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?

Beware of Due Dates & Short Weeks!

Greetings!

We only have three days with students this week due to the state of Idaho’s mandatory teacher in-service days this Thursday and Friday (October 3 – 4). Due to the short week with kids, there will be NO SPELLING OR VOCABULARY LISTS AND TESTS. We do, however, have our infamous Mugshot sentences and paragraph—which is due when students arrive to class on Wednesday. Our normal schedule will resume with a new list of Greek and Latin roots next Monday.

Due to mass confusion regarding the literary elements of plot when we discussed the novel Tuck Everlasting, I knew that we needed to continue to study plot, especially the fact that there are many pieces of rising and falling action within a story. The climax has also been difficult for the class to pinpoint, so today I read them Walter the Farting Dog (by William Kotzwinkle and Glenn Murray, illustrated by Audrey Colman). As I read the 32-page picture book aloud, students created individual plot pyramids and worked to determine where each part of the story should be placed on their paper. As a class, we then discussed who had what where, and why they believed it was exposition or the inciting incident, etc. The most confusion surrounded the climax of the story. Is it when Dad decides Walter has to return to the pound or does it happen when the house is being burglarized? After a good discussion, the students realized that even though Walter was bound for the animal shelter, more trouble erupted when burglars climbed through the window to rob the family. Boom, there is our climax. I won’t go into any more details because I’d hate to spoil the story for anyone who wishes to read it, but reviewing these elements with a picture book was definitely beneficial. There was also a lot of laughter and the kids might start blaming flatulence on your family pets.  

Following our discussion and dissection of the plot pyramid, we reviewed story elements such as setting, characters, protagonists and antagonists. Tomorrow we’ll go over conflict (internal and external), characterization (direct and indirect), all sorts of character types (flat, round, static, dynamic), mood and atmosphere, imagery, and theme. All of these notes that should be taken in class will be crucial when they’re ready to work on the Independent Reading Project for the mystery novel that will be broken down on a cereal box.

As we go over the elements, we’ll use examples from Tuck Everlasting. For instance, Tuck Everlasting has internal conflict (man vs. himself) as well as external conflict (man vs. man, man vs. nature, man vs. fate). Students will reflect on these in class and we’ll discuss ideas.

Finally, several people were unhappy with the ending of Tuck Everlasting. They wanted a different version of the story. Tra-la-la…now they get to have a different version because they’re going to write it! Bwahahahaa! We’ve already discussed point-of-view (first, second, and third-person), and we’ll talk more about VOICE as well. Students will borrow a copy of the novel and rewrite the ending from the point-of-view of Jesse, Miles, Mae, Tuck, Winnie, or the toad. They’ll write in first-person and need to be true to the voice of that character when writing. The piece will begin right after the first paragraph (which follows) from page 134 of the novel:

The sign said WELCOME TO TREEGAP, but it was hard to believe that this was really Treegap. The main street hadn’t changed so very much, but there were many other streets now, crossing the main street. The road itself was blacktopped. There was a white line painted down its center.

Here is where students will pick up the story and write from the point-of-view of any of the aforementioned characters. What does that character see, feel, know? What has he or she experienced? This is an opportunity for creative writing (yay!) and for everyone to rewrite the ending that they want. (Note that even if you, the student, like the original ending of the book, you will rewrite it from first-person point-of-view and let the reader inside your character’s head.) Also, endings WILL be shared with the class, so take the time to be creative, use a lot of wonderful details, and pay attention to the proper use of English as a writer. (The standard writing rubric will be used to grade this assignment AND it’ll also be graded on proper implementation of the point-of-view, details, and the depth of the story. One or two paragraphs WILL NOT BE A GOOD ENDING. TRUST ME. TAKE THE STORY SOMEWHERE NEW AND RUN WITH IT!) Also, make sure your writing is at its best. The final copy is due on Monday, October 7. I’d prefer your paper to be typed, but if you don’t have access to a computer, a NEATLY written copy will be satisfactory.  

While we’re on the topic of writing, I handed out brochures regarding the Patriot’s Pen essay contest last Wednesday. Students had all day in class the following day to brainstorm ideas for their paper and to begin writing; I was not here and returned Friday to learn that several students said they brainstormed solely in their heads, even though I left specific instructions with my sub to have the students create webs, lists, free-writes, outlines, anything they could to have something ON PAPER. A handful of students shared what they had written and from there we simply discussed ideas. I intended to grade their papers but I didn’t want the kids’ grades to suffer in case the sub didn’t tell them what I did. It was all written on the board, but apparently the students went to a different classroom to work so, again, I can’t assume they were told to use PAPER for this assignment and don’t want their grades to suffer if they weren’t properly informed of my expectations.

Prior to the weekend, I told students the final draft of the Patriot’s Pen paper was to be typed in Times New Roman, 12-point font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. They should also have a complete heading AND note the word count (which needs to be 300-400 words, but if they’re a LITTLE bit over that is okay—I told them I’m a master at getting rid of words to pare down the count). They were also told that their papers would be due when they arrived to class on Wednesday, October 2. I fear that many students are procrastinating because I had only one tell me today that she had her paper written and it simply needs to be typed. Please make sure that the papers are ready for Wednesday: We are doing a peer-editing activity and POINTS WILL BE LOST FOR LACK OF PARTICIPATION IF A FINAL COPY OF THE ESSAY IS NOT TURNED IN AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS.

I appreciate those of you who are using this blog to keep track of due dates and know what we’re doing in class. Remember, our quarter ends on Friday, October 18, and there are some big assignments (Patriot’s Pen, Cereal Box Book Report, rewriting the ending to Tuck) that are due before then. Some grades will rise and some will fall—make sure that you climb to the top and earn the grade that reflects your best effort and understanding of the material that we’ve covered.

Now, before your head crashes into your keyboard with boredom, I’ve had several people ask how to post comments to the blog. If you don’t have a gmail account, it’s simple to create. Go to gmail.com and create an account. It can be used by parents or the student—it makes no difference to me—but the gmail accounts are able to post to the blog. I fear it’s a sinister plot for Google to take over all things Internet, but if that’s the worst thing that happens, life is pretty darn good.

Until next time,

Mrs. Gott