Recitation versus Dramatic Interpretation

Here's the link to the Poetry Out Loud recitation we looked at in class earlier this week. As you'll see, there are several other videos with powerful recitations you can watch and learn from. Remember that you're aiming to be engaging - but not distracting - with your physical presence, letting the poem - and your understanding of it - do most of the work.

http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poems-and-performance/video-recitation-series

I look forward to seeing how you're thinking about your physical presence (eye contact, body language, small gestures, etc) in the recitation as we practice and present in class in the coming days.

Class Notes for the Fall Trimester, 2016

Middle School English has taken on a different look this year. Class is based on a Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop model. During Reader’s Workshop this trimester, students have been selecting their own titles, allowing them to follow their own interests and read at an individualized level and pace. Through one-on-one work with us, class mini-lessons, and partner shares, students have been developing the stamina and skills to understand and enjoy longer, more complex titles. We encourage our students to read a variety of genres; they have set personal reading goals and tracked their progress throughout the trimester in their Reader’s Notebooks.  To showcase their understanding of their independent titles, students write letter essays about their reading. Topics covered include understanding character, making inferences, and supporting ideas using textual details. Students have also presented book commercials to each other, persuading their peers read similar titles. The excitement in the room was palpable as they discussed why their books were worth selecting.

Since September in addition to their letter essays, students have been writing

expository, narrative, and descriptive pieces. Using their Writer’s Notebooks as a seed bed for ideas, students have been practicing different types of writing skills from how to hook a reader and write a thesis statement to varying sentence structure by playing with adjectives. They even spent a class observing the outdoors and then turned those observations into a poem that focused on sensory details and rich vocabulary. They practiced telling a story with very few words.

Students are able to additionally practice their grammar (compound sentences, compound-complex sentences, complex sentences beginning with subordinate clauses, opening adjectives and delayed adjectives) when they craft their original sentences for their weekly Word Voyage lessons based on  classic Latin and Greek roots.

This has been a busy trimester, and we continue to develop the skills that make our students lifelong readers and writers. We are looking forward to building on the foundation we’ve laid in the first trimester as we head into the winter term. Second trimester highlights will include book clubs - again self-selected but with more than one student reading the same book at the same time to allow for rich discussion - and a study of poetry culminating in The Country School’s longest and most celebrated tradition, The MacLane Poetry Recitation.

Letter-essay reminders

This letter-essay should focus on the major themes you have noticed in your book club books. You can center your essay on one theme (three body paragraphs demonstrating that theme) or choose a variety of themes to illustrate (a different theme discussed in each paragraph).

It is essential that you use evidence from your book to add to your argument. Each body paragraph should have a quote to back up the topic. Don't just drop the quotes in, however: remember to introduce and unpack them. Here is the example we looked at in class from a letter-essay about the themes in The Outsiders :

I believe The Outsiders is, first and foremost, a book about friends. Some of the friends are leaders and some are followers. I see evidence of this when Ponyboy says, “But I realized that these three appealed to me because they were like the heroes in the novels I read” (p. 76). This quote shows how much the younger guys looked up to the older ones.

Notice how the theme is first stated, then the quote is introduced. After the quote, the writer takes a moment to explain her point once more to really hammer home the argument. If you need a sentence starter to help you with this, look to the document in your reader's notebook called "Writing about Reading: Some Openers".  Number 23 on that list gives you an excellent framework for working textual evidence into your own writing.

Remember all the general requirements of a letter-essay (look back in your reader's notebook if you're unsure):

• Include the title, author, and genre of the book
• Attempt to rate the book (recognizing that rating might change once you reach the ending)
• 2 pages double spaced, Times New Roman, 12 point font

Please email me if you have any questions. I'll look forward to seeing your letter-essays (printed and attached to your reader's notebooks) on Monday!

Happy writing!

Assignments for 12/5 - 12/9

Monday, 12/5
English 7 - Read 30 (book club book takes priority)
Word Voyage Lesson 3 (delayed adjective structure)


Tuesday, 12/6
English 7 - Read 30 (book club book takes priority); 3 post-its for Wednesday
Word Voyage Lesson 3 (delayed adjective structure)


Wednesday. 12/7
English 7 - Read 30 (book club book takes priority)
Word Voyage Lesson 3 (delayed adjective structure)


Thursday, 12/8
English 7 - Read 30 (book club book takes priority); letter-essay due Monday
Word Voyage Lesson 3 (delayed adjective structure)


Friday, 12/9
English 7 - Read 30 (book club book takes priority - catch up if you need to!)
Letter-essay due Monday (demonstrate themes using at least 3 quotes/passages from the book as evidence)

Assignments for 11/28 - 12/2

Reminder: you should be keeping up with your book club book as well as an independent reading book. For some of you, your book club book might take up most or all of your required reading time. For others, you may finish your required book club pages and then move on to your independent choice. (Do not stop reading early just because you finished the necessary pages or chapters for your book club - everyone should still be reading 30 minutes every day *outside of class*.)

Monday, 11/28
Read 30 (book club book takes priority)
Word Voyage Lesson 2 (adjective or adjective phrase openers)

Tuesday, 11/29
Read 30 (book club book takes priority)
Word Voyage Lesson 2 (adjective or adjective phrase openers)

Wednesday, 11/30
Read 30 (book club book takes priority)
Word Voyage Lesson 2 (adjective or adjective phrase openers)

Thursday, 12/1
Read 30 (book club book takes priority)
Word Voyage Lesson 2 (adjective or adjective phrase openers)

Friday, 12/2
Read 30 (book club book takes priority)

Assignments for 11/7 - 11/11

Monday, 11/7:
Read 30
Study for Word Voyage unit test (Wednesday)

Tuesday, 11/8:
Read 30
Study for Word Voyage uni test (Wednesday)

Wednesday, 11/9
Read 30

Thursday, 11/10
Read 30
Electronic draft of expository essay due by class on Monday

Friday, 11/11
Read 30
Electronic draft of expository essay due by class on Monday

Exposing Hot Topics in Middle School English

As we wrap up the fall term, we're turning our attention from seasonal, sensory-based poetry to expository writing. Everyone will have the chance to choose a topic that piques their interest, find at least one article with which to engage in a dialogue, and then share their work in a well-planned expository essay. So far, topics are ranging from the heated presidential election to the scary clown craze and everything in between!

A useful resource (for this assignment and beyond) is the Online Writing Lab through Purdue University. Students, keep these links handy as you hone your thesis and plan your paragraphs:

Expository writing overview: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/685/02/

Thesis writing: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/01/

We will spend much of next week planning and drafting in class. If possible, bring a computer or iPad to use for this purpose Monday through Friday.

And just because we've moved on from poetry (for now), don't stop noticing those small moments of beauty all around you; keep those seed ideas handy for when poetry comes back to campus full force in January and February!

Enjoy your No Homework Weekend, 7th Graders!