Work phone: 781-3880647
E-mail: mvatalaro@malden.mec.edu
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Work phone: 781-3880647 E-mail: mvatalaro@malden.mec.edu
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You are visitor No. 
since February 4, 2009
Welcome to my home page. I am the seventh grade English teacher at the Salemwood School. I was graduated from Boston State College with a Bachelor of Arts in English and Education. I also hold a Master of Education degree in Reading. During my twenty-five year teaching career, I have taught both high school and middle school.
In my spare time I like to watch movies and read books. I especially like mystery stories. My favorite authors are John Steinbeck and Edgar Allen Poe. I also enjoy the modern authors: Alice Hoffman, Michael Connelly and Anne Perry.
All students are expected to read for thirty minutes every night. Homework is given almost every night. Please check the agenda book, as we write our homework assignment in the agenda book every day. Furthermore, I try to record our homework on my web page calendar each day.
We are using one textbook this year, Elements of Literature. Also, we will read about twenty-five fiction and non-fiction books this year. Further, we each keep a reading portfolio and a writing portfolio. Our writing program is a modified "Six Traits of Writing" program and concentrates on writing about literature with an emphasis on the process of writing and revision. Almost every writing assignment has an accompanying rubric which pinpoints requirements and scoring for that assignment. Naturally, we also work on MCAS reading and writing preparation.
During the month of December we have just finished a major, five-paragraph paper on character analysis. We read "Amigo Brothers" and design a poster of the bout. We read the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. We use our reflection journals and our reading strategies to prepare for literature circles. We meet in literature circles and discuss the novel. We continue our exploration of the language of literature; we learn foreshadowing and symbolism in literature; we delve deeper into theme, using The Outsiders as a vehicle. We have many "Quickwrites" and a memory box to finish before the end of the month. We memorize Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" and recite it before the class.
Of course, we continue our independent reading for at least thirty minutes each day.
If you ever have any questions or concerns about your child and our English class, please do not hesitate to e-mail or call me, (781) 388-0647, at the Salemwood School. Let's work together to make your child successful in seventh grade English.
I tentatively plan to involve the seventh graders in our Harvard Law School, Kids in Court program during third semester.
