This is the End, My Friends!

Of Unit 2, that is...

And our first Unit Assessment is upon us! I hope you all found our brainstorming activities on Thursday and Friday were helpful. Think about those discussions as you plan out your response!

Here's a list of materials for you to review in preparation for your answer:

Unit 2 Assessment Prompt
Unit 2 Assessment Rubric
All your Unit 2 notebook notes/entries
Your "Quote Sandwich" work
Your Double-Entry Journals
Your literary devices notes and dictionary
Your literary devices graphic organizers for "The Scarlet Ibis" and "Shaving".
"A Sound of Thunder"
"The Necklace"
"Leaf by Niggle"
"The Scarlet Ibis"
"Shaving"
Excerpt from Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies
Excerpt about "Leaf by Niggle"
Poems: "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner", "The Jabberwocky", "Bilbo's Last Song", "As Kingfishers Catch Fire"

-Mrs. L.

Foreshadowing and Symbolism in "The Scarlet Ibis"

This week we have been focusing on foreshadowing and symbolism used in James Hurst's short story "The Scarlet Ibis." Students worked on a graphic organizer to analyze these two literary devices, as well as a few others (metaphor, simile, imagery, theme).

Questions to consider when you're asked something like "what is the significance of the use of this literary device?"

• Why should an author use this device in their writing?
• What is the effect on you, the reader, when these devices are used in a text?

We also had our first notebook check this week, and I especially enjoyed reading all the creative and fascinating vocab stories students wrote! Perhaps we should do more creative writing?

-Mrs. L.

Niggle's Painting and Compound Subjects/Predicates

We did some pretty cool stuff in class these last two days... I really enjoyed seeing what the students came up with! After reading the first page of "Leaf by Niggle," we had two expert artist groups take us from text to image by drawing their own renditions of Niggle's painting. Check out the versions below from 2nd and 4th period:

We also had some fun writing sentences with compound subjects and compound predicates, and texted in some pretty sweet sentences to Poll Everywhere here.

Homework is to write sentences using the ten vocab words from the story (one class has been asked to create some art as well- you know who you are!). You may use up to two vocab words per sentence, and sentences should be about the end of summer/beginning of fall.

-Mrs. L.

Period Five Sheltered: Finishing "A Sound of Thunder"

Today, we read through page seven and discussed characterization and plot. In groups, we looked at what new things we know about Eckels since we made our characterization charts... a lot has happened in the story since then! We also worked on the plot chart, adding key events up to the climax of the story. We also watched another part of the video version of the story, and discussed what was good and bad about it.

Homework is to finish reading the story, and annotate for the literary terms we have covered, which are:

Metaphor
Simile
Imagery
Mood
Foreshadowing
Suspense
Characterization

See you Thursday!

-Mrs. L.

Sheltered Period Five: Characterization Presentations!

Today, we finished our characterization charts and presented them to the class.

Homework is to revise your mood "quote sandwich" paragraphs.

-Mrs. L.

Theme and Symbolism

Happy Monday everyone! I don't know about you, but this is what I felt like doing when my alarm went off this morning:

Today in class, we talked about theme and symbols. Pairs identified symbols and thematic concepts in the poem "Wild Asters" by Sara Teasdale:

In the spring I asked the daisies
  If his words were true,
And the clever, clear-eyed daisies
  Always knew.

Now the fields are brown and barren,
  Bitter autumn blows,
And of all the stupid asters
  Not one knows.

Homework is to write a half-page response in your journal to answer these questions:

o   How can a person know what is most important to focus on in life? What might happen if someone focuses on the wrong thing? 

-Mrs. L.

Sheltered Fifth Period: Characterization and Peer Feedback

Today, we looked at the mood paragraphs of a partner, and circled and labelled for:
1. Context
2. Quote
3. Commentary
4. Signal Phrase

We also talked about what characterization is:
It can be direct or indirect
There are 5 elements:
1. Appearance
2. Speech to Others
3. Inner Thoughts
4. Actions
5. Others' Reactions

We practiced talking about these elements by looking at Belle from "Beauty and the Beast" in the scene below.

Homework is to read through the bottom of page 4, and look for new words, literary devices, and make predictions.

-Mrs. L.

Characterization

Today we looked at the five elements of characterization:
1. Appearance
2. Speech to Others
3. Inner Thoughts
4. Actions
5. Others' Reactions

Groups worked on creating characterization charts for M. Loisel, Mme. Loisel, or Mme. Forestier from "The Necklace."

Homework: revise your mood paragraphs if I specifically asked you to. Otherwise, no homework, and see you tomorrow!

Sheltered Fifth Period: Last Friday and this Week So Far

I'm a little behind on these posts, so here's the catch-up!

We have continued to read through "A Sound of Thunder," annotating for:
1) New words
2) Literary terms
3) Making predictions

We also discussed the elements of plot, which look like this:

We have also started working on paragraph writing, using the "quote sandwich" method:

Homework due Thursday is to write a "quote sandwich" paragraph about the mood of "A Sound of Thunder" so far. You should decide what you think the mood is (scary, worried, adventurous, etc), then select a quote as evidence, and then write your quote sandwich paragraph as we outlined in class.

-Mrs. L.

"Evaluation" and the New Story!

I loved seeing all the paragraph revisions these past two days- you all seem to have really given a lot of thought to the feedback you received, and put it into practice by making some really strong revisions. Keep in mind that these revisions are a great example of one of the most important pieces of the writing practice! We'll continue to revise our work all year, to move toward that goal of mastery that we discussed at the beginning of school.

We also watched some video clips, and did some thinking at the highest level of Bloom's taxonomy, which is "evaluation." Those levels are:
Evaluation
Synthesis
Analysis
Application
Comprehension
Knowledge

If you want to watch the video clips again, you can check them out below.

Homework is to read through page seven in "The Necklace" and to create three double-entry journals in your notebooks for the reading so far.

(The Simpsons one can be found here.... beware of spam/viruses/popups though!)

-Mrs. L.

So Little Time, So Much to Know!

In the words of "The Nowhere Man," Jeremy Hilary:

Busy day today! We had so much to get through: starting our first story, "A Sound of Thunder," practicing annotations, learning about the "quote sandwich," and hearing from representatives from the student literary magazine, Vertigo.

For those of you who would like to review the "Quote Sandwich" information (or for my seventh period students who had the privilege of experiencing the glorious fire drill...), you can check out the powerpoint here.

Homework for tonight (not for period five):
1) Finish reading "A Sound of Thunder".
2) Write a "quote sandwich" paragraph, in which you describe the mood at the end of the story, and use one quote from the story.
3) Write two discussion questions that we can use for our whole-class discussion of the story tomorrow. Think about what you'd ask the class if you were the teacher!

Homework for tonight (for period five):
Make a plot chart using details from what we read today.

-Mrs. L.