School's out for the summer...

Dear Parents/Guardians,

I just wanted to post a quick note to say how much I enjoyed working with your children this year. It was great to witness their growth in reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

It was also a pleasure to meet and communicate with so many of you this year. I appreciate your support.

Enjoy the summer!

CMS Summer Reading for Students Entering 8th Grade

During Friday's class, the students also learned about their reading requirements for this summer. Information about the reading requirements for entering 8th graders at Chenery Middle School can be found by clicking here.

Garageband, moody poems, and wrapping up the year...

During the week of 6/15 - 6/19, students spent three days in the school's Mac computer lab learning and using the Mac program Garageband. If you haven't heard of Garageband before, it's a music-making computer program made by Apple that allows the user to choose from hundreds of different instrument loops to create original compositions. The beauty of the program is that no musical experience or knowledge is necessary in order to have fun with Garageband.

Prior to our work in the computer lab, students listened to clips of instrumental music and determined that factors such as tempo, types of instruments used, and volume of the music helped determine the mood of the musical selection. After they spent a period and a half learning some of the basic functions of Garageband and experimenting with the seemingly countless number of loops, students used this program to create a soundtrack for one of four different poems that I provided. The key was that the short soundtrack they created had to convey a mood similar to that of the poem they selected.

If you have a Mac computer at home, you most likely have Garageband. Ask your child to introduce you to the program. It can be addicting!

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Friday was the last day that students on Team 7-1 had a normal class schedule, so in English class the students completed some activities in which they reflected on the work they completed this year. They gave me feedback on which of the year's activities were helpful and enjoyable for them, and they completed reflection forms about their strengths, things they wish they had done better, and most proud accomplishments in English class.

Returned Assignments

Three graded assignments were returned this week. All of the following assignments are part of your child's Quarter 4 grade.

• a 25-point Person of the Year oral presentation scoring rubric
• a 15-point poem
• a 14-point poetry analysis assessment

My sister is salsa music, rhyme schemes, and interpreting a waltz...

During the week of June 8th - 12th students continued their study of poetry.

Extended Metaphors and Rhyme Scheme

The term metaphor is a familiar one for most 7th grade students; however, the term extended metaphor may be new to many of them. On Monday, students defined the term extended metaphor, identified extended metaphors in poems like "Fog" by Carl Sandburg, "Life" by Naomi Long Madgett, and "Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson.  They tried their hand at writing an extended metaphor by comparing a family member to a type of music. By the way, if my sister were music, she would be salsa music.  :)

On Tuesday, students discussed why some poets use rhyme in their poems, defined the term rhyme scheme, and analyzed the rhyme schemes in poems like "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer and "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.

Marking-Up a Poem

Sometimes readers read poetry just to enjoy the sound of the language and the author's writing style. Other times readers read a poem to uncover its meaning. On Wednesday, I showed my students how to  literally "mark-up" a poem with questions, connections, comments, observations, and conclusions they drew in order to give themselves a better shot at finding meaning in a poem. 

I modeled the process by marking up "Harlem" by Langston Hughes and explained my thinking as I completed my mark-up.  Students then practiced the process on their own by marking up "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke. I selected this poem  because I think it is a description of a wonderful ritual performed between a father and his child after he returns home from work. I was amazed at the different interpretations of this poem some students had! This difference of opinion led to a good discussion about how words can be interpreted in different ways. Check out "My Papa's Waltz" and see what your interpretation of the poem is.

On Friday, students completed an in-class assessment. They selected one out of a possible three poems and answered analysis questions that were based on the poetic terms we have studied during this poetry unit.

Returned Assignments

No graded assignments were returned this week.

Person of the Year Presentations

The bulk of the week of June 1st-5th was devoted to Person of the Year presentations. Each student's job was to present a two-minute speech that showed the audience that the subject of his/her biography was deserving of the title, Person of the Year.

I am very proud of the way the students handled this assignment. As anyone who has ever given a presentation knows, it is not an easy task to stand in front of a large group of your peers and deliver a formal presentation in a clear, organized, and engaging manner, but students on Team 7-1 were quite successful. I could tell that many students crafted their speeches thoughtfully and practiced presenting them diligently.

Returned Assignments

No graded assignments were returned this week.

Onomatopoeia, memory poems, and Person of the Year presentation preparation...

During the week of 5/26 - 5/29, students continued working with poetry by analyzing sound devices used by writers and writing a memory poem. They also began preparing for their Person of the Year presentations that begin this coming Wednesday.

Person of the Year Presentations

You may recall that your child recently completed a biography he or she selected for Independent Reading Project #4. Following the reading of this biography, students have begun preparing a 2- minute presentation in which they show their audience that this person deserves the honorable title of Person of the Year because he/she has influenced or impacted the world around him/her through his/her actions, contributions, or innovations.

On Monday, I explained the criteria of the Person of the Year presentation and the steps necessary to complete this assignment, shared an example of a Person of the Year speech that I wrote, and reviewed the scoring rubric with the students.

On Friday, students practiced presenting in front of the class by sharing some brief information about themselves like their favorite food or the last movie they watched. They also learned how to take the outline of their speech and other key information and put it on notecards that they can use for their presentation. The presentation order was also selected, so students know the order in which they will be presenting.

Sound Devices

On Tuesday, students began the period by attempting to say she sells sea shells by the seashore five times in a row quickly and correctly. We discussed that this sentence is pleasing to hear (but difficult to say) because the author used sound devices. Sound devices are tools writers can use to enhance the poem's rhythm and feel.

Students defined four different sound devices. Some sound devices were familiar to them (onomatopoeia and alliteration), while others were new (assonance and consonance). We then read a poem called "Onomatopoeia" by Eve Merriam, identified the different sound devices she used, and analyzed how the use of these sound devices added meaning and interest to the poem.

Memory poems

In previous classes, the source for the students' poems was an object from the Object Box or words from the Word Bowl. During Thursday's class, memories were the source for their poetic ideas. Students selected a memory they had previously recorded in their writer's notebook and wrote a 15-line poem about the memory. While writing, students were encouraged to employ two writing techniques they practiced earlier in the school year: using the five senses in your description and show, don't tell. Students also pushed themselves to write about a memory that was important to them. We discussed that when writers write about a topic that matters to them the caring feeling they have for the subject comes through the words they write on the page. I shared the following quote from Kurt Vonnegut in order to support this idea:

Find a subject that you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive elements of your style.

Returned Assignments

No graded assignments were returned this week.

Fury poems, word bowls, and personifying a light bulb...

During the week of May 18-22, students began a poetry unit and displayed their creativity by writing three different types of poems: fury poems, word bowl poems, and object box poems. Students also reviewed the poetic terms simile, metaphor, and personification and discussed why authors would use these forms of figurative language in their writing.

Fury Poems

Sometimes writers produce their strongest work when they write about dark feelings. Students tackled the feeling fury and wrote about things that make them upset. Alarm clocks, uncomfortable classroom chairs, chores, and love suffered the wrath of writers on Team 7-1. While students wrote their fury poems, they pushed themselves to use stronger similes that startle and intrigue readers.

Word Bowl Poems

The challenge of this poem was that students had to create a 15-line poem inspired by 7 words or phrases they randomly selected from the word bowl. Some of the phrases made sense, while others did not. Students understood that the descriptions and images they created didn't always have to make literal sense; they could make poetic sense through the use of similes and metaphors.

Object Box Poems

Students had to dust off their imaginations in order to write an object box poem. Each student was given an object from the object box such as a light bulb, a feather, or a piece of aluminum foil. Students then had to think about what else their object could be. In other words, a light bulb could no longer be a light bulb. In English class this light bulb became a bowling pin, a tear drop, a hot air balloon, or a bright idea. Students then wrote a 15-line poem from the perspective of the object about its dreams, accomplishments, and living environment. Students used personification and strong, active verbs in order to write this poem. The final product was a fun (and well-written) piece of poetry.

Returned Assignments

No graded assignments were returned this week.