Happy Holidays and More!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted. I actually forgot my account information and have been locked out of my gmail because I honestly couldn't remember "who" I was. (I realize this sounds like something a 13-year-old might say, but it's true: I couldn't remember my gmail address for this account.) It's similar to how our kids have a brain cramp and can't remember their locker combination, or how I sort through my mental phone list and can't recall my best friend's number because I haven't dialed it in so long. Yes, I really forgot my funky blogger work gmail account information. Go figure.

Anyway, now I can write to you once more; I'm thrilled because I want to let each of you know that our kids did smashingly well on the EOC Exam for language arts that they took today! I'm oh-so-tickled with the results and know that the kids are overjoyed as well. Make sure you praise your kids for all of their hard work this last night weeks: I have several students who have earned an "A" for second quarter, and I know it's because of all of the extra effort they've put into their assignments, reading, and preparation for tests! 

Grades are due on the computer (for MMS) on Wednesday, December 18, so you should be able to see exactly what your child has earned tomorrow night. (Actually, I have only one student whose absences have left her grade incomplete at this time, so everyone can look right now--except for She-Whose-Name-Shall-Not-Be-Mentioned--and know what they've earned.) I do believe celebration is in order! Please know that the kids couldn't have made these improvements without your help and support at home; your encouragement has helped them to rise to the occasion and meet the expectations of the class and I'm so thankful for your involvement!

We'll celebrate the holidays this Thursday and Friday. Please have your child bring a wrapped "white elephant" gift; the value shouldn't exceed five dollars; if you can't find anything interesting around the house, the dollar store always has excellent and weird ideas for the kids to wrap up for our little fifth period family. We will put the gifts in a pile and then play a game where we steal them from each other until they are frozen and can no longer be taken from their owners; it's terrific fun (and daunting)! During the two-day celebration, treats (homemade or store-bought) are welcome and encouraged both days. Try to balance sugary snacks with those that are sugar-free. One last note? We are likely to have a dance party on Friday to flaunt our joy and tie up the festivities for 2013. After all, it'll be the last time we see each other all year! (Oh, that makes me sad... My "kids" won't be with me for two entire weeks. *sigh*)

Thank you, as always, for sharing your kids with me. They've made my life brighter, they've made me laugh, and they've made me proud. They truly are my family, and I hope you all have a wonderful winter break and enjoy the little things in life that we all-too-often overlook.

Here's to a holiday of simple pleasures, gratitude, and joy! I'll see you all in 2014, even if I do win the Idaho Raffle.

Merry merry,

Mrs. Gott

Thankful: a lesson about life through writing

Thankful

(a writing assignment; due Friday, Nov. 8)

            To begin, get out a full sheet of lined notebook paper. Remember, you’re an honors student and I expect it to be a normal piece of paper—not a scrap, not torn to shreds down the sides, not riddled with your artwork because  you are bored with the assignment or because you’re an artist at heart. It’s not hot pink or light purple or from a yellow legal pad, it’s simply lined white notebook paper from a three-ring binder or a spiral notebook. Please don’t do anything strange like fold it into a piece of origami, a fan, an airplane, or even into a note. In fact, the paper should be free of stray markings and stains, and it shouldn’t be mutilated or marred in any way. I realize that a few of you know this is common sense, but with the papers I’ve received lately, I feel it’s necessary to reiterate my expectations. Some papers appear as though they were dragged through a muddy ditch and then tossed to a crazed wildebeest for a round of catch. Your paper should NOT look like that. It should be neat. (Please note that I’m talking about both the NOTES that you take to jot down ideas AS WELL AS YOUR FINAL COPY.)

            Neatness includes your writing. Use capital letters to begin sentences and for proper nouns; make sure that the size of the letters in the middle of words aren’t as large as those that you’re using as capital letters. A capital letter and a lowercase letter should be different sizes and sometimes different shapes. When employing terminal punctuation, make certain that your period isn’t half an inch long…that simply makes it look like a wicked comma. At the same time, a comma or a period shouldn’t look like a miniscule spec that’s barely visible to the naked eye. Please remember to include proper punctuation in complex sentences and at the end of sentences so the beginning, middle, and end of your sentences are perfectly clear and punctuated properly. Finally, each paragraph should be indented. Yes, you WILL have paragraphs.

Now that the appearance of the paper has been established, I want to make it clear that you’re only to use a pencil (which is preferred so you can erase), or use blue or black ink. Please don’t use “pretty” colors—and NEVER use red ink; the colorful pens are often difficult to read and I want you to actually locate my comments, feedback, and suggestions.

Okay, here comes the assignment! Mr. Johnson, (your substitute teacher), will give you a blank sheet of computer paper on which I’d like you to brainstorm WORDS or PHRASES, or make a WEB or OUTLINE, or use some useful method to compile different things you’re thankful for. WRITE YOUR FULL HEADING ON THE TOP RIGHT CORNER AND BOX IT IN SO IT’S EASY TO LOCATE. Remember, this paper will be kept neat. This is a wildebeest-free zone!

Some of you are likely furrowing your brows; this may be because you’ve no clue what a wildebeest is, you don’t understand why your paper needs to be legible and not dragged through a plate of SpaghettiO’s, or perhaps you just aren’t thankful for anything in the world so you’re baffled about what you’re going to jot down. (Or maybe you just miss me dreadfully! Awww, that’s so sweet!)

But back to business! Contrary to what you may believe, you all have things to be thankful for regardless of how miserable you may feel and despite the fact that you may believe other people have lives that are so much better than yours. Know that we all have problems, we just don’t always share them with the world. Sometimes we share them with nobody—except for our pets (right, Jo?), or in a journal, or with the only friend you’d actually trust with your life (and if you have a pal like that, you’re terribly lucky).

The beginning is easy. You should all be thankful for food, shelter, water, and space. (No, not outer space, but the space in which we each exist, like your own little personal bubble!) Instead of focusing on what’s wrong with your life, consider what is glorious about it. Please don’t prattle on about things like your iPhone and your plethora of brand-name clothes or your recent windfall while playing the stock market. Instead, find the tiny nuggets of joy that you often fail to notice. For example, I have had what I’ve dubbed to be a lot of “bad luck” lately. Someone told me there was no such thing as luck, only opportunity. I think that is ridiculous and I still have my theories about luck regardless of what he said and, believe me, that man will not make money from me attending one of his fancy-schmancy seminars! Ha! Anyway, I’ve been dealing with what one might call a series of unfortunate events. They never seem to end. I had to find something positive to keep me going, smiling instead of crying, plodding forward when all I wanted to do was sling a rucksack over my shoulder and disappear.

And then it happened. I had to house-sit over the weekend (which was just another thorn in my side), but last night when I returned to my own home, I told my dog that I was thrilled that our house hadn’t burned to the ground in our absence! (Seriously, it was just one more thing that would not have surprised me at all. I hadn’t been burglarized, the house was there, I had a few cans of soup I’d swiped from my mother’s house…and suddenly, life was pretty darn good!)  Sure, it may be pathetic that I’m searching for simple joys, but then I noticed things like a magnificent card a friend had sent me in which her writing curled and swooped all over the card as she wrote about wonderful times we’d shared. I looked at the photos on my walls and smiled at the images of people who are in my life and those who have left it too soon, but at least I’d had the opportunity to know them. I received a text from a friend I haven’t seen in more than 20 years. My laundry was nearly finished. I was thankful to put on warm clean sweats and to have my loyal dog pitter-pattering around with me. I realized that despite all of the lousy things that drag me down, all of the drama, the petty arguments, the endless chores, the unpaid bills, the people and events that tear me down, I have SO MUCH to be thankful for. Perhaps all of the misery I’ve felt was necessary for me to realize that I can be happy with absolutely nothing as long as I have a few amazing friends and true joy in my life. Simple pleasures.

I want you to think about what you may overlook in your life. We all take a lot for granted and I do believe that we all have a lot of stress—regardless of age or who we are—we are all human and we all suffer, hurt, and feel. It’s the feeling part that can also bring us so much joy.

            As Thanksgiving grows closer, I want you to share your journey with me. What are YOU thankful for? Of course you can list some of the material items (those are the things that money can buy), but I also want you to really contemplate what makes you truly happy and what you can honestly be thankful for that isn’t necessarily found in a store. It can be a shared smile, a hug, the art of gazing into your aquarium at your fish and watching them flit to and fro. It can be enormous or tiny, silly or unique. This will be the foundation for your list or web or outline on the blank sheet of paper where you’re going to write things down (NEATLY!). From that, you’re going to grow a paper.

            That’s why you have that plain lined notebook paper and the pencil or black or blue pen. (You may also choose to use a computer and a printer if you’d like to type your paper. The final draft is up to you—but if it’s hand-written it must be exquisite! Nary a hoof-mark will be found. If you type it, please use Times New Roman, 12-point-font with one-inch margins. Obviously you’ll use computer paper for that, too, rather than the lined notebook paper.)   

Write your story. Tell me why you’re thankful. Dig deep and crawl into the corners of your heart and the dark recesses of your mind to do this. If it makes you feel emotion, that means you’re doing a wonderful job. The best writing taps into our emotions and makes the reader FEEL something.

As honors students you know that I expect a MINIMUM of five full-length paragraphs (with five or more sentences per paragraph, as a general rule). I want luscious paragraphs with an introduction that captures my attention and makes me forget that the pantry is just a few steps away. The body of the paper will be at least three paragraphs that are bursting with details, wonderful language, and proper grammar. I will be impressed and ready to write you a recommendation for summer institutes, youth programs, or whatever it is you’re seeking. Write with feeling and use vivid prose that taps into the five senses.

Your paragraphs certainly won’t be lists, nor will they use words like STUFF or THINGS. Tell me your story. Let me know what you’re grateful for in this life. This assignment is more narrative writing than expository, so don’t feel like you have to write what you consider some “boring essay” for your English class. Write more than what is expected. Compose a conclusion that ties everything together, that brings me full-circle, that doesn’t announce that you’re concluding or tell me that you hope I enjoyed what I just read. A conclusion is fluid and natural and should be compelling and thought-provoking. It should leave the reader with a solid impression of who you are and what you feel, leaving no loose ends that will fray and unfurl.

For your final draft, use the full heading with the assignment name being THANKFUL. It is due when you arrive to class on Friday. You may now begin by writing on your blank paper; I hope that you make an honest effort to root around in those crevices of your mind, your heart, your soul, and write with passion.

I look forward to reading what you come up with. You’ll include the once-blank (brainstorming) sheet with your final draft on Friday, so make sure that you have BOTH papers complete and ready to turn in when Friday’s class begins. You won’t be expected to share in class—I am your audience—though you may share if you wish.

Change is in the Air

        Quarter One book report projects began this week and it’s exciting to see so many fabulous mysteries presented in a fun creative format! I’d forgotten about Challenge Day on Wednesday, so I offered extra credit to anyone who brought their project in yesterday, ready to present; I was delighted that so many students took advantage of the opportunity to earn extra points, even though we only had time for one presentation. (Everyone who brought their project will receive the extra credit points whether or not they had the opportunity to present.) We’ll continue presentations for the entirety of class today, and we’ll wait to work on mugshot sentences again until Thursday. (The paragraph will now be due on Friday.)

We will also have a spelling test this Friday. The list consists of compound words, and words that require a space or a hyphen. Please, please, please make sure that you remember to STUDY FOR THE TEST! It’s one of the more difficult lists of words. Work on spacing (so that spaces between words are clear and that compound words don’t look like they have a space). I suggest breaking the words into three lists to help create a mnemonic device (such as an acronym or a saying) to remember which words fall into each category.

As the quarter comes to an end, I’m already seeing improvement in students taking responsibility for finishing assignments on time. There is also evidence of most everyone taking more pride in their work and rising up to meet expectations. I’m pleased with the growth and the camaraderie in our class, and I’m excited for some of the upcoming projects that we’ll begin soon.

The next group reading will be reading the NexText version of Hamlet—which I taught for many years prior to coming to McCain Middle School—and I’m eager to explore this literature with my kids and get them excited about Shakespeare. (Yes, it IS possible! And don’t worry about the reading being above their level; it’s written in a more modern format and there are plenty of footnotes; I’ll also stop to discuss scenes as we read the script together as a class.)

Assignments are still being recorded (little by little) into FamilyLink, so please don’t panic if your grade isn’t where you want it to be; I can’t post presentation scores until the presentations are given, and I’ll likely spend the weekend grading the cereal box book reports (as that grade will be separate from the presentation assignment).

When it comes to parents, I’d like to thank you for all of the support from home: the kids are truly blossoming and beginning to shine. Of course we have our moments: there are still sporadic brain cramps, problems with procrastination, illegible writing, and failure to follow the instructions, but these issues are actually beginning to improve! I’ve got a wonderful group here and am happy to have each of them in class.

Please remember you can always e-mail me with any comments, questions, or concerns, especially if you don’t wish to have them posted publicly on the blog. And please forgive my lack of blogging lately: Google changed its format and I had to have someone show me how to get back into my account so that I could compose a new post. Change is in the air!

Thanks again for sharing your kids with me; I look forward to our next nine weeks together.

Mrs. Gott

PROCRASTINATION (ugh!) / Elements of Literature notes, necessary for Q1 novel project

The information that follows was handed out in class today. I figured it'd be more reliable than the notes that students would take, though it's informational text and it bores them out of their minds. We tried reading it in melodramatic fashion, but I'm not sure if the information was actually received and put into their minds. Therefore, I'm posting it here as well. All of the information will be terribly helpful when working on the mystery novel project. The deadline for that cereal box project is looming and none of the students have started! Someone actually asked me WHEN they SHOULD begin. I did assign the project several weeks ago and HOPED that students would zip through their novels and dive into project-mode. (That has not happened. Parents, I beg of you, please encourage your child to NOT procrastinate. The project is worth A LOT of points and will have a large impact on quarter one grades!)

Elements of Literature

 
Plot Pyramid

·        Exposition (the “once upon a time” part where you’re introduced to a situation, characters, setting, conflict)

·        Inciting Incident (this is where the reader gets hooked because the action begins and you want to know what is going to happen next)

·        Rising Action (several things will happen in order to have a story; action builds while excitement and suspense increase)

·        Climax (high point of the story; most exciting)

·        Falling Action (again, several things will occur during this time; excitement starts to fall and action slows as loose ends begin to tie up)

·        Resolution (ultimately, this is the conclusion, the outcome, the ending; how everything is resolved)

·        Dénouement (the final piece that wraps it all up with a scene or even a line that really sticks with you; it’s like the nice little bow atop a gift)

 

Conflict

·        This is the struggle between opposing forces

·        Conflict can be internal or external

Ø INTERNAL: this conflict occurs inside the character (man vs. himself / can be mental or physical; think of things such as jealousy, addiction, moral situations, struggling to make decisions, wrong vs. right, uncontrollable rage, etc.)

Ø EXTERNAL: this conflict is when the character battles or struggles with outside forces (man vs. man; man vs. nature; man vs. fate)

Characters

·        Protagonist: the main character in a literary work

·        Antagonist: the character OR force in conflict with the main character in a literary work

·        Other types of characters that exist:

Ø Flat: a character with very few details given about them; they aren’t developed enough to have much in the way of personality traits; they exist to help move the story along and their personality traits do not change

Ø Round: a character with a lot of personality traits; the reader learns a lot of details about the character; they also exist to help move the story along and to help us learn more about our main character or our antagonist

Ø Static: a character that doesn’t change at all throughout the story; their personality, beliefs, etc. remain the same regardless of events that occur

Ø Dynamic: a character that experiences some type of change during the story due to events that occur. The change in outlook or character is permanent. (One way to remember this character type is to associate a dynamic character w/dynamite. Light the fuse and dynamite changes, right? It’ll change characters, too, if they don’t chuck the dynamite in time, lol.)

Characterization

·        How we learn about the characters in a literary work.

·        TWO TYPES:

Ø Direct characterization: the narrator OR a character in the story tells us what we need to know about a character. (Remember, narrators CAN and DO lie. They cannot be trusted 100 percent, so you have to pay attention to other things such as the second type of characterization, which is noted below!)

Ø Indirect characterization: the reader learns about characters through a character’s thoughts, comments, actions, etc. (Notice that this is how YOU find out about the people around you in real life! You only know what people tell you and what you can glean from observing someone’s behavior, attitude, reactions, etc. Remember that even a character can lie—just as people do in real life—so you can only trust so much of what you learn through this type of characterization as well. IF the character doesn’t realize anyone is paying attention, other characters (and the reader) can discover things about each other that they may not otherwise learn.)

Point-of-View

·        WHO is telling the story? This is the angle from which the reader experiences the story as events unfold. There are three major points-of-view as well as differences in third-person (see below).

Ø First-person POV: The narrator is a character in the story and refers to him or herself using first-person pronouns such as I, my, me, mine, ours, we, us.

Ø Second-person POV: Usually this POV is reserved for instructions. The reader is being spoken to directly and the narrator uses pronouns such as you and your.

Ø Third-person POV: A narrator is telling the story. They aren’t a part of the story itself (or else they’d be a character and it’d be in first-person). TWO TYPES:

v Limited third-person: This narrator relates the innermost thoughts and feelings of only ONE CHARACTER and tells the story as seen through the eyes of that character. Remember that they may be biased or untrustworthy!

v Omniscient: This narrator can get inside the characters’ minds. OMNI means “all” and SCIENT means “knowing”—so when you put it together, the narrator is all-knowing! The narrator has the ability to tell the thoughts, feelings and actions of any character.

Setting

·        The time, place(s), and circumstances where the action and scenes take place. Does the entire story take place in one room? Does it take place it a large city, a rural area, a foreign country, in cars and airplanes, or a variety of places? Is it present-day, in the past, or does it occur in a futuristic society? Setting involves both the “big” picture and the “smaller” picture where every scene takes place. Think of your story like a movie and where the scenes would take place and what they would look like if you were watching a film.

Mood

·        This is also known as atmosphere; it’s the feeling that the story creates in the reader. As you read, how does the literature make you feel? A novel can have an overall mood OR specific scenes can create mood. For instance, a dark night in an abandoned house evokes a mood that is gloomy or frightening whereas sunshine and a field full of lush green grass and daisies would bring about the sense of happiness or freedom or joy in the reader. (Note that writers can use this as a tool to create scenes that are unexpected or ironic. Perhaps a serial killer lunges out of the tall grassy field of daisies and murders someone.)

Imagery

·         When words or phrases appeal to the five senses to help the reader get a sense of the setting or the scene that is happening. Imagery creates a visual for us and can make writing more cinematic (like a movie) and it can help us to associate events with feelings of our own. (taste, touch, smell, sight, sound)

Theme

·        This is the main idea that the author hopes the reader will get from the story; it’s like an insight to life that should make you think. It is NOT the same thing as plot! Consider what point the writer tried to make when telling the story. What does he or she want you, the reader, to get from it?