Wednesday, March 30

In-Class:

• Journal: Students identified the thesis of the intro and the topic of each of the paragraphs in the following student essay:

One of my pet peeves is to see children disrespect their parents.  Often, children argue with their parents as though they were their peers.  Children should respect their elders. I believe that a characteristic of a true gentleman & lady is the respect they have for their elders. They are the people who taught us everything we know. They are much wiser than people who are younger. I also believe that they deserve to be honored because they are respectable people.

Children should respect their elders because older people have many life experiences.  In the story of Hercules, Hercules was trained to become a hero. The person who trained him had already trained past heroes. Hercules wouldn’t have become a great man if it weren’t for his trainer’s experience. Our elders have much more experience and they leave us an example to learn from. No one can learn on their own. Old people are there to guide us because they might have gone through the same situations we have. Therefore, respecting our elders is necessary for our growth.

Our elders are wise and they are very knowledgeable. They know how to teach in a way that we can learn from it. “The wife of Bath’s Tale” lines 75-80, the knight is at trial & is to be put to death for his punishment. The queen begs the king so that she may summon him for a special mission, and it says, “…yet you shall live if you can answer me: what is the thing that women most desire?” After this passage, the queen says in (lines 81-86)-“If you can’t answer on the moment though I will concede you this/you are to go a 12 month and a day to seek and learn sufficient answer.” The queen is a very wise woman, she gives the knight a second chance so that he might learn from his mistake. Shouldn’t we respect our elders? I believe that they teach the younger generation and even though they make many mistakes, our elders are never going to give up on giving second chances.

            Children should respect their elders because of the sacrifices they have made. Like our parents for example, have sacrificed a lot for the benefit of us. Our former presidents have given much for the future. The same concept goes to our generation. What we do should always benefit the future. I believe that the old folks deserve much honor. Referring to another Disney classic, Mulan, they always say “Bring honor to our family”. Mulan, as well as other girls her age are taught at a young age by their parents to become a suitable wife. When they are out in public, the people are very attentive to their teachings. When Mulan bring her family honor, her mother and father earn respect for being knowledgeable parents.

            Our elders are not only to be respected, but they are the people who have given hope and opportunity to us, the youngest generation. They teach us continuity until they die. Our elders are wise and know more than we can say. They have much more experience. Last but not least, our elders deserve our unconditioned respect because they are honorable.

• We read portions of the second half of Martin Luther King Junior's Speech about the Vietnam War and summarized significant points.

Homework:

• Students were assigned a packet to do worth 20 points and due Friday. This is the last thing that will be on the term 3 grade,

Monday, March 27

In-Class:

• Journal: Answer the following questions about the student essay below:
• What is the thesis?
• Where are there missing commas?
• What is the topic of the first argument? Does the student stick to the topic in the rest of the paragraph?

Rich vs. poor, who is more happy? I strongly believe that no matter rich or poor you can be equally as happy. Even if you’re rich and have a lot of money, it doesn’t always solve your problems. To be happy you don’t need money. Rich or poor happiness comes a lot from your outlook on life.

Money doesn’t always solve the problems you might have. You could be the wealthiest person alive, but if you can’t find love you’ll never be truly happy. If you have a great paying job that pays the bills and then some, but you hate doing the job you’ll never be happy working there. Even though you have a lot of money your happiness is more valuable.

Happiness isn’t always how much money you have. Its about whats important to you. Family is a big part of my life and I can’t put a price on them. My family doesn’t have a lot of money that someone could give me for my family.

In my opinion the biggest part of happiness is your outlook on life. “To have me old and ugly till I die/But stay loyal, true, and humble wife/That never will displease you all her life” (“The wife of bath’s tale” 394-396). It doesn’t matter what you look like it or how old you are, it matters how you treat someone and how loyal you are to your loved ones. If you have a positive outlook on life, you’ll be a lot more happy and that’s something money can’t buy.

It doesn’t matter how much money you have or don’t have, as long as you’re happy that’s all that matters. Money can help you in a lot of ways, but it cant fix everything. Happiness isn’t about money, it’s about whats important to you, and your outlook on life. Rich or poor, it doesn’t matter; you are the one who decides to be happy or not.

• We listened to Martin Luther King deliver the first half of his speech on the Vietnam War. We wrote down the seven reasons he gives for giving this persuasive speech and whether or not these are good arguments.  This was turned in at the end of class. 

Thursday, March 17

In-Class:

• Journal: Why must we, as individuals and a community, fight to end in justice? Do we have an obligation to do so?
• We did a KWL on the Vietnam war.  In the first column, students wrote what the KNOW about the Vietnam war.  In the second column, they wrote what they WANT to know about the Vietnam war. Then, they shared with each other to find out if they could learn new things that they wrote in the third column of what they LEARNED.
• We watched this video clip and read the summary beneath it to understand a little more about the Vietnam war: http://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war/vietnam-war-history
• Students were each given an article to study about the Vietnam war. Then, students got in to groups of people who all read different articles and they shared what they learned about the topic. Students continued to fill out the third column of their "KWL" with things they learned.

Homework:

• End of the term is coming- anything turned in the last week of the term gets only half credit so turn in any late work to me TOMORROW! Come find me in the choir room!

Tuesday, March 15

In-Class:

• Journal: We watched this video and took notes:
•  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cca7SRzsbBw
• As a class, we practiced "scoring" a poem. 
• We each got a poem to read out loud (either a peer's poem if we did our assignment or one of the poems we studied in class).  
• We "scored" the poem.  
• We practiced reading our poems out loud in partners.
• We did a poetry reading in class. 

Friday, March 11

In- Class:

• Journal: None
• We went to the computer lab and worked on our poems. 

Homework:

• Poem due Tuesday in class! 

Wednesday, March 9

In-Class:

• We got in to the same groups as last time and finished our four poems.  Those who were absent picked up the poems they missed and completed them. 
• I passed out the choices for the final poetry assignment. Students told me which one they would be doing. 

Poetry Final Project Choices

1)    Modeled after the poems by Ms. Houston that we read for a journal assignment, write a letter to the past, present, or future.  If you choose this option, your poem does not have to be written in stanzas.  It can be a free form letter.  It needs to be at least 300 words.

2)    Modeled after the poem, “Hate” in our Language Arts text, write a poem that is focused on an emotion.  Your poem needs to be at least 6 stanzas with a minimum of four lines each. If you choose this option, the poem will not rhyme.  Thoughtfully choose where to break each line for effect. 

3)    Write a humorous poem with a pre-determined rhyme scheme in each stanza.  For example, you could write with an ABAB pattern, with lines 1 and 3 and lines 2 and 4 of each stanza rhyming. Your poem needs to be at least 6 stanzas with a minimum of four lines each.

 

4)    Pick a social issue to discuss through poetry, as the author did in, “Disposable Wisdom.”  Your poem needs to be at least 6 stanzas, four lines each, and should follow an ABCB rhyme scheme, just like the poem we read.

• For journal, students read a poem and graded it on a rubric (see below) that is the same rubric students will be graded on for their own poems. 

Name: _____________________________                             Title of Poem: __________________________________

Poetry Final Assignment Rubric

______ Poem has at least one *effective simile (10 pts.)

______ Poem has at least one effective metaphor (10 pts.)

______ Poem has at least one effective example of personification (10 pts.)

______ Poem includes alliteration that emphasizes an important part (10 pts.)

______ Poem has a at least one effective example of repetition (10 pts.)

______ Poem has at least one effective example of parallelism (10 pts.)

______ Poem meets the length requirement of either 6 stanzas or 300 words (10 pts.)

______ Poem has a creative title that connects to the meaning of the poem (10 pts.)

______ Rhyming is consistent and/or effective.  If not a rhyming poem, stanzas are thoughtfully broken up (10 pts.)

______ Poem effectively develops and conveys a specific idea (10 pts.)

*”Effective” for this rubric means the figurative language device is creative, original, and helps paint a picture for the reader.

__________ Total out of 100 points

 

Journal: Pretend you are grading the poem below on this rubric. Please identify each one of the elements from the rubric found in the poem by circling and labeling them.  Then, assign points for each category on the blanks above.

Slimming Pants 

Her exhausted bones peer in the mirror 
The glass, a broken lie detector,
Projects weight
Where there is none.

So she begins to stop again.
Slowly sinking, not swimming[
Gradually dying, not growing.
Helpless to rescue herself.

Meek as a child
But with grown-up weight on her shoulders
She curls on the ground
Willing her body to fall asleep.
So she can forget.

As she peers out of half closed eyes
She notices all the doors.
Cupboard doors. Refrigerator doors. Oven doors.
They taunt her mind as it frantically runs away.

Nothing else occupies her mind
When awake.
Nothing fits.
Nothing flatters.
Nothing feels good.

Her life is built on the lies
She tells herself
Every morning.
Every afternoon.
Every evening.

Rinse. Repeat.

Homework:

• None

Monday, March 7

In-Class:

• Journal: We read "Disposable Wisdom" by Carolyn Devonshire and wrote down our favorite line and what we thought the author was talking about in the poem. 
• We found all examples of similes, metaphors, personification, parallelism, and repetition in the poem.
• We discussed rhyme scheme.
• We discussed the tone of the poem.
• We got in to groups and analyzed four different poems.  Each poem analysis is worth 10 points (40 points total). 

Homework:

• None

Thursday, March 3

In-Class:

• Journal: None
• We watched guest performers do their raps from Ms. Houston's beginning choir.
• We got in to groups and finished our raps.
• We performed our raps for each other.

Homework:

• None

Tuesday, March 1

In-Class:

• We went over the poem, "Hatred" as a class and discussed a little about the author's background
• We listened to, "Where is the Love?" by the Black Eyed Peas and read the lyrics. We talked about rapping as a form of poetry.
• Students split in to groups and wrote their own rap according to the guidelines handed out to them.

Homework:

• Raps will be performed Tuesday, March 2, at 10:15 a.m. Students need to have them completed and practiced by then.  If they need to work on them as homework, they can.