Happy Holidays!

We are celebrating the end of the year and the onset of winter break with a movie this week: The Da Vinci Code.  Students have submitted their music unit final assessment pieces: their annotated lyrics, paragraph outline and letter to a musical artist.  When we return in January, we will begin a media study.

I hope you all have a safe and restful break.  I look forward to working with you again in 2013.

Music Unit... it's a wrap!

We spent today in the library, finishing off our letter to the musical artist who sings the song we analyzed.  By now, you should have completed the following three things as a summary to our music unit:

• lyrics with notations about your thoughts
• paragraph outline on the song
• letter to the musical artist

I will mark these over the break and return them to you in the new year.

Music Unit Final Project

Today, Wednesday and Friday we are finishing up our music unit, with our final project.  There are three assignments to be completed:

• lyrics for a song of your choice, annotated with your thoughts
• paragraph outline for the song
• letter to the musical artist who sings your song (two copies)

Each assignment has its own set of criteria for evaluation.  Refer to the assignment outlines I gave you for this criteria.

Dear Eminem....

Today's class was focused on the business letter, and how to write one properly.  I handed out an outline of the features of business letters, with a sample letter on it, labeled with all the features.  We reviewed this sample together, noting all the parts.

We then brainstormed ideas for a letter to Eminem, about his song, "Love the Way You Lie."  We wrote a model letter together, incorporating all of the features listed in the sample.  These model letters can be used when you write your letter to your musical artist next week.

Love the Way You Lie

I returned self-image projects yesterday.  If you have not yet completed these assignments, please see me.

In anticipation of the final project in our music unit, we have begun to work on close analysis of lyrics.  We began our class with a connecting activity, where students read lines from a song and put their thoughts about these lines on post-it notes.  After moving to all five stations, students were asked to make a prediction about what the song might be about.

Then, we listened to the lyrics of the song, and filled out a "Four Quadrants" page... noting our emotions, sensory words, pictures and/or powerful words and phrases.  I then handed out a copy of the lyrics, we listened again, and we filled out further thinking on the Four Quadrants page.  After students had an opportunity to talk to a partner about the song and their thoughts on it, students began to make notes on the lyrics page, showing their analysis of the words.

We will continue with this analysis next class.

Sentences Quiz and Empire State of Mind Paragraph

We began today's class with the quiz on run-on sentences and sentence combining.  If you were away today, see me to complete the quiz on Thursday afternoon.

We then worked through the final verse in "Empire State of Mind" and students begin summarizing what they understand of the song, indicating these thoughts in a paragraph outline.  We will complete this outlines next class.

Term One Conclusion

With Term One drawing to an end, students were given today's class to catch up on any missed work.  The assignments that all students are responsible for having completed are as follows:

• Reality TV Article Summary
• "Intervention" Questions
• Self-Image Project Part One
• Self-Image Project Part Two
• Sentences Quiz (this will be completed next week)

You will only need to come in on Tutorial Days if these assignments are not completed.  

Sentences Review and Song Analysis

We spent last class identifying the metaphors and allusions in the chorus and second verse of "Empire State of Mind".  We will finish our analysis of this song next class.

Students then completed a review assignment of sentence combining and correcting run-on sentences, so I can ensure we are comfortable with these exercises before I quiz you on them.  I will return these tomorrow and we will book a time for the quiz to occur.

Empire State of Mind

Today, we learned about metaphor and allusion, both about how to identify these elements in a piece, and to appreciate what they can do to enrich meaning.  We used Jay-Z's song "Empire State of Mind" as a practice piece for identifying and explaining metaphor and allusion.  Together, we worked through the first verse, making notes on all the allusions he uses.

We spent the last bit of class working through the rest of the run-on sentences practice package.  If you were away, or you have lost your package, you can find a link to one at the side.

Redemption Song

We have spent the past two classes analyzing Bob Marley's "Redemption Song."  We spent last class considering the lyrics, and trying to figure out what the message of the song is.  This class, we created a paragraph outline which summarized the theme of the song and used lines and phrases as support for this theme.

We then spent time working on run-on sentences, learning the different ways that these sentence errors can be fixed.

Self-Image Project - Final Work Day

Today was the final class devoted to working on the self-image project, both Part One and Part Two.

Students were told that both parts are due on Friday, November 2nd.  We will not be devoting any more class time to the project, however, so if you still have some work to complete, you will need to do it on your own time.

Self-Image Final Project

On Tuesday, students were given the first part of their final project for the self-image unit.  This first part is a synthesis of all our learning from the unit.  Students are asked to respond to two questions and to fill out two paragraph outlines (one for each response).  The examples from which students can draw to fill out these outlines are as follows:

• article on plastic surgery and teens
• article on steroids 
• documentary clip "The Man Whose Arms Exploded"
• Chapter One from Skin ( novel about anorexia)
• internet information package about eating disorders
• Intervention - TV show about "Cassandra"
• magazine article on reality TV and teens
• magazine article on teens and smoking
• movie "The Fighter"

Today, students were given the second part to the assignment: a creative exploration of your own self-image.  Students are being asked to create a final piece which represents how they see themselves and where their own self-image comes from.  

Details of this assignment, plus a link to blank paragraph outline forms can be found in the link at the side.

Self-Image in The Fighter

We continued watching The Fighter today, and students were asked to consider how Micky and Dicky see themselves, and also to consider the multiple factors that seem to be contributing to the formation of their self-image.  We will finish the movie on Thursday.

For the last half of class, students were asked to complete some of the assignments they are missing.  Please check with me to see if you are missing anything at this point, so we can make arrangements to have you complete all your work.

To Smoke or Not to Smoke?

We began class with a homophones word game.  You know you love them.  Come on... you do.

Then, we did a review of how to summarize a piece of text, using the graphic organizer "Central Word Connections".  Students read a short article on the reasons people choose to smoke and completed a summary of the article.  Judging from the results, it would appear we are ready for a summarizing quiz.... Next class!  Quiz next class!

Intervention - "Cassandra"

We finished summarizing the main points in the article, "Eating Disorders." 

Then, we began watching an episode of "Intervention," in order to better understand one person's experience with an eating disorder.  There are viewing questions to complete while watching, which will be collected and evaluated for accuracy and depth of thought.  We made it halfway through Part 4 today, and we will finish watching the final three parts on Friday. 

Eating Disorders

We began with Ms. Barsky reading the first chapter from a novel called Skin and students wrote a personal response to the chapter.  Ms. Barsky encouraged students to write questions, emotional reactions, connections, likes/dislikes and to avoid plot summary.  These were collected.

Then, students read the first four sections of an article called, "Eating Disorders" with a goal of summarizing the main points.  We worked through the four sections as a class, once students had an opportunity to read and summarize on their own.  We noted that many details and examples could be left out of the summary, as they didn't represent main ideas, but were explanations and elaborations of main points.  We will finish reading the article next class.

The Dangers of Steroids

Carrying on with our essential questions of where does someone's self-image come from, and what decisions do people make, given their self-image, we read an article about steroid use today.  We began with a quick write, where students wrote about whether they would take a pill that would make them stronger or bigger, if they could.  Most agreed they wouldn't, as they figured there would be side-effects that wouldn't make it worthwhile.

We then read an article called "The Dangers of Steroids" and completed a central word connection organizer, which helps students summarize the main points of the article.  We agreed that the article was primarily about the use of steroids in sports, the pressures to do steroids, and the harmful side-effects and desperate consequences that can result from steroid use.

Finally, we watched a 10-minute clip of the documentary "The Man Whose Arms Exploded" and students constructed a summary of this clip, which was handed in to me.

The Pieces of a Persuasive Paragraph

Today, we worked through the steps in the process of persuasive writing.  We began by looking at the episode of Toddlers and Tiaras which we viewed last day, and we debriefed what we thought the girls had been taught to value, as well as the qualities and skills we thought they were learning as a result of their participation in the beauty pageants.

Then, we constructed a "Seeing Both Sides" brainstorm, in response to the question: Are beauty pageants for young girls a good idea?  We listed many reasons why we thought beauty pageants were bad, plus we added one piece of evidence why someone might think they are acceptable.

Finally, we organized our ideas, using a persuasive paragraph template.  We labeled the topic sentence, transitions, evidence plus examples and concluding sentence.  The final step would be actually writing the paragraph, using the template as a guide.

Toddlers and Tiaras: Harmful or Helpful?

Today, we began by reviewing both sides of the question posed last day:  Is plastic surgery a good idea for teens?  Students provided many examples (some from the magazine article and some of their own ideas) to support each side.  Though there were many examples presented in support of each side, for the most part, we agreed that plastic surgery for teens is probably not a good idea.

Then, we watched an episode of "Toddlers and Tiaras" in order to determine the kinds of things little girls are being taught to value, as well as note the qualities and skills being built as a result of their participation in these pageants.  Students were asked to keep track of these things while watching, and we will debrief next day.

We are going to write a demo persuasive paragraph together, after sharing our responses next class.

Plastic Surgery: Good or Gross?

Students worked on three different strategies/skills today: making predictions, summarizing main ideas, and supporting an opinion with text evidence. 

We began with a partnered sort and predict activity, where pairs took words from a magazine article and sorted them into categories that made sense to the pair.  We discussed the "labels" we would give the categories, and why we thought the words fit those categories.  Then, pairs made predictions about what they thought the article might be about.  Students did an impressive job of using the words from the sorting activity to come up with logical predictions.

As it turned out, the article was about plastic surgery and teens.  We used a magnet word strategy to pull out the main ideas from each paragraph.  We talked about which information was general and which was specific, and we agreed that general information does a better job of summarizing big ideas.  We wrote a short phrase to represent the main point of each paragraph. 

Then, students were asked to consider this question:  Is plastic surgery for teens a good idea?  They were asked to fill out a "Seeing Both Sides" graphic organizer, which asks them to consider both sides of the issue.  Students practiced finding evidence in the article to support each side of the argument.

An introduction to self-image

We began our unit on self-image today, by working through the three essential questions for the unit:

1. How do people view themselves?
2. What influences/affects the way people view themselves?
3. What decisions do people make as a result of how they view themselves?

We had a great class discussion on these three questions, with students offering up their ideas for each.  After we talked through the three questions, we went down to the computer lab, and students created a wordle about themselves.

If you missed this, you can create a wordle at www.wordle.net.  Instructions are in the handout at the side.

Show me your story!

Today, students participated in a gallery walk, writing on posters that asked about three things:  What field trip experiences would you be interested in?  Which topics would you like to read about?  What kind of assignments do you like to complete?  The answers will serve as valuable feedback for me, in planning our year.  So... thanks!

Then, students completed a narrative writing sample, so that I can see what you already know and are able to do with narrative writing. Your piece will serve as a formative assessment tool for me, in that it will show me where your strengths are and which areas need more improvement. Your writing sample will not be marked; however, I will provide you with some descriptive feedback, so that you know what you should continue doing and what you should consider changing/adding for next time.

 

Welcome Back!

Today, students completed a learning styles inventory, which gave Ms. Barsky some valuable information about the many intelligences present in our class.

Then, students completed a reading assessment, using a newspaper article about Spongebob Squarepants.  Students were asked to read the article and answer six questions about what they had read.