811 Reflection and Summer Reading Bookshelf

Margot Supple                                                                                                         6/21/15

ELA Class Reflection                                                                                                        811

            Dear 811,

Whether it’s annotating “Am I Blue” or creating countless synthesis pages, I had a great year in ELA. I felt that as a class we had pretty meaningful discussions, even with highly advanced books such as Romeo and Juliet. I know that in ELA everyone has learned and matured as a reader and writer (even James).

My two favorite units this year in ELA were Story Books, and Romeo and Juliet. I never thought that writing a short story for kids would be so hard. I remember staying up the night before the story was due, gluing and coloring all the pages so that they looked just right. When I finished, my story was pretty great. It rhymed, and it was about an owl named Theodore that saved the forest from being built into a mall. I was excited to read it to the kids, and even show it to everyone else in the class. All the other storybooks were excellent (Harris the Subway Rat being my personal favorite). My favorite part of this unit was when we went to read our stories to the 1^st graders. They were all very polite, and reading to them was really fun.

           

            Romeo and Juliet is hard to make interesting to middle school students. However, when movies and a performance were added, it easily became my favorite unit. I started to look at Romeo and Juliet as an interesting book, not a hard classic. When watching the 1^st movie, I saw that it was actually a really good book, full of adventure and suspense. And during the performance, I learned that it was easy to understand too. Over time, Romeo and Juliet seemed easier and more entertaining to read.

            I’m really grateful I switched from 809 into this class. 811 has been a great class to be with, in and outside of school. Everyone in this class is extremely smart, funny, kind, and talented, and I feel lucky to have been placed in a class with such remarkable students. Thank you 811, for a great year in ELA, and a great year in general.  

Summer Bookshelf

Books to finish

-       The Kill Order by James Dashner

-       And Then There Were None by Agatha Cristie

-       Bossypants by Tina Fey

-       Eragon by Christopher Pauloini

Summer Reading

-       Enders Game Series by Orson Scott Card

-       The Power Of One by Bryce Courtaney

Others

-       The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald