Welcome to Middle School ELAR

I'm Ms. Cash. I am beginning my 10th year with NTXCA. I am super excited about this year.

I graduated from Texas Woman's University in 2013 and am now working on my Master's degree at Oklahoma Christian University. I am the proud mom of one daughter, who is currently attending Xavier University of Louisiana.

Outside of school, I can work on projects around my house, read, fish, or travel to visit family.

The sixth six weeks:

6th-Grade - In Reading, students research and locate credible primary and secondary sources and read various informational and argumentative texts, including multimodal, on a chosen topic to collect and evaluate information on the topic. Students utilize close reading strategies such as notetaking and annotating to support their comprehension of sources, including analyzing the author’s purpose, intended audience, context, message, author’s craft, and genre characteristics. Students also evaluate source material to determine whether a text is primary or secondary as well as reliable and credible. Through a transfer of reading comprehension skills and analysis of mentor texts, students apply author’s craft, including multimodal elements, to their writing products to effectively communicate ideas.

In Writing, students engage in writing as a recursive process as they brainstorm, plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish a short research essay.  Students support their thesis or claim with paraphrased and directly quoted text from credible sources and apply proper academic formatting for these referenced sources with in-text citations and a Works Cited/Bibliography page. Students also use the writing process to create a visual research presentation that includes credible and clear information, employing a variety of modes such as images, charts, audio, and/or video to communicate their message effectively. In revising, students review their essays and presentations for clarity, coherence, development, organization, style, tone, and logical soundness. In editing, students make conventional and nonconventional choices in punctuation, grammar, and spelling that are most effective for their purpose, genre, and intended audience. Expectations in this bundle emphasize properly citing and ethically utilizing source material through in-text citations and comprehensive bibliography page presentation.

In Collaboration, students refine their research plan, research proposal, and writing process. Students also engage in a peer review process to discuss and share ideas about the writing of others and their own writing, including specific commentary on the strength of peers’ writing and the use of multimodal elements.

7th-Grade - In Reading, students research and locate credible primary and secondary sources and read a variety of informational and argumentative texts, including multimodal, on a chosen topic with the express purpose of collecting and evaluating information on the topic. Students utilize close reading strategies such as notetaking and annotating to support their comprehension of sources, including analyzing the author’s purpose, intended audience, context, message, author’s craft, and genre characteristics. Students also evaluate source material to determine whether a text is primary or secondary as well as reliable and credible. Through a transfer of reading comprehension skills and analysis of mentor texts, students apply author’s craft, including multimodal elements, to their writing products to effectively communicate ideas.

In Writing, students engage in writing as a recursive process as they brainstorm, plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish a formal argumentative research essay. Students support their position and ideas with paraphrased and directly quoted text from credible sources, and apply proper academic formatting for these referenced sources with in-text citations and a Works Cited/Bibliography page. Students also use the writing process to create a visual research presentation that includes credible and clear information, employing a variety of modes such as images, charts, audio, and/or video to effectively communicate an argument. In revising, students review their essay and presentation for clarity, coherence, development, organization, style, and tone as well as logical soundness. In editing, students make conventional and nonconventional choices in punctuation, grammar, and spelling that are most effective for their purpose, genre, and intended audience. Expectations in this bundle emphasize properly citing and ethically utilizing source material through in-text citations and comprehensive bibliography pages in both the argumentative research essay and visual presentation. Students also compose correspondence with other writers to support their decisions as authors.

In Collaboration, students engage in collaboration to refine their research plan, research proposal, and the writing process. Students also engage in a peer review process to discuss and share ideas about the writing of others and their own writing, including specific commentary on the strength of peers’ writing and use of multimodal elements.

8th-Grade - In Reading, students research and locate credible primary and secondary sources and read a variety of informational and argumentative texts, including multimodal, on a chosen topic with the express purpose of collecting and evaluating information on the topic. Students utilize close reading strategies such as notetaking and annotating to support their comprehension of sources, including analyzing the author’s purpose, intended audience, context, message, author’s craft, and genre characteristics. Students also evaluate source material to determine whether a text is primary or secondary as well as reliable and credible. Through a transfer of reading comprehension skills and analysis of mentor texts, students apply author’s craft, including multimodal elements, to their own writing products to communicate ideas effectively.

In Writing, students engage in writing as a recursive process as they brainstorm, plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish a formal argumentative research essay. Students support their position and ideas with paraphrased and directly quoted text from credible sources, and apply proper academic formatting for these referenced sources with in-text citations and a Works Cited/Bibliography page. Students also use the writing process to create visual research presentations that include credible and clear information, employing a variety of modes such as images, charts, audio, and/or video to effectively communicate an argument. In revising, students review their essay and presentation for clarity, coherence, development, organization, style, and tone as well as logical soundness. In editing, students make conventional and nonconventional choices in punctuation, grammar, and spelling that are most effective for their purpose, genre, and intended audience. Expectations in this bundle emphasize properly citing and ethically utilizing source material through in-text citations and comprehensive bibliography pages in both the argumentative research essay and visual presentation. Students also compose correspondence with other writers to support their decisions as authors.

In Collaboration, students engage in collaboration to refine their research plan, research proposal, and the writing process. Students also engage in a peer review process to discuss and share ideas about the writing of others and their own writing, including specific commentary on the strength of peers’ writing and use of multimodal elements.

5th-Grade - In Reading, students use the research process to research a topic of interest. Students use close reading strategies such as notetaking and annotating. Through a transfer of reading comprehension skills, students apply author’s craft to original writing products in different genres.

In Writing, students engage in writing as a recursive process as they brainstorm/plan, draft, revise, edit, and publish texts in multiple genres, including multimodal texts. Students apply author’s craft learned during text analysis to their own writing products. In revising, students review their texts for clarity, development, organization, style, word choice, and sentence variety. In editing, students continue to make the conventional and nonconventional choices in punctuation, grammar, and spelling that are most effective to make their message clear for an authentic audience. Through publication for an audience of their peers, students employ multimodalities to support author’s craft and purpose.

April 1 - No School

April 5 - End of 5th Six Weeks

April 8 - No School -Teacher Work Day

April 10 - Awards Ceremony

April 11 - ELAR STAAR

April 16 - 5th & 8th Science STAAR

April 17 - 8th Social Studies STAAR

April 26 - No School

April 30 - Math STAAR

May 1 - Community Service Projects begin

May 17 - Middle School Field Day

May 23 - Last Day of School - 8th grade Promotion Ceremony - Early dismissal 1 p.m.

Intervention: 7:30 - 8:00

Character: 8:00 - 8:15

6th ELAR: 8:15 - 9:20

7th ELAR: 9:22 - 10:22

8th ELAR: 10:24 - 11:24

5th ELAR: 11:26 - 12:26

Lunch: 12:28 - 12:58

Workshop: 1:00 - 1:50

Conference: 1:52 - 2:37

Elective: 2:39 - 3:30