Multi-Genre Book Analysis

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

Reading Update

The kids have been challenged to beat me at pages read.  As of now, I have read approximately 2200 pages.  I am sharing book trailers with the kids of the books I am reading, so they have an idea of the variety of books that are out there.  Here are some of the trailers we have seen so far.  The first one is from the Book Thief.  This is an excellent book about how reading helps us escape our struggles and survive hard times.  It is set in World War II Germany and is told in 3rd person omniscient from the point of view of Death.  The first few chapters can be a bit confusing at first, so give yourself some time to start the book.  After that, it is a great read.  The second video is the Official movie trailer for The Book Thief.

The last book trailer is from Fallen by Lauren Kate.  This book is another love triangle style book that fits the Twilight formula and the first in a series of four.  I did not particularly like the writing style of this author, as I felt she skipped big chunks of time.  Overall though it is a good story.  The main character, Luce, has been sentenced to reform school after being suspected in a suspicious fire that resulted in the death of a friend.  At reform school, she meets several fellow students and connects with them quickly since they are all there due to some sort of injustice.  In fact, she feels a very strong connection to Daniel who regards her in very confusing ways.  At times he seems repulsed by her and tries to keep a distance and at others he is very kind and tender, as if they have known each other for a long time.  The problems begin when Cam, another boy at the school gives her a necklace and asks her out time and again.  Which boy will she choose?  Will she ever escape the shadows that haunt her?  Will the mysterious behaviors Luce keeps observing ever be explained?  Not until a long battle rooted in history can be fought.

Gettin' Fluent

My AE kiddos are working on their reading fluency.  I initially had them participating in repeated partner readings with short, teacher selected texts.  A few of the students began creating beats on their desks as they read and they said it helped them read it faster and smoother.  More kids began to try it and they asked if they could read something different.  I rode with their enthusiasm and gave them a few guidelines they had to follow. 

Students piled through poetry anthologies and other books with poetic rhythm, looking for that magical piece.  Once they found a poem they loved, they read it alone, in pairs and/or with Mrs. Benson so they could get the feedback they needed in order to read the poem fluently and with emphasis in the right places.  Students learned how to read the pauses and listen to the beat or rhythm of the poems.

Once they had it, they went to the website, Incredibox.fr and built their own beat to go with their poem.  Once they were confident they had practiced enough, students performed these "Poetry Raps" in front of the class.  This has been an amazing experience for all of us.  We have really bonded and laughed and grown as readers.  I have one example here and there will be more to come. 

Please leave Mel'Vontae some feedback and/or congratulations (as he volunteered to go first and be videoed) here on the blog. 

New Year, New Way of Learning

With the return of the students comes new goals, new challenges, new celebrations.  Now that we have taken the Tungsten test four times, we have very solid data on our individual strengths and weaknesses.  We will be shifting the ownership and responsibility of our learning from Mrs. Benson to the students now that we have this data.  Beginning with a few days each week, students will be working in learning centers that will allow them to focus on their own weaknesses and build up their skills in those areas.  Think of it like circuit training at the gym.  If you want to build up your arms, you don't use a leg press machine.  It is the same thing in Communication Skills class.  If you want to build up your use and understanding of figurative language, you don't do it by studying non-fiction. 

Students have analyzed their own Tungsten data and identified their three lowest areas.  Next week, we will set goals for improvement in those areas and students will begin working in the stations that are designed to strengthen those areas.  Students will also be getting individualized homework, if necessary, to assist them in these areas as well.  Running and supervising stations is going to be a bit challenging at first as we all get used to it.  If there are any parents who would be interested in hanging out and helping kids in the stations, that would be awesome.

The other days of the week, we will be working on analyzing literary elements in texts.  Students will be looking at the plot, point of view, conflict, theme, mood, and flashbacks of texts and analyzing how these elements influence the characters in the story.  You may hear your students talking a great deal about heroes as we will be using this theme as a common thread in the texts.  This is a large unit of study that will require a lot of reading and analysis work. 

While all of these great things are going on, the kids will continue to study vocabulary.  We still have something like 80 words left to learn.  Wish us luck!  I know that I am excited to be done with school, as I can focus more intently on teaching, but I am not so sure the kids will be.  I will be pushing them rather hard the rest of the year.   

Wrapping it up

Students should be finished with the research portion of their nine paragraph essays and move on to typing.  All essays are due by midnight Friday the 17th of December.  Students should be posting them on their blogs no later than then.  If your student does not have access to the internet, then the paper is due by the end of school on the 17th.  Students were also told that they can hand write the paper neatly if they do not have access to a computer this week.  There should be no reason for excuses. 

I want them posted on the blogs so the students can get feedback before winter break is over.  I don't know about you, but I hate turning in something that I worked so hard on and then having to wait forever to find out how I did.  I won't post their grade on the blog, but I can give them feedback that will give them some idea of how they did, and give them the chance to edit their post and fix things if they so choose before grades are finalized upon our return.  Typically, I do not lose things, but collecting such a large assignment right before break makes me nervous.  A lot of things get moved around my house over the holidays as I catch up on cleaning and then reorganize for the new stuff my kids get.  I expect this to be even greater this year since I have been in school nonstop for the past year and a half.  I would like to have as many assignments posted on the blogs so I can't lose them (and don't have to carry them around with me). 

Make sure student continue reading over break.  So many of them have made such wonderful progress towards their goals, that I hate to see them fall behind.  There are a couple of announcements that I have about books and our classroom:

1)  Every year, I offer candy for books.  This is a chance for students to dig around the house and find any of my books that have been hanging around for a while.  I then offer one piece of candy for the return of the book.  We are very blessed to have so many books to choose from in our school and I firmly believe in spreading the gift of literacy.  Therefore the other aspect of "Candy for Books" is donation.  Students can donate new or gently used books of any grade level in exchange for a piece of candy.  Any books that are not used in the teacher classroom libraries, go to children's homes.  In the past we have donated them to Marygrove.  If any parents have another children's charity that would appreciate the books, I would gladly divide them up.  This is a good chance to clean off those bookshelves and make room for new literary adventures.

2)  The other thing I do every year is keep my own reading log along with the kids.  I track my pages just like they do.  This year they have a head start on me because of school.  At the end of the year, any student who has met or beaten my number of pages read is invited to a pizza party after school--my treat.  So far I am at 1,100 or so pages (most of which I read this weekend because I have missed reading for fun so much).  Encourage your students to keep reading!

Have a wonderful holiday season.  I wish you all well.  When we return, we will begin looking at the elements of literature and literary analysis.  Your students will feel like they are in a college literature class (I hope).  I love this unit because the kids really grow so much and begin to look at literature in a different way.  They will also help me revise the book I am writing as they learn plot structure, theme and point of view.  then apply it on their own as we get into descriptive writing.  I can't wait!

Book Talk

Monster by Walter Dean Myers.  This is a really good book. Check it out.

Let the Production Begin

Okay, I know it has been awhile, but there has been little of interest to report as we have been going through the nitty gritty of organizing expository writing. Now that the students understand how to write a topic sentence, support it with a supporting detail or fact and then tie it together with an example, they can repeat this pattern for the entire paragraph until they are ready to conclude it. We learned that our paragraphs will be well structured and organized as long as we sandwich the supporting details and examples with a topic sentence and conclusion. Learning this structure has been challenging, so watch for struggling as your child writes this week. It is one thing to write a structured paragraph about your day or something you know a lot about, but it is another to write about a civilization you have never heard of until this assignment.

Just to make sure you have the answers if your student happens to forget what this assignment is, let me explain. Students selected a group of ancient peoples. They then have been asked to research this group, looking for information on the seven characteristics of civilization, and prove whether or not the group they chose is a civilization. This is somewhat similiar to the paper they did in Social Studies earlier this year. The exceptions are: this one is longer (9 paragraphs), this one is researched and very organized, and this one will also be graded based on the student's use of revision techniques.  One last bit of information you may need is the seven characteristics of a civilization. They are as follows: government, food supply, art, religion, technology, social structure and writing. Students should write a paragraph describing how their people displayed evidence of each one.

To prepare students for this essay, we have done many things. Students have learned paragraph structure and research plans. On Friday, Mrs. Ruebusch, our librarian, presented information on how to use databases and the district's online library resources. She also told us how to determine if we are looking at a reliable source online. Now that students have all of the background, they are researching and writing.

The essay is due (final copy) on the 17th of December.  I have asked students to write at least one paragraph each night this week, leaving them halfway done and the other half to be done over the weekend. However, I did suggest that they would be in better shape if they did two each night. Everyday this week, we will be reading and giving feedback in partners. Students will then use this feedback to revise and write the final draft next week.  To see the scoring guide, click on the title of this post--it is a hot link.