Monday, March 3, 2014

Announcements and Reminders:  Finish up your Children's Books if you have not.  Please edit carefully.

Today’s Agenda: Prompt:  Select a prompt from your list. Me-Bag Stories:  We were able to use Computer Lab 211 today for finishing the me-bag stories. This is a link to our kidblog. Select your name from the drop-down list. Your password is your student number. Love That Dog --  A prompt for you:  If you could invite any author to our class for an author visit, who would you invite. Describe that visit.  (We went to the lab today instead of working on this, so be thinking!)

If you were absent:  See above.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

Announcements and Reminders:

Today’s Agenda: You will have a substitute teacher, since I will be with the Mock Trial Team at their competition. A Bevy of Prompts Today you are going to experience a variety of prompts. The substitute will give you five to ten minutes to work on each. You may complete the prompts in any order. Write each new prompt on the next page of your notebook. Do as much as you can in the time allotted for each, then be willing to move on to the next one. The substitute will give you instructions about how you will share each piece of writing. __________________________________ A Bevy of Prompts: April 3 -- Prompt 1 April 3 -- Prompt 2 April 3 -- Prompt 3 April 3 -- Prompt 4 April 3 -- Prompt 5 April 3 -- Prompt 6 April 3 -- Prompt 7 April 3 -- Prompt 8 April 3 -- Prompt 9 Sharing Before you share, tell the people you are sharing with which prompt you are responding to. 1: Use your appointment clocks and pair share. -- Use your two o'clock appointment. If you do not have an appointment, find someone else who does not until everyone is paired. If you are still left over, join a group of three. 2: Get together with your six o'clock appointment, then find another pair of students to join. If you do not have an appointment, find someone else who does not until everyone is paired. If you are still left over, join a group of three. 3. Three volunteers will share what they have written. 4. Use your appointment clocks and pair share. -- Use your eight o'clock appointment. If you do not have an appointment, find someone else who does not until everyone is paired. If you are still left over, join a group of three. 5. The teacher will draw names for three students who will share. 6. Get together with your twelve o'clock appointment, then find another pair of students to join. If you do not have an appointment, find someone else who does not until everyone is paired. If you are still left over, join a group of three. 7. The teacher will draw names for three students who will share. 8. Three volunteers will share what they have written.

If you were absent:

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Announcements and Reminders:  Finish the editing, drawing, illustrating, etc. for your child's book as soon as possible!

Today’s Agenda Love That Dog Story Based on Me-Bag Notes In pairs or on your own, begin a story or script including as many of the students in our class as you can. Bring out the things that make each person unique using your notes from the Me-Bags. For example, from a couple of semesters ago,  if one of those students were being chased by a bad guy, Raelyn could hit him by sliding out the slide of her trombone -- not that she would do that, really since it might hurt the trombone! Chandler could hit him with a ping-pong paddle, and Kalie could pelt him with handfuls of pennies pulled from her very girly purse. Use one of these conflicts, or another of your own: -- You and your classmates are working together as a Mission Impossible team to . . . or -- You and your classmates are saving the world from an alien invasion. or -- You and your classmates are stranded together on an island. Log onto our Kidblog and turn it in there. COMPUTER LAB 223 -- This will likely be our last day in the computer lab for a long, long time.

If you were absent:

Bad Metaphors (Similes)

Bad Metaphors from Stupid Student Essays

(actually these are mostly similes, see Literary Terms)

• Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.
• His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free.
• She caught your eye like one of those pointy hook latches that used to dangle from screen doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.
• The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
• McMurphy fell 12 stories, hitting the pavement like a Hefty bag filled with vegetable soup.
• Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze.
• Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center.
• Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.
• He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.
• The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.
• Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left Cleveland at 6:36 p.m. traveling at 55 mph, the other from Topeka at 4:19 p.m. at a speed of 35 mph.
• The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the period after the Dr. on a Dr. Pepper can.
• They lived in a typical suburban neighborhood with picket fences that resembled Nancy Kerrigan's teeth.
• John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.
• The thunder was ominous sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.
• The red brick wall was the color of a brick-red Crayola crayon.
• He fell for her like his heart was a mob informant and she was the East River.
• Even in his last years, Grandpappy had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.
• The door had been forced, as forced as the dialogue during the interview portion of "Jeopardy!"
• Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.
• The plan was simple, like my brother-in-law Phil. But unlike Phil, this plan just might work.
• The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.
• He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck either, but a real duck that was actually lame. Maybe from stepping on a land mine or something.
• Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter."
• She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.
• It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.
• The knife was as sharp as the tone used by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.) in her first several points of parliamentary procedure made to Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the impeachment of President William Jefferson Clinton.
• The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.
• The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.
• He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a garbage truck backing up.
• Her eyes were like limpid pools, only they had forgotten to put in any pH cleanser.
• She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef.
• She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.
• Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.
• It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.
• Every minute without you feels like 60 seconds.
• The horizon swallowed the setting sun like a dog sucking an egg, but not quite. 

from http://mistupid.com/people/page027.htm

Friday, February 21, 2014

Announcements and Reminders:  Your children's books are due by the end of class today.

Today’s Agenda:   Prompt: Write a brief story, essay, commentary, description,  poem, or other response to this picture. 2.  Love That Dog and writing "Inspired By" poems 3. Lab 223 to finish children's books.      Please read my replies to your emails and edit carefully.

If you were absent:

Being Creative

Concrete Poems

Bunny Head

   by: Thomas N.

     e            e

  a            a

  r             r

   head head  

  head head head

    head e head e head

     head y head  y head

     head e nose  e head

      head nose head

     chin

The Eye 
by Thomas N.

eye eye eye

eye eye eye eye eye eye

eye eye iris iris iris eye eye

eye eye iris pupil iris eye eye

eye eye iris iris iris eye eye

eye eye eye eye eye eye

eye eye eye

Literal Concrete Poem

Connor M.

                                                                                                              

concrete   crack    concrete concrete concrete concrete pothole               pothole concrete 
crack     concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete   pothole pothole   concrete concrete

concrete crack     concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete crack    concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete  
crack   concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete

concrete crack  concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete concrete

  The Snail

                                   Connor M.

                                            ______________      

                                       _ shell shell snail shell __

                                   _shell                             snail_                  e   e

                             _snail                                     shell_               y    y

                       _shell                                            shell_             e    e

                 _shell                                                     shell_         e    e

          _shell                                                              shell_      y     y

   _shell                                                                      shell_    e     e    slimeslimeslimeslimeslimeslimeslimeslimeslimeslimeslimeslimeslime

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Announcements and Reminders:  I have a few Valentines poems with no name.   Please claim them.

Today’s Agenda: Respond to this prompt in a brief essay, story, poem, description, explanation, commentary, or other format. 2.  More Love That Dog and Inspired By Poems to Write 3.  Lab 223 -- Children's books/Independent Projects      Be prepared to finish up your children's books next time.  This is a link to our kidblog. Select your name from the drop-down list. Your password is your student number.

If you were absent:

Friday, February 14, 2014

You may bring Valentines candies -- or other candy if you wish.

Candy Hearts Poetry Project
Materials needed:
construction paper
candy hearts
glue
crayons, colored pencils, pens 
scissors
rulers
(jelly beans for odes)

Cut out the construction paper -- perhaps into Valentines.
Decide how to arrange your candy hearts into a poem.
You are welcome to add written words, lines, phrases.
Just use the candy hearts somewhere in your poem.
Use 5 (or more) "Conversation Hearts"
Use one or more of the poetic forms or devices found in our Write Source 2000 textbooks.

The most helpful pages in Write 

Source are pages 202 - 207.

Consider using --
rhyme
rhythm
alliteration
onomotopoeia
similes
metaphors
personification
hyperbole

Make this LOVELY and NEAT, even though the poem may be serious or silly.
You will not get points for this unless your writing/printing is NEAT and LEGIBLE, and the final product is in ink.  (I suggest writing it out in pencil first, then going over it in ink.)


More Poetry
Odes
Jelly Beans:
https://jellybelly.com/info/funstuff/Flavor_Guides

Neruda Odes

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/pablo_neruda/poems/15734
http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/pablo-neruda/ode-to-my-socks/
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-to-clothes-2/

Jelly Bean

More Inspired By

_______________________________________________

Poems Ms. Dorsey enjoys sharing on Valentines' Day:

Vinegar Man

How Do I Love Thee?

This Living Hand by John Keats -- Poetry

and a cartoon:

Happy Valentines' Day!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Prompt: More Love That Dog and Inspired By Poems to Write

The Disruptive Students

   by Ms. Dorsey  (Inspired by William Blake)

Students, students

talking on

Even though the bell has rung

Who can hear you? Everyone! 

So teacher will cut short your fun.

You Come Too (Inspired by Robert Frost and written by Ms. Dorsey)

I'm going out to watch the sunset, 

and linger, maybe, to watch the stars come out.

I'll take a chair and blanket to keep warm. 

I'd gladly carry two,

because what would make it better 

would be if you came too. 

The following is one of my favorite poems:

Summons  by Robert Francis

Keep me from going to sleep too soon
Or if I go to sleep too soon
Come wake me up. Come any hour
Of night. Come whistling up the road.
Stomp on the porch. Bang on the door.
Make me get out of bed and come
And let you in and light a light.
Tell me the northern lights are on
And make me look. Or tell me clouds
Are doing something to the moon
They never did before, and show me.
See that I see. Talk to me till
I'm half as wide awake as you
And start to dress wondering why
I ever went to bed at all.
Tell me the walking is superb.
Not only tell me but persuade me.
You know I'm not too hard persuaded.

________________________

-- About YOWP  -- for extra credit

This is a link to our kidblog. Select your name from the drop-down list. Your password is your student number.

Computer Lab to work on Children's books
Schedule and Due Date for Children's Books: 
Today:  February 12: Lab 223
Febuary 19:  Lab 223  
February 21:  Books Due -- Completed!  


Next time, you may bring treats/candy for Valentine's Day!

Today's Prompt:  Forrest Gump said that life is like a box of chocolates.
What else is life like?  Why?
Be serious or silly, either one. 

Monday, February 10, 2014

Announcements and Reminders:  Schedule and Due Date for Children's Books: February 4 --  Lab 223 -- Work on your Children's Books February 6: Lab 223 February 12: Lab 223 Febuary 19: Lab 223 February 21: Books Due -- Completed!

Today’s Agenda: Getting into Poetry  1. Write a silly rhyme "inspired by" a real nursery rhyme. Here is an example: (You DO NOT have to try to copy meaning as I did in the example.) The Original The "Inspired By" Nursery Rhyme Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep, And doesn't know where to find them. Leave the alone, And they'll come home, Bringing their tails behind them. [The main character has lost something.] [The main character has a problem and is given advice about what to do.] [I tried to copy the pattern of  the rhymes and repetition.] My best friend Jack has lost his backpack, And doesn't know where to find it. Just ask Jim Blair, It's under his chair. He's busted for trying to hide it. [The main character has lost something.] [The main character has a problem and is given advice about what to do.] [I tried to copy the pattern of  the rhymes and repetition.] Here are some examples from poet Bruce Lansky's books Mary Had a Little Jam and Peter, Peter, Pizza-Eater: Peter, Peter, pizza-eater, How I wish that you were neater. Half the pizza’s on your shirt. Clean the mess, or no dessert. Mary had a little jam; she spread it on a waffle. And if she hadn’t eaten ten, she wouldn’t feel so awful. 2. What do you notice about the nursery rhymes? What makes them poetry? What POETIC DEVICES do they use?  3. Poems in Love That Dog  and writing Inspired By poems The Disruptive Students    by Ms. Dorsey  (Inspired by William Blake) Students, students talking on Even though the bell has rung Who can hear you? Everyone!  So teacher will cut short your fun.

If you were absent: See above.

http://www.storyit.com/Classics/Nursery/rhymes.htm
or
http://www.powerfulwords.info/nursery_rhymes/nursery_rhymes_index.htm

Thursday, February 6, 2014

1. Writing Prompt:  If you could have a pet monster -- or other imaginary creature -- what would it be and what would life with it be like? 

2.  Editing Practice

Dear John

Schedule and Due Date for Children's Books: 
Today:  Lab 223 -- Work on your Children's Books
3.  February 6: Lab 223
February 12: Lab 223
Febuary 19:  Lab 223  
February 21:  Books Due -- Completed!  

Super Power?

1. Prompt:  What's your super power?   What super power would you choose to have?  Why?  How would you use it?  
Respond  with a poem, story, description, explanation, commentary, or whatever you w

Odes

Self-starter: In your notebook, List 15 objects that are important to you.

1. About Odes.
Odes
Odes were invented around 500 B.C. by Pindar, a Greek poet.
Back then odes followed a complicated pattern of stanzas.
They were serious,
dignified,
choral songs, performed to celebrate victories,
like in the Olympic games.
In the 20th century, Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet, turned the ode upside down. [Odes to Common Things, 1994]
He
abandoned dignified topics,
discarded rules about stanzas and meter,
and sang the praises of ordinary things and everyday life:
a pair of socks, onions, apples, a tomato, ironing,
soap, a yellow bird, a spoon, French fries, a storm,
laziness.

Best advice:
You almost can’t be too extreme in your praise, so pick an object that you genuinely admire and wish to exalt.
Part of the fun lies in choosing an everyday object that we aren’t accustomed to inflating with glory.
Don’t pick stars or roses.
You could select cars or noses. 
(Adapted from Nancy Atwell's Lessons That Change Writers – Lesson 43, pg. 151-152)

2. Students wrote an Ode to a Jelly Bean. (And they got to eat it!)
3. The teacher shared odes by students, herself, and by the master of the modern ode, Pablo Neruda.
Find a sampling of odes by Pablo Neruda at
http://sunsite.dcc.uchile.cl/chile/misc/odas.html

4. Students wrote and typed odes.
Here are the directions:
Writing “Irregular” Odes (Like Pablo Neruda did) Tape-In
➢ First, decide what object you would like to celebrate. Look around your classroom, visualize outside, or think of things you have around your home, or of places you visit. This works best if you choose an object you have strong feelings about.

➢ Once you’ve picked an object, think about what makes it special. How do you feel about it, and why? Be prepared to describe the object inside and out.

➢ Exaggerate its admirable qualities, until it seems to become central or necessary to human existence.

➢ Use metaphors and similes.

➢ Usually you directly address the subject of the ode: “Oh, sausage sizzling in your succulent fat,. ..”
“your crispy softness, your fierce fragrance. . . .”

➢ Tell your feelings about the subject and give exalted descriptions of its qualities: a balance.

➢ Choose strong words: language that’s packed with meaning and cut to the bone (no excess words)

➢ Keep the lines short. Make it look like a poem on the page.

➢ Now, put your creative thoughts on paper. Remember, odes can be funny or serious – it’s all up to you as the poet!
Dorsey – Creative Writing – Feb. 2008

And here is an ode by the teacher --

Ode to My Dishwasher

Standing silent
under the counter
You wait for me to
fill you
with the pots
and pans
and plates
and bowls
and forks
and spoons
we've used
to cook
and eat.
Then I add powder
like an offering
to the god of cleanliness.
I press the button
and you rumble,
swish.
You work
while I go off
to read
or play
or do my own work.
You free me from
the drudgery of
dreaded handwashing.
I can even leave the house
and you continue your
watery work,
You create a work of art --
clean, shining ceramic,
metal,
plastic.
You even sanitize,
protecting me from
disease, discomfort.
Oh, Dishwasher,
you help and save me.
I praise and thank you
after every meal.
-- C. Dorsey