Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Tipping points: a great success!!!


We could not be prouder of our 7th graders!! Their hard work paid off and their messages were heard! These kids are upstanders! Their billboards will be displayed on Lamar's digital billboards throughout Syracuse and at the Humane Society!

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

7th graders are almost ready!!


We've been working so hard and we can't wait for tomorrow night! Don't forget to sign your child's permission slip if you haven't already! If not, we can't wait to see you all at 5:30 tomorrow!!

Friday, December 13, 2013

Homework due 12/16

7th and 8th graders have an essay question to complete based on a listening passage they took notes on in class. Please check in with your student to make sure they're working on this! Thank you!!!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

7th Graders are rehearsing!!!

Our 7th graders are practicing their speeches and receiving peer feedback! They are almost ready!! We cannot wait for our e-night Thursday, December 19th at 6:00 at ELMS!

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Saturday, December 7, 2013

7th and 8th Grade ELA Unit 2 Exam

Hi everyone,

We have our Unit 2-Informational Text exam this Wednesday, December 11.  Students will read an informational passage and answer short answer questions and write an essay.  The exam will focus on identifying central idea, analyzing text structure, examining sources, and questioning author's bias.  We have covered these topics in depth and the students have plenty of practice REEC questions in their binders to study with that have similar questions.  Please encourage your student to revise their answers to these questions using our REEC Strategy:

REEC STRATEGY:
How to use evidence in your responses.

R Restate a portion of the question to make sure you’re directly answering the question!

E Evidence from the text is inserted here to support your response.

E Elaborate and explain how your evidence proves your response


C Conclude and sum up your final point before you moved on.

Thanks for your support!


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Our 8th graders are almost ready!!!

Our 8th graders are excited and completing final preparations for Thursday! Please let us know if your student needs transportation! We can't wait to see you there! 5:30 at Rosamond Gifford Zoo!😄🎉

Grade Reporting 7-8

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We want to make sure you know our procedures for dispersing grades.  We update our grade book once a week and pass back work every Friday.  Students are to add to their grade recording sheet and store graded work for SLCs.  Students receive a printed progress report with an updated grade that details everything they have been graded on thus far.  Please ask your students for this print out on Friday!  The interim five week reports are due next week.  Thank you for your continued support!

Miss Buecher and Mr. Coir

Sunday, December 1, 2013

8th Grade Expedition: Thursday, December 5

Our 8th graders' big day is Thursday, December 5th at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo from 6:00-7:30.  Students need to arrive 30 minutes early to prepare.  We are looking forward to seeing all of our ELMS families to celebrate our students' learning!  Here is a sneak peek of all of our 8th graders hard work:




8th Grade Experts!

Our 8th graders welcomed a guest from Syracuse University to help with our dramatic performances.  Our kids really learned how to come out of their shells!









7th Grade Experts!




Our 7th graders are pictured above with an expert from the Human Society who brought a very special guest with her, we were pleased to welcome Pepper to our classroom!  Our 7th graders have had the honor of hosting a marketing expert from Boston University, a representative from Cuse Pit Crew, and Spoken Word Poetry guests from MESH Literary Magazine.  The experts have been a huge contribution to our expedition!

7th Grade Field Work-Syracuse University-Tipping Points Expedition

Students met with marketing and broadcasting experts to learn about how messages are spread effectively and how a newscast works.  Our students impressed the University professors with their focus and prior knowledge.  It was a proud moment!
Students worked together to produce a newscast!


7th graders investigated the ropes course at Syracuse University in order to reconsider the ropes course we have at ELMS.

8th Grade Fieldwork-Honeywell-Progress Dilemma Expedition

Our 8th graders researched the progress and dilemma of Onondaga Lake throughout history with the help of experts from Honeywell.





Weekly ORB Log (7-8)

Every Friday, our students are given a reading log to complete by the following Friday.  The students are to read 5/7 nights and respond to one of the commentary prompts on the back of the log.  Students may read whatever they like, I encourage them to read only what they love!  There is no homework more important than this log as it will help our students grow in every facet of their lives! Your support in our endeavor to create passionate, skilled, and habitual readers is essential.  Please check in every Thursday to ensure students have logs prepared for class.  This is a wonderful opportunity to spend time reading with your student as well!  Our weekly ORB Log is attached for your convenience. Thank you for your support.
ELMS ORB LOG

Welcome!

Welcome to Mr. Coir and Miss Buecher's ELMS Humanities blog.  This blog is designed to keep you in touch with what's happening in ELA and Social Studies for your 7th or 8th grader.  Please feel free to follow us through e-mail to receive automatic updates.  If you have a Google account, you may comment or ask questions right on the blog.  Or, as always, feel free to call or e-mail us!  This site is a work in progress, so please watch us grow!  It is our intention to post our weekly homework assignments, write about upcoming events/projects, and show you some of the work we are doing in class.  Thank you for your support!

Mr. Coir and Miss Buecher