Choosing a Topic-Infomercial Final exam Project

We are moving along through our study of Expository texts.  For the final exam project, students will be creating an Infomercial highlighting a topic that focuses on a problem we see either in our school, community, or world.  Students will work in groups of THREE and develop an infomercial where ALL group members are responsible for developing and finding evidence to support their own solution.

By the end of class today, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011, ONE person from your group needs to post a comment with the following information:

• Names of ALL people in your group
• Topic/Problem
• Three Solutions: Who is focusing on which solution?
• 
  
• EXAMPLE: 
• John, Sarah, Jim
•  Topic: Littering in City Parks  
• Solutions:
• John: Installing trashcans
• Susan: Organizing "trash pick-up days" for volunteers
• Jim: Creating signs that remind people to throw their trash away 

Good Luck and make sure you are not wasting time!! :-) 

-Mrs. Carvajal

8th Grade Field Trip

The 8th graders had a wonderful opportunity to visit Alley Theater today.  What a wonderful way to expose our students to Drama (stage plays).  It has been a while since we have talked about this genre in class; however, it is always great to read what students thought about certain elements of the play.

Think about the following:

• Stage Direction:  WHAT is it & HOW was this element exemplified in the play? 
• Dialogue:  HOW was this used to help shape the characters?  (make them unique)
• Theme:  What was the overall MESSAGE the author, Charles Dickens, was trying to convey in the play? 
• What was your favorite part of the play?  Why, please explain in 3-4 sentences.  
• What part did you not understand/were confused about?  WHY do you think that is?

Post your answer. :-) 

Comparing Genres: Expository and Poetry

The poems have been selected and the annotating is beginning!  As we work toward our analysis paper, great thinking is happening.  This short week will focus on students analyzing and annotating a poem of their choosing and an expository article.  The next step will be to compare the two genres.  As we work on this, we will focus on a few elements:

• topic
• organization
• tone
• conflict

What do these things mean?  What do they look like in a text?  Why are they important elements to focus on? Post your response.

Poetry: AGAIN!!

For the sake of our analysis paper, we are coming back to poetry.  The students are really liking reading poems, and the thinking they are doing with it is fabulous!  Right now, we are focusing on TONE, how the author FEELS about the subject they are writing about.  We have learned that there are certain elements, or features, that we can look at to help us figure out what the tone of a poem may be:

• Diction: word choice
• Imagery
• Details
• Language
• Sentence Structure

We are also trying to come up with better words to help us DESCRIBE the TONE of a poem.  We want to move beyond the simple words: happy, mad, sad, excited.  What are some synonyms for these words?  How can we describe the different levels of these feelings that we see in poetry and hear in music?  Post some ideas.  What do you think?!?!

Scan the code and come up with some new TONE words. :-)



Expository Texts: How does an Author organize these texts?

In Language Arts, we have been looking at Expository text structures.  Basically, how are these types of texts organized and WHY???  We discovered that there are 5 basic ways that an author can organize these texts:

• problem/solution
• cause/effect
• sequence
• comparison
• description

As we looked at examples of these types of structures, we s[ent time discussing WHY an author would choose to write this way?  What is the purpose for writing in "cause/effect" structure?  Students did a wonderful job with these questions.  We found that authors write in certain ways because they want their reader to understand information in a CERTAIN WAY. 

The 8th grade Language Arts teachers strongly encourage that parents read these types of texts with their students.  Look through a newspaper or magazine and read an article together.  How is it organized?  How do you know?  WHY? 

Happy Reading!!

Conflict drives Plot in a work of Fiction

In class, we have looked at many examples of short stories.  We have also looked at narrative poems.  We agree that these two types of texts follow a plot structure (per class discussion).  Explain conflict.  What types/kinds of conflict are there????  Give a brief explanation of EACH TYPE of conflict.   What does it mean when said : "The Conflict drives the plot of a story?" 


Good Luck!

Narrative Poems: Do they follow a plot structure?

Below is a QR code for a narrative poem.  Does this poem follow a plot structure?  How do you know?  What are the following:
-Exposition
-Conflict
-Rising Action
-Climax
-Falling Action
-Denouement

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/njzJURyvx9s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

8th Period Pre-AP ELA Poetry Videos

This ELA class also created their own music to mimic the tone of their written poem.  There is some great work being created in this class.  Great Job!

7th period poetry videos

Because of time, 7th period ELA was not able to create music and add it to their poetry videos.  They are still great without it, please enjoy!

4th period Poetry videos

4th Period Pre-AP poetry videos:  really cool, check 'em out!

2nd Period Poetry Videos

These Pre-AP students worked really hard!  They created their own music in Garageband to match the overall tone of their poem and they combined it with their poem and a visual representation of their topic.  Great work guys!!

  

Coming Soon: Poetry videos

Students have been working hard on creating poetry videos using I-Movie.  Videos are due on Monday, so stay tuned for some awesome student creations to be posted on the blog.  Good work has been happening in class! How exciting!!  Below is a short video about creating poetry from Discovery United Streaming.

It's Poetry Time!

This week we will dive into poetry. We will focus on poetic elements and meaning.  What poems have you read before? What are your favorites poems? Here are some written by teens like yourself. Who says we can't all be published poets?!?



Writing a Drama: Group video

Hello :-)  As a group, watch the following video and use the information to help you in your creation of a one-act play.  Remember, Dialogue and staging are very important to the development of the character!!

http://www.brainpop.com/english/writing/drama/

Journal Assignment: Due September 6th!

The first week of school is over, and all the classes have been working so hard! Keep it up!  Don't forget that your journal assignment is DUE September 6th.  That means, in class, completed on that day.  You have 7 days left. Good Luck!!

Class Information Sheet

Click on the image to zoom

Welcome to 8th Grade Language Arts

It's always so exciting to begin a new school year! Everyone has a fresh start, new goals are set, and exciting challenges are ahead.

This school year, Spring Woods Middle School is excited to face new challenges.  Our goal, as a campus and myself as an individual teacher is to have all students "Soar to Success."

There will be many fun and interesting things happening in this classroom.  My goal this year is to really integrate as much technology as possible.  I want students to be excited about what they are learning, and I want to see their creativity shine!

As the year continues, this blog will be used not only to share information with you, the students and parents, but this will be a place where student work is displayed and shared.  It will also be a place where students will work on assignments. 

Below you will see a class information sheet that your student will receive the first week of school.  Please read over it carefully and feel free to post comments on the blog, send me an email, or call me at the school during my conference period. 

Happy School Year 2011-2012!! Go Hawks!