8th Grade Lessons Week of October 24, 2011
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Stacey Chavours Monday October 24, 2011 Room 212 8th Grade Language Arts 1st – 4th Periods Theme Unit Theme Standard: Draw inference, conclusions, or generalizations and support with textual evidence and prior knowledge. Essential Question: Why do understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life? I Can: I can understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life. Purpose for learning: Students will understand how to determine theme. Relevancy: To become better readers, students must understand the lessons in literature and life. Bell ringer: 10 minutes Silent read and find an AAAWWUBBIS sentence. Complete summary and write down one higher level thinking question. Students need writing/reading notebooks. Read Aloud 15 minutes: Make sentence strip and read from “Things That Go Bump in the Night.” Discuss theme. Word Work: 10 minutes Go to literacy center. Poetry and Writing: 15 minutes My Room by Joe Powning and Patterns by Anne Atwell-Mcleod Say, “I remember my bedroom from when I was your age so well that I can close my eyes and feel myself there. I’ve never enjoyed a more intense or complicated relationship with a physical space. My room was my haven. It was where I pretended I was adopted, wrote my first poems, tried to keep diaries, taught myself to play the guitar, learned how to apply mascara, listened to the Beatles and Bob Dylan, ate candy, plucked my eyebrows, and fantasized about boys: guys I knew and guys I knew I’d never meet. My bedroom was also the place I was banished to after I mouthed off, the place where I cried about my disloyal friends and embarrassing body and terrible clothes, the place where I wondered, what’s wrong with me?” Notice in The Room: -‐The form: how Joe crafted each stanza as four lines except the last, which allows the poem to build momentum at its conclusion; how he used almost no punctuation and let his line breaks do the work of voice marks; how his capitalization of My emphasizes the personal nature of his subject. -‐The way the message or theme is cut to the bone -‐The humor -‐ How Joe’s description of his room reveals a lot about who he is Notice in Patterns:
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-‐The form: how Anne crafted each stanza as eight lines, except for the last -‐How the title captures what the poem is about without labeling it, e.g. “My Bedroom” -‐ The sensory details that a reader can see -‐ The concrete nature of the details: objects that suggest who the poet is and what’s important to her -‐ The theme: the comfort people derive from familiarity and routine -‐ How Anne’s description of her room reveals a lot about who she is Response Stance: Please choose which one of these two poems you’d like to go back into on your own. Then mark the lines you’d like to talk about. We’ll discuss Joe’s poem first, then Anne’s. Benediction: Capture your own remarkable, idiosyncratic, unique bedroom and what it shows about who you once were and who you are right now. Write a poem. Share. Discuss theme. Literacy 40 minutes: Read Handbook for Boys. Discuss post reading assignment. Reader’s Theater Purpose: It enables students to bring a text to life and together create a powerful interpretation. It offers less confident readers support from peers and provides a genuine social purpose for attentive reading. It also provides students with models for creating 'the voice behind the page' in their own silent reading. Readers' Theatre provides a real context for reading and has obvious benefits for students by increasing their skills as readers, writers, listeners and speakers. Tell students we will have 10 groups of students. Each group will be in charge of making a podcast for their section of reading. They will e-‐mail me their completed podcast. Give rubric, instructions, assigned reading, podcast instructions. Go over the rubric and instructions together. Students will do a modified reader’s theater through podcast. Group 1: pages 1-‐17 Group 2: pages 18 -‐ 34 Group 3: pages 35 -‐ 51 Group 4: pages 52 -‐ 68 Group 5: pages 69 -‐ 85 Group 6: pages 86 -‐ 102 Group 7: pages 103 -‐ 119 Group 8: pages 120 -‐ 138 Group 9: pages 139 -‐ 156 Group 10: pages 157 -‐ 176 10 -‐ 20 minutes: Fluency Practice Give students time to practice reading and rereading for fluency and expression while I walk around helping with difficult words. Students must read at least once before they create their podcast. Timeline
Assignment Timeframe Completed Create the podcast one hour
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Listen to podcasts and read along
3 hours
Go back to seats. Exit Pass: What does theme mean? What is the most important thing I learned? How can I use this in other classes? Summarize the events in class. Homework: Read 30 minutes and write down one unfamiliar word.
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Stacey Chavours Tuesday October 25, 2011 Room 212 8th Grade Language Arts 1st – 4th periods Theme Unit Theme Standard: Draw inference, conclusions, or generalizations and support with textual evidence and prior knowledge. Essential Question: Why do understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life? I Can: I can understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life. Purpose for learning: Students will understand how to determine theme. Relevancy: To become better readers, students must understand the lessons in literature and life. Bell ringer: 10 minutes Silent read and find an AAAWWUBBIS sentence. Complete summary and write down one higher level thinking question. Students need writing/reading notebooks. Read Aloud 15 minutes: Make sentence strip and read from “Things That Go Bump in the Night.” Discuss theme. Word Work: 10 minutes Grammar: 10 minutes Haunted House CLOZE assignment and identify verbs. Go to the literacy center. Poetry and Writing: 15 minutes Today’s poem is an elegy; that is, it’s a poem that mourns a death. This is a sad poem about a sad subject, but it also does the work of a good elegy: it brings some measure of comfort to the poet. Something else poetry can do is help us remember, capture, and celebrate what matters to us, before the essential details slip away. Some features to notice: -‐The way Ben informs the reader indirectly, through an accumulation of details, that the deceased friend is his dog. -‐The voice: an I speaking to a you -‐ the use of vignettes; little stories that show Ben and Buster in action and suggest what their relationship was like -‐the sensory language, especially the verbs -‐the evocative things of the final stanza: the field, the dog’s bed, the piano, the dandelions, and the grave Response Stance: Please go back into this poem on your own and mark your favorite lines and words – the ones that struck you deepest. Benediction: Something else you can do as a poet is to use your poetry to remember and
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celebrate the ones you loved who are gone. What are the moments and sensations you need to capture, before they slip away? Write a poem. Literacy 25 minutes: Handbook for Boys Reader’s Theater Homework: Read 30 minutes and write down one unfamiliar word. Exit Pass: What does elegy mean? What is the most important thing I learned? How can I use this in other classes? Summarize the events in class.
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Stacey Chavours Wednesday October 26, 2011 Room 212 8th Grade Language Arts 1st-4th periods Theme Unit Theme Standard: Draw inference, conclusions, or generalizations and support with textual evidence and prior knowledge. Essential Question: Why do understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life? I Can: I can understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life. Purpose for learning: Students will understand how to determine theme. Relevancy: To become better readers, students must understand the lessons in literature and life. Bell ringer: 10 minutes Silent read. Complete summary and write down one higher level thinking question. Students need writing/reading notebooks. Read Aloud 15 minutes: Make a vocabulary card. Read from “Things That Go Bump in the Night.” Discuss theme. Word Work 10 minutes Go to literacy center. Library 15 minutes: Poetry: 15 minutes I have a collection of teacher poetry – poems that help me remember what school can be like for kids and keep in mind, as a teacher, what it should be like. “The Little Boy” comes from that file. Every time I read this poem it reminds me why we have writing workshop: what it means to kids to make their own creative decisions and to be seen and respected as themselves. Notice: The parallel structure: the repetition of elements – of languae, events and dialogue – from one episode to another The childlike voice created by the simle plangue: how the diction consists of words of one or two syllables. A few telling specifics, like the door from the outside directly into the classroom, that urn this from a fable into what feels like the sotry of an actual little boy. The two classroom doors as symbols for the difference between the two schools: the first, seeking to make things easy for children, thwarts their independence; the second gives children responsibilities, which increases their independence. The red flower with a green stem as a symbol of how denying kids choice and indepdnece destroys their creativity/individuality/sense of initiative.
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Response Stance: Go back to the poem and mark what you think are the most important lines. Then, write a sentence of what you think are the themes. By theme I mean the poet’s ideas about life or school. Benediction: Something else you can do as a poet is to tell a story, about your own experience or someone else’s, that points a theme-‐ a story that shows how you feel about some aspect of life, say, school, growing up, parents, siblings, stereotyping, friendship, a sport you played. 12:40-‐1:00 Writing 20 minutes Get out computers and go to the online textbook chapter 6 Elements of Language p. 204 and do Your Turn 2 and conceptual map. Exit Pass: Write three opinions. What is the most important thing I learned? How can I use this in other classes? Summarize the events in class. Homework: Read 30 minutes and write down one unfamiliar word.
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Stacey Chavours Thursday October 27, 2011 Room 212 8th Grade Language Arts 1st-4th periods Theme Unit Theme Standard: Draw inference, conclusions, or generalizations and support with textual evidence and prior knowledge. Essential Question: Why do understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life? I Can: I can understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life. Purpose for learning: Students will understand how to determine theme. Relevancy: To become better readers, students must understand the lessons in literature and life. Bell ringer: 10 minutes Silent read. Complete summary and write down one higher level thinking question. Students need writing/reading notebooks. Read Aloud 25 minutes: Handbook for Boys project Grammar 15 minutes: Ask, “Does anyone know how to make a compound sentence?” Show students the ways to create a compound sentence by making a wall chart together. The wall chart should look like this: CHART 1 Coordinating Relationship Conjunctions Expressed (FANBOYS) _________________________________________________________ for, so Shows a cause-‐effect relationship. And Joins things or ideas that are alike or similar,
implies a continuation of thought. but, yet Shows a contrasting relationship. or Indicates a choice between things or ideas. Nor Continues a negative thought. CHART 2 for and Sentence, nor sentence. but or yet so Then, show students two sentences from Flipped: I am still trying to break free, but the girl’s got me in a death grip. (p. 3) Bryce’s point of view
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I chased Bryce up the walkway, and that’s when everything changed. (p. 13) Julianna’s perspective Ask students what they notice about the sentences, pointing out the subjects and verbs on each side of each sentence as well as the commas and coordinating conjunctions. Then, compare the sentences to the compound sentence wall chart, and we discuss how each of these sentences needs a comma to complete the whole compound sentence mystique. We take some time to chant the FANBOYS: (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.) Then, write a new pair of sentences on the overhead: Mrs. Chavours, I got my report card signed. I didn’t bring it. Explain that, when we have two ideas that are connected, as writers we may want to join them. Say, “First, as a speaker how would you join the ideas? As a writer? Right, the revision would be: Mrs. Chavours, I got my report card signed, but I didn’t bring it. Why didn’t we use and or so?” Put up the Flipped sentences again without the commas and have students mark where they belong, referring to the wall chart for the language and visual cues to discuss and conceptualize the pattern. After students practice writing a few sentences, they quickly reread a passage from the editorial and add the new concept into their writing. Go to literacy center. 12:25-‐12:40 Poetry: 15 minutes Defining the Magic Since we’ve been considering and naming what a good poem does, I thought we should consult an expert. Charles Bukowski wrote forty books of good poems. He was famous for living on the edge and writing about it. In Bukowski’s poems you’ll meet gamblers, hoods, working-‐class people down on their luck, outright bums, prostitutes, and other Americans trying to survive life on the margins of America. Notice: The humor The similes, metaphors, and personifications, all framed in strong, simple direct language The nature of the comparisons: what they show or suggest about who the speaker is The way the repetition of the phrase “a good poem” creates a cadence How the title fits the poem without labeling it The short, strong lines The lack of capital letters, except on proper nouns, and the single period after stop Response: Go back into the poem on your own and mark your three favorite comparisons. Then write a few words next to each about why this simile , metaphor or personification resonates for you. Benediction: Something else you might do as a poet is consider what a good poem represents for you – or a good book, a good song, a good movie, good French fries, a good dog or cat, a good friend. What’s it like for you? 12:40-‐1:00 Writing Complete Your Turn 3 in Elements of Language book. next assignment.
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Exit Pass: Write a FANBOY sentence. What is the most important thing I learned? How can I use this in other classes? Summarize the events in class. Homework: Read 30 minutes and write down one unfamiliar word.
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Stacey Chavours Friday October 28, 2011 Room 212 8th Grade Language Arts 1st-4th periods Theme Unit Theme Standard: Draw inference, conclusions, or generalizations and support with textual evidence and prior knowledge. Essential Question: Why do understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life? I Can: I can understand how to readers evaluate and apply the author’s message or theme to life. Purpose for learning: Students will understand how to determine theme. Relevancy: To become better readers, students must understand the lessons in literature and life. 11:35-‐11:45 Bell ringer: 10 minutes Silent read. Complete summary and write down one higher level thinking question. 11:45-‐12:00 Read Aloud 15 minutes: Make a vocabulary card. Read from “Things That Go Bump in the Night.” Discuss theme. Students need writing/reading notebooks. Word Work 10 minutes Go to literacy center. 12:10-‐12:20 Poetry: 10 minutes We’ll round out this first grouping of poems – free verse that shows some of the range of what poetry can do – with a poem that might remind you of our first, Ronald Wallace’s “You can’t write a poem about Mcdonald’s”. That poem read like a response to a challenge from a reader. This poem reads like a response to a demand from a reader. It seems that someone named Ernest Mann-‐ probably a kid-‐ said to Naomi Shihab Nye, “Okay so you’re a poet. Here’s my address. Write me a poem.” As a writer who’s serious about poetry, Nye knows it doesn’t work that way. So, where do poems come from? Notice: The way the poem begins in the midst of its meaning, without an introduction or preamble The direct language and conversational tone: an I speaking to a you The poet’s use of concrete objects to exemplify her meaning: the two skunks show how poems are hiding in our lives, if only we’ll look for them, better than a wordy explanation ever could. The purposeful, effective repetition of the word serious Response: Underline the most important lines in this poem – where the strongest meanings reside. Mark your favorite lines too. Benediction: Something else you can do as a poet is “check your garage, the odd sock in your drawer, the person you almost like, but not quite” – as well as your closet, your kitchen table, the top of your bureau, your box of junk, your dog’s mouth, your cat’s eyes, your old toys, your everyday life – and find your poems.
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Literacy 30 minutes Finish Handbook for Boys project. Writing 10 minutes Persuasive devices assignment in Elements of Language chapter 6 Exit Pass: What is the difference between fact and opinion? What is the most important thing I learned? How can I use this in other classes? Summarize the events in class. Homework: Read 30 minutes and write down one unfamiliar word.
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Fill in the blanks with the words in the boxes. Highlight the verbs in the boxes. Haunted Houses
ghosts strange Haunted happened past _____________________ houses are houses that have _____________________ in them. They are often houses where something terrible has _____________________ in the _____________________ and _____________________, unexplained things happen in the present.
Haunted House Exteriors
broken deserted overgrown roof graveyard Haunted houses are usually old and _____________________. They have _____________________ windows and missing shingles on the _____________________. The garden is _____________________ with weeds and there is sometimes a _____________________ at the side of the house. Haunted House Interiors
cobwebs Bats walls dust messy Because the houses are deserted, they are usually _____________________. The furniture is covered with _____________________ and there are _____________________ made by spiders in every corner of the house. _____________________ make their home in the attic and mice live in holes in the _____________________. Haunted House Sounds
slam hear moans footsteps spend
If you _____________________ the night in a haunted house, you will _____________________ many strange noises such as _____________________ walking down the hall. As well, doors _____________________ shut by themselves and strange _____________________ can be heard throughout the night.
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