Mr. Sammis's Page

9/16/08:

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Web Page for Mr. Sammis

"Collecting knowledge, Connecting knowledge, and Conveying knowledge."

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Language Arts | My Favorite Links | Have a Laugh | Author's Birthday

School Events Calendar

NJASK Prep Class Calendar

Contact me by email or by phone at 856-358-8529 ext. 3471. I normally return phone calls between 3:00 and 4:00. Email is BEST! Besides, you can email at your convenience any hour of the day.

Link with the word Homework to see the daily homework assignment. Link with the Course Description to find the topics taught in each course. When checking the topic of the class and homework, click on the words in the date for which you want information. Thank you for visiting!

Language Arts 8

Helpful Web Links for Language Arts

Language Arts Homework Calendar

Course Description

Persuasive Writing (A good site that outlines strategies for this writing task)

The Five Paragraph Persuasive Essay (Great site with useful tips for the writer)

Study Island (Language Arts lessons and practices tests for various topics)

Guidelines for Writing a Summary

Grammar Lessons and Interactive Activites

What's Happening in Language Arts

Many changes have been made to the language arts classroom this year. First of all, the class meets for 90 minutes. Within that period of time the class is involved with different activites. Students can expect at least three different activities during their time in class. Also, not all activities are completed alone; some will be finished with groups of peers. At times a collaboration of minds works much better than a single mind.

Two to three days a week students will devote their time to reading workshop. During reader's workshop, students could be silently reading a book of their choosing, responding with one sentence to a short one-minute reading selection, writing a longer response to the book they're currently reading, or receiving a short mini-lesson forcusing on using various reading strategies.

An important part of Pittsgrove's literacy program is providing the chance for students to read. Too often, students find it difficult to schedule time to read on their own. It is this year's goal to provide at least 75 - 90 minutes a week reading in school.

The other component of language arts is writer's workshop. Writing workshop provides students with a choice. Usually the students will have from 3-4 choices to work on when they write. This writing time follows a short mini-lesson on some writing strategy or grammar concept as it applies to the writing. I will model the writing for the students; students will then practice within a small group; and then they will be asked to write on their own.

Each part to the language arts class requires a spiral/bound notebook. These notebooks contain reading and writing logs. Students must record in this log everytime they write or read. Other sections of each notebook includes a notes/strategies section, a section to write long responses or stories, and a section to store word banks. One of the goals is to build up a bank of many words that these young writers can refer to when they're stuck for a word. All to often they rely on the "tried and true" words in their writing. I'm challenging them to tap into that mind and compile a list of better words.

Risks. I will consistently encourage my students to take risks with their writing this year. I will allow them to choose books at their own level of reading, but also challenge them to read books at the next level to build up that reading muscle. They will have to be ready to meet the demands of high school and college, which are just around the corner for them; and we all know how demanding the reading and writing will be when they reach these areas in their educational career.

A year of reading and writing has begun. Let the mighty pens roar and allow the eyes of the mind visualize the author's story.

Let the mighty pens roar!!

My Favorite Links

Quotations provide the salt and pepper for a thoughtful life. I can't think of too many days during the year when I haven't started with some quotation reading. To help build my students' critical thinking skills, I encourage them to analyze an author's words and apply those words to their daily life. Most of my quotes are taken from the following Websites. As you research the web, you'll discover numerous sites for quotations. Visit, Read, ponder, and enjoy. If you stumble across a good quotation site, let me know.

Quotepage

QuotelandQuotes by Maya Angelou (One of my favorite writers)

Quotations by African Americans

Learning to Give (Excellent site for quotations)

Other Websites I enjoy

History Channel

BBC News

Discovery Channel

Women's History Month (March)

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."

~Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

Have a Laugh Today