Monday, October 20 - Thursday, October 23

Thursday
We spent some time organizing the criteria strips from yesterday in to groups. While you worked on your poems, I typed-up the criteria sheet. It will be ready for you on Monday. You are to have two draft poems based on the poem templates ready for Monday. The following are the only poem templates that should be used from the Poem Template link: If I Were in Charge of the World; Me and My Shadow; I Used to...; This is the Poem That... You may also use the Where I Come From template, but you will have to get that in paper copy from me. Remember not to feel constricted or limited by the templates. They are only a guide to loosely help you with the poem. Ultimately, you must meet the poem criteria.


Wednesday
It was a short class today due to PLC time. We looked at five different poems as we collected information about what makes a quality poem. You came up with suggestions such as: includes strong imagery; uses powerful metaphors; selects word choices carefully... At the end of the class, I asked you to put all your criteria statements on strips of paper. Tomorrow we will organize them and I will type-up the criteria for your poem assignment. We will develop the video criteria next week.


Tuesday
Well it was Metaphor Tuesday today! And was I ever impressed with the powerful metaphors the class produced! After looking at a little YouTube video about metaphors, we created a list of abstract nouns like courage, love, disappointment. Next you selected a mystery object from a box. Finally you were assigned an abstract noun from this list and your task was to create a metaphor using your abstract noun and your object. The results, as I already mentioned, were amazing. I will post them up in the classroom in the coming days. We also took a look at the list of exam terms for the English 10 exam. We will begin practicing these terms each Friday until the end of the semester. You can review them on your own at home using the flashcard link on this blog.


Monday
After silent reading we headed down to the library for an orientation on the "new" library system implemented last school year. Thanks Mrs. Richards.
Poem templates