The kids have been reading whatever they wish all year and their only accountability has been recording their pages read. In class, we have been studying the elements that make up all pieces of literature and we have been responding to those elements. Did you know that every novel has multiple conflicts and it is through those conflicts we learn lessons that are called themes? The kids have learned this and have practiced how to explain the conflicts in writing and express what themes were learned from them. Did you also know that the words an author chooses, creates the mood of the book (or at least for a certain part of a book)? In class, we went through poems and noted the moods we felt. We then indicated what words gave us those feelings. This process helped us decide what the poem meant and how the poet felt about that topic. Point of view, flashback and plot structure were also studied as well.
Students have been asked to demonstrate their understanding of these elements through a project. Students are to generate five texts, each one representing a different part of their book (exposition, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution). they should partner each of the stages of plot with one of the elements we have studied in order to show they understand how the author has used them.
There are examples of these on the left hand side of the blog under Tom Romano, Multi-Genre. There is a great deal of info there to go through and the samples take forever to load, but it is helpful to check it out.
Projects are due on March 31st and can be turned in on the blog, through e-mail or in class. Below is a link with directions and a scoring guide.
Multi-Genre book Project Scoring guide
Posts
