Its That Time of Year

We have reached the end of our semester together. I know, I am sad too! I have sincerely enjoyed having each and every one of you in my classroom. I will miss each of you over the summer! As you know I alternate teaching grade levels so as soon as the powers that be decide what I am teaching next year maybe I will be fortunate enough to have you in my classroom again! I just want to remind you to check the school website in about 3 weeks (probably will take longer) and retrieve your schedules for the Fall! If I am listed as your teacher, be happy (:-) ) and remember to check out the blog again for your summer reading list (I know some of you are groaning again!)! If any of you would like to recommend the books that will be used next year I will gladly take those recommedations into consideration. Or if you want more books by a certain author or with a certain theme please let me know ASAP! I will begin making my book list VERY soon and I will love to know what you are thinking!

I hope everyone has a great summer and you know how to contact me if there is anything you need that I can help you with! Take the next few weeks to focus on yourself and have some free time! I know I am! I will be gone on vacation later this summer but if you are in a emergency, contact the school and they will know how to find me! I am sad this year had to come to an end but I am anxiously awaiting August!

One last reminder... if you want to keep your multigenre project you can come by my room when school starts and pick it up!

Don't Forget....

Yes it is time for our field trip! I know this is not the best timing since we have so much going on in class right now but since we were canceled on the first time we were supposed to go. The trip is to the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. I hope you are all as excited as I am! Just to remind you, you MUST be dressed appropriately! The dress code for this field trip will be DRESSY! Guys - this means slacks, NO JEANS, nice shoes and a button down shirt, you do not have to wear a tie unless you wish to do so. Girls - dress pants or skirt and a nice top, or a dress, NOTHING TOO SHORT OR LOW CUT! If you arrive at school and are inappropriately dressed you will not be allowed on the bus. Also, you need to bring a lunch or lunch money, we will make a stop near several fast foot resturants.

You need to bring something to take notes with. When we return you will have to write 1-2 pages on your experience from the theatre. What was your favorite part of the play? What was the name of the play? What was the overall plot of the play? What did you learn about theatre?

You Last BIG Assignment

I know that you are all anxious to be finished with the semester but there is still a month left and we have several things to do between now and then! Your last big assignment is to select a young adult novel to read and complete a portfolio on. This book cannot be anything that we have read so far in class! It may be a book by any of the same authors we have read over the course of the semester though! So if you truly enjoyed one of the books try finding a book by the same author. If you are unsure of what book to select come see me and we will find a book that will interset you. You may borrow a book from my personal stockpile (you know the procedure for this), check one out from the school or public library, or use one from home. I must approve your selection and you may not select the same book as another member of the class. All studnets must post the name and author of their book so that I can approve the book and keep track of which student is doing what book. I do not want presentations and assignments on the same book!

What you will do...
First, select a book and post the information and wait for approval. (If for any reason your selection is not approved I do not want to discouarge you from reading it at a later date. So just select another book for this assignment and read that one later!) After approval read your book! Your main project is a multigenre project! :-) These are so much fun and I know you will enjoy working on these! I will post a documnet in the document section with a grading rubric for the multigenre project as soon as I can.

What are the components of a multigenre project??

It belongs in a notebook.
It will include a "letter to the reader" explaining what your overall project idea is about.
It will include a table of contents page.
It will include at least 5 different genres! You must have at least 1 art genre and 2 writing genres. If you include a multimedia genre such as a powerpoint or cd I will only grade 1 multimedia entry for a grade. You may write a poem, draw a picture, do a powerpoint presentation, make a soundtrack for the book to be used in case it is ever turned into a movie, write one of the scenes in the form of a movie/play script, an interview script with the author, and anything else you want to do.
It must be creative and it must have a central theme.
The main part of this project will be the essay. This essay is NOT a summary of the novel. This is an essay of your reactions to the novel you read and needs to include information about the author.
A citation page (you will have to have at least 5 and they will mostly be used in your essay on author information!)
Be creative and have fun!!

Just Some Information

This is not an assignment! :-) I just wanted to post and give you some important information and upcoming due dates and test days! I know this will be greatly appreicated by all of you!

First I want to appologize that I have not returned your Speak poems. Some of these are very deep and I have had to walk away from grading this assignment because I can see through the tears that these poems have brought. I am almost finished with them though and I hope will be able to return these to you by the end of this week! I will try my best!

Also I want to remind you that your bonus assignment is due this Friday as well! When you turn these in be sure to indicate to me if you want to try to acutally send your letter to Mrs. Anderson. If there are several of you wanting to do this I will send them in a large envelope all at once. If there aren't that many I will send them for you individually.

There will be more assignments between now and the end of the semester so do not get behind! It will wreck havic on your grade if you start slipping now!

We are almost to the end of the semester! One more month to go! The thing about this is that means FINALS are fast approaching! I wanted to give you a heads-up on what will be on the final! Anything that we did starting in January is fair game! I know you do not like comprehensive finals but you may be happy to learn that you will not have to answer every question on the final! Yes, I said answer questions. This means your final will be in essay format. You will have the entire class period to complete your final. The way this will work is I will give you about 10 questions (I have not made the final yet so this number may change!) and you will be responsible for answering 6 of the questions.

Don't forget if you are attending graduation in May to support your friends, family, or peers who are graduating the you MUST get a ticket to go! There are a limited number of tickets being given to students so get these as soon as you can. The tickets will be given starting May 16th. You will not be able to get a ticket for anyone else, once you get a ticket your name will be removed from the list and you will not be able to get another one. Do not misplace these!

Speak Bonus Assignment

I was very impressed by the response I received to the Speak poetry assignment. I know you are working very hard on these poems and I cannot wait to read them all when you are finished. I have decided since you all have responded so well to this novel and to the poetry assignment that I am going to offer a bonus assignment! WooHoo BONUS TIME!! Yes, I am aware that I hardly ever offer bonus points but I think this is a great idea.

What you are to do...
Write a letter to Laurie Halse Anderson telling her about your experience reading her novel Speak and her poem "Listen".  How did it make you feel? Why did it make you feel this way? What character did you relate to the most and why? How has reading her novel and poem changed your life? You may write on any of these topics or may choose your own. Something I do want you to do is include a copy of your poem with your letter. Introduce Mrs. Anderson to your poem. Is there anything you want her to know about you or your poem before she reads it?

This will be due April 29th.

If you want we can find out the information and actually send your letters and poems to Mrs. Anderson but if you do not want to do this that is fine too!

Speak Assignment

We have just finished reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and now comes one of the assignments that go along with this unit. It has been over 10 years since this book was first published and over the years many readers have sent Mrs. Anderson letters with their thoughts on and responses to Speak. Mrs. Anderson was so touched by the letters that she recieved, so she wrote a poem "Listen" which combines the letters into one poem. In the video below Mrs. Anderson explains her reasoning for writing "Listen" and reads her poem aloud. Please watch this video.

What you are to do...

In listening to the reading of "Listen" think about how you feel. Now I want you to write a poem as well. This can be a poem from the view point of any of the characters in Speak, it can be your response to the novel or to the poem you just heard. Your poem can be written in any form of poetry. It can be an "I am" poem, a "Where I'm from" poem or even in the form of concrete poetry. Whatever you want to do. The only limitations are that it must have something to do with Speak, "Listen," or your response to either AND it must be at least 15 lines long; however, you may write as much as you want so if it is longer that is fine too!

Narrative Writing Time

As you all are aware there is a narrative writing assignment due coming up soon! I thought it may be a good idea to give you a few prompts to use in case you are stuck! You DO NOT have to use one of the prompts I have given but if you are not please just run that by me before you start writing. Remember a narrative writing is the perfect chance to write alllll about yourself and the story can be true or one that is made up, the key is it must be in first person point-of-view (OH look a literary term!)! I have also attached a short video that may help you remember a few cues about narrative writing.

Your prompts ...

1. Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "You must do the thing you think you cannot do." Write a narrative about a time when you did something you thought you could not do. Be sure to include specific details so that a reader can follow your story.

2. Think about a time when something unexpected happened. Write a narrative in which you tell about an unexpected event that happened to you or someone you know. Be sure to include specific details so that a reader can follow your story.

3. You have made a very important discovery–one that will make you famous throughout the world. Write a story in which you tell about your discovery and how you made it. Be sure to include details about the setting and any characters in the story, and be sure that your story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

4. Think of your best day in school. What happened that makes this day stand out in your memory? Write a story for a friend that tells about what happened on this day in school.