I stumbled upon this link for a method of teaching a poem. Could be fun: https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/poetry-pre-reading-strategies
Place words in ABC order and have students make connections.
Collective memory game.
Teach Channel aligns these videos w/ CCSS
Friday, October 25, 2013
My Brother Sam Is Dead
For the most comprehesive information on the novel My Brother Sam Is Dead, click the following link: History of Redding . This site is awesome! It even has an interactive map that shows students the places Tim Meeker (the novel's narrator) walked. It does not get any more thorough than this site!
One of the things I love about this novel is the strong relgious overtones. Students need to be reminded constantly when reading this historical fiction novel about placing themselves in the narrator's shoes--back in 1775. The Narrator has such a strong sense of moral right and wrong and a strong command of biblical teaching, that it is the perfect novel to teach at a religious school.
Honor thy father and mother. We talked about how our definition of this Commandment is very different than Tim Meeker's definition.
Daydreaming = sloth = sin. This concept, too, brought up interesting conversation.
Remember to keep holy the Sabbath.
One of the things I love about this novel is the strong relgious overtones. Students need to be reminded constantly when reading this historical fiction novel about placing themselves in the narrator's shoes--back in 1775. The Narrator has such a strong sense of moral right and wrong and a strong command of biblical teaching, that it is the perfect novel to teach at a religious school.
Honor thy father and mother. We talked about how our definition of this Commandment is very different than Tim Meeker's definition.
Daydreaming = sloth = sin. This concept, too, brought up interesting conversation.
Remember to keep holy the Sabbath.
Interactive Notebook--The Writing Process
I have been trying to work with students on taking notes. I've taught them outlines and Cornell notes. I've used graphic organizers. This past summer I tried to think of some things I could use an interactive note-taking device. I found some information on different foldables. Honestly, it is so much more work to plan; however, the students were engaged with the change-of-pace. I used this one for the first chapter in our new grammar books.
This one was easy to make. You take three sheets of paper and cut them down the center leaving six 4.25 X 11 inch strips. You need to use three strips. You lay the three papers on the table staggering them approximately 1/2 or so. The bottom is the longest (it is the layer that says "Publishing/Presenting"). Lay the middle layer on top of that but leave the bottom layer sticking out a half inch (layer two says Editing & Proofreading"). Lay the third layer on top of the middle layer again allowing the middle layer to stick out 1/2 inch and bottom layer an inch away. This third layer says "Revise."
Now you are going to fold the three layers, while staggered, basically in half. The middle layer folds on itself, but leave another 1/2 tag. So now that third layer is labeled both "Revising" and "Drafting." The bottom layer is now both "Publishing/Presenting" and the cover "The Writing Process." These can be stapled at the top or stapeled directly into student notebooks at the top.
Each layer now opens to to allow students to take notes. Many of the students went all out creative (should have used their beautiful copies instead of my demo!). Others just took notes in pen or pencil, but it was neat and organized. I'm hoping to use these more.
Now you are going to fold the three layers, while staggered, basically in half. The middle layer folds on itself, but leave another 1/2 tag. So now that third layer is labeled both "Revising" and "Drafting." The bottom layer is now both "Publishing/Presenting" and the cover "The Writing Process." These can be stapled at the top or stapeled directly into student notebooks at the top.
Each layer now opens to to allow students to take notes. Many of the students went all out creative (should have used their beautiful copies instead of my demo!). Others just took notes in pen or pencil, but it was neat and organized. I'm hoping to use these more.
My fellow science teacher used this foldable and wrote the steps of the scientific process. One could use this in religion with sacraments, fruits of the spirit, etc.
Hope Was Here
Joan Bauer's Hope Was Here is a wonderful novel to read with junior high students. This 2001 Newbery Honor book has a strong, teenage protagonist, but it is not a gender-exclusive novel. It discusses issues of non-traditional families--nothing inconsistent with Catholic teaching is promoted. It covers how doing what is right sometimes does not SEEM right or has negative repercussions. It briefly introduces the topic of dying--but nothing too heavy. The novel also addresses themes of hope, coming of age, friendships, etc. I think I am going to teach this novel during April--National Poetry Month because this book is full of figurative language.
Bauer's website has some great resources including a teaching guide (click HERE) and a much thorough outline of a novel teaching plan (click HERE).
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Plagiarism
Plagiarism became a problem at the END of our school year--hum?!?! I wanted to avoid a repeat, so I informed the junior high teachers that 3/4 of the junior high students (I only teach 1/2 the seventh graders, but all of the eighth graders) will have a formal plagiarism presentation the first week of school.
I did have to inform the teachers that every time a student plagiarizes, it is not on purpose. There are those shades of gray where the student does not realize he or she should cite. I reminded the teachers that this is a fairly new and complicated skills that needs to be taught--not assumed. This was news to a couple of them.
I explained to my students that we would be talking about plagiarism do's and don't's all year, but they were going to get a 45 minute overview of what plagiarism is. I asked them to define the word before we began. The most common definition was "the stealing of someone's words and using them as your own." Good start!
So each of my students were required to watch the following Rutger's video. Plagiarism Videos from Rutgers. I told the students that when they use the word "footnotes," they were to insert "cite in text." The videos are goofy and dated, but I thought they were fairly effective for my purpose. The last video is an interactive "quiz." It generated great discussion. Most students felt they did not know you could steal ideas, not just words.
Phase two occurred during the same 45 min. class period. I passed out a copy of the handout located at the following site: Lesson and Paper . (Considering I made only six copies--one for each group--and printed it as is w/ Kid's Health logo on it, I don't think I infringed on copyright and plagiarism laws while teaching a lesson on plagiarism. This lesson does make one paranoid!). I kept a copy of the quiz w/ each student's signature in a file. If a plagiarism issue comes up, I have my documentation that students had a very broad sense of what plagiarism is.
The website Read/Write/Think has a lengthy, more detailed lesson plan for plagiarism. I may pull elements from this site when we begin working with science teachers on Science Fair projects. See Read/Write/Think for more information.
I did have to inform the teachers that every time a student plagiarizes, it is not on purpose. There are those shades of gray where the student does not realize he or she should cite. I reminded the teachers that this is a fairly new and complicated skills that needs to be taught--not assumed. This was news to a couple of them.
I explained to my students that we would be talking about plagiarism do's and don't's all year, but they were going to get a 45 minute overview of what plagiarism is. I asked them to define the word before we began. The most common definition was "the stealing of someone's words and using them as your own." Good start!
So each of my students were required to watch the following Rutger's video. Plagiarism Videos from Rutgers. I told the students that when they use the word "footnotes," they were to insert "cite in text." The videos are goofy and dated, but I thought they were fairly effective for my purpose. The last video is an interactive "quiz." It generated great discussion. Most students felt they did not know you could steal ideas, not just words.
Phase two occurred during the same 45 min. class period. I passed out a copy of the handout located at the following site: Lesson and Paper . (Considering I made only six copies--one for each group--and printed it as is w/ Kid's Health logo on it, I don't think I infringed on copyright and plagiarism laws while teaching a lesson on plagiarism. This lesson does make one paranoid!). I kept a copy of the quiz w/ each student's signature in a file. If a plagiarism issue comes up, I have my documentation that students had a very broad sense of what plagiarism is.
The website Read/Write/Think has a lengthy, more detailed lesson plan for plagiarism. I may pull elements from this site when we begin working with science teachers on Science Fair projects. See Read/Write/Think for more information.
Monday, January 21, 2013
Background Info for Out of the Dust
Since this is my first year teaching a section of eighth grade ELA (another teacher is teaching the other two sections), my book list was pretty much set. In some ways this restriction is frustrating, but in other ways, I am glad. It can be a little easier planning. Secondly, I don't know that I would have picked up and read the book Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Author Bio). I am not as strong at teaching poetry as I would like to be, nor did the topic of the Dust Bowl seem that interesting. This book is now one of my favorites to teach; I love this text for so many reasons.
I did two different mini lessons to "set up" this novel. The first was to explore what students thought were elements of the genres "novels," "poems," and "journals." They made a list on the board, and I photographed this list to review at the end of this text. Throughout the novel I have referenced many important details of each genre, without being too obvious. I am curious to see how the students will classify this text after tomorrow's novel review.
The second mini lesson I did to set up the novel was to provide the students with some background knowledge about the Dust Bowl. My students would not have understood and/or enjoyed this novel as much if we did not discuss the scope of the Dust Bowl and how pervasive it was to every day life. This information will also preview what they will be learning later this year in their history class. We orally did a KWL chart during the class period. After talking about what they THOUGHT the Dust Bowl was, I had the students do simple "research" to uncover more details. I had about fifteen random books from the library (adult and children's nonfiction) in addition to a laptop for each table. The groups had to discover a minimum of ten facts about the Dust Bowl. They then needed to select their top three favorite facts for a board outside our classroom. They wrote these facts on "dust bunnies" (their term--they were SUPPOSED to look like clouds of dust)--facts written on brown paper bags in semi-random shapes of clouds. Their top details could not duplicate any other group's. Students gave a short presentation of their findings.
After this was complete, I assigned the students a short, two-page non-fiction comprehension assignment summarizing the Dust Bowl. I used a worksheet I printed from EdHelper (I like this website as an inexpensive way--approx. $20/yr--to get me a basic teaching package the first time I teach a novel. I've been able to get materials such as quizzes and tests for most of the novels I teach in 7th and 8th grade. I adjust them as I go).
Visuals. I showed pictures of the Dust Bowl from the Library of Congress website (click HERE). The next day we engaged in the Interactive Dust Bowl on the PBS website (click HERE). I had watched the Burns documentary on PBS to get ready to teach this novel; if I were teaching both history and ELA, I would definately purchase it.
Catechism ties. I love teaching this novel in a Catholic school. There are so many examples of Christian charity from people who have so little to give. There are also many examples of characters providing human dignity. This novel gives some of those poignant Steinbeck moments, but at a level appropriate for junior high students.
Author Information. I could not find a website maintained by Karen Hesse. Link to a YouTube video for her 2009 novel (HERE) Brooklyn Bridge. Scholastic has some biographical information, too (HERE) as does the Children's Literature Network (HERE). The latter lists and gives short summaries of other books by Hesse.
The second mini lesson I did to set up the novel was to provide the students with some background knowledge about the Dust Bowl. My students would not have understood and/or enjoyed this novel as much if we did not discuss the scope of the Dust Bowl and how pervasive it was to every day life. This information will also preview what they will be learning later this year in their history class. We orally did a KWL chart during the class period. After talking about what they THOUGHT the Dust Bowl was, I had the students do simple "research" to uncover more details. I had about fifteen random books from the library (adult and children's nonfiction) in addition to a laptop for each table. The groups had to discover a minimum of ten facts about the Dust Bowl. They then needed to select their top three favorite facts for a board outside our classroom. They wrote these facts on "dust bunnies" (their term--they were SUPPOSED to look like clouds of dust)--facts written on brown paper bags in semi-random shapes of clouds. Their top details could not duplicate any other group's. Students gave a short presentation of their findings.
After this was complete, I assigned the students a short, two-page non-fiction comprehension assignment summarizing the Dust Bowl. I used a worksheet I printed from EdHelper (I like this website as an inexpensive way--approx. $20/yr--to get me a basic teaching package the first time I teach a novel. I've been able to get materials such as quizzes and tests for most of the novels I teach in 7th and 8th grade. I adjust them as I go).
Visuals. I showed pictures of the Dust Bowl from the Library of Congress website (click HERE). The next day we engaged in the Interactive Dust Bowl on the PBS website (click HERE). I had watched the Burns documentary on PBS to get ready to teach this novel; if I were teaching both history and ELA, I would definately purchase it.
Catechism ties. I love teaching this novel in a Catholic school. There are so many examples of Christian charity from people who have so little to give. There are also many examples of characters providing human dignity. This novel gives some of those poignant Steinbeck moments, but at a level appropriate for junior high students.
Author Information. I could not find a website maintained by Karen Hesse. Link to a YouTube video for her 2009 novel (HERE) Brooklyn Bridge. Scholastic has some biographical information, too (HERE) as does the Children's Literature Network (HERE). The latter lists and gives short summaries of other books by Hesse.
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