Posts

Thursday, March 29th

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Powerful verbs  I LOVE this handout I found in the internet. You may want it! Practice Revising Sentences How to Describe a Person Pick a person-real or imagined. Use descriptive writing to portray your person in action.  You may want to select a loved one.  These can make nice holiday gifts. Here  is a link to ideas More  ideas and examples are here Writing Groups will meet Revise your piece Publish to Kidblog. I would also like you to publish your scene.   Comment on student work

Tuesday, March 27

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Dead Words -This is a helpful handout to assist you in both creative AND academic writing. Using Find and Replace tool to locate dead words We will do an activity to replace dead words. Haiku Hoe Down HAIKUS A syllable is a part of a word pronounced as a unit.  It is usually made up of a vowel alone or a vowel with one or more consonants.  The word "Haiku" has two syllables:  Hai-ku; the word "introduction" has four syllables:  in-tro-duc-tion. "Haiku" is a traditional form of Japanese poetry.  Haiku poems consist of 3 lines.  The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables.  The lines rarely rhyme. Here's a Haiku to help you remember: I am first with five Then seven in the middle -- Five again to end. You may work with a friend .  TO DO PLEASE bring TO copies of something to share with your writing group on Thursday  

Monday, March 26th Late Start

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Put finishing touches on your scene. At the TOP of your scene, please write the TYPE of scene you wrote.  Edit carefully. You will then have ONE member of your group turn in your scene to Google Classroom.  Make sure to type all of the group members names on the top of your document.  I will  be copying and pasting your work into ONE document. If you finish, work on your story starter from Thursday.  We will be meeting in our writing groups on Thursday. You will need something to share.  

Thursday, March 22nd

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Overused words-Mini-lesson Here are  50 story starters  that are sure to inspire your writing assignment. Character names/pronouns can be changed to fit the story. 1. It was the last time I'd try that again. 2. He packed his bags and left. 3. No one would believe what happened that night. 4. It's not every day you wake up in a puddle of blood. 5. I could only think of one reason why this wouldn't work. 6. Storms were certain that night, but it wasn't the weather that caused the turmoil. 7. Never again would I utter her name. 8. I believed him one too many times; this was the last. 9. Words were her weapon. 10. "You're fired." You will have time to work on something else of your choice. Then we will meet in writing groups. I have a handout that you will use to provide feedback to your group members. If time, work on revisions.

Tuesday, March 20th

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I will share some more similes with you today.  You will go back to the ones you created yesterday and fine tune them. You will pick one to "publish' in the quad. :) Peer Review on scenes.  You will read three different scenes and fill out a feedback form for each one.  Revise scenes. 

Monday, March 19th

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Happy Monday! Today we will have fun with similes.  We will look at some dreadful similes, some delightful similes, and then we will write our OWN!   Horrible Similes Mingle Rewrite the bad ones 20 Great Similes from Literature to Inspire You By Mark Nichol Similes, metaphors, and analogies are turns of phrase that help readers conjure images in a narrative, whether in fiction or nonfiction, but it is in the latter form that they bloom more profusely. And what’s the difference between each of the three literary devices? A simile is a comparison between one thing and another. If you refer to a figure of speech blooming like a flower on a page, you have created a simile. If you more directly say that the figure of speech bloomed before your eyes, you have employed a metaphor. An analogy is a more practical, didactic description: “Imagine that the figure of speech is like a flower blooming on the page.” Analogy is more common in nonfiction, but simi...

Thursday, March 15th

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Next, we will read an excerpt from  The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Alexie’s coming of age novel is the hilarious and touching story of high school freshman Arnold “Junior” Spirit who realizes that his life on his Indian reservation is a dead end and so decides to attend the nearby “white” high school.  What he discovers, though, is that by straddling two very different worlds, he is now an outsider in both. There’s a great sequence early in the book where Junior feels like he is being insulted by a boy at his new school.  So he punches him in the face, and is then surprised that the kid didn’t see it coming.  Because, you see. on the reservation, there are what Junior describes as the “Unofficial and Unwritten (but you better follow them or you’re going to get beaten twice as hard) Spokane Indian Rules of Fisticuffs,” which are as follows: 1. IF SOMEBODY INSULTS YOU, THEN YOU HAVE TO FIGHT HIM. 2. IF YOU THINK SOMEBODY IS GOING T...