Monday, October 27 - Friday, October 31

Friday - October 31st !
After silent reading, everyone handed in the good copy of their paragraph about an elementary school classmate. Then we looked at some poetry videos in order to get an idea of the criteria for presenting our own poems in video form. At the end of the class we played pictionary for 10 minutes. Don't foget that The Metaphor must be read for Monday as there will be a quiz to check you have read and understood the story. Have a safe and Happy Halloween.

Thursday
Today I collected the drafts of the poems - looking forward to reading them. Because I was having connection woes, I could not show the sample poetry videos, so we didn't construct the criteria for the video that you will do to represent your poems. Instead you peer edited someone's poem based on the criteria. Following that, we began reading the short story "The Metaphor." As a result of considerable whinging! the date to complete the story was set for Monday. There will be a little quiz that day to encourage everyone to complete the reading. As you read, don't forget to do the sticky notes: on-the-line questions or statements; between-the-lines questions or statements; and beyond-the-line questions or statements.

Wednesday
I was delighted to see all the ransom note- like poems around the room today. When I asked you to identify the evidence of quality from the criteria sheet on your poem, many of you noticed that you had things missing from your poem. Several of you requested more time to add things to your poem - glad to hear you are continuing to work/edit your poems. Tomorrow we will look at some examples of videos & poems to help us decide on the criteria for the presentation format of these poems. At the end of the class, in preparation for reading "Love", I asked you to write a piece about a positive memory you have of a teacher in your life.

The good copy of your elementary classmate paragraph accompanied by your draft and the criteria sheet are due on Friday, October 31st - HALLOWEEN! 


Tuesday
We did the quiz on the editing rules/notes after silent reading. Next, I think a few of you were not too happy to have to CUT UP YOUR POEMS! Yes we ransom noted those poems to try to free you up and eliminate some words, and play with word order as well. Next time I will remember to ask you to select a larger font for poem printing to make this easier. I also promise to have more scissors and glue available! For tomorrow, hand-in your two cut-up poems on the 11x17 sheet.

Monday
Interims were handed out today! Remember, these are a snapshot of your grade at this time; they are not your report card grades. If you have an interim showing less than 50% for the term so far, expect I will be contacting your parents. Happily, the grades in the class are excellent. A couple of people have one assignment to get to me. Overall, I am very impressed with the quality of work and the work habits you are demonstrating.
I reminded everyone today about the Novel Autographs - check the "Links" on the blog for the sample.
Tuesday there will be a quiz on the editing rules/notes we covered in class today. Again, the errors we went over today are the kinds of errors I am seeing in your writing. I returned your paragraphs about an elementary classmate and I asked that you look through your mistakes and create a tally of your most common ones. The good copy of your paragraph accompanied by your draft and the criteria sheet are due on Friday, October 31st - HALLOWEEN! 
I didn't end-up collecting the poems today as we ran out of time! I want you to identify the elements of a quality poem on your creations before you give them to me, but we will tackle that tomorrow!