Tone

http://valenciacollege.edu/east/academicsuccess/eap/documents/tonewords.pdf

Friday, September 12, 2014

Important Note from Ms. Dorsey:  When you have finished writing or correcting one of your pieces, and have published it on your blog, you must notify Ms. Dorsey that it needs to be regraded.  Make sure you have completed  and carefully revised and edited the assignment before you notify Ms. Dorsey.  See the clipboard at the front of the classroom or send an email.
I did recheck all of the Favorite Words posts on Monday, September 8. 


1. Scribble from Ben B. 

     I was going up the ladder to my tree house.  I went to 

each wrung, making my way to an opening we would go 

through.  I yelled as a huge, furry raccoon hissed at me, and 

started running at me. 

Now, it's your turn to write. 

2.  Writing Outdoors -- Within a Circle 

• Form a group of two or three (no more)
• 
  
• Ask Ms. Dorsey for the worksheet and the 
• 
  
•            piece of yarn.
• 
  
• Go out to the east side of the building -- near the new
• 
  
•            addition and media center.
• 
  
• Stay where you can see Ms. Dorsey. 
• 
  
•             Climbing trees is NOT allowed.  
• 
  
• Follow the directions on the worksheet. 
• 
  
• Use your best descriptive skills!

In case you are absent, here is the worksheet: 

Writing Outdoors Within a Circle.doc

Do it on your own or with a family member or friend.  You'll need a piece of string or yarn about 18 inches long. 

Computer Lab 223.   

a. Add a post you title 

"Within a Circle." 


Type up your paragraph, and

  hand in your green paper.

This is the link to our 

Kidblog.

b. Work on your Me-Bag Story.

Story Based on Me-Bag Notes

This is the link to our 

Kidblog.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Important Note from Ms. Dorsey:  When you have finished writing or correcting one of your pieces, and have published it on your blog, you must notify Ms. Dorsey that it needs to be regraded.  Make sure you have completed  and carefully revised and edited the assignment before you notify Ms. Dorsey.
I did recheck all of the Favorite Words posts on Monday, September 8. 


1. Scribble from Nicole B. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u4pVvhqI-s 

Now, it's your turn to write. 


2. Me-Bags    -- Don't forget to take excellent notes.

Today: Kaleb T. Jefferson T. Kaitlin T. Walter C. Alexandra W. Bella I.

This is the end.  Please begin writing your story. Story Based on Me-Bag Notes This is the link to our  Kidblog.

Describe a Jelly Belly!   

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/wordlist/colors.shtml  -- color words

Descriptive Words and Adjectives for Colors

Descriptive Words and Adjectives for Smell

Descriptive Words and Adjectives for Taste

Descriptive Words and Adjectives for Touch and Feel

Computer Lab 211 to write your 

Story Based on Me-Bag Notes.

This is the link to our 

Kidblog.

About the "About the Author"

All About the Author/Image

• Insert the photo of you and your first grader on the last page of your book.
• Title the page “About the Author”
• Use the template below to guide your work as you write about yourself as an author.  Write using the “third person.” See my example at the bottom of the page.
• When done, read over your work.  Make corrections.  Use spell check to check your spelling (click the word, then click control and spacebar) helps you to check the spelling.  
• (If you have a partner, each of you should write an about the author.)

You could use the template below to guide your writing as you tell about yourself as an author.

_____________________________ is a _______________________ at

______________________________.  He/she enjoys ___________________,

_____________________________ and ____________________________.

When it comes to writing _________________ likes to write about _______________,

________________________ and ____________________.  ___________________

finds the most challenging part of writing to be _______________________________.

When ____________________ gets older, he/she hopes to ____________________

___________________________________________.  His/her advice for

writers young and old is __________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________.

He/she enjoyed writing this book for _____________________________ and hopes you enjoy 

reading it!

Example:

About the Author

Ms. Dorsey with her newest grandchild:  Kaladin

Claudia Dorsey is a junior high teacher at American Fork Junior High in American Fork, Utah.

She usually teachers seventh graders because they are the best (until you become eighth graders, and then, of course, eighth graders are best!)  She enjoys reading, writing, gardening, hiking, and spending time with her children and grandchildren. As of this writing she has six children (which will most likely stay the same) and nearly nine grandchildren (which she hopes will continue to increase in number)!

  When it comes to writing, Ms. Dorsey spends a lot of time writing tests and other assessments, tests, examples to use in lessons, and other stuff for school. She also likes writing stories about her own life (memoirs), nonfiction essays, and fantasy stories. She has nine blogs that she updates regularly -- for school, family, church, and for her own enjoyment.

She finds the most challenging part of writing to be finding time to do the writing that she doesn't HAVE TO do. In the  year ahead, Ms. Dorsey looks forward to reading the many stories, essays, poems, scribbles, journal entries, arguments, and informational texts that her students will write . Also, Ms. Dorsey looks forward to reading many books, writing often, and developing her own skill in writing.

Her advice for writers young and old is to write every day. She has enjoyed preparing this example for you, and hopes it will be helpful.

Some of Ms. Dorsey's Other Grandchildren

Thank you to Ms. Devlin:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HI3FryfBWuEbXDsArqi-FlgOkworUKw82i8ty24GP60/edit#
I adapted this from her assignment.



Another example -- from a blog author: 

Monday, September 8, 2014

Important Note from Ms. Dorsey:  When you have finished writing or correcting one of your pieces, and have published it on your blog, you must notify Ms. Dorsey that it needs to be regraded.  Make sure you have completed  and carefully revised and edited the assignment before you notify Ms. Dorsey.


1. Scribble from _____________.

We did the Back-Up:  Select a prompt from your list of prompts about you.  (The ones we taped into the composition books.)

Now, it's your turn to write. 


2. Me-Bags    -- Don't forget to take excellent notes.

Today: Willow P. Savannah P. Broderick R. Isaac R. Brytan S. Mallorie T

Next Time:  September 10 Kaleb T. Jefferson T. Kaitlin T. Walter C. Alexandra W. Bella

Computer Lab next time, but you will have something new to write!

3. Conventions/Editing: 

Today:  Punctuating Dialogue
Create a Dialogue:  Write a scene in which one character is trying to convince another character to do something he or she doesn't want to do, using only dialogue. 

Here is an example from Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter:

     "I can't; I won't!" Justine said, her hands flying up to cover her neck.
     "But think of all the advantages," the vampire said.
     "Like what?"
     "You'll live forever."
     "And watch all the people I love grow old and die?"
     "You can meet new people."
     "And suck out their blood."
     "There's another advantage too."
     "Forget it.  My mind is made up."
     "Just listen."
     "No!"
     "Your skin will look great.  You'll never get another zit."
     "Really?" Justine's hands slowly moved away from her neck. "Not even if I eat chocolate?" 



2. What are the rules for dialogue? 
a. What makes strong, effective dialogue?

Dialogue: -- Class comments today:

good:  The reader knows who is saying it. Uses quotation marks correctly. Enjoyable to read. Sometimes it's about a problem. Bad:  Too much of it!

b. What are the rules for dialogue? 

Punctuating Conversation I

Now go back and correct any problems with punctuation in your own dialogue. 

Last time our class created new punctuation!

4. How to make good fiction.
Developing Characters

1. List ten or more of your favorite characters from books and stories.  For each, explain why you picked him or her as a favorite.  Is he or she the type of person you'd like to hang out with?  Do you have things in common with the character?  Are there things about the character you admire? Why a favorite? To here 9/4/14 Creating Characters Listen, then take on Challenge #1 (from Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter)  Think of two people you admire. Now think of the thing you admire most about each of them.  Combine those two qualities into one person and write about that person in the following situation: She or he is walking down the street and a strange man hands your character a small sealed carton and says, "Don't let anything happen to this!"  Then the man sprints away.  What does your character do next?  To here 9-8-14:  They need time to write this. Baking Characters from Scratch -- by Ellen Potter Ellen's Example: 5 cups of cocky attitude, sifted 2 cups of loyalty to friends 1 cup loathing of ketchup, wet socks, and a boy from summer camp named Richard 2 tablespoons of insecurity about big feet 1 teaspoon of a bad habit of biting nails until they bleed One pinch of a shoe-shopping fetish (but just a pinch and no more, due to the difficulty of finding shoes for big feet.) Combine and bake at 350 degrees or until character is done.  Challenge #2: Bake your own character from scratch.  Think of six qualities for a character and write a recipe for him or her.   Questions to Ask Your Character:  1.  What is your happiest memory? 2.  What makes you laugh so hard soda shoots out of your nose? 3.  What don't you want anyone to find out about you? 4.  What is the best part of your personality? 5.  What shoes do you usually wear? 6.  Name some things that you are not very good at. 7.  How would your best friend describe how you look? 8.  What irritates you? (i.e. noises, bad habits, personality traits)? 9.  What are you afraid of? 10.  Tell me about your family. 11.  What does your bedroom look like? 12.  What do you think of yourself when you look in the mirror? 13.  What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you? 14.  Do you have a crush on anyone? 15.  What do you really, REALLY want more than anything else in the world? Challenge #3 Make a list of all the things you want.  It can be anything from wanting a particular bully to leave you alone, to wanting riding lessons, to wanting your best friend to move back from Japan.  now pick the thing the list you want the most and think of all the ways you could attain that thing, from the realistic to the ridiculous. Write a short scene in which you try out one of those ideas, and see what happens.

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Important Note from Ms. Dorsey:  When you have finished writing or correcting one of your pieces, and have published it on your blog, you must notify Ms. Dorsey that it needs to be regraded.  Make sure you have completed  and carefully revised and edited the assignment before you notify Ms. Dorsey.


1. Scribble from Emma F.

    I sat on a bench by the little old folks home. I plopped both shoes off and sat them next to me to pick the stickers out of them. Before I knew it there was a tall African American standing over me. He had a deep Jamaican accent just like I remember my dad's was like. He smiled at me and then said, “You got em’ down in there deep huh?!” 

     I smiled and said, “Yeah, I must have walked through a whole giant patch of 'em!” We talked for a few minutes, and then I told him that he reminded me of my dad. We talked for a few minuets then he...

...to be continued!! 

Now, it's your turn to write. 


2. Me-Bags    -- Don't forget to take excellent notes.

Today: Jakob L. Kaitlyn L. Indigo M. Manuel M. Hunter M. Benjamin O.

Next Time:  September 8 Willow P. Savannah P. Broderick R. Isaac R. Brytan S. Mallorie T

3. Conventions/Editing: Where did punctuation come from?

In your notebook, list every punctuation mark you can think of, and what it does.  http://www.nationalpunctuationday.com/
http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/punctuation.aspx

   

The History of a Few Punctuation Marks with thanks to Nancie Atwell.
   -- Quotations marks were originally lip-shaped marks to show that someone else was speaking.

  -- The exclamation mark started out as the word "Io" which like saying "Wow!"  It was shortened to Io, then to an I with a dot behind it, then the dot was moved under the I and that evolved to our current mark !

 -- The period came from "peri" which meant round and when the writer had finished writing a sentence he had completely gone around what he was trying to express.  It was written as a circle, which became the dot we use now.

-- The comma comes from "komma" which means "little knife/to cut off" so the symbol was of a little knife, and evolved into our comma (,).  This teacher is also using info from Nancie Atwell: http://msmcclure.com/?page_id=6448    

Punctuation is Important!

Create new punctuation!

4. How to make good fiction.
Developing Characters

1. List ten or more of your favorite characters from books and stories.  For each, explain why you picked him or her as a favorite.  Is he or she the type of person you'd like to hang out with?  Do you have things in common with the character?  Are there things about the character you admire? Why a favorite? To here 9/4/14 Creating Characters Listen, then take on Challenge #1 (from Spilling Ink by Anne Mazer and Ellen Potter)  Think of two people you admire. Now think of the thing you admire most about each of them.  Combine those two qualities into one person and write about that person in the following situation: She or he is walking down the street and a strange man hands your character a small sealed carton and says, "Don't let anything happen to this!"  Then the man sprints away.  What does your character do next?  Baking Characters from Scratch -- by Ellen Potter Ellen's Example: 5 cups of cocky attitude, sifted 2 cups of loyalty to friends 1 cup loathing of ketchup, wet socks, and a boy from summer camp named Richard 2 tablespoons of insecurity about big feet 1 teaspoon of a bad habit of biting nails until they bleed One pinch of a shoe-shopping fetish (but just a pinch and no more, due to the difficulty of finding shoes for big feet.) Combine and bake at 350 degrees or until character is done.  Challenge #2: Bake your own character from scratch.  Think of six qualities for a character and write a recipe for him or her.   Questions to Ask Your Character:  1.  What is your happiest memory? 2.  What makes you laugh so hard soda shoots out of your nose? 3.  What don't you want anyone to find out about you? 4.  What is the best part of your personality? 5.  What shoes do you usually wear? 6.  Name some things that you are not very good at. 7.  How would your best friend describe how you look? 8.  What irritates you? (i.e. noises, bad habits, personality traits)? 9.  What are you afraid of? 10.  Tell me about your family. 11.  What does your bedroom look like? 12.  What do you think of yourself when you look in the mirror? 13.  What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you? 14.  Do you have a crush on anyone? 15.  What do you really, REALLY want more than anything else in the world? Challenge #3 Make a list of all the things you want.  It can be anything from wanting a particular bully to leave you alone, to wanting riding lessons, to wanting your best friend to move back from Japan.  now pick the thing the list you want the most and think of all the ways you could attain that thing, from the realistic to the ridiculous. Write a short scene in which you try out one of those ideas, and see what happens.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Notice new seating charts!

Scribble:  Ben O.   (Write in your composition book under "Scribbles.")

Ben read from the beginning of Beyonders. (torture)

Important Note from Ms. Dorsey:  When you have finished writing or correcting one of your pieces, and have published it on your blog, you must notify Ms. Dorsey that it needs to be regraded.  Make sure you have completed  and carefully revised and edited the assignment before you notify Ms. Dorsey.

• from winners of  the 2013 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for BAD FICTION
  As the sun dropped below the horizon, the safari guide confirmed the approaching cape buffaloes were herbivores, which calmed everyone in the group, except for Herb, of course. — Ron D Smith, Louisville, KY

• 
  There once was a nasty, evil troll who lived beneath a bridge and took pleasure in collecting gold from the unsuspecting users of the infrastructure; however, no one used the bridge because an evil troll lived under it so the troll didn’t do much of anything. — Rachel Flanigan, Honolulu, HI

Lessons in Writing and Editing:
In your Scribbles section, list the qualities that make a well-written story.
. . . .  and the qualities of a poorly written story.   

Make two columns for your lists

Qualities of Good Writing	Qualities of Bad Writing
makes sense sentence fluency climax (es) description effective dialogue easy to follow sometimes funny -- humor good plot character development problem variety of sentence lengths shows feeling and thoughts action -- something happening you can identify with it sarcasm  -- some, not too much conclusion	doesn't make sense "boring" too much dialogue   dialogue that doesn't get you anywhere misspelling --- conventions no hook too much pointing out of the obvious nothing is happening too random repetitious not specific

See the following examples, then add to your lists.

See the examples "The Redwoods" and "Mouse Alert."http://cavemanenglish.pbworks.com/w/file/fetch/52271632/D20387-01TraitsLessonsIdeas.pdf



 Computer Lab 223: 

To do in computer lab:  This is the link to our Kidblog.

1.  Write an “If I Were in Charge Poem” and publish it in a post on your blog.  Make sure you follow the format/pattern on the handout.  If you need to, you can come back to edit later.

2.  If you have extra time, create a post titled “My Favorite Words,” and start listing some of your favorite words. For example, I really like “Jacuzzi”  and “Zimbabwe.”
Bulbous Bouffant

3.  If you still have time, work as needed on your post about your Writing Process.

4. If you have finished all of the above three, expand on and publish (on your blog) any of the pieces you've written in response to prompts so far this year.

3. Me-Bags   None today. 

Today: NONE

Next Time will be Thursday, September 4 Jakob L. Kaitlyn L. Indigo M. Manuel M. Hunter M. Benjamin O.

About Scribbles: 

See the class calendar if you don't remember when your day is to present the scribble.
        
Scroll down to find the calendar at the bottom of this page.

Ideas for Scribble Prompts

About Me-Bag Assignment:  

Me-Bag Assignment