Poetry Island essays were returned today and used as mentor text for our lesson on sentence fragments and run-on sentences. Mrs. Scales explained that of the 90 possible points on the essay, 60 came from the writing score, 10 from the use of the rubric, and 20 from following the directions of the assignment. Some students lost points in the later because they did not use the correct font or formatting that we have been required to use all year. Mrs. Scales pointed out that this is information that can be found on the yellow handout in the front of our English binders and has not changed since the first day of this school year.

Back to the lesson: A run-on sentence is two or more complete sentences written as though they were one sentence. Run on sentences can be corrected in one of three ways:
1) joining the complete sentences with a semicolon
2) joining the complete sentences with a comma and coordinating conjunction such as and.
3) breaking the run-on into separate sentences.

Example: Whitman was a poet, his poems depict American life.
1) Whitman was a poet; his poems depict American life.
2) Whitman was a poet, and his poems depict American life.
3) Whitman was a poet. His poems depict American life.

A.J. allowed us to use the following example from his essay:

What I have learned about Edgar Allen Poe is that he likes sad and Gothic types of poems that are dark and a little disturbing, he was a raging alcoholic and died from alcohol, he was spy but no one knows for sure what type of spy which I thought was very interesting and weird since he was a poet.

What I have learned about Edgar Allen Poe is that he likes sad and Gothic types of poems that are dark and a little disturbing. He was a raging alcoholic and died from alcohol. He was spy, but no one knows for sure what type of spy, which I thought was very interesting and weird since he was a poet.

A sentence fragment expresses only a partial thought and can not stand alone as a complete sentence because it is missing the subject, the verb, or both. We found plenty of these to also fix in our writing.

Mrs. Scales reminded us that our root word review presentations begin tomorrow, and that everyone must be ready if their word is called out.

Anyone who wants to order books for April must bring the order in this week.

The rest of the class time was used as a Writing Workshop day and everyone worked on one of the three pieces of writing that has to be completed this grading period.

Today was a big day in English. Everyone had to turn in their Poetry Island Essay with the rubric. Any essay not turned in today will have a 5% deduction in grade for each day it is late.

Everyone logged into the blog and had to follow the directions on the TweenTribune page to register on the TweenTribune site. It was pretty easy if you read the instructions as you went along. Any student who did not get registered must come into Mrs. Scales classroom before or after school or use their home computer on their own time to get registered before Wednesday. There will be an assignment during QW time on Wednesday using the TweenTribune site and everyone must be registered.

We also selected root words from an envelope. There were no new root words. All of the root words selected were from the second semester root words that we have already been given in class. That means that everyone should already have a root word card for each root word and it should be listed in their glossaries. Starting Wednesday we will begin giving root word presentations. We have to present in any way we choose (rap song, jingle, repeating activity, visual examples) the root word we are responsible for in 3 to 5 minutes. In a couple of weeks we will have our big second semester root word test and extra credit will be given to the student who presented the word review presentation based on how many other students get that word correct on the test. This is our turn to teach. Lets see how good we are at it.

The lesson today was on Grammatical Sentence Types, but when we looked at the first definition Mrs. Scales realized that we needed to review some vocabulary in order to really understand what we were doing. So we backed up a little and reviewed what a clause is, the two types of clauses and what a predicate is.

A clause is a group of words with a subject and a predicate. There can be main or independent clauses, which are groups of words with a subject and a predicate that can stand alone. The other type of clause is a subordinate or dependent clause, which as the name indicates is a group of words with a subject and a predicate that can not stand alone.

A predicate is a verb or a verb plus something. Some examples of predicates include:
She dances. (verb-only predicate)
Ben reads the book. ( verb + a direct object)
Ben’s mother, Felicity, gave me a present. (verb + an indirect object without a preposition)
She listened to the radio. (verb + a prepositional object)

After getting an understanding of the terms we were going to use, we started looking at the four types of sentences:

A simple (S) sentence has one main clause and no subordinate clauses. It can however, contain a compound subject or predicate.

A compound sentence has two or more main clauses.

A complexsentence uses both main and subordinate clauses. A complex sentence has one independent clause and at least one dependent clause.

A compound-complex sentence is a combination of the compound and the complex sentence structure. It has two or more independent clauses and at least one dependent clause.

We made a foldable with the definitions of each type of sentence. Then broke several example sentences down as a whole class to practice finding the clauses, determining if the clause was independent or dependent and then labeling the sentence as simple, compound, complex or compound-complex. We did a few of the sentences on the homework assignment together to make sure everyone understood how to finish the assignment.

Surviving Poets – for the first time ever we have had a tie on Poetry Island. In Mrs. Scales’ 1st period class, Edward Lear and Edgar Allen Poe tied as surviving poets on Poetry Island. The 2nd period surviving poet was Walt Whitman, 3rd and 4th periods were both Emily Dickinson.

All of the groups did a wonderful job representing their poets this week. The poets covered in each period were:

1st Period
Dickinson
Lear
Shakespeare
Poe

2nd Period
Browning
Cummings
Dickinson
Poe
Frost
Whitman

3rd Period
Cummings
Frost
Shakespeare
Poe
Dickinson

4th Period
Shakespeare
Whitman
Dickinson
Poe
Lear
Browning

During our Poetry Island celebration Mrs. Scales read “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop. Mrs. Scales admitted that she wasn’t very good at writing original poetry but she really liked poetry appreciation classes in college. “The Fish” is one of Bishop’s poems that has stuck with her over the years because it is so vivid and has wonderful imagery throughout. Bishop, like many of us goes fishing either for the pleasure of the activity, or maybe because she wants to eat some fresh fish, however she changes her mind because of the condition of the fish she catches. Mrs. Scales likes how through personification and descriptive reflection the poet demonstrates the change in how she feels towards the fish.

I caught a tremendous fish
and held him beside the boat
half out of water, with my hook
fast in a corner of his mouth.
He didn’t fight.
He hadn’t fought at all.
He hung a grunting weight,
battered and venerable
and homely. Here and there
his brown skin hung in strips
like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
stained and lost through age.
He was speckled with barnacles,
fine rosettes of lime,
and infested
with tiny white sea-lice,
and underneath two or three
rags of green weed hung down.
While his gills were breathing in
the terrible oxygen
–the frightening gills,
fresh and crisp with blood,
that can cut so badly–
I thought of the coarse white flesh
packed in like feathers,
the big bones and the little bones,
the dramatic reds and blacks
of his shiny entrails,
and the pink swim-bladder
like a big peony.
I looked into his eyes
which were far larger than mine
but shallower, and yellowed,
the irises backed and packed
with tarnished tinfoil
seen through the lenses
of old scratched isinglass.
They shifted a little, but not
to return my stare.
–It was more like the tipping
of an object toward the light.
I admired his sullen face,
the mechanism of his jaw,
and then I saw
that from his lower lip
–if you could call it a lip
grim, wet, and weaponlike,
hung five old pieces of fish-line,
or four and a wire leader
with the swivel still attached,
with all their five big hooks
grown firmly in his mouth.
A green line, frayed at the end
where he broke it, two heavier lines,
and a fine black thread
still crimped from the strain and snap
when it broke and he got away.
Like medals with their ribbons
frayed and wavering,
a five-haired beard of wisdom
trailing from his aching jaw.
I stared and stared
and victory filled up
the little rented boat,
from the pool of bilge
where oil had spread a rainbow
around the rusted engine
to the bailer rusted orange,
the sun-cracked thwarts,
the oarlocks on their strings,
the gunnels–until everything
was rainbow, rainbow, rainbow!
And I let the fish go.

After finishing the Poetry Island celebration the final essay writing assignment was reviewed again and discussed further. Today we focused on making sure we read all of the instructions completely and how to use the rubric. It was explained that this is a lengthy assignment that will take most students three hours or more to complete. All of the five steps of writing will be used: Pre writing (notes from W-R’s notebook), Draft (write the essay), Revision (read the draft and make the big changes, add more, rearrange, take stuff out), Edit (read again and fix convention errors), Publish.

After the editing stage each student will still need to read their essay at least six more, separate times. This is where the rubric comes in. Looking at one writing trait at a time, read the essay and make notes on the rubric for that specific trait. For example in the word choice section of the rubric a score of five is determined by having picked just the right words to express your ideas and feeling about each poet. Every word seems exactly right, especially for each poet. We used examples as a class for what the means, such as words for Poe might be scary or dark, Gothic sounding words, while words for Lear would be much more whimsical and playful sounding. In after reading the final draft of the essay for word choice “some slang words” are found, a note needs to be made on the rubric and the essay revised to bring that score up to the 5 point box. The rubric is not just used as a scoring sheet, but rather to show the writer what needs to be improved upon in their essay. There are six writing traits on the rubric that need to be evaluated with notes taken on the rubric and revisions made to the essay before turning the essay and rubric in on Monday.

Today each period was given another 20 to 30 minutes of class time or more to work on the essay assignment. Mrs. Scales said this was important work time to have in class to get a good solid start on the assignment because she was right here where we could ask any questions we needed. She also reminded us that if we have questions over the weekend while we are working on the assignment we could use our assignment instructions handout, our rubric or read the blog entries from this week. If all else failed and we really needed her help, she said she is fine with us calling her at home.

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.

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.

Click on picture to see..

Although 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.

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.