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We Are Writers! – Prompts for June 15-19

We Are Writers! – Prompts for June 15-19

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Last week we had some excellent writing happening!  I loved reading your treehouse designs, your restaurant menus, your stories, your “Life Playlists” and all of your blogposts!

I’m hoping that this week we can write up a storm because there are only 2 weeks left of school!  I’m going to try to write a blogpost about the books I’ve been reading.  I hope you will too. To get you thinking and talking about BOOKS, I’ve collected a few BOOKTALK prompts!

Here they are:

BookTalk Writing Prompt #1

 

BookTalk Writing Prompt #2

 

BookTalk Writing Prompt #3

 

 

And then there’s the regular writing prompts for those of us who want to write something else!

 

Writing Prompt #1: This can be a letter to anyone.

 

Writing Prompt #2: If you want to invent a sport that doesn’t have jet packs, go for it.  Just make sure to describe your sport in good detail. What’s the object of the game?  How many players/teams?  What equipment needed. Where is it played.  How do you win? 

 

Writing Prompt #3: Don’t forget to describe with vivid imagery (sensory details help the reader understand WHY you are grateful for these things).

 

Writing Prompt #4: Indulge by creating your fantasy food!  Make it something so fattening that you gain weight just describing it! 

 

Writing Prompt #5: A story prompt for our storytellers.


 

I can’t wait to see what you write!

Writing for the week of June 8-12

Writing for the week of June 8-12

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This week, I am providing you with some new prompts, but I also want you to feel free to go back through previous weeks’ prompts to see if there was anything you didn’t get a chance to use that may be inspiring to you now.  The most important thing is to keep writing!

Remember that the blog is for writing, for revising and editing, and presenting your best effort.  Titles should be interesting to the reader.  They should also have capital letters for all the important words.

 

 

Writing Prompt #1 – C’mon!  You know you want to write a Zombie story!

Writing Prompt #2 – Zombies aren’t your thing?  No problem.  You probably want to write a Star Wars story!

 

Writing Prompt #3 – This is for Foodies!  You get to design the menu.  Put all of your favourites on the list.  OR, make it a Zombie menu or a Star Wars menu or a Menu for people who live in Candyland, or a menu for Smurfs!  Get creative, people!

 

Writing Prompt #4 – This is the Movie of your LIFE!  What songs are playing?

 

 

Writing Prompt #5:  For the designers and builders and dreamers.  Your tree top paradise is whatever you want it to be. 

I LOVE reading your writing.  Have fun!  Be creative!  Then, revise and edit!  Oh yes, revising and editing are important parts of the process!

 

Writing in June! – Prompts for June 1-5

Writing in June! – Prompts for June 1-5

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It’s June!  It’s June!  And writing in June is even better than in March or April or May because . . . . it’s JUNE!

 

This week I have lots of prompts for you, and once again I hope I can inspire some of your amazing writing in a variety of forms: opinion essay, nonfiction piece, descriptive writing, story or narrative writing, reflections on life, “How To . . . ” or procedural writing, etc. etc.

I want to remind you that I LOVE reading your writing and I LOVE to comment on your writing, but you can comment on your peers’ writing too.

You can comment on writing too! 

It is so nice to get a comment from another student.  That’s the WHOLE IDEA of the blog, so please please comment on someone else’s blog this week.

I also want to remind you to save the photo for the prompt you choose to your computer and upload it into your blog please!  Then you can give your blogpost a great title instead of “Prompt #2” or whichever number.

Here we go! Five Writing Prompts for June 1-5!

Writing Prompt #1 – Write this story!

 

 

Writing Prompt #2 – Watch the Ted Talk and then write about a Lollipop Moment that you experienced.  OR, just comment on what Drew Dudley means by a Lollipop moment and why they are Everyday Leadership moments.

 

Writing Prompt #3 – Respond to the following video.  Say whatever this makes you notice, feel, or think.

 

 

Writing Prompt #4 – How much do “LIKES” mean to you?

 

 

Writing Prompt #5 – Persuade Me!

And that’s it for this week!

Happy writing!  Happy reading!  Happy commenting!

Class News

Class News

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This fall has been a busy one!  To update you on everything we’ve done so far would take a while, so I’ll just mention the big ideas we’ve been working on.  The BIGGEST news is that we all have finished designing or updating our blogs, and we’ve posted our writing on them, so please take a moment to check them out!  I hope that parents feel free to comment on their child’s blog.  Everyone LOVES the encouragement that comes with a positive comment on our writing.  Writing is hard, and we can all use a boost!

Also . . . .

In Grade 8 we’ve worked on:

  • Quickwrites – We’ve done several to get the ideas flowing and ready for our more formal assignment on Memoir.
  • Memoir – We read lots of memoirs (some of which you’ll find on the One Note for Grade 8), analyzed the form and wrote our own. They are ON THE BLOG!  Please feel free to read and comment on them!

  • Vocabulary – lots of prefixes and more to come . . .
  • Punctuation – Quotation Marks!  Test on Tuesday!
  • Independent Reading – We are all reading our own novels.
  • Elements of a Narrative – So far we’ve discussed and studied character, conflict, plot, and theme.  We’ve written about character, conflict, and now in the process of writing about theme in the context of a short story.

In Grade 7 we’ve worked on:

  • Independent Reading – Getting into the reading habit by reading in class and at home every day has been a focus for us.  I’m proud of the work students have done to get into the reading groove.
  • Short story study – We’ve read “Seventh Grade” by Gary Soto, “Thank You Ma’am” by Langston Hughes, and “Charles” by Shirley Jackson.  Through these short stories and our own novels, we’ve been studying the elements of a narrative.
  • Elements of a narrative – We’ve discussed and written about character traits, and we’ve touched on conflict and themes in our discussions.
  • Vocabulary – lots of prefixes and more to come . . .
  • Media studies – We designed our blogs!  Take a look at the way in which we’ve made our blogs unique and expressed our personalities through our designs!
  • Quickwrites and developing our ideas – We did several quickwrites and we developed the one we did on “My Favourite Place” to put on the blogs.  Please feel free to read our blogs and leave a comment!
  • Grammar – We worked on identifying the subject and predicate (main ingredients) of a sentence.  Now we’re working on Coordinating Conjunctions: FANBOYS! Our test is on Thursday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And what’s coming up?  Novel studies in small and large groups will begin this week in both grades!  In grade 8 we’ll be reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, and some of us will read Rules by Cynthia Lord. Reading a novel as a group means there will be daily reading homework with specified page numbers.  Work the following day may include chapter tests, discussions, and other activities, so it will be important that all students keep up with the reading homework.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’ll continue our work on vocabulary and punctuation (dashes, parentheses, ellipses and more coming up).  We will be writing short stories and newspaper articles!

In Grade 7 we will be reading several novels as large groups.  In Grade 7B, we will be reading Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelson.  In 7A students will either be reading Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick or Shipwreck by Gordon Korman. Reading a novel as a group means there will be daily reading homework with specified page numbers.  Work the following day may include chapter tests, discussions, and other activities, so it will be important that all students keep up with the reading homework.

We are in the process of writing “Where I’m From” poems (check out the original by George Ella Lyons and mine here).  We studied the original and developed our own based on the poet’s style of ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’.  They should be on the blogs in a week or so and they are going to KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF!  Be on the lookout!  We will also continue our study of prefixes in vocabulary and in grammar, subordinating conjunctions are up next!

If you’re not convinced that punctuation matters, you should consider this.

 

 

 

Questions and comments are welcomed!  Thank you for reading!

Hard Work Underway!

Hard Work Underway!

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If you are new to our class blogs, WELCOME to “Discovering Our Voices” where I try to keep parents and students informed about what’s going on in the classroom, AND where students share their writing with peers, parents, and me.  This year, I am also putting LOTS of information on our two OneNote notebooks – one for 7th grade and one for 8th grade.  If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, please do so!  There’s lots of information in the OneNote notebooks that you will find useful in class and at home.

We’ve been at school for a month now, and if you think of what we’ve done so far, it’s clear we haven’t wasted the last four weeks.  In all my classes, we’ve been reading daily, at home and at school, and many students have already read a book or two!  If you’re a parent, please ask your child about what book(s) he/she’s been reading this year so far!

Here’s a quick list of what we’ve done so far in each grade.  If you’d like more information, please ask your child to show you our grade level OneNote. You’ll find lots of resources there.  Students and parents are also always welcome to email me with questions about our work in the classroom!  I will do my best to keep you informed.

Grade 7:

  • 2 vocabulary units focused on prefixes (sub, contra/contro)
  • short story unit to review/learn the elements of a narrative
  • Writing Territories (identifying the types of things we could write about this year)
  • quick-writes (a five minute writing session in which we just let the ideas flow)
  • reading response journal with a focus on character traits
  • grammar: sentence elements – subject and predicate

Grade 8:

  • 2 vocabulary units focused on prefixes (sub/trans, pro/retro)
  • memoir unit – reading lots of memoirs in order to understand the form
  • Writing Territories (identifying the types of things we could write about this year)
  • quick-writes aimed at ‘mining’ ideas for our own memoirs
  • reading response journal

It’s clear that we’ve been busy in English class so far.  In the near future, all my new students will have blogs, and we’ll be ready to share our writing with our peers and parents.  I can’t wait to ‘hear’ your voices on the blog!

 

Subject-Verb Agreement, Opinion Essays, and Literature Circles

Subject-Verb Agreement, Opinion Essays, and Literature Circles

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It has been a very weird week because I’ve been home sick.  I know that Grade 8s are doing some really excellent work in the classroom, and I’m excited to get back to work because we have some rich units to finish up and others to start.  I wanted to give you a general sense of where we’re at and what we can all look forward to in the near future.

Grammar: Subject-Verb Agreement

We’ve been working on subject verb agreement for a little while now.  The rules are simple at first, but get a little more tricky as we get into interrupting phrases, compound subjects, etc.  Here are some of the rules we focus on in Grade 8:

  1. A verb must agree with the subject.  If the subject is singular, the verb is singular.  If the subject is plural, the verb is plural.   
  2. When a subject is separated from the verb by a group of words/phrase, the verb must agree with the simple subject.
  3. When the parts of a compound subject are joined by and, use a plural verb.  
  4. When the parts of a compound subject are joined by either/or or neither/nor, the verb agrees with the subject closer to the verb.
  5. Don’t be confused by a subject that follows the verb.  Identify the subject and then determine if it’s singular or plural before selecting the correct verb form.

The practice work we are doing in class will prepare you for our test, which should be in the next week or two.  I have also sent you a list of links if you’d like to practice your subject-verb agreement skills online!

* Please note that the example in the above picture proves that cats can’t be professors AND that people WILL notice if you use subject verb agreement incorrectly!

Opinion Essays

We’ve been working on developing the skills to prepare us for opinion essays for a little while now.  The things we’ve done so far?

  • We wrote on-demand (no prep) opinion essay writing on the topic of homework (This was actually a former OSSLT opinion essay topic.).
  • We reviewed and assessed sample OSSLT opinion essays on the same topic and using the samples, we created a list of things that a strong opinion essay contained (success criteria).
  • We learned about using criteria to make a judgement/opinion using a real life award – the Giraffe Hero Awards – and a set of case studies.
  • We used our success criteria list to create an opinion piece outline.
  • We selected a Giraffe Hero based on the set criteria, and we are in the process of writing opinion pieces that propose the individual is worthy of the award.

After we’ve completed these essays and typed them up, we’ll start learning more about how to research a topic, develop or identify our opinion on a topic, and then write a personal opinion piece on that topic.  Since there are benefits to both approaches, I’m still not sure if we’ll all study one general area or if each student will choose his/her own topic and opinion.   If you have a preference, please feel free to comment on this blogpost, talk to me in person, or send me an email.  If you have ideas for a general topic that will appeal to most students, please let me know!

 

Literature Circles

If you’ve never experienced literature circles, you have a treat coming!  The best thing about literature circles is that you get to discuss a book with a small group of your peers as you read it, and through that discussion, you are bound to dig deeper into the ideas the novel explores.

How it works:

  • starts with a BOOK PASS, which is one (or two) wicked class periods where you have to look at about 15-20 books: read the back, read a page, and decide if it’s of interest to you, write a note
  • select top 3 choices
  • Mrs. D makes groups based on several factors: a) how many copies I have; b) how many people I’ll need for each group in both classes; c) how the book fits each students’ reading abilities; d) if each group will have some good group dynamics;
  • books get handed out and students decide how much to read for each day or the week (a minimum of 10 pages of reading homework per day is expected for all books)
  • each week students will write a Reading Response Journal entry on the novel which will hopefully help students to a) think about the ideas in the novel; b) identify good questions to bring to the group; c) help students to prepare for the culminating essays; d) spark discussion during our weekly meetings
  • we may also do some vocabulary work based on the novels, so different groups would have different vocabulary lists
  • groups may have different end times for their novels since some novels are shorter than others
  • when we’re all done, students will have to write an essay on a) character; b) conflict/climax; c) theme

*The Literacy/Literature Circle discussion starts off difficult to hear, but hang in there because the sound quality improves as it goes.

This discussion is a pretty good one!  These girls have all read and thought deeply about the ideas in their novel.  They don’t just say, “I really liked the part . . . ” without having something important to say about the characters and themes of the book.  Everyone speaks in the circle and contributes good points. (We will discuss more about this particular circle discussion in class before we begin our discussions.)

 

Yes!  We are going to be very busy with grammar, opinion pieces, and literature circles!  And that’s just the next couple of months, right?

 

Grammar, Research, and Novel Studies in Grade 7

Grammar, Research, and Novel Studies in Grade 7

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It’s going to be busy in Grade 7 in the coming weeks!  I’m excited to begin and wanted to fill you in on what to expect.

Grammar

As you know from the recent post on Subordinating Conjunctions or AAAWWUBBIS words, we’ve had a good time in Grade 7 creating fun sentences that show we understand how to create a complex sentence structure using a subordinating clause that starts with a subordinating conjunction, a comma, and then an independent clause. We LOVE sharing our crazy sentences.  We wrote about killer apples, Dr. Phil and Steve Harvey, canned beans, Johnny and his sinkhole, and (sorry I forget, Boden and Grace) and characters who really have a problem with their legs (inside joke). 

The POINT of learning about subordinating conjunctions, though, is that we use them in our daily writing.  We need to take the time to ask ourselves, “Did I just start a sentence with an AAAWWUBBIS word?  If so, I need a comma!” (See?  I wrote a sentence with “If” and I used a comma!)  I will be marking all grade 7 writing from now on EXPECTING that FANBOYS and AAAWWUBBIS rules are followed.  Marks will be deducted for not using the comma correctly.

*To clarify, the above example does not involve a subordinating conjunction.  The missing commas are called serial commas which are used when making a list.  The last comma before the ‘and’ is called the Oxford Comma.

 

 

Research

 

Do you know where Zimbabwe is?  How about El Salvador?  Do you have any idea what the climate in Greece is like?  Portugal?  Sudan?

In the coming weeks, we are going to learn a lot about the countries of the world while simultaneously learning about:

  • how to read nonfiction text
  • how to use our school board’s online library – the VLC or Virtual Learning Commons
  • how to determine which ideas in texts are important
  • how to take notes in our OWN WORDS
  • how to write the essay from our notes to avoid PLAGIARISM
  • how to cite our research sources on a Works Cited page
  • how to use an effective expository essay structure

 

Students will be given several websites in addition to those on the VLC that they can use in their research; however, they will not be allowed to just ‘google’ and find their own cites.  All of the writing will be done in class from the notes in our notebook.  Student will be advised to have at least 3 pages of notes by the end of the reading/research process.  Then we will type out our essays and share them on our blogs!

 

Novel Studies

In the coming weeks, we are also going to get back into a whole class novel study in both Grade 7 classes.  Please be good friends to each other and don’t spoil the books for the other class by divulging details that are much juicier when discovered during the reading!

 

For 7B, this will be “Freak the Mighty” by Rodman Philbrick.  We will have regular novel quizzes and reading journals to during this novel study, so it will be important that all students keep up with the daily reading!  I also look forward to some good small group and class discussion about the novel, which has deep themes and lovable characters!

In 7C we will be reading “Touching Spirit Bear” by Ben Mikaelson.  In this class we will be doing regular chapter questions, reading responses, and small and large-group discussions so students will also want to keep up with the reading.  This book is also one of my all-time favourites because of the rich themes, the sometimes gory details (you’ll see what I mean) and very real characterization.

As you can see, I am not kidding.  We are going to get very busy in the near future!  If you have a question or comment, please don’t hesitate to share with me in class, in email, on the blog, or in person.

 

Subordinating Conjunctions, also known as: AAAWWUBBIS!

Subordinating Conjunctions, also known as: AAAWWUBBIS!

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Because I know you LOVE this song, and because it will help you remember some facts about subordinating conjunctions, I’m posting it on the blog!  Listen and sing along (don’t worry, no one can hear you), and remember the facts:

  • subordinating conjunctions join a subordinate (dependent clause) with an independent clause
  • When you start a sentence with a subordinating conjunction, you know that you’ll need a comma to separate the dependent clause from the independent clause
  • AAAWWUBBIS is just an acronym (an abbreviation using the first letter of various words)  or pneumonic device (trick or device used to remember) to remember some of the most commonly used subordinating conjunctions: After, Although, As, When, While, Until, Because, Before, If, and Since!

And remember: it’s cool to be passionate about GRAMMAR!

Week in Review: A brief look at our first week back

Week in Review: A brief look at our first week back

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Thank you to all my students and parents for the warm welcome back!  It’s good to be back to a normal routine again!

We started off the week with this lovely quote:

 

WRITING

After reading and discussing the meaning of the quote, we all (grade 7 and 8) wrote two journal entries:

  • Masterpiece Me! – a journal entry describing something we’ve done over the last few months that we are proud of, that shows expertise or improvement in a specific area
  • Work-in-progress Me! – a journal entry identifying two specific goals for this year.  The first goal – and action plan to achieve it – was to be a goal outside of English class.  It could be a personal goal, a goal for sports or another subject in school, a general goal for learning skills, etc.  The second goal – and action plan to achieve it – was to be about English class (e.g., a reading, writing, speaking, listening, media studies goal).

These journal entries allowed us to reflect on our learning and learn about goal setting, which is an important learning skill.

READING

Nonfiction Reading:

Grade 8 students read an article entitled: “How to stick to your New Year’s resolutions” from HowStuffWorks and answered 4 multiple choice questions about the text.

Grade 7 students read an article entitled: “How to set goals for the New Year” by WikiHow and answered 4 multiple choice questions about the text.

Each of the above articles was available at various reading levels, so the titles may be slightly different for each level.  Each student received an article that was appropriate for their ability.

 

Independent Reading:

Students also had time in class to read their self-selected novels/books.  We read every day at school, and students were expected to read at home (Grade 8 -30 minutes; Grade 7 – 20 minutes).

 

Vocabulary

We are continuing to work on our vocabulary in both grades.  Almost all of our vocabulary this year will be based on prefixes, root words, and suffixes because learning these word parts helps us to learn the meanings of many unfamiliar words.  It reminds us, also, to look for meaningful word parts in longer, unfamiliar words.  That helps when we are reading and come to a word that we’ve never read before!

We have started using vocabulary.com again, and we had fun doing a vocabulary jam on Friday!  This site is great for becoming familiar with the meanings of the words on our lists, but students should also remember to use the definitions given during our vocabulary lesson.

 

This week’s words in Grade 8 start with ‘dia’ and ‘per.’  In grade 7, our words start with the prefix ‘hyper.’

 

grammar

Although we didn’t do much in grammar this week (none in grade 8), we did get a sneak preview into learning about FANBOYS (coordinating conjunctions) by reviewing what a RUN-ON sentence is and how to fix it.

How can you fix a run-on?  You can: 1) separate the two independent clauses into two separate sentences; 2) Use a semi-colon, but only when the two independent clauses are closely related; 3) Use a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS)!

 

 

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