7th Grade English, Language Arts, Mrs. Shields
During the year, we will be studying four units. In seventh grade, we will be studying mythology, short stories,
mystery, and a writing unit (strategic writer). All four units will emphasize essay writing and creative writing. Major writing projects and presentations will be anounced to you in a letter. Assessments are given quarterly. We review in class throughout each quarter.
All students should be using their agenda books to write down their homework assignments.This webiste will be updated weekly, if not daily. HOMEWORK WILL ALWAYS BE PROVIDED ON THIS SITE. Some notes will be available (time permitting).
The on level classes will be studying the mythology unit first, followed by short stories, mystery unit, and ending the year with strategic writing. The GT classes will be studying the writing unit, short stories, mystery, and mythology. Essay writing will be taking place throughout all four units.
Approximate Grade Breakdown:
89.5%-100%=A Homework=10%
79.5%-89.4%=B Written Papers and Projects-40%
69.5%-79.4%=C Classwork (drills, quizzes, in-class writing)=40%
59.5%-69.4%=D Participation=10%
--------59.4%=E
Please contact me via email
(heather_shields@hcpss.org) or call the school for further information (410)313-5545.
Updated daily:
*Gradesheets can be given at anytime per request of a parent. Ask your child to get a copy or send me an email requesting one be sent home. Otherwise, geadesheets are given once before progress reports and once before report cards each quarter.
WELCOME LETTER:
Dear Students, Parents, and Guardians,
Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great summer. I am looking forward to an exciting year in English class. This letter is a brief overview of our plans and policies for the school year. After reading over and discussing the following expectations and guidelines, please sign and return this letter to me (Mrs. Shields).
We will be studying four units in seventh grade English: Strategic Writing, Mythology, Short Stories, and Mystery. Students will be exposed to many types of writing such as essays, short stories, character sketches, persuasive writing and more. The local assessments are given quarterly and count as a test grade. We do review in class throughout each quarter. Each student will keep a writing folder in the room that will be evaluated at the end of the year. The evaluation will be based upon the individual’s growth in the writing process, language development, creativity, and proofreading.
Classroom Expectations
1. All students are expected to come to class prepared with an organized English notebook. There should be three sections: drills, classwork, homework. All graded papers should be kept until instructed to clean out notebooks (after every quarter). This will help to avoid possible discrepancies come grade time.
2. Each student will be given three homework extension passes for the year. Each pass will allow a student to receive full credit on a HOMEWORK assignment that was not turned in on time. To receive full credit, the missed assignment must be handed in within one week of the original due date. It is a student’s responsibility to obtain missed work due to an absence.
3. Major assignments and projects will be announced to you in advance (through a detailed letter with guidelines).
4. Students are encouraged to respect themselves, their classmates, and their teachers.
Grading Policy
Approximate Grade Breakdown:
89.5%-100%=A Homework=10%
79.5%-89.4%=B Written Papers and Projects-40%
69.5%-79.4%=C Classwork (drills, quizzes, in-class writing, assessments)=40%
59.5%-69.4%=D Participation=10%
--------59.4%=E
As parents and guardians, I would like to encourage you to be active participants in your child’s English education this year. I am looking forward to working with the students and hope that by the end of the year every one will discover that writing can be enjoyable! If you have any questions or concerns throughout the year, please feel free to email (heather_shields@hcpss.org) or call me at the school (410) 313-5545. You can also access information on my website (go to Mount View’s site and click on my name).
HOMEWORK:
WEBSITE for "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street"...
www.janaedwards.com/TWIZONE/Episode22monstersdue.doc
3/25=
3,4,7- FINISH reading the play "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street". The website address is given above. We will be doing the actual practice review tomorrow.
8,9- Read the play, "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street". The website is given above (or read below).
3/26=
3,4,7- none
Period 8 and 9- finish reading the play!!!!
3/28-
3,4,7- none
8- finish your race
9-review for assessment (below) and bring questions you may have...
ASSESSMENT REVIEW ANSWER KEY WITH NOTES: correct answers have an *
1. What information do we learn by reading “Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”?
a. Aliens are real
b. Aliens are fake
* c. People react differently in certain situations
d. The world will end
2. From the play, we can INFER that the author…
*a. believes that some people in society are quick to blame others.
b. believes society is perfect.
c. studied alien life.
d. knows a lot about science.
3. What is the MAIN idea of “Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”?
a. When your electricity goes out, blame the aliens.
*b. Always consider and gather all evidence before jumping to conclusions.
c. People should not trust each other.
d. Aliens could exist.
4. Read the following sentence:
There were numerous accounts of alien sightings in the neighborhood when the lights went out.
What does “accounts” mean in this sentence?
a. where money is kept in banks
b. false accusations
*c. reports
d. a written agreement
5. Read the following sentence:
The mad man ran through the neighborhood screaming, “It was him- he did it!”
What is an antonym for “mad”? An antonym is the opposite of!!!!!!!!!!!!
a. crazy
b. senile
c. angry
* d. calm
6. From which point of view is the play told?
a. First person ( story uses "I")
b. Second person (written using "you")
c. Third person limited ("he" or "she" with learning ONE character's thoughts and opinions= LIMITED TO ONE)
* d. Third person omniscient ("he " or "she" with learning about MANY characters and their thoughts= OMNI=Many)
7. What information is in the exposition of the play? Exposition= the beginning of a story
a. The aliens talk about the townspeople
b. * We learn about the setting of Maple street
c. Charlie is blamed
d. People hide in their homes
8. In the play, what is the implied conflict?
a. Individual vs. Individual
b. Individual Vs. Self
c. Individual vs. Nature
d. * Individual vs. Society
9. Which of these words is the subject in the following sentence?
The people started wondering what was happening when the radio signals were confused.
a. wondering
b. confused
c. * people
d. radio signals
10. Which of these words is used as a verb?
With his shiny rifle, he shot and injured the innocent man for no reason.
a. * shot
b. innocent
c. rifle
d. with
11. Which of these words is used as a verb?
The author had an interest in making the audience question society’s values and morals.
a. * had
b. interest
c. audience
d. values
Review the comma rules below and refer to them when answering questions 12-15.
Use a comma…
? after nouns of direct address
? with a coordinating conjunction in a compound sentence
? following introductory words or phrases
? preceding and following interrupting words, phrases, or clauses
? to separate items in a series
12. Which of these sentences uses commas correctly?
a. The crowded, neighborhood went crazy, after learning about the shooting.
b. The author wanted her audience, to read, and question, the motives of the aliens.
c. * The crowded, crazy, and untrustworthy neighborhood was all over the five o’clock news.
13. Which of the comma rules is being illustrated in the sentence that is correct in number 12?
* Use a comma to separate items in a series
14. Which of these sentences uses commas correctly?
a. * The boy, however, was not happy with his friend’s accusation.
b. The boy, not happy, with his friend's accusation left the front yard.
c. Unhappy with his friend’s excuse the boy left the scene in tears.
15. Which of the comma rules is being illustrated in the sentence that is correct in number 14?
* Use commas preceding and following interrupting words or phrases
Episode 22 - The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
1. Ext. Sky Night
Shot of the sky...the various nebulae, and planet bodies stand out in sharp, sparkling relief. As the CAMERA begins a SLOW PAN across the heavens--
Narrator's Voice
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space, and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow - between science and superstition. And it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
The CAMERA has begun to PAN DOWN until it passes the horizon and is flush on the OPENING SHOT (EACH WEEK THE OPENING SHOT OF THE PLAY)
2. Ext. Residential street Day Med. Close shot sign
Which reads, "Maple Street." PAN DOWN until we are shooting down at an angle toward the street below. It's a tree-lined, quiet residential American street, very typical of the small town. The houses have front porches on which people sit and swing on gliders, conversing across from house to house. Steve Brand polishes his car parked in front of his house. His neighbor, Don Martin, leans against the fender watching him. A Good Humor man rides a bicycle and is just in the process of stopping to sell some ice cream to a couple of kids. Two women gossip on the front lawn. Another man waters his lawn.
3. Camera takes a slow dolly down the street
To pick up these various activities and we hear the Narrator's voice.
Narrator's Voice
Maple Street, U.S.A., late summer. A tree-lined little world of front porch gliders, hop scotch, the laughter of children, and the bell of an ice cream vendor.
There is a pause and the CAMERA MOVES OVER to a shot of the Good Humor man and two small boys who are standing alongside, just buying ice cream.
Narrator's Voice
At the sound of the roar and the flash of light it will be precisely 6:43 P.M. on Maple Street.
At this moment one of the little boys, Tommy, looks up to listen to a sound of a tremendous screeching roar from overhead. A flash of light plays on both their faces and then it moves down the street past lawns and porches and rooftops and then disappears.
4. Long angle shot looking down on the street
As various people leave their porches and stop what they're doing to stare up at the sky.
5. Med. close shot Steve Brand
The man who's been polishing his car and now he stands there transfixed, staring upwards. He looks at Don Martin, his neighbor from across the street.
Steve
What was that? A meteor?
Don
(nods)
That's what it looked like. I didn't hear any crash, though, did you?
Steve
(shakes his head)
Nope. I didn't hear anything except a roar.
Mrs. Brand
(from her porch)
Steve? What was that?
Steve
(raising his voice and looking toward porch)
Guess it was a meteor, honey. Came awful close, didn't it?
Mrs. Brand
Too close for my money! Much too close.
6. The camera pans across the various porches
To people who stand there watching and talking in low conversing tones.
Narrator's Voice
Maple Street. Six-forty-four P.M., on a late September evening.
(a pause)
Maple Street in the last calm and reflective moments...before the monsters came!
FADE TO BLACK:
OPENING BILLBOARD
FIRST COMMERCIAL
FADE ON:
7. Ext. Street Day Slow pan across the porches again
Interspersed with MED. CLOSE SHOT, man screwing a light bulb on a front porch, then getting down off the stool to flick the switch and finding that nothing happens.
8. Med. shot Man
Working on an electric power mower. He plugs in the plug, flicks on the switch of the power mower, off and on, with nothing happening.
9. Med. close shot through window of a front porch Woman on a porch
Pushing her finger back and forth on the dial hook. Her voice is indistinct and distant, but intelligible and repetitive.
Woman Next Door
Operator, operator, something's wrong on the phone, operator!
10. Med. close shot Mrs. Brand
As she comes out on the porch and calls to Steve.
Mrs. Brand
(calling)
Steve, the power's off. I had the soup on the stove and the stove just stopped working.
Woman Next Door
Same thing over here. I can't get anybody on the phone either. The phone seems to be dead.
11. Long angle shot looking down the street
As we hear the voices creep up from down below, small, mildly disturbed voices, highlighting these kinds of phrases:
Voices
Electricity's off.
Phone won't work.
Can't get a thing on the radio.
My power motor won't move,
won't work at all.
Radio's gone dead.
12. Med. close shot Pete Van Horn
A tall, thin man who is seen standing in front of his house.
Van Horn
I'll cut through the backyard...See if the power's still on on Floral Street. I'll be right back.
13. Long shot Van Horn
As he walks past the side of his house and disappears into the backyard.
14. Insert very close Day
The hammer on Van Horn's hip as he walks.
15. Camera pans down slowly
Until we're looking at ten or eleven people standing around the street and overflowing to the curb and sidewalk. In the background is Steve Brand's car.
Steve
Doesn't make sense. Why should the power go off all of a sudden, and the phone line?
Don
Maybe some sort of an electrical storm or something.
Charlie
That don't seem likely. Sky's just as blue as anything. Not a cloud. No lightning. No thunder. No nothing. How could it be a storm?
Woman One
I can't get a thing on the radio. Not even the portable.
16. Med. group shot
As the people again murmur softly in wonderment and question.
Charlie
Well why don't you go downtown and check with the police, though they'll probably think we're crazy or something. A little power failure and right away we get all flustered and everything.
Steve
It isn't just the power failure, Charlie. If it was, we'd still be able to get a broadcast on the portable.
There's a murmur of reaction to this. Steve looks from face to face and then over to his car.
Steve
I'll run downtown. We'll get this all straightened out.
17. Track shot with Steve
As he walks over to the car, gets in it, turns the key.
18. Different angle looking through the open door
Beyond it we see the crowd watching him from the other side. Steve starts the engine. It turns over sluggishly and then just stops dead. He tries it again and this time he can't get it to turn over. Then, very slowly and reflectively, he turns the key back to "off" and then slowly gets out of the car.
19. Group shot
As they stare at Steve. He stands for a moment by the car, then walks toward the group.
Steve
I don't understand it. It was working fine before...
Don
Out of gas?
Steve
(shakes his head)
I just had it filled up.
Woman One
What's it mean?
Charlie
It's just as if..as if everything had stopped...
(then he turns toward Steve)
We'd better walk downtown.
Another murmur of assent at this.
Steve
The two of us can go, Charlie.
(he turns to look back at the car)
It couldn't be the meteor. A meteor couldn't do this.
He and Charlie exchange a look, then they start to walk away from the group.
20. Med. close shot Tommy
A serious-faced fourteen-year-old in spectacles who stands a few feet away from the group, halfway between them and the two men who start to walk down the sidewalk.
Tommy
Mr. Brand...you better not!
21. Med. close shot the two men
The boy can be seen beyond them.
Steve
Why not?
Tommy
They don't want you to.
Steve and Charlie exchange a grin, and Steve looks back toward the boy.
Steve
Who doesn't want us to?
Tommy
(jerks his head in the general direction of the distant horizon)
Them!
Steve
Them?
Charlie
Who are them?
Tommy
(very intently)
Whoever was in that thing that came by overhead.
22. Close shot Steve
As he knits his brows for a moment, cocking his head questioningly. His voice is intense.
Steve
What?
23. Two shot
Tommy
Whoever was in the thing that came over. I don't think they want us to leave here.
24. Moving shot Steve
As he leaves Charlie and walks over to the boy. He kneels down in front of him. He forces his voice to remain gentle. He reaches out and holds the boy.
Steve
What do you mean? What are you talking about?
Tommy
They don't want us to leave. That's why they shut everything off.
Steve
What makes you say that? Whatever gave you that idea?
Woman One
(from the crowd)
Now isn't that the craziest thing you ever heard?
Tommy
(persistently but a little intimidated by the crowd)
It's always that way, in every story I ever read about a ship landing from outer space.
Woman One
(to the boy's mother, Sally, who stands on the fringe of the crowd)
From outer space, yet! Sally, you better get that boy of yours up to bed. He's been reading too many comic books or seeing too many movies or something.
Sally
Tommy, come over here and stop that kind of talk.
Steve
Go ahead, Tommy. We'll be right back. And you'll see. That wasn't any ship or anything like it. That was just a...a meteor or something. Likely as not--
(he turns to the group, now trying to weight his words with an optimism he obviously doesn't feel but is desperately trying to instill in himself as well as the others)
No doubt it did have something to do with all this power failure and the rest of it. Meteors can do some crazy things. Like sunspots.
Don
(picking up the cue)
Sure. That's the kind of thing - like sunspots. They raise Cain with radio reception all over the world. And this thing being so close - why there's no telling the sort of stuff it can do.
(he wets his lips, smiles nervously)
Go ahead, Charlie. You and Steve go into town and see if that isn't what's causing it all.
25. Track shot Steve and Charlie
As they again continue to walk away from the group down the sidewalk.
26. Med. group shot the People
As they watch silently.
27. Close shot Tommy
As he stares at them, biting his lips and finally calling out again.
Tommy
Mr. Brand!
28. Long shot the two men
As they stop again. Tommy takes a step toward them.
Tommy
Mr. Brand...please don't leave here.
29. Different angle looking toward the people
Steve and Charlie can be seen beyond them. They stop once again and turn toward the boy. There's a murmur in the crowd, a murmur of irritation and concern as if the boy were bringing up fears that shouldn't be brought up; words which carried with them a strange kind of validity that came without logic but nonetheless registered and had meaning and effect. Again the murmur of reaction from the crowd.
30. Med. close shot Tommy
Partly frightened and partly defiant as well.
Tommy
You might not even be able to get to town. It was that way in the story. Nobody could leave. Nobody except--
Steve
Except who?
Tommy
Except the people they'd sent down ahead of them. They looked just like humans. And it wasn't until the ship landed that--
The boy suddenly stops again, conscious of the parents staring at them and of the sudden hush of the crowd.
Sally
(in a whisper, sensing the antagonism of the crowd)
Tommy, please son...honey, don't talk that way--
Man One
That kid shouldn't talk that way...and we shouldn't stand here listening to him. Why this is the craziest thing I ever heard of. The kid tells us a comic book plot and here we stand listenin--
31. Long shot Steve
As he walks toward the camera, stops by the boy.
Steve
Go ahead, Tommy. What kind of story was this? What about the people that they sent out ahead?
Tommy
That was the way they prepared things for the landing. They sent four people. A mother and a father and two kids who looked just like humans...but they weren't.
There's another silence as Steve looks toward the crowd and then toward Tommy. He wears a tight grin.
Steve
Well, I guess what we'd better do then is to run a check on the neighborhood and see which ones of us are really human.
There's laughter at this, but it's a laughter that comes from a desperate attempt to lighten the atmosphere. It's a release kind of laugh.
32. Close up Charlie
As he laughs nervously, slightly forced.
33. Close up Woman One
She laughs, too, but she's still unsatisfied and concerned.
34. Close up Man One
Maybe no more than a grin of release.
35. Group shot the people
As they look at one another in the middle of their laughter.
Charlie
There must be somethin' better to do than stand around makin' bum jokes about it.
(rubs his jaw nervously)
I wonder if Floral Street's got the same deal we got.
(he looks past the houses)
Where is Pete Van Horn anyway? Didn't he get back yet?
Suddenly there's the sound of a car's engine starting to turn over.
36. Long shot looking across the street toward the driveway of Les Goodman's house
He's at the wheel trying to start the car.
37. Reverse angle looking toward people
Sally
Can you get it started, Les?
38. Long shot looking toward Les Goodman
As he gets out of the car, shaking his head.
Goodman
No dice.
39. Track shot with him
As he walks toward the group. He stops suddenly as behind him, inexplicably and with a noise that inserts itself into the silence, the car engine starts up all by itself. Goodman whirls around to stare toward it.
40. Different angle the car
As it idles roughly, smoke coming from the exhaust, the frame shaking gently.
41. Close shot Goodman
As his eyes go wide, and he runs over to his car.
42. Different angle the people
As they stare toward the car.
Man One
He got the car started somehow. He got his car started!
43. Pan shot along the faces of the people
As they stare, somehow caught up by this revelation and somehow, illogically, wildly, frightened.
Woman One
How come his car just up and started like that?
Sally
All by itself. He wasn't anywheres near it. It started all by itself.
Don approaches the group, stops a few feet away to look toward Goodman's car and then back toward the group.
Don
And he never did come out to look at that thing that flew overhead. He wasn't even interested.
(he turns to the faces in the group, his face taut and serious)
Why? Why didn't he come out with the rest of us to look?
Charlie
He always was an oddball. Him and his whole family. Real oddball.
Don
What do you say we ask him?
44. Different angle the group
As they suddenly start toward the house. In this brief fraction of a moment they take the first step toward performing a metamorphosis that changes people from a group into a mob. They begin to head purposefully across the street toward the house at the end. Steve stands in front of them. For a moment their fear almost turns their walk into a wild stampede, but Steve's voice, loud, incisive, and commanding, makes them stop.
Steve
Wait a minute...wait a minute! Let's not be a mob!
The people stop as a group, seem to pause for a moment, and then much more quietly and slowly start to walk across the street.
45. Full shot Goodman's house and driveway
He stands there alone facing the people.
Goodman
I just don't understand it. I tried to start it and it wouldn't start. You saw me. All of you saw me.
And now, just as suddenly as the engine started, it stops and there's a long silence that is gradually intruded upon by the frightened murmuring of the people.
Goodman
I don't understand. I swear...I don't understand. What's happening?
46. Close shot Don
Don
Maybe you better tell us. Nothing's working on this street. Nothing. No lights, no power, no radio.
(and then meaningfully)
Nothing except one car - yours!
47. Med. group shot the people
As they pick this up and now their murmuring becomes a loud chant filling the air with accusations and demands for action. Two of the men pass Don and head toward Goodman who backs away, backing into his car and now at bay.
Goodman
Wait a minute now. You keep your distance - all of you. So I've got a car that starts by itself - well that's a freak thing, I admit it. But does that make me some kind of criminal or something? I don't know why the car works - it just does!
This stops the crowd momentarily, and now Goodman, still backing away, goes toward his front porch. He goes up the steps and then stops to stand facing the mob.
48. Long shot Steve
As he comes through the crowd.
Steve
(quietly)
We're all on a monster kick, Les. Seems that the general impression holds that maybe one family isn't what we think they are. Monsters from outer space or something. Different that us. Fifth columnists from the vast beyond.
(he chuckles)
You know anybody that might fit that description around here on Maple Street?
Goodman
What is this, a gag or something? This a practical joke or something?
49. Close shot spotlight on porch
As it suddenly goes out. There's a murmur from the group.