April 8

Poetry Island Dramas

It was the best day yet, with drama performances in all four class periods. Coming into today’s voting there were still two poets for each class period left on the island.

1st Period
Edward Lear
Edgar Allan Poe

2nd Period
Walt Whitman
E. E. Cummings

3rd Period
Emily Dickinson
E. E. Cummings

4th Period
Edgar Allen Poe
Emily Dickinson

Each class had 20 minutes or longer to get started on their final essay assignment. Everyone took out their W-R’s notebook notes, the assignment sheet and the rubric to review how their essay needed to be written. This gave everyone plenty of time to get started in class in case they had any questions about the assignment before completing it this weekend. Everyone was reminded that this is a 90 point writing assignment and that they need to use all of the resources provided to make sure they are doing their best work.

Tomorrow we will reveal the one surviving poet for each class period and celebrate with treats and poetry fun.

April 7

Artistic Interpretations

The performances today were as varied as they were entertaining. Most all of the arts were represented, from more mood music and movement by the 1st period Poe group presenting “A Dream Within a Dream,” to some great drawings and enthusiastic readings. Scenery was set with well designed backdrops while students dressed in self designed costumes and makeup (Sam’s face was painted white).

More interesting facts were revealed about each of the poets and the BIG essay assignment that everyone will be doing over the weekend was reviewed.

Poetry Island Final Essay Homework Assignment

All week you have been hearing some of the poetry as well as facts and details about several very well known poets. You took notes about each poet and now it is time to show me what you know about each poet.

Your assignment is to use your notes to do your prewriting, then write, revise, proofread and edit a two to three typed or four to five handwriten page essay expressing how you now feel about each of the poets. Because this is a personal opinion essay, you may use a first person perspective. That means you may use first person pronouns such as I. Although you are expressing your opinion about each poet and his or her poetry, you must support your opinion with proof, facts, details, or evidence from the class presentations. We reviewed what some of the students have written so far in their W-R’s notebook about individual poets and how they could use that information to support their feelings about the poet when writing their essays. These essays are not to be simply a collection of facts or details about the poets.

Remember to make sure your work:

• Includes all poets presented this week.
• Is 2 to 3 typed or 4 to 5 handwritten pages long.
• Clearly expresses your opinion (what you think of, how you feel about) each poet.
• Has a complete header.
• Has an interesting title.

Because this essay assignment is a cumulative assessment (covers lots of different lessons that we have been working on, such as each of the 6 traits of writing, essay writing, expression of an opinion, support of that opinion, taking notes and poetry) this is like a take home test. It is important that you do your very best work on this essay. The essay is due on Monday and is worth 90 points. There will be a 5% deduction in the grade for each day the essay is late.

April 5

Mood Music

DSC05362Although second period was interrupted for a wonderfully entertaining Orange Ribbon convocation, Poetry Island began with a variety of mood music presentations in the other three Language Arts periods. Music was provided by some students playing their band instrument at all the right spots while their poem was being read. Chris Cooper played his saxophone, Bret Lawson played his trumpet, Caylee Reid played her flute and Brooklyn played her clarinet. Other groups selected music from CD’s or cassette tapes.

Each student labeled a page in the notes section of their Writer-Reader’s notebook with the name of a poet being represented on Poetry Island this week. The notes taken during the week will be very important when the essay writing assignment is given on Friday. Today students presented several interesting facts about the poets:

William Shakespeare has no middle name and most of his family was illiterate, which means they couldn’t read or write.

Edgar Allan Poe married his cousin Annabelle Lee when she was only 13 and most of his poetry is very dark or Gothic. He joined the army at 18 but lied and told them he was 22.

E. E. Cummings is a boy not a girl.

Robert Browning‘s group forgot to give any interesting fact.

Robert Frost had one of his poems in the book Eclipse.

Edward Lear was never married but had lots of partners.

Emily Dickinson never married and was obsessed with death.

Walt Whitman was born May 31, 1819 and died March 26, 1892.

Voting was done on moodle and the results will be posted for each class as they come into the classroom tomorrow.

We reviewed the point scale for performances and everyone had a little time to practice for the Frozen Tableau presentations tomorrow.

April 1

Posters & Planning Sheets Done

Poetry Island posters have been completed and graded. Today we began working out the details for our presentations next week. We discovered that a few people will be absent one or two days next week due to attending AG Days. It is the responsibility of the teams to work out presentations for those days that can be delivered effectively without those students who will be missing. No points will be deducted because a student is missing as long as the group has planned accordingly.

March 30

Poet Posters

Each group began their posters today in class. Along with working on the posters, each group had to start their planning sheet. Everyone was given the following information about how the group will be graded.

Poet Poster
Poet’s Full Name 10
Dates Lived 5
Symbols or Graphics 25
Artistic Appeal 10
___
50

Finished Poet Posters are due on Thursday. 5 points will be deducted for each day the poster is late.

Mrs. Scales explained that when we did our mythology projects we could just go to the internet and look up our God or Goddess and find lists of the symbols associated with that God or Goddess. Finding the symbols or graphics to use on our Poet posters will not be like that. There is no right or wrong answer but rather we have to pick symbols for our poets based on what we have learned about that poet and the poems we have selected to present.

Knowing your poet: Along with constructing a well-planned and nice looking poster to represent your poet, you must learn enough interesting facts and details about your poet to teach the rest of the class during your daily presentations. Each day you will introduce your group, the poet and specific poem you are presenting and one interesting fact or detail about that poet or poem. Everyone in your group will earn the same grade (unless otherwise discussed with Mrs. Scales). Your points will be earned each day in the following manner:

Introduction of team 2
Introduction of poet 3
Introduction of poem 3
Explanation of one interesting fact/detail 5
Quality of daily presentation 7
___
20

You will be writing an individual essay on the five poets presented during Poetry Island. Your essay will be graded on writing as well as your ability to show what you have learned about each poet during the week. Knowing that should encourage you to take notes each day about each poet.

March 29

Welcome Back

Welcome back from Spring Break. It was great to see everyone again.

We began by reviewing the introduction to Poetry Island and National Poetry Month on moodle.

The final literary circle assignment was explained and everyone was given time to print off the copies of all their literary circle forum posts. The assignment has two parts. For the first part, the print outs have to be proofread and corrected. This is worth 15 points. The second part of the assignment is to write a cohesive review of the book. This is not to be a plot summary, but a personal review of the book based on the literary circle forum responses. This assignment is due on Wednesday.

Unfortunately several students were assigned to the lunch study table for having 3 or more missing assignments. Everyone was given a chance to turn in any missing work, but if they still had three missing assignments they had to go to the lunch study table starting today. Those students with two missing assignments were reminded that if they do not turn the literary circle assignment in on Wednesday they will be sent to the lunch study table starting Wednesday.

Then each group selected their poet for Poetry Island.

March 19

Spring Break!!!!!

Today marked the last school day before Spring Break. There were a few students already gone on their family trips. We turned in homework, checked our progress and performed our reader’s theater.

Our root word was sequ, secu meaning to follow. Our three example words were: sequence, sequel, and consecutive. This was the last new root word we will have all year. When we come back from break we will work on all of the root words we have had this year, but we won’t have any more new ones.

March 18

Reader’s Theater – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Everyone has turned in their Twain WebQuest project and WOW, there were some great presentations!

Today we did a rehearsal run through of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” reader’s theater. Tomorrow is our last day of school before Spring Break, and it is sure to be a fun one, with the performance of our reader’s theater.

The root wort for today was soph, which means wisdom or knowledge. The example words used were, sophomore, Philosophy, sophisticated.

March 17

Young Authors Conference Big Hit

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P3160158

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P3160154

Our root word for Tuesday was psych, which means soul, spirit, mind. The three sample words were: psychology, psychobiography, and antipsychotic. We pointed out all of the previous root words that make up the example words such as log – study of, bio- life, and graph – to write or something written.

Today our root word was sci and means know. Not no, but know. Of course we all suggested science as our first example word. Mrs. Scales played around with confusing words using conscience and conscious as the other two example words. Conscience means knowing wrong from right while conscious means knowing what is happening.

We had time in class to review the lesson plans and work on our literary circle third chunk forums. Our Twain projects were turned in today.