Thursday, September 12, 2013

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!

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

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.

Friday's class: Quote Sandwich Revisions and Our New Essential Question!

Our essential question for Unit 2 is:


·         How does an author use words to create a good story?

We also spent some time planning out revisions for our "quote sandwich" paragraphs about mood. 

Homework was to write the revised paragraph on a separate sheet of paper.

-Mrs. L.
 

 

Thursday, September 5, 2013

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.