Monday, October 3, 2016

Announcements and Reminders:           Our field trip to the graveyard will be October 5.   Our class meets from 1:25 to 2:45.  Remember to wear comfortable walking shoes and bring a jacket if it looks like it might be chilly.   WED  OCT 5 Mostly Sunny 58°  37°  10% WSW 7 mph 65% -https://weather.com

Targets for Today: Reading: Literature Standard 3  Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). Reading: Literature Standard 10  By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. The Graveyard Book's lexile level is 820L.

Today’s  Agenda: 1. Pick up your composition books. 2.  Today instead of individual reading time, we will read from The Graveyard Book.   We will take a break to discuss. . . . .      Find your ____ o'clock partner and discuss your responses to what you read today.  (We used 1 (today)1, 2, 4 , 6,  7,  8, 9, 10, and 11 already.)     Instructions for next time:   How to do gravestone rubbings:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GukkkmNEzR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=100y2PdymJk   Begin at 1:15 -- to about 2:50 How to find a ghoul gate: Find the description in The Graveyard Book of ghoul gates. pg. 61       "One grave in every graveyard belongs to the ghouls.  Wander any graveyard long enough and you will find it -- waterstained and bulging, with cracked or broken stone, scraggly grass or rank weeds about it, and a feeling when you reach it, of abandonement.  It may be colder than the other gravestones, too, and the name on the stone is all too often impossible to read.   If there is a statue on the grave it will be headless or so scabbed with fungus and lichens as to look like a fungus itself.  If one grave in a graveyard looks like a target for petty vandals, that is the ghoul-gate.  If the grave makes you want to be somewhere else, that is the ghoul-gate.       There was one in Bod's graveyard.     There is one in every graveyard." pg. 74 "Bod stopped beside a grave that  looked the way he felt:  it was beneath an oak that had once been struck by lightning, and was now just a black trunk, like a sharp talon coming out of the hill; the grave itself was waterstained and cracked, and above it was a memorial stone on which a headless angel hung, its robes looking like a huge and ugly tree-fungus."  Please plan to take pictures!   Then Let's listen to more of  The Graveyard Book Last time we read to page  198  6th paragraph down, Chapter  6, minute  42:06  .  Today we read to page  229, Chapter 7, minute  24:20  . http://www.mousecircus.com/videos/ A favorite (and useful) word or quote:   "Us in the graveyard, we wants you to stay alive.  We wants you to surpize us and disappoint us and impress us and amaze us.  Come home, Bod."   --Liza Hempstock p. 198 Teacher stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlTHHslh74M http://www.authorama.com/jungle-book-1.html http://helen-keeble.livejournal.com/76398.html

If You Were Absent: Catch up with The Graveyard Book next time.

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Announcements and Reminders:           Our field trip to the graveyard will be October 5.   Our class meets from 1:25 to 2:45.  Remember to wear comfortable walking shoes and bring a jacket if it looks like it might be chilly.   WED  OCT 5 Mostly Sunny 58°  37°  10% WSW 7 mph 65% -https://weather.com

Targets for Today: Reading: Literature Standard 3  Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). Reading: Literature Standard 10  By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. The Graveyard Book's lexile level is 820L.

Today’s  Agenda: 1. Pick up your composition books. 2.  Individual Reading Time       Today, look for a word you like -- because of the way it sounds, what it means, what it looks like on the page, or any for any other reason.  Record one or more words in your composition book under "Favorite Words."      I really like “Jacuzzi”  and “Zimbabwe.”  How about "cobweb"?        Watch Bulbous Bouffant Find your __10__ o'clock partner and discuss your responses to what you read today.  (We used 1 (today)1, 2, 4 , 6,  7,  8, 9, and 11 already.)     Let's listen to more of  The Graveyard Book Last time we read to page 186 ,  Chapter  6 , minute  22:04   .  Today we read to page     , Chapter   , minute    . http://www.mousecircus.com/videos/ A favorite (and useful) word or quote:   "Fear is contagious.  You can catch it." p. 188 ". . . he could greet people politely over nine hundred years of changing manners." p. 189 morning suit morning suit Town Hall p. 156 American Fork Town Hall  Teacher stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlTHHslh74M http://www.authorama.com/jungle-book-1.html http://helen-keeble.livejournal.com/76398.html

If You Were Absent: Catch up with The Graveyard Book next time.

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Announcements and Reminders:           Our field trip to the graveyard will be October 5.

Targets for Today: Reading: Literature Standard 3  Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). Reading: Literature Standard 10  By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. The Graveyard Book's lexile level is 820L.

Today’s  Agenda: 1. Pick up your composition books. 2.  Individual Reading Time       Watch for a favorite sentence or phrase -         because it just sounds good,          because it is great writing,          because it's funny,          or whatever makes it stand out to you.     Write it in your composition book under "Word Collector." Ms . Dorsey's  from a picture book The Three Wishes  by Jon J. Muth  -- "I want to be a good person," he told his friends.  "But I don't always know the best way to do that."           Let's listen to more of  The Graveyard Book But first -- Listen to Danse Macabre by  Camille Saint-Saens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YyknBTm_YyM Chapter 3  Last time we read to page  166 , Interlude:  The Convocation   Today we read to page 186 ,  Chapter  6 , minute  22:04   .  http://www.mousecircus.com/videos/ A favorite (and useful) word or quote:   p. 174 "Rain in the graveyard, and the world puddled into blurred reflections."  p. 179 "Bod shrugged. "So?" he said.  "It's only death.  I mean, all of my best friends are dead." morning suit Town Hall p. 156 American Fork Town Hall  Teacher stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlTHHslh74M http://www.authorama.com/jungle-book-1.html http://helen-keeble.livejournal.com/76398.html

If You Were Absent: Catch up with The Graveyard Book next time.   See above for information about SETTING and how it affects characters.

Friday, September 23, 2016

September 22 is Bilbo's and Frodo's Birthday! 
This picture is a link!

Announcements and Reminders:           We will be turning in a Scholastic Book Order this Friday. Hurry up to order online or bring a check if you'd like to be included in this order and get your books sooner.   Of course you could also order by September 30.

Targets for Today: Reading: Literature Standard 3  Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). Reading: Literature Standard 10  By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. The Graveyard Book's lexile level is 820L.

Today’s  Agenda: 1. Pick up your composition books. 2.  Individual Reading Time  Last time you noticed the setting.  This time you will list as many aspects of the setting as you can.   For example: The Outsiders Place:  Our Universe, Our solar system, Earth, North America, United States of America, the state of Oklahoma (or a state very much like it), Tulsa (or a town very like it), various places in and not too far from the town -- a long ride away on a train, yet the nearest hospital is in the town : a movie theater, a route from the theater to the Curtis home, the Curtis home, a route to the drive-in movie theater including a drive-up cafe and a drugstore, the drive-in movie theater,  the seats in front of the concession stand at the drive-in, the route between the drive-in movie theater and Two-Bit's home, etc.  Time: The twentieth century, 1960's, autumn?, most of the actions takes place within two weeks, the action takes place during the school year.  Remember our discussion about setting?   Some Points about setting:  Setting includes both place and time.  Setting can be macro --  Setting can be micro -- Setting can include        the era, the year, the season, the month, the time of day, etc.        Time setting can change as the story progresses.          The most -macro usually stays the same. Setting can include the general location and very specific locations.       Place setting can change as the story progresses.           The most -macro usually stays the same.   Notice how setting influences Bod: How he lives? (food, clothes, housing, daily life, etc.) How he sees the world? How he speaks? How he acts?  How he solves his problems?  ________________________________________________ Pretty much  off topic:  I found a description I really liked in The Fourth Stall, Part II: "His eyes bulged from his skull like analog sticks on a PlayStation controller."  Maybe not so off-topic!  What does this tell us about the setting?  __________________________________________________ Let's listen to more of  The Graveyard Book Chapter 3  Last time we read to page  153,  Chapter  5, minute 15:24. Today we read to page 166 , Interlude:  The Convocation   http://www.mousecircus.com/videos/ A favorite (and useful) word or quote:  ". . . Bod found himself scared, like a child who has woken a sleeping panther." Town Hall p. 156 American Fork Town Hall  Teacher stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlTHHslh74M http://www.authorama.com/jungle-book-1.html http://helen-keeble.livejournal.com/76398.html

If You Were Absent: Catch up with The Graveyard Book next time.   See above for information about SETTING and how it affects characters.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Announcements and Reminders:           We will be turning in a Scholastic Book Order this Friday. Hurry up to order online or bring a check if you'd like to be included in this order and get your books sooner.   Of course you could also order by September 30.

Targets for Today: Reading: Literature Standard 3  Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). Reading: Literature Standard 10  By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 6–8 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range. The Graveyard Book's lexile level is 820L.

Today’s  Agenda: 1. Pick up your composition books. 2.  Immediately get into the groups shown here.  Pick up ONE worksheet for your group and follow the directions.  Group Number  Group Members Group 1 Olivia A Nicolas C Whitney W  Lily W Group 2 Mesa  B Abigail C Nephi N Haylie T Group 3 Miriam C Morgan L Rebecca Th  Sydney W Group 4 Jaden C Gavyn Du Amber S  Ava N Group 5 Tori D Benjamin M Tyler S  Mari G Group 6 Abigail D  Natalia S Wyatt N Group 7 Mallory J Matthew W Kadence P  Jace W Some Points about setting:  Setting can be macro --  Setting can be micro -- Setting can include        the era, the year, the season, the month, the time of day, etc.        Time setting can change as the story progresses.          The most -macro usually stays the same. Setting can include the general location and very specific locations.       Place setting can change as the story progresses.           The most -macro usually stays the same. 3. "What would happen if. . . . " Your group will draw from the piles of pieces of poster board (alliteration!).   Draw one blue, one yellow, and two green. If the pieces you draw are from the same book or show, draw again.  Discuss as a group how the character and his or her life would be different if the setting and conflict were different.  Share with the class.  4. Focus on Setting -- Which Often Changes the Conflict.   Let's look at The Outsiders. What if the Curtis brothers -- Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darrell lived in the country?  How would that affect . . .  How they live? How they see the world? How they speak? How they act? How they solve their problems? 5.  Focus on Setting -- Which Often Changes the Conflict. Let's look at The Graveyard Book. Write in your composition book to answer these questions:  What if Bod had been adopted by a regular family? How would Bod be different in. . . . How he lives? (food, clothes, housing, daily life, etc.) How he sees the world? How he speaks? How he acts?  How he solves his problems?  Let's listen to more of  The Graveyard Book Chapter 3  Last time we read through page  143 ,  end of Chapter 4. Today we read to page  153,  Chapter  5, minute 15:24. http://www.mousecircus.com/videos/ A favorite (and useful) word or quote:  ". . . when the sun was a silver coin high in the grey winter sky."  Teacher stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlTHHslh74M http://www.authorama.com/jungle-book-1.html http://helen-keeble.livejournal.com/76398.html

If You Were Absent: Catch up with The Graveyard Book next time.   See above for information about SETTING and how it affects characters.