January 31, 2013

1.  Retrieve your notebook from the crate.

2.  Hand in your disclosure signatures and VIP form if you haven't already. 

3.  Prepare to take notes on the me-bags. 
4.  Me-Bag Presentations

5.  We're going to computer lab 211 to finish writing and revising the short story -- fantasy that begins in the real world. 
Prompt and Instructions:     A Fantastic Day.doc

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

1.  Retrieve your notebook from the crate.

2.  Hand in your disclosure signatures and VIP form if you haven't already. 

3.  Prepare to take notes on the me-bags. 
4.  Me-Bag Presentations

5.  We're going to computer lab 211 to write a short story -- fantasy that begins in the real world. 
Prompt and Instructions:    A Fantastic Day.doc

Celebrate! Pride and Prejudice Turns 200 this Week!

http://www.npr.org/2013/01/27/170253360/pride-and-prejudice-turns-200?utm_source=NPR&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=20130127

A Head's Up!

Use this link:  Poetry and Chocolate

Browsing through Poetry on the Internet

Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) on poetry:  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/article/246328

Poetry and the Bard:
http://ed.ted.com/lessons/why-shakespeare-loved-iambic-pentameter-david-t-freeman-and-gregory-taylor


Look on the internet for poems to present.  Use the links below, or look up favorite poets.
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/poetrycollections.html


Poetry Resources for Teens  
http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/394

http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/youngpeople/

Funny Poetry for Kids
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/

http://www.emule.com/poetry/?page=top_poems

Scroll down for poems to recite:

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/86

Poetry Links for Middle School Students:  (Notice that some of these are intended for teachers and others for students.)

http://www.vrml.k12.la.us/cc/poetry/poetryms.htm


Middle School Poetry
http://middleschoolpoetry180.wordpress.com/the-poems/

Poetry 180 -- aimed at high school students
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/

Poetry from Scholastic: 

http://teacher.scholastic.com/poetry/

Look at Shel Silverstein's official site.

http://www.poetry-archive.com/collections/

More:
Selections from a book of poetry about middle school: 
http://www.kristinegeorge.com/swimming_upstream.html
http://www.kristinegeorge.com/poetry_aloud.html


Gary Soto (Look for a book of poems by Gary Soto in our classroom:  A Fire in My Hands
http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/230

A poem about poetry:
http://www.educationalrap.com/song/poetry-for-life.html

And more --
http://poetry.eserver.org/
http://www.poemhunter.com/

http://brodbagert.com/pages/view/303/Unpublished-poems-Brod-wants-you-to-have

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 last semester's class 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 into your blog  and turn it in there. 

This is the link to our 

Kidblog.

Friday, January 25, 2013

1.  Retrieve your notebook from the crate.
2. Hand in your disclosure signatures and VIP form if you have them ready. 

3.  Today is a "You Choose" writing time.  You may either write about anything you'd like to work on, or select one of these prompts.  It's up to you.  Give it a title and today's date.

If you don't have something else you'd like to write about, either 
a.  Pick a prompt from the list titled "Creative Writing Prompts About Me," and write at least a half-page response in your notebook.  Give it a title and today's date.
or 
b.  Write a response to this picture projected on the screen.  You could write a description, a commentary, a poem, a brief story, or whatever you're moved to write based on that picture.  Your response should be about a half-page or so long.  Give it a title and today's date.

4. Me-Bags

5.  Finding Fabulous Firsts
Take your composition book. You will find and copy first sentences that grab your attention, or that are just especially well-written.  

Create a chart for 
Book Title            Author                          First Sentence
One Hundred Years of Solitude  Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
"Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice."

Pride and Prejudice   Jane Austen  
 "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader    C. S. Lewis
"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." 

The Crow Road    Iain M. Banks
"It was the day my grandmother exploded." 

http://americanbookreview.org/100BestLines.asp