Word Work Rubric

You will be seeing this in class this week.  For your review, please see the Word Work Rubric

You will also be receiving your exit tickets back this week as well.  Please take the feedback and use it for your meaningful sentences in your assignment.

Theme, Audience and Point of View

This week we have (or will be talking about) Theme, Audience and Point of View.  These are all elements of stories (hint, hint, hint, you will want to talk about these in your Short Stories presentations with your partner on your selected published short story).

To review what we discussed in class, please see the slides below.

 Audience/Point of View

Theme

Extra Help/Time

Need extra help and time to get work done?

I will be availabe Tuesday/Thursday mornings in Room 202 (Madame Jones' room) during the morning recess (1050-1115).

Sentences

Your exit tickets will be due soon for your Word Work assignments.  This is a copy of the lesson we did/will do in class about sentences for Grade 7 and 8.

Reminder - Grade 7s the expectation is transition words.
Grade 8s the expectation is transition words and the use of passive and active voice.

Looking for ideas about where to find new and interesting transition words?

http://www.smart-words.org/transition-words.html

http://www.gallaudet.edu/tip/english_works/writing/guide_to_transition_words_and_sentence_samples.html

Looking for information about passive and active voice?

(This site also includes Gramar Girl's pocast) http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/active-voice-versus-passive-voice.aspx

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-voice.htm

http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/passive

Anchor Text - Where the Wild Things Are

We have been reading (and rereading) Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak for our short story anchor text.  Yes, it is a "children's story," however, this is what makes it perfect for quick 10-15 min lessons about short stories.
 
If you would like review the text again, to reflect on what we have done in class with it, please click here.  It is the version with the weird voices!

Daily 5 Assignments for November/December

Looking for a copy of the assignments for Daily 5?  Well, here they are!  Deadlines have been recorded by the Tracking Binder person and are posted every English class, and we review them every class we have together!  (No excuse for not knowing when something is due).  We work a few deadlines at a time, to not overwhelm us, and to be able to allow flexibility when things like assemblies, trips and general class changes come up.

Quick review -
Reading to Self - Novel study of your own selection, the goal being that you can discuss the main idea of your text.

Read to Someone - Select a short story of your own choice with your partner, either from those available at school or a favourite (children's story or teen/short story).  Reflect with your partner about the elements of a short story, the effectiveness of those elements, and your own feeling about the story.  Present your findings in a 3 min presenation.  Demonstrate presentation skills and audience skills.

Word Work - Choose 5 words that are a challenge to you.  Complete one of the 4 challenging word work assignments, including a definition, meaningful sentence and explain why those words will challenge you as a reader/writer.

Work on Writing - Go through the writing process and create a short story.  (Be mindful of the term SHORT story!)

Listening to Reading - no formal assignment.  Students may listen to their read to self book to help ensure comprehension. 

Elements of a Short Story

We have (or will be) enjoying the video by Flocabulary Elements of a Short Story.  More detail about the elements of a short story is available here.  

You will be receiving your assignment for a short story very shortly.

To remember while brainstorming your ideas for you short story, a short story is a story with a fully developed theme but significantly shorter and less elaborate than a novel.  Often depicting few characters and concentrating a 'single effect' or mood.

We will be having more lessons around theme and conflict, audience, point of view and expressive language.