Welcome to the 7th grade and to what will be an exciting year in Life Science, Literature, Religion and Social Studies. Throughout the year, we will be studying literature, language mechanics, an assortment of writing styles, note-taking skills, and working on listening and creative thinking skills. We will be reading and discussing a wide variety of quality fiction and nonfiction literature in the form of novels, short stories, and poetry. Our goal is to have students become successful, motivated and confident readers and writers. Structured writing is another main focus in the 7th grade program. A majority of the writing assignments will be expository in nature and be based on a defined format. However, we will also be creating our own personal narratives on discrimination and developing them into mini-movies using a process called Table Top Media. Several methods of note taking will be introduced throughout the year giving each student the chance to fine-tune his or her own skills. We will cover several methods, giving each student a chance to pick a method that works best for them. 7th grade will also be focusing on Jesus’ life, His teachings and the sacraments He instituted. We will discuss Jesus’ call to each person to become His disciple and the ways in which His teachings, His sacraments and His Church nourish people. Overall, the ultimate goal in the seventh grade is for my students to succeed in all content areas and to find their passion for learning.
Philosophy on Education
Sir Ken Robinson put it best when he compared creating an educational environment similar to that found in agriculture.
Robinson (2010) stated the following:
We have to move to a model that is based more on principals of agriculture. We have to recognize that human flourishing is not a mechanical process; it’s an organic process. And you cannot predict the outcome of human development; all you can do, like a farmer, is create the conditions under which they will begin to flourish. Video clip (e.g. YouTube): Retrieved from the Internet.