Words, Words, and More Beautiful Words!

Students' first foray into poetry writing last week was quite impressive and inspiring!  Each student wrote a single line that they then put up for auction--anyone could take anyone else's line to use as a springboard for a poem.  As inspiration for the next poem, they were encouraged to listen to the music of words in their minds as they brainstormed a list of "beautiful words", or those they like the sound of, and then crafted a poem using them.  This week they will create imagery in the form of cinquains.  They will read and analyze some of Pablo Neruda's odes to onions, tomatoes, artichokes and salt, and then pen their own ode to a food.  In addition to writing poems, students are demonstrating their understanding of poetic devices by creating a page for each device that gives a definition, an original example in a line or short poem, an illustration of the example, and they'll be finding an instance of each device in a published poem.

Homework

Monday:  beautiful words poem due tomorrow

Tuesday:  device pg. #1 due tomorrow

Wednesday/Thursday:  Cinquains (minimum of 2) due Friday

Friday:  ode to a food due Friday, April 6

Shifting Gears Onto A Road Less Traveled

To usher in the official start of spring, we are seguing off the MCAS--essay--academic-reading-and-writing highway to a meandering, less trafficky road.  At times it will be smooth sailing, perhaps other times a bumpy ride--but on this road there are no flat tires or breakdowns when you hit a pothole!  Students will take the wheel, exploring new roads and forging new paths using the maps of their mind, heart and soul.

What is this road?  you might ask.  Poetry, of course!  Poetry is the perfect writing genre in which to play with language:  to learn (or coin!) new words; experiment with literary devices; play with punctuation (with purpose, of course); to shape words on a page unlike any essay ever written.  Best of all, poets can freely express their deepest thoughts and emotions, their humor, and observations of the world or life.  Topics can range from the sublime to the ridiculous; forms can encompass free verse to limerick, rhyme to concrete. Individuality is the key, as each poem a student writes expresses their own ideas, thoughts, and emotions in their own unique way.  

We'll read poems, too, peeling back layers and trying to unlock the mysteries they hold.  Students will come to understand that they may have to retrace their route with a poem, drive back over it, discover things they hadn't seen the first time down that road.  They will come to appreciate the deeply layered beauty of a poem--layers of meaning, layers of language--like the petals of a rose that smells ever more fragrant as as you pluck away petals to reach the inner bud.  They will chuckle at the rhymes of Jack Prelutsky, and maybe turn a bit introspective after reading "The Giving Tree".  They will become expert drivers as they navigate the language of poetry, identifying devices, form and structure and analyzing their purpose and effect.  Their reading and observation of poems will inform their own poetry writing, always with the goal of trying a new device or style, of traveling down a road less traveled to take readers of their poems on an exciting new journey.  

Homework:

Monday:  Prepare for book group tomorrow; vocab quiz Thursday (play quizlet!)

Tuesday:  Read for book group Friday; vocab quiz Thursday (quizlet!)

Wednesday:  Vocab quiz tomorrow

Thursday:  prepare for book group tomorrow; work on poem

Friday:  Finish your "beautiful words" poem; prepare as a final draft to turn in Tuesday 3/27

Beautiful Words Poem

Engaging the Writing Process

Students will have two class periods this week to revise their "Little Red" essays.  They are practicing the skill of transferring editing into revision and seeing the ways in which they can make their essays stronger.  In addition, they will be taking an MCAS practice test to familiarize themselves with online test taking, including format, user tools, and types of questions that will be asked.  These will not be scored but are simply practice in taking the test.  We will end the week with book group discussions.  Students who are absent on the day of a book group meeting should write a response to the chunk of reading they've done for it.  Responses should include the types of things that would be discussed:  any of the elements of fiction, author's perspective, language, connections, predictions, etc.

Homework:

Mon-Wed:  Read chunk #2 for Thursday; use sticky notes to mark/jot down things you want to talk about in your group meeting.

Wed:  If you didn't finish LRRH essay revision, please finish and turn in by Friday.

Spring Songbirds and Snow!

I'm hoping that the forecast for snow midweek doesn't silence the early morning chirpers I've begun to hear!  It's a sweet reminder that spring, indeed, is in sight.  Also in sight, for teachers' long term planning at least, is the end of the year and our final work together--so hard to believe!  We basically have another choice book, poetry reading and writing, and Greek mythology to take use through June.

Today we visited the library to get a choice book to read with a self-chosen partner or group.  Most students have chosen to read fiction, and a few have selected narrative nonfiction.  Students will be reading independently, and they will meet as a pair/group four times throughout their reading to discuss their books.  Topics will range from elements of fiction to connections students make to their books to language the authors use.

Students have been taking their essay writing skills to a new level by drawing evidence from multiple texts to support a thesis.  They practiced this skill in their "Little Red Riding Hood" essay as well as one on honeybees.  It reflects the writing expectation of the newest version of MCAS, which students will be taking in the first week of April.

There will be a short quiz on punctuation and capitalization this week (Thursday), and we will also dive into a new vocabulary list starting tomorrow.

Listen for the songbirds...and enjoy the snow if we get some!

Homework:

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday:  read a bit each night to finish chunk #1 for Friday's group meeting.  

Thursday night, write three ideas/comments/questions/wonderings/etc. that you can bring to your group discussion.

Punctuation/Capitalization quiz Thursday.

Vocabulary List #9

Welcome Back--and Back to Business!

I hope that everyone enjoyed our combined winter/spring-like weather over break.  It was so special to wake to winter white blanketing the ground and trees on one day, then to hike in a warm spring breeze the next, albeit through mud!  Today we switch gears, back to the business of learning in school.

"Little Red Riding Hood" essays were due today; if anyone fell behind with this or forgot to print, tonight and tomorrow night will be the time to catch up.  Today in class we revisited spelling rules, practiced using commonly misspelled words (linked below), and embarked on new rules in the form of plurals.  Students worked on ten rules for creating plural nouns, and should finish up the packet if needed tonight.  Tomorrow students will take the ELA department benchmark test that they took early in the year.  While I score the test to determine growth across the three times it is given, the scores are not entered into Aspen and do not figure into report card grades.  The data is informational for me and for our department to analyze students' growth and development.  The test questions are written a la the newest version of MCAS, so they serve the dual purpose of being practice for that test.  We will work on the essay component together so that will also become practice for the kind of writing required on the MCAS.

While this week is all business, students are in store for more choice reading next week!  This time, they will return to fiction and read in pairs or small groups.  Students in each class should think about with whom they might want to read, as well as a novel they want to read together.  Students are welcome to borrow or purchase their shared novels on their own, but we'll visit the library next Monday to choose books, and I have multiple copies of many selections as well.  They'll begin reading and meeting with their groups next week.

Homework

Monday/Tuesday:  finish plural packet; finish/print Little Red essay to turn in if needed.

Wednesday:  finish organizer for bee essay; if you want to begin drafting, go for it!

Thursday:  finish essay draft

Friday:  finish final draft of essay & print; self score on rubric (you will turn in essay and rubric Monday)

If you and your reading partner(s) are getting a book on your own (you each need a copy), bring it in on Monday (we'll visit library on Monday to get books).

Commonly Misspelled Words activity  

Editing Checklist

Writing Rubric

Common Ideas Between "Hum" and "Why We Need Bees"

A Single Story...Told Five Different Ways

We continue to weave the thread of "a single story" and its implications for readers throughout our reading this week.  Today's story was the classic "Little Red Riding Hood", a German folk tale published by the brothers Grimm, famous for their collection of fairy tales.  Students worked in small groups to examine how the setting, characters, actions, and language reflect the authors' background, Germany in the 1800s.  They also considered how this fairy tale presents a "single story".  Students will remain in their groups throughout the week, each day reading a different version of the tale and answering the same questions about it.  The versions include "Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China", "Red Ridin' In the Hood" by Mexican-American author Patricia Santos Marcantonio, "Little Roja Riding Hood" by bilingual author Susan Elya and Latina illustrator Susan Guevara, and "Little Red and the Very Hungry Lion", a "classic fairy tale with an African safari twist".  To culminate, students will synthesize their group work and our listening, discussing and writing about "the danger of a single story" in a short essay.  While we may have time to begin this writing in class on Friday, I will ask students to complete the essay over the break so that the information and their experience of it is still fresh, as opposed to waiting until we return.

Homework:

Monday:  add to group notes as needed; do spelling rules 15-18 in packet.

Tuesday:  add to group notes; do spelling rules 19-22.

Wednesday:  add to group notes; do spelling rules 23-25.

Thursday:  add to group notes; do spelling rules 26-28.

Friday:  add to group notes; write final response essay: due 2/26 (preferably typed!)

Little Red Riding Hood Group Work Questions and Essay

Little Red Riding Hood Original Version

Danger of a Single Story TED talk

The Power/Danger of a Single Story

Following JFK's Diversity Day events and continuing the mission to become a more inclusive school, students will explore the notion that there is power--and perhaps danger--in telling stories and reading them with a myopic viewpoint.  Chimamanda Adichie's TED talk (linked below) will be the springboard for some deep thinking and writing on this topic.  Students will be considering how an author's perspective influences their writing, and how readers bring their own lens of experience to texts they read.  We will pick up this work next week by reading five versions of a classic fairy tale retold by authors of varying ethnicity.

Later this week, we will begin reviewing and practicing spelling rules. Students will be given a packet of the rules with which they'll practice, and they should hold onto these in their binders as a reference.

Homework:

Monday:  finish nonfiction book cover

Tuesday:  finish "Power/Danger of a Single Story" hw writing prompt on handout

Wednesday:  none!

Thursday:  finish practice work Spelling Rules 1-5

Friday:  finish practice work Spelling Rules 6-10


TED talk

Power/Danger of a Single Story hw writing prompt