Tag Archives: context clues

Presuasion, Narratives, and a Project

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First and sixth periods learned about persuasive techniques.

Second and sixth periods continued working on the Odyssey project. Today was one of the final days of full in-class preparation. The project will likely be due 21 October (but no earlier).

Seventh period read “Papa’s Parrot” as we continue working on context clues for words and narrative structure.

Homework
  • First and sixth periods: find an opinion piece (either online or in a newspaper) and find one example of one persuasive technique. Copy the sentence, identify the technique, and bring it to class tomorrow.
  • Second and fourth periods: read “Odysseus’s Bed” (in other words, complete the Odyssey).
  • Seventh period: answer questions 1-5 on page 31.

Persuasion, Planning, and Short Stories

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First and sixth periods turned in their memoirs and began a new unit today. We’re working on persuasion, and we’ll be creating a persuasive piece of writing after learning about persuasive techniques.

Second and sixth periods reviewed the weekend’s reading before heading to groups to do some more planning for the board game Odyssey project.

Seventh period began a short story unit, looking at context clues and working on an anticipation guide for the first story we will read tomorrow.

Homework
  • Second and fourth periods: Read “Death at the Palace” from Odyssey.
  • All other classes: none.

Vocabulary and Context Clues in Poetry

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Today in first period class we read a poem by Nikki Giovanni called “The Drum,” on page 610. After we read the poem we went through the steps of understanding the poem. Then, when we got done with that we received a vocabulary chart of words and some were defined and some weren’t. The chart is this blue tab beside my writing.

Homework

Complete the chart by defining the words that are not defined then write context clues in the space provided to show how this is the correct definition. vocabulary chart

More Context Clues

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Second and sixth periods, we worked on context clues. We went over four ways we can determine a word’s meaning through the context clues. We began using a vocabulary chart to track unknown words in poems and how we’re using context clues to figure out the words’ meaning.

Fourth period spent a final day incorporating yesterday’s lessons about effective presentations into their presentation plan.

Homework
  • Second and sixth periods:
    • determine key words in each line of the poem “Silver” (page 604);
    • write a summary of what’s happening in the poem.
  • Fourth period:
    • student-written sonnets due Monday;
    • students begin reciting memorized sonnets (also Monday);
    • first student presentations (students need to continue preparing as necessary).

Cat! Scat!

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Eleanor Farjeon (pronounced far'-zhun) (Februa...

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Second and sixth periods worked on sound devices (onomatopoeia and rhythm) and context clues, reading the poem “Cat!” by Eleanor Farjeon.

Cat!
Atter her, atter her,
Sleeky flatterer,
Spitfire chatterer,
Scatter her, scatter her
Wuff!
Wuff!
Treat her rough!
Git her, git her,
Whiskery spitter!
Catch her, catch her,
Green-eyed scratcher!
Slathery
Slithery
Hisser,
Don’t miss her!
Run till you’re dithery,
Hithery
Thithery
Pfitts! pfitts!
How she spits!
Spitch! Spatch!
Can’t she scratch!
Scritching the bark
Of the sycamore-tree,
She’s reached her ark
And’s hissing at me
Pfitts!Pfitts!
Wuff! Wuff!
Scat,
Cat!
That’s
That!

We’ll be working on it a little more tomorrow.

Fourth period had a little bit of a surprise: the first group began its presentation only to find they’d been guinea pigs. We got back into groups to look at how the first group could have presented better during the teaching (“After all, you’ll be presenting information all your life, and that’s essentially all teaching is,” I explained.) and how to apply those findings to their own presentations.

Homework
  • Second and sixth periods:
    • practice reading “Cat!”;
    • read Walter de la Mare’s “Silver” (page 604).
  • Fourth period:
    • sonnets (recitation and written) due Monday;
    • continue planning presentations (to begin Monday):

Our World and Bias

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First, second, and seventh periods looked at Georgia Douglas Johnson’s poem “Your World” as a model for the second poem in our poetry portfolio project.

Your world is as big as you make it.
I know, for I used to abide
In the narrowest nest in a corner,
My wings pressing close to my side.

But I sighted the distant horizon
Where the skyline encircled the sea
And I throbbed with a burning desire
To travel this immensity.

I battered the cordons around me
And cradled my wings on the breeze,
Then soared to the uttermost reaches
With rapture, with power, with ease!

To begin with, we used context clues to determine the meaning of “immensity.” Then we came up with a one-sentence summary of the poem. That summary served as the theme for our next poetry portfolio poem.

Fourth period looked at Scout’s age, place in history, social culture, and other factors that might introduce an element of bias or otherwise affect her perspective as she narrates the story.

Homework

Poetry, Context, and a Question of Trust

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First and seventh periods worked on using context clues to determine unfamiliar words’ meanings.

Second period went over their animal poems (that must exhibit clear meter as well as onomatopoeia).

Fourth period took some time to correct their parts of speech test from Friday (for half credit) and then we went over the first chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Homework
  • First period:
    • use context clues to determine the meaning of “immensity” in “Your World”;
    • add this information as an example for the context notes.
  • Second period:
    • scan the first four lines of “Silver”;
    • complete draft of animal poem (which includes discernible meter and onomatopoeia); and
    • read “Your World” (605).
  • Fourth period:
    • copy your journal entry from today’s class into the forum (make sure you reply to my initial post)forum
    • reply to at least one student’s journal entry (make sure all students have one response each).

Final Practice and Tone

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First, second, and seventh periods practiced their parts from Anne Frank.  First and seventh periods also worked on using context to determine a word’s meaning.

Fourth period completed work with tone. After writing a description of walking a dog with a prescribed tone, students read their work to the class and the audience had to identify the tone. We wrapped everything up by looking at the specific details that indicated the writer’s tone.

Homework
  • First and seventh periods:
    • complete the pre-reading exercise (from class);
    • review your part.
  • Second period: complete character/conflict chart.
  • Fourth period: read through the “Tone” side of the “Tone/Mood Words” handout and make a list of all the stems you recognize. (It’s not necessary to know the meaning in order to list the stem; you simply have to recognize it as a stem, perhaps thinking to yourself, “What does that mean?”)

Rehearsal and Tone

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Fourth period continued working on mood and tone. We watched a few trailers for films in which the genre had been switched through skillful editing.

  • Dumb and Dumber was turned into a horror film, Lurk and Lurker;
  • The Shining was transformed from horror film into a feel-good romantic comedy; and
  • Mary Poppins edited as a horror film, Scary Mary.

After examining the elements of tone and mood in the trailers (music, sound effects, lighting, scene sequence), we tried our hand at writing the same thing (an account of taking a dog for a walk) with different examples of tone and mood.

All other classes worked on Diary of Anne Frank.

Homework
  • First, second, and seventh periods: continue reviewing parts at home.
  • Fourth period: none.