From Your Teachers

Great job, everybody! Your comments from January were interesting and thoughtful. Please remember to review your answers so that they are well-written (i.e. follow basic punctuation and mechanic rules), answer the question, and provide an example from the text. Don't forget that not everyone has read the novel you did, so you will need to give enough information for them to figure out what you are talking about!

This month, you will notice each questions indicates which Connecticut Standard each question pertains. "Standards" are skills that seventh graders across the state should be able to do have. The standards and questions were taken from 4th-Generation CMT Coach, Language Arts Grade 7.

Keep up the great work!

Love,
Mrs. Marusa and Miss Schweikert

P.S. Don't forget to answer the questions for FEBRUARY. You will not receive credit for answering questions from previous months.

Themes

The theme of a novel is the central idea or insight about life that an author wants the reader to understand. The plot generally helps to explain the theme. A novel may have a single theme or several themes. To identify the theme in a novel, consider the actions, thoughts, and words of characters in the story. What is the theme of a novel you have read in the past or a novel that you are currently reading? Figure out how the story applies to life in general. Ask yourself, “What lesson(s) should I take from this story?” Discuss your ideas. (CT Standard Theme: identify and discuss the underlying theme or main idea in texts.)

Vocabulary

Sometimes when you are reading, you come across a word that you do not know. When this happens, what do you do? How do you figure out its meaning? What unfamiliar word(s) did you encounter in a book and how did you figure out the meaning? Be sure to include the title of the book, author, and the unfamiliar word(s). (CT Standard: Vocabulary: analyze the meaning of words and phrases in context.)

Character Inferences

An inference is a judgment you make based on the information available to you. To make an inference—to infer—you have to have some kind of evidence. For example, if you were walking home from school and suddenly smelled smoke and heard sirens, your past experience and knowledge would lead you to the conclusion that there was a fire nearby. In literature, you use the things you read—the information that’s available to you—to make inferences about things such as: a character’s personality, interests, or physical appearance; a character’s history; a character’s age; the history of relationships between characters; the reasons for a character’s behavior; a character’s intention; a character’s next action.

Think about the clues the author in the book you are currently reading gives you about a character’s behavior. Also think about your own knowledge of what you or someone you know would do in the same situation. Make an inference/judgment about the character. Explain your inference by supporting your response with details from the story.

(CT Standard: Making Inferences: make and justify inferences from explicit and/or implicit information.)

Text Structure

When you read, it is helpful to understand how the author arranged the information. The way the author arranged the writing is the text structure. Some text structures are: sequence, the time order in which things happen; compare and contrast, similarities and differences of facts, characters, events; description, how someone or something looks, acts, or sounds; problem and solution, what the problem was and how it was solved; cause and effect, what happened and why it happened.

In the book you are currently reading, look to see how the author has arranged the text. Discuss one text structure that the author used and explain how it helped you understand the meaning of the text (paragraph or passage).

(CT Standard: Using Text Structures: identify, use, and analyze text structures.)

Customs

Have you read or are you currently reading a book about people in other places and other times? Discuss what you have learned about the writing and customs of another culture. Are the experiences of the characters in the book similar or different from any of your experiences?(CT Standard: Making Connections: compare, respond to, and interpret texts that represent many multicultural experiences.)

Lessons in Writing

“For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more.” This is a quote from The Pearl that states one of the lessons of the parable by Steinbeck. Using this same quote, discuss how it compares to a novel you have read or are currently reading. Be sure to connect the quote with your novel, making specific references to both stories and how each author included the lesson in their writing. (CT Standard:1. Developing literary awareness: evaluate an author’s values, ethics, and beliefs included in many texts)