Queen of All Saints Junior High
English Language Arts
with
Mr. Ordaz
About Me
Hello! My name is Mr. Ordaz. I am the English Language Arts Teacher at Queen of All Saints School (Concord, CA) and I want to tell you a little about myself. I am originally from Los Angeles, California but was born in Oakland, California. I majored in English Literature and Composition at California State University, Los Angeles and graduated with a B.A. in English in 2006 with an emphasis in American Literature. In the years between graduating and starting my full-time teaching career in 2014, I was a plumber, a carpenter, a barista, an actor, a substitute teacher, a door-to-door salesman, and a semi-professional opera singer. Finally, after much delay, I started my teaching career in earnest as a middle school teacher in South Los Angeles and shortly thereafter joined the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, first as a high school English and Theater teacher and then as a middle school English teacher. After of few years of successfully helping students achieve their academic potential in Southern California, I decided to give Northern California a try. I am happy to say that it has been one of the best decisions that I have made in my life.
I am incredibly proud and grateful to be a part of the Queen of All Saints family and am even prouder of the hard work and dedication that QAS students show to become not just better students but S.A.I.N.T.S in the truest sense of the word.
Current Writing Assignments
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QAS Junior High is currently working on their Writing Portfolios for Trimester 1
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Students will work on informative essays, persuasive essays, Science Fiction/Fantasy Short Stories, and English and Italian Sonnets.
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Students choose what they what type of writing they want to do and then select the topics they want to write about. This gives the students a sense that they are a driving force behind their education as well as a sense of freedom to pursue their interests.
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All of this happens under the watchful eye of Mr. Ordaz who guides them by answering their questions and giving them immediate feedback on their work.
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You might be asking yourself "How can students work on so many different things at the same time?" The answer to that is Work Stations. The students are grouped with people who are working on the same type of assignment so that they can help each other. Work Station also allows Mr. Ordaz to walk around the classroom and give much more personal and tailored instruction to each student.
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QAS 2018-2019 Reading/Literature List
Because of all of our current writing projects, QAS Junior High ELA will take a little break from literature to focus on building, strengthening, and improving our informative and creative writing skills and abilities. Once these projects are complete, we will jump right back into literature and reading.
Sixth Grade will start by reading Christopher Paul Curtis's Bud, Not Buddy.
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Seventh Grade will begin reading Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston
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Eighth Grade will begin reading All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque.
So far this year, the Junior High has read several novels, plays, and poems. Here is a list of all the works that they have read:
Sixth Grade
Novels:
The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
Plays:
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Poems:
"Oranges" by Gary Soto
"The Whipping" by Robert Hayden
"The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen
"The Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randell
Seventh Grade
Novels
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Plays
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Poems
"Oranges" by Gary Soto
"The Whipping" by Robert Hayden
"The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen
"The Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randell
"Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes
Eighth Grade
Novels
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs
Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Plays
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Poems
"Oranges" by Gary Soto
"The Whipping" by Robert Hayden
"The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen
"The Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randell
"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden