follow directions and rubric) about one of the characters from The Outsiders. Use symbols to show different aspects of the character's personality. Use line and color to make your mandala interesting.

Write a paragraph that will accompany your mandala. Explain the character you chose and why. Explain all the symbols that you put on the mandala: why you chose them and what they mean.

Write a story (use the handout as a guide) about an event in your life (good or bad). Write at least three paragraphs (introduction, body and conclusion) describing what happened, who was involved and what you learned from this event.

If you finished the movie, you should have received the handout, "The Violent Among Us." This is your homework. If your class did not receive it, you should get it tomorrow.

We were working on the following in class. Make sure that you finish.
We learned the poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost and you analyzed and answered 5 questions about it.

Also, we copied the following events from the story. You are to number them in the correct chronological order. The twelve sentences are:

Johnny kills Bob, who was trying to drown Ponyboy.
Ponyboy is jumped by the Socs while walking home from the movies.
Johnny and Ponyboy hide out in an abandoned church.
Johnny is seriously injured and burned in the church fire.
The Socs hunt down Johnny and Ponyboy for being with their girls.
Johnny dies in the hospital.
The Greasers meet Cherry Valance and her friend Marcia at the movies.
The Greasers and Socs rumble.
Johnny was jumped by the Socs when he was sixteen.
Dally goes to visit Johnny and Ponyboy at the church.
The boys are hailed as heroes.
The boys are acquitted in the murder.

Read Chapters 10, 11, 12 in The Outsiders.
Complete the study questions from the handout in class. These are questions from chapters 9, 10, 11, 12. You should use Costas level of questions to come up with several of your own too. Put these where the blanks are in the handout. I've pasted the questions below and attached a copy of the handout if you need to print another.

The Outsiders study guide—chapters 9-12—where there is a blank, make up a level 2 question of your own and answer

Chapter Nine
1. Find when Pony asks what kind of a world it is, what comment is he making about how society judges people?
2. Why do the boys fight? Why is Pony different?
3. What is the difference between Tim Sheppard's gang and Ponyboy's? Explain how Pony feels this difference might give his group the upper hand?
4. What do you think Johnny's last words to Pony mean?
5.

Chapter Ten
1. How does Pony's dreaming, or lying to himself, finally work in this chapter?
2. Why was Johnny's dying so difficult for Dally to handle?
3. Why do you think Dally would have wanted to die?
4. Why does Ponyboy think he would’ve ended up that way anyway?
5.

Chapter Eleven
1. Explain, why might Pony rather have anyone's hate than their pity?
2. What do you think is going on with Ponyboy when he says, "Johnny didn't have anything to do with Bob's getting killed"?
3.

Chapter Twelve
1. What 'circumstances' does Ponyboy's teacher refer to? What circumstances does Ponyboy think his teacher is referring to?
2. Why doesn't Ponyboy feel scared when the Socs approach him, and he threatens them with a broken bottle? How is this a dramatic change from the Ponyboy we have seen up until this point?
3. What does Darry mean when he says, "you don't just stop living because you lose someone"?
4. How do we know Sandy didn't love Soda as much as he loved her?
5. Explain how Darry and Ponyboy play tug of war with Soda.
6. What do we learn was so special about Johnny?
7. What does Ponyboy end up doing for his English assignment?

1) Read Chapters 7, 8, 9 in the Outsiders (4th period, you may finish Chapter 9 Monday evening if you want).
2) Following the format of the previous handout "Note-taking and Summarizing" which you completed for chapters 1-3 and 4-6, take your own notes and summarize what you learn in each chapter (on your own paper). Make a prediction about what will happen next.
3) Find 5 or more difficult or interesting words that your group can add to its master list. The words can be from chapters 7, 8, or 9. Write the sentence the word is in and the page where you found it.

Finish reading Chapter 6 of the Outsiders.
Complete the handout and make the prediction about what will happen next in the book.
Create three questions for one of the chapters we will discuss tomorrow (3, 4, 5, 6).
Try to make questions at different levels using the handout on questions from earlier in the semester.

Read Chapters 4-5 in The Outsiders.
Complete the second half of the handout note-taking and summarizing the chapter (just 4-5).

Find pictures showing people, places, and things from the late 1950 to mid 1960s, the time of our novel. Think about clothing, music, movie theaters, cars...

Find 10 new/hard vocabulary words in Chapters 1-3: For each word, write the sentence in which you found it and the page number.

1) Read the Outsiders, Chapter 3 pages 37-52
2) Complete the first side of the handout for chapters 1-3 "Note-taking and Summary"

Your warm up will involve writing facts from the first 3 chapters...be ready!

3) if you didn't turn in your character chart, finish this:
Complete your character chart with all the characters that you meet in the first 3 chapters and details about them as follows: (this is the chart we started in class) name, physical appearance, economic status, behavior, personality

1) Read chapters 1-2 in The Outsiders, pages 1-36
2) Complete a character chart showing all the characters you meet and details about them as follows: (this is the chart we started in class) name, physical appearance, economic status, behavior, personality.
3) Finish the free write on the cliques at LACES (the half page paper--has the warm up on it)

Complete your study of O. Henry's story "After Twenty Years" by analyzing the surprise ending.
Using the chart on the handout, look for clues to how the two characters' actions, appearance and conversations (things they say) hint toward what will happen at the end of the story.

For extra credit--study foreshadowing (on the back of homework paper) in a story, film or TV show of your choice. Write the title and author (or station or studio) and things that are said or things that happen that hint toward later events!

Study for your vocabulary test! The words include those from the literature: "The Highwayman," "Seventh Grade" and "After 20 Years," as well at most of the narrative terms on the list I gave you.

In addition, you should finish the handout: grammar practice with independent and dependent clauses, as well as the reading strategy--breaking down complex sentences.

Complete the handout for the practice SPA:
Choose a character from one of the stories
Make an assertion about the character
Support your assertion with 3 details from the character's:
thoughts, words, speech patterns and actions
Explain each of the details you have given

Read "After Twenty Years" by O. Henry, pages 426-432 in the textbook
Complete questions 1-6, page 432 about the story
If you didn't finish the handout on vocabulary in class, make sure to finish!

Extension (Extra) Points:
For "After Twenty Years," complete the literary questions, page 433, 1-5.
Choose at least 1 idiom (from the handout or that you find) and illustrate the literal meaning of the idiom. Write the idiom at the top of the picture and write the meaning of the idiom at the bottom.

Write a 5+ paragraph (1&1/2 page) composition about your neighborhood. Use Quindlen's essay (from previous homework) as a guide. Ask yourself, "Is my neighborhood a 'melting pot'? Use description, anecdotes (little stories) and your commentary to tell about the place you live and where you are growing up. You may define 'neighborhood' any way you want. It can include your apartment or house, your neighbors, your block, your area, even LACES, if you want. This is a first draft, so just be concerned with expressing a lot of ideas, including examples and anecdotes to illustrate your commentary.

Textbook: Read Anna Quindlen's essay "Melting Pot" on pages 122-124
Complete Review & Assess questions page 124, 1-5
Complete Review & Assess questions page 125
"Reading Strategy Identifying Idioms" 7-9, and
"Extend Understanding" question 10.

For Extension (Extra Credit): try the "Literary Analysis" also on page 125:
Complete the questions on "Tone" (questions 1-3) and/or
"Comparing Literary Works" (questions 4-6)

From textbook: complete questions 1-6, page 121, about the story "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto

In textbook: read "Seventh Grade" by Gary Soto, pp. 116-121.
Be prepared to take a quiz on the reading.
If you didn't finish 'splashing' at least 5 vocabulary words, make sure to finish!

Final Draft of your modernization of "The Highwayman."
You must have at least 4 stanzas.
Make sure to type this draft and add pictures that go with your poem!

A draft of your modernization of the poem "The Highwayman"--at least 4 stanzas.
Your first stanza should develop the setting.
The second stanza should develop one of the main characters.
The third and fourth stanzas should develop the plot.