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Students have shown a great deal of skill and commitment in comprehending their science fiction novels. Expect a quiz on each novel sometime this week. Students will also have the opportunity to try their hand in writing the SF genre during a Writers Workshop this week where the focus will be on drafting rough texts as a means of sharpening our understanding of the genre.
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When Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1817, she had no idea that it would be the beginning of an entirely new genre: science fiction. By 1895, the first edition of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells was being published. It was an instant success and, despite its elevated language, still holds appeal for us today. In fact, the increasing speed of technological change makes science fiction (SF) more appealing now than it has ever been and in many ways, it may be more relevant to our modern society than any other genre.
Although SF is complex, it is offers visions and warnings for the future and invites us to reflect on the human condition in ways that make the difficulty of such texts worth the struggle. SF often has ambiguous beginnings designed to build suspense while leaving the reader in the dark about many aspects of the plot. Our eighth grade students are each studying one of four different novels as part of our genre study. They will be using a wiki, which can be accessed through the Useful Links page of this website, to socially construct meaning with their peers and thoughtfully respond to these texts . Although students will be changing schedules next Monday, we will continue to work on writing phase biographies this week. Students have recieved instruction related to writing these biographies about a limited period in their subject's life. Since we only meet on Monday and Tuesday, students will start their drafts at school and must complete them as homework. We will spend a limited amount of time peer conferencing and editing when we come back together next Monday. Everyone should have a good quality, complete draft of this project ready to share.
When we return from winter break, students will be starting a biography unit. We will read "My Furthest Back Person" by Alex Haley. This essay chronicles Haley's journey to discovery his family's roots. As many of you know, this journey culminated in his authoring the novel Roots, one of the defining works of 20th century American literature. To prepare us for this reading, we will be watching a portion of the mini-series in the classroom this week.
In January, students will explore their own roots by interviewing one of their "furthest-back" people. Each student will be required to plan and conduct an interview and write a biography about a specific phase in that person's life. We also continue to learn about grammar. Check out the Useful Links page for some grammar games. Students have been working on character comparison essays in class this week. Students have learned about planning and organizing an essay, writing thesis statements, and understanding literature. The final products are due tomorrow. I am looking forward to reading these assignments.
We will be concluding our study of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton soon. Once we have completed our study of the novel, students will be writing comparative essays based on characterization.
What do good readers do? While it may seem like a mystery to some, there are certain things good readers do that others don't. Investigating what good readers do has been a focus of study as we read The Outsiders. We are taking it slow so that we can focus on "what good readers do." Last week, we focused on the importance of background knowledge, either personal knowledge or personal experience, in understanding text and using those connections to improve our comprehension.
We have begun reading our first novel of the year, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. At the beginning of the year, students identified several questions that they have in common a, including questions about themselves and their world. We will be exploring some of these questions as we reflect on various themes in the novel, including questions about hatred and violence. This is a good opportunity to learn more about what your son or daughter thinks about these important issues as well as to share your ideas and values with them.
Today, we visited the library for the first time this year. Expectations for library book responsibility have tightened up. Students must bring their books back to the library in a timely fashion or their computer access could be suspended. We will have library time every Wednesday. Students should use this time to check out books and read silently. Socializing is prohibited in the library.
Tomorrow, our class will visit the computer lab for the first time. They will be publishing "Life Lists" on our class wiki. Only students who are issued usernames and passwords may access this; it is not accessible to the general public or anyone without a username and password. This is a fun creative writing opportunity that helps students imagine what their future lives could be like and allows them to get to know more about each other while honing their language arts and technology skills. This week we started our Daily Grammar Practice. Based on a pre-test I gave last week, a high percentage of the class needs to review the basics. We will be reviewing the parts of speech this week as a result. Don't worry - even our grammar experts should find something new and challenging in these lessons.
Today's "I can" statements are: I can identify different kinds of nouns, including common, proper, collective, compound, singular, plural, regular and irregular nouns. I can give examples of each noun type listed above. Students are creating thematic noun pyramids as homework today. |
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March 2010
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Mrs. Mansfield's Middle Ground
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