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.

Topics, themes, and the Old Man on the big screen

During the week of May 11 - 15, we wrapped up our work with The Old Man and the Sea and the literary term theme. Students only had English class three days this week due to the math MCAS.

On Monday, students began the process of determining the topic and theme of The Old Man and the Sea. Students practiced determining the topics and themes of a variety of picture books a few weeks ago. They applied this knowledge to The Old Man and the Sea and came up with some thoughtful ideas for the story's topic and theme.

On Thursday, students were hard at work locating quotations and other passages in the story that supported one of the story's main themes and explaining how these passages supported the theme. This is a process that students will continue to practice in 8th grade and in high school. Thursday's lesson served as an introduction for them.

We ended the week by watching a film version of The Old Man and the Sea. While there are a few film versions of this story, the one I showed my students was an animated version created by Alexander Petrov. Petrov spent two and half years creating thousands of hand-painted illustrations on glass in order to make the film. Pretty amazing stuff. Following the movie, we discussed what we liked about this version of the story, what details were missing from the story, and whether or not the story's themes were as obvious in this version as they were in the novella.

Students will begin reading and writing poetry next week! They should also continue reading their biography and completing their graphic organizer because it is due Friday, May 22nd. 

Santiago's home, biographies, lists, and fierce wonderings

During the week of May 4th - 8th, students finished reading The Old Man and the Sea, began Independent Reading Project #4, and added to their writer's notebook.

Santiago's Home

Students read and discussed The Old Man and the Sea and answered questions in order to think more deeply about the text. After we finished the novella on Thursday, we discussed whether or not we thought Santiago had been defeated by the end of the story. I was impressed with the quality of the critical thinking my classes displayed during this discussion.

Independent Reading Project #4 - Biographies

On Tuesday, students visited the library to search for a biography to read for the fourth (and final) independent reading project of the school year.  The subject of the biography should have influenced or impacted the world around him/her through his/her actions, contributions, or innovations.

After Ms. Duff and I book-talked some biographies we thought the students might find interesting, students used the rest of the period to browse the biography section for a book that interested them and fit the above-mentioned criteria.

Students must finish the biography they selected by Friday, May 22nd. In addition to reading the novel, students should also fill out a note-taking graphic organizer. Students will use the information they recorded in the graphic organizer to help with the presentation they will be making during the first week of June. The job of the presenters will be to show their audience that the subject of their biography deserves the title of Person of the Year due to his or her impact or influence on the world. More information about the presentation will be provided on May 22nd.

One final note about biographies...

• biographies are written for a variety of reading levels and ages, and subjects of biographies can be known for impacting and influencing the world in both positive and negative ways. You and your child are the best judge about what biographies are appropriate for him or her. I encourage you to check in with your child to see what he or she is reading. 
  

Writer's Notebooks

This week, students added "Lists" and "Fierce Wonderings" to their writer's notebooks.

Returned Assignments

A 10-point, singular and plural possessive noun grammar quiz was returned this week.

Writer's notebooks, meeting Mitali, and tracking Santiago...

During the week of April 27th - May 1st students created their own writer's notebooks, met author Mitali Perkins, and continued reading The Old Man and the Sea.

Writer's Notebooks

Writer's notebooks are notebooks where writers write down memories, things they observe, unforgettable stories, lists, potential story ideas, literature that inspires them, or their reactions to things that have happened in their lives. Writers keep writer's notebooks so that they have a place to store ideas for later use. 

One reason I'm having students keep writer's notebooks is to help demystify the process of generating ideas for creative writing. I want students to see that their favorite authors don't have stories magically beamed down to them from some unknown place. Many stories start off as a tiny idea that needs to grow and be developed. Writer's notebooks are a place to collect those tiny ideas.

On Monday, students learned what writer's notebooks are and why writers use them. They made their own writer's notebook out of card stock, loose-leaf paper, a rubber band, and a pencil. Later on in the week students added the first two entries into their writer's notebook - memories and mind pictures. Each week, students will learn about one or two different types of entries to add to their notebooks.

Author Visit

On Wednesday, Mitali Perkins, author of the books Secret Keeper and Monsoon Summer, came to Chenery Middle School for the day. In the morning she spoke with the entire 7th grade. During her humorous and lively presentation, Ms. Perkins told the students what it was like growing up in India and moving to the United States when she was a child and how the experiences of growing up with the influences of many cultures impacted her writing.

In the afternoon, Ms. Perkins met with Team 7-1 and led a writing workshop in which students practiced creating engaging settings and characters. Ms. Perkins shared some of the students' writing and I was amazed at the creativity of the work they completed. You should check in with your child to see what he/she thought of the day!

Reading The Old Man and the Sea

Throughout the week, we continued reading The Old Man and the Sea, a novella by Ernest Hemingway that we started the day before spring vacation began. As we read, students are analyzing the main character, Santiago; responding to the text through questions, comments, or connections; reacting to quotes of Santiago; and answering little questions and big questions about the text. We will complete The Old Man and the Sea by the end of next week. 

Returned Assignments

Students got back their "Where I'm From" poems during Friday's class. For this 25-point writing assignment, students were required to write a "Where I'm From" poem (like they did during the first days of school), but this time students wrote as if they were the main character from a novel the they read for Independent Reading Project #3. I hope you get a chance to see you child's work!

Seven-minute stories, making predictions, and introducing the old man...

During the week of April 13-17, students continued to practice identifying themes in literature and began reading The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. Below is a quick recap of the week's events - 

• On Monday, students worked in groups of 4-5 to determine the topic and theme of five picture books I selected. Each group had seven minutes to read a picture book and come to a conclusion about its topic and theme. After seven minutes, each group passed its book onto the next group and began the topic and theme identification process with a new picture book. Each group completed this process for five books. By the end of the activity, students noticed that there were some themes that were very familiar because they'd seen them before in other books or movies and other themes that were new to them.

• In the middle of the week, students made predictions about the plot of The Old Man and the Sea before they began reading it. Students made their first prediction after only seeing the cover of the novel. Next, I gave them 12 key words from the text such as marlin, Santiago, pride, and Cuba and they were asked to write a new prediction statement based off of the new information they received.

• Students took a quiz on singular and plural possessive nouns and cleaned out their binders on Thursday.

• On Friday, we began reading The Old Man and the Sea. Students will be reading this story both in class and for homework over the next two weeks.

Enjoy your spring vacation!

Returned Assignments

One graded assignment was returned this week. Student got back Open Response #3 (a 25-point analysis paragraph). This writing assignment will be part of your child's Quarter 3 grade.

Better late than never!

For those of you who check the Team 7-1 blog regularly, I apologize for being a bit tardy with my post for the week of April 6-10. Preparation for 3rd quarter report cards kept me from blogging. Here's a quick recap of what we did in class and what assignments were returned.

On Monday, students began working on the writing portion of Independent Reading Project #3. If you remember back to the beginning of the school year, one of the first activities your child completed was a "Where I'm From" poem. In this poem, students wrote about themselves, their family and traditions, their homes, and the other details of their lives. For Independent Reading Project #3, students were asked to write another "Where I'm From" poem, but this time the poem would be about the main character in the realistic fiction novel they read. Students have already shared drafts of their poems with me, and I'm impressed by the creativity they are showing as they write in a voice other than their own.

"Michaels team has 15 win's this year!"

If you just cringed because you noticed the blantant misuse of apostrophes in the sentence above this one, that's OK. The theme of the middle part of the week in English class was using apostrophes correctly when showing possession. Students practiced their apostrophe use by reviewing and applying the three rules for making singular and plural nouns possessive.

Studying Theme

During the latter part of the week, students defined the term theme, learned how the topic and the theme of a story differ from one another, and identified the topic and theme of different pieces of literature such as a Dr. Seuss picture book and a short article about a shark attack survivor. As 8th graders, students will be interpreting the themes of the novels they read quite often. The purpose of our study of theme in 7th grade is to make sure that students are comfortable defining the term and understanding how it differs from the topic of the story. They will also be creating a catalog of common themes in their heads that they can apply to more challenging works next year.

Returned Assignments

One graded assignment was returned this week. Students got back a 7-point quiz on the structure of the 5-paragraph essay. 

Extra Credit Opportunity!

Students on Team 7-1 have an opportunity to earn extra credit for Quarter 4.

Published author Mitali Perkins is visiting Chenery Middle School on Wednesday, April 29th and will be speaking with the 7th grade. In preparation for her visit, I've created a classroom display of the young adult novels she has written. For those of  you at home, check out the virtual bookcase to the right of this post in order to see Ms. Perkins's novels. If the bookcase does not appear because your web browser doesn't recognize it, you may access the bookcase by clicking on the following link - http://www.shelfari.com/nilesenglish/shelf. More information about Ms. Perkins is located on her website - mitaliperkins.com

Here's where the extra credit opportunity comes in. If students are interested, they should choose a novel by Mitali Perkins that is displayed in the classroom, read the novel, and create four open-ended questions that they would ask her if they got the opportunity. A directions sheet for this assignment is available in the classroom.

I have a limited number of Mitali Perkins novels, but the Chenery library has PLENTY! Students should check the library if they are having trouble obtaining a copy of a Mitali Perkins novel.

Testing, testing, and more testing...

After four long mornings (and part of an afternoon on Tuesday), students on Team 7-1 finished their English MCAS testing.

Other than the MCAS, there is not too much to report. Students had a reduced class schedule due to testing, so I saw each English class once over the course of the 4-day testing period. We used that period to de-stress by playing a game called Scattergories.

Returned Assignments

One graded assignment was returned this week. Students received their "Qualities of a Hero" essay (a 25-point writing assignment) on Monday. I hope you got a chance to read your child's work!

Looking Forward

Students will wrap up Quarter 3 by practicing their apostrophe use and working on a writing assignment for Independent Reading Project #3.

During Quarter 4, students will study the literary term theme in preparation for 8th grade and take part in a poetry unit. Students will also complete an assignment for Independent Reading Project #4.

Putting the finishing touches on our MCAS preparation...

During the week of 3/23 - 3/27 students were busy wrapping up their preparation for the upcoming English MCAS.

Over the course of the week the students - 

• evaluated concluding paragraphs of their peers
• located areas in their essays where they could add descriptive language in order to create images
• turned in their completed essays after comparing it against an essay rubric
• practiced creating a prewriting web for a past MCAS Long Composition prompt
• read examples of scored MCAS essays and determined their strengths and weaknesses
• determined the characteristics that all strong essays share
• took a short quiz on the structure of a 5-paragraph essay

The English MCAS begins on Tuesday!

Returned Assignments

There were no graded assignments returned this week.

Lather, rinse, repeat...

You know the directions you can find on shampoo bottles that explain to consumers how to most effectively utilize the product? Well, instead of "lather, rinse, repeat", the mantra of English class this week could have been "write, revise, repeat". 

During the week of 3/16 - 3/20, students wrote and revised all three body paragraphs of their Qualities of a Hero 5-paragraph essay and began work on crafting the conclusion. Along the way, students took part in many peer editing sessions in order to help each other create clear and descriptive paragraphs.

Students will have the rough draft of their 5-paragraph essay complete on Monday, and they will hand in the final draft on Wednesday.

Returned Assignments

There were no graded assignments returned this week.

Announcing Independent Reading Project #3...

This is a quick post to update you on a long-term reading assignment your child will be working on over the next coulple of weeks. Students visited the library today to search for a realistic fiction novel to read for the third independent reading project of the school year.

Here are some of characteristics of realistic fiction books that we brainstormed in class -

• a plot that includes events that could really happen
  
• a setting that takes place in modern times
• characters that are true-to-life

After I told students about five realistic fictions novels I thought they might enjoy, students used the rest of the period to browse the bookshelves for a novel that interested them. Students should select a novel by Friday, March 20th.

(By the way, all of the titles I described in class today are located on the right side of this blog in a virtual bookcase. If the virtual bookcase does not appear because your web browswer doesn't recognize it, you may access the bookcase by clicking on the following link - http://www.shelfari.com/nilesenglish/shelf)

Students must finish the novel they selected by Monday, April 6th. In addition to reading the novel, students should also fill out the Realistic Fiction Novel Graphic Organizer they received in class today. Students will use the information they record in the graphic organizer to complete a writing assignment that they will learn more about later.

As I mentioned when students began the last independent reading project back in January, I encourage you to check in with your child to see what novel he or she is reading. Some realistic fiction novels are light and humerous, and others deal with mature themes. You and your child are the best judge about what novels are appropriate for him or her.

As always, please email me if you have any questions!

Heroes, color-coded maps, and grabbing your audience's attention...

During the week of 3/9 - 3/13 students continued their preparation for the Long Composition portion of the upcoming English MCAS by studying the structure of a multi-paragraph essay and beginning to write their own essay about the qualities heroes possess.

Students began the week by labeling specific parts of a multi-paragraph essay and color-coding them in order to internalize the structure of a multi-paragraph essay. Following our study of an essay's structure, students began the process of writing their own essay by deciding on a subject for their "Qualities of a Hero" essay. Check in with your child to see who the subject of his or her essay is.  

All students created an essay web as part of their prewriting brainstorming. Following their prewriting, students focused on writing clear, effective thesis statements and engaging hooks for the introductory paragraph of their essays. We looked at a variety of introductory paragraphs and analyzed how different writers grabbed our attention by crafting creative hooks. We noticed that some writers caught our attention because they incorporated voice into their introductory paragraphs, so students looked for ways to write hooks that showcased their unique voices.

Next week, students will be drafting the body paragraphs of their essay.

Returned Assignments

One graded assignment was returned this week. Students received the script they wrote that was based on a science fiction or fantasy novel (a 25-point writing assignment).

Highlights from the week...

Literature Circle Wrap-Up

During the week of 3/2 - 3/6 we put the finishing touches on our literature circle unit. Following Monday's snow day, students revisited a question they had answered before they began reading the novel to see if their feelings changed after reading the novel. They also individually evaluated their reading, writing, listening, and speaking performance when working in literature circles.

At the end of Tuesday's period, students began working on Open Response #3,  the culminating activity for their literature circle unit. For OR #3, students had to choose a character from the novel they read and explain what two character traits of this character helped determine the outcome of the novel. This assignment is due on Monday, March 9th.

It's that time of year again...

It's March, so that means the English/Language Arts MCAS is approaching. Students in Grade 7 will be tested on their reading comprehension and writing ability over the course of 4 testing days. Below is the testing schedule:

Day 1 - Tuesday, March 31st (Long Composition)

Day 2 - Wednesday, April 1st (Reading Comprehension)

Day 3 - Thursday, April 2nd (Reading Comprehension)

Day 4 - Friday, April 3rd (Reading Comprehension)

During Day 1 of testing, students will answer a prompt by writing a multi-paragraph essay. Preparation for the multi-paragraph essay will be the focus of our MCAS study over the next three weeks because this is the section of the test that is most unfamiliar for Grade 7 English/Language Arts students. Because students will be brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and turning in a final draft of their essay all in one testing session, this day is also the most rigorous.

During Days 2-4 of testing, students will read short passages of fiction or nonfiction literature and then answer a combination of multiple choice questions and questions that require students to answer in paragraph form. Preparation for this section of the MCAS has occurred throughout the year.

Please feel free to email me if you have any questions regarding the upcoming English/Language Arts MCAS.

Preparing to write

On Wednesday, students began preparing to work on their own multi-paragraph essay. Students will be answering a prompt in which they identify qualities or traits heroes possess, explain why these qualities are important, and provide examples of these qualities.

In order to get students thinking about individuals who are considered by others to be heroes, we read short articles on Jackie Robinson and Captain Chesley Sullenberger. Students brainstormed a list of qualities possessed by Robinson, Sullenberger, and other individuals that students deemed heroic.

Over the next two days, students focused on the structure of an essay. They compared and contrasted the structure of a paragraph to the structure of an essay on Thursday, and they began analyzing the structure of the essay on Friday.

Essay preparation continues next week.

Returned Assignments

There were no graded assignments returned this week.

Wrapping up literature circles...

Welcome back! During the week of 2/23-2/27, students finished reading the novel they had selected with their literature circle and had their last two discussion days to discuss the final chapters. The schedule for the week mirrored that of the week before vacation. On Monday and Wednesday, students prepared for group discussions by reading assigned chapters, completing discussion preparation sheets, or writing director questions. Tuesday and Thursday were discussion days.

As a teacher, the discussion days were fun. I saw students peel back layers of the text and debate the issues that arose in the novel they read. I saw students emerge as leaders of their groups by spurring discussion if it was fizzling or involving students who may have been quiet in the discussion. I saw students who are ordinarily quiet in whole-class discussions share their thoughts about the novel with their group, and I saw students succeed and struggle when working together as a group. If nothing else, this literature circle unit gave students the opportunity to practice their skills of working together as a team to complete a task, and I think that's an important skill for every student.

Returned Assignments

No graded assignments were returned this week.

Literature Circles: Week 2...

Students continued reading and discussing novels in literature circles this week. Monday and Wednesday were preparation days, meaning that students had time to read, work on any assigned journal responses, or update their character trait log and story map. Tuesday and Thursday were designated for discussion of the novel's events. Before each discussion day, one student from the literature circle volunteered to act as the director of the group. He or she created five "big questions" for the group to discuss and lead the group's discussion. I've really enjoyed getting to walk around the classroom while the literature circles are at work and observe the groups' discussions. The directors have been coming up with great questions to get their group to think more deeply about the text. Literature circles will conclude at the end of the week we return to school.

We had 30-minute classes on Friday due to a special Team 7-1 schedule, so students took the time to clean out unnecessary papers from their binders that they had collected over the course of Quarter 2.

Returned Assignments

There were no graded assignments returned this week.

Playbill covers and movie posters...

For the final part of the scriptwriting activity, students designed a playbill cover or movie poster for the script they completed. If your child wrote a play script, he or she designed a playbill cover. If your child wrote a movie script, he or she created a movie poster.

We spent part of Monday's class looking at examples of playbill covers and movie posters and determined the characteristics of each. I was impressed by the creativity that the students showed when creating designs to entice their audience to check out their scripts. Below are a few examples of the work from students on Team 7-1. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

And the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay goes to...

During the week of January 26-30 we wrapped up our drama unit.

Students spent most of the week working on the drama unit culminating activity - adapting a scene from the science fiction or fantasy novel they read to be a scene in a movie or a play. Armed with the understanding of how script writers tell a story, students first decided whether their scene would work best on either the stage or the screen and then began drafting their scripts on Monday and Tuesday in class.

Later in the week, students brainstormed titles for their script, worked on revising and editing their script with the help of a checklist, and exchanged scripts with a partner as part of a peer review session. Students should be putting the finishing touches on their scripts this weekend and Monday. The final draft of the script is due Tuesday.

In addition to writing their scripts, students took a short quiz on vocabulary associated with drama this week. They also previewed three novels and selected one in preparation for a novel unit that will begin next week.

Returned Assignments

Students got back one 14-point graded assignment this week. Students answered recall, inference, and analysis questions about the short story "All Summer In a Day" by Ray Bradbury for this assessment.

More character traits, showing vs. telling, and scriptwriting preparation...

I began to feel more comfortable with my voice and writing style during my years at St. Michael's College. Many teachers helped me hone my skills, but one in particular - Dianne Lynch, the former journalism department head at St. Mike's -  provided me with countless bits of advice on how to become a stronger writer and journalist. I was happy to share one of her teachings with my students this week - show, don't tell.

For creative writers, show, don't tell means that instead of simply telling readers that the main character is courageous or persistent or loving, "show" these traits by describing the main character's actions, speech, thoughts, feelings, or the way other characters respond to the main character. Students used this advice when describing characters this week. They took sentences that used direct characterization ("Ken was nervous before his speech") and changed them to use indirect characterization to help "show" these traits ("Ken's hands shook and his stomach churned before he delivered a speech to the capacity crowd").  It was fun hearing some of the creative ways students experimented with characterization.  In addition to creating sentences that revealed character traits, students practiced interpreting the traits of characters from passages of literature earlier in the week.

These lessons concluded our work with character for now. Students will resume their study of character at the beginning of Quarter 3.

We closed the short week by preparing to write scripts next week. Before students put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard), they reread the beginning of the play-version of The Dying Detective and compared it to an excerpt of the short story version of the same Sherlock Holmes tale by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. We compared and contrasted the two versions of the story and discussed the ways in which script writers and short story writers differ when telling a story.

Next week students will begin writing a script based on an excerpt of a novel they read for Independent Reading Project #2.

Returned Assignments

No graded assignments were returned this week.

Monsters, witch trials, and character traits...

This week we wrapped up our discussion of "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" by Rod Serling and did a bit of preliminary work for an upcoming unit on analyzing characters in literature.

After reading and discussing "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" last week, we watched the television episode in class. Following the show, we talked about the mood Rod Serling created and the techniques used to accentuate that mood like music, lighting, and tight close-ups on frightened faces. The students also had some specific ideas about what they would change in the episode if they had the opportunity to remake it. Tops on almost everyone's list seemed to be to film the episode in color. :)

Although Wednesday's classes were only 30 minutes long, students did a lot of great thinking in that short amount of time. They began the period by answering the question - "do you think that people in an unusual situation would behave like the people did on Maple Street?" For those of you who haven't read the script or seen the television episode, a power outage hits Maple Street and its residents don't know why. They become scared and blame each other for the outage, bringing the story to its climactic and chaotic end. (If you're intrigued by the story, you can find it on p. 667 of your child's purple text book.) Following our discussion about whether or not people would ever turn on each other in such a way, we read a brief account of the events that happened in Salem, MA in 1692. I was very impressed not only with the great connections students made between "Monsters" and the brief account of the Salem Witch Trials that they read, but also their thoughts about situations in history when individuals have been made to be scapegoats.

In addition to this work, students were also answering the question - "who do you think is most responsible for causing the chaos at the end of 'The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street' " - on their own in paragraph form. While most of this work was completed outside of class, students used Thursday's class to write, revise, and edit with the help of a checklist I provided. This analytical paragraph was due on Friday.

Students also practiced two specific skills this week. While writing an analytical paragraph, students learned how to use a direct quote in their writing when analyzing literature. Students will be using direct quotes often in 8th grade, so they got a bit of practice during this assignment. Students also began reviewing the two major forms of characterization used by authors, direct and indirect, and began to identify them in literature. Students will continue to study characterization and character traits next week as well as during a novel unit that will begin in February. 

Returned Assignments

No graded assignments were returned this week.

Entering the Twilight Zone...

In addition to visiting the library, students continued their study of the literary form drama.

At the beginning of the week, students performed short skits adapted from The Dying Detective, a Sherlock Holmes mystery they read before winter break. Complete with an air mattress as one of the stage props, students showed off their acting chops (and had a little fun too) on the first day back from vacation.

During the rest of the week students entered the Twilight Zone when they read 'The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", a script by Rod Serling that was part of the television program The Twilight Zone (cue the classic Twilight Zone musical theme). Due to the large number of speaking roles in this script, we read it together as a class, and students were able to practice reading with expression.

Following the reading, students discussed the difference between a group and a mob and the reasons why the residents of Maple Street were so quick to believe that their fellow neighbors were aliens, as well as debated who the real "monsters" of this story were.

Early next week we'll watch The Twilight Zone episode together in class.

Returned Assignments

Students got back one 5-point graded assignment this week. Students selected sentences from their original descriptive paragraphs that had a distinctive mood and then changed the mood of the sentences by experimenting with word choice. 

A new reading project for a new year...

Welcome back! Today's post is devoted to notifying you that your child is beginning the second independent reading project of the school year in English class. You may recall that your child read a historical fiction novel for Independent Reading Project #1 back in October.

Your child will be reading either a science fiction or fantasy novel for Independent Reading Project #2. 

On Thursday, students visited the Chenery library to begin searching for science fiction and fantasy novels. In order to whet their literary appetites, Ms. Duff (our school librarian) and I told the students about a range of science fiction and fantasy novels, and then they had the rest of the period to browse and begin their search. Students should select their book by Monday, January 12th. By the way, all of the titles Ms. Duff and I described are located on the right side of this blog in a virtual bookcase. (If the virtual bookcase does not appear because your web browser doesn't recognize it, you may access the bookcase by clicking on the following link -  www.shelfari.com/nilesenglish/shelf )

Students must finish the novel they selected by Monday, January 26th.  In addition to reading the novel, students should also fill out the Science Fiction/Fantasy Novel Graphic Organizer and photocopy a brief scene from their book that they think is the most exciting, interesting, or important. Students will be working with this scene during the second part of the project, so they should make sure that they pick a scene that they like. Your child received all of this information, including the graphic organizer, during Thursday's class.

I'd like to close this blog by mentioning a couple of things...

• Due to the length of many fantasy and science fiction novels, students will have to be diligent in order to complete the novel on time. Your child will make a plan on Monday regarding how many pages he or she must read each day in order to finish the novel by January 26th. Students will keep track of their daily reading on a bookmark they receive in class. My one request of you is that you occasionally check to make sure your child is keeping up with his or her reading.
• There is a WIDE variety of fantasy and science fiction novels out there. Some novels are on the short side, while other novels appear to be the size of telephone books. Some novels are light and fun, and others have mature themes. You and your child are the best judge about what novels are appropriate for him or her. Please check in with your child to see what he or she is reading.

Thank you for your help! Please contact me if you have any questions.