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.