Shania Twain

Shania Twain

Our Perceptions of the World...Starry Night

We tried our hands at interpreting art (the famous Van Gogh Painting, "Starry Night") and duplicating our own water color versions. It was cool to see how we could all see the same painting but interpret it differently. From there we wrote poetry about the art work, and it is (as you know) displayed in our room. How wonderful!

The same idea could apply to the current book we are reading together. Though we all read the same words, each of us brings our own personal experience to the story, life experiences, books, movies, stories we've heard or read about. That's what makes sharing a story together so interesting. We have so much to learn from and about each other. Stay tuned!

WOW! Sitomer Commented!... Teddy Meets Micah, G-PIP, and the Story Gets Rolling

If you haven't yet, read the comment left on our last post. The author actually left us a comment...and his well wishes! I think that's amazing...and incredibly generous of him to take the time.

As to our story... I know I'm really supposed to be rooting for Teddy at this point of the story, but I'm struggling because he's so cruel to his family and apparently ungrateful for second chances...

I'm guessing that he'll show heart sometime soon. Somehow he's got to show more depth of character...care about more than finding revenge. His father may be right: revenge may end up burning him up.

Hum...read on!

Homeboyz...Sharing a Good Read

This week we started reading Homeboyz, a book that takes us into the inner city in Los Angeles and into the lives of a family devastated by violence in their deteriorating neighborhood. The action is fast, the language is "colorful," and most of us are already glued to the page.

Some lessons seem to already be unfolding: People grieve in different ways. Our environment impacts our lives. Education is fundamental in America. Our choices impact the lives of others. There is no such thing as revenge.

We started our unit of study by surveying the class on these very issues, and with slips of paper with lines from the first chapter, we circulated the room sharing our lines and guessing what the story would bring. Some of us were able to piece together a pretty good picture of how the story would begin.

I wish there were enough of these paperbacks for each of us to have our own, but at least we have enough for each class. If you need to read at home, you'll need to visit the local book store. I'm not sure that they are available yet at the public library.

We'll be looking at various reading strategies and inquiry method as we share the journey of our new book. Stay tuned. It should be fun.

In the meantime, visit the author's website here. He has provided video introductions of his books and passages from each.

Happy weekend!

Getting Organized

Organizing paperwork can be a labor, especially when you let it get away from you...So...we spent some time this week adding to the writer's notebook ideas and creating colorful dividers which could serve for ideas to write about as well. Our new class is catching up. Everyone should have a book checked out from the library (or your own from home) to bring to class for independent reading. We are all ready to dive into a book together.

Back to some of those questions we investigated earlier: What do we find to be heroic? Who are our personal heroes? How does our culture influence the idea of heroism? How does our environment and upbringing shape who we are?

We'll be looking for the answer to those questions in our reading, both independent and the new book we'll read together in class. Stay tuned!

Powerful Passages = Great Poetry

In class this week we read a piece by comedian and writer Dick Gregory, "Not Poor, Just Broke." We read it the first time through like readers, looking for the gist or main point, but we reread it a second and third time in order to appreciate the powerful words and phrases he used. We created collaborative poetry in small groups and performed the poems for the class. It made me realize what a good writer Gregory is and what wonderful poets we have in our class. Here are just a few samples:

Ashamed

I always thought the teacher
kind of liked me.
I guess she couldn't see a kid
who made noises
because he wanted someone to know he was there.
I didn't go back often because there was shame there.
I never learned hate at home.
"We all know you don't have a daddy."


Paste
Teachers were never interested in finding out
that you couldn't concentrate
because you were so hungry.
I walked out of school that day
and for a while
I didn't go back.
Paste doesn't taste too bad when you're hungry.

So...many of the poems are still in the editing process, but you can see that good writers watch and listen for great lines.

We'll be starting a great book together next week, and we'll be sharing our observations on our journey.

The Writer's Notebook

As we enter into week five of our school year (gosh, that's hard to believe) you should be getting comfortable with ideas to write about in your writer's notebook section of your portfolio. With the mid-quarter approaching, there will no doubt be a portfolio check. Be sure you have completed your writing territories, your freewriting list of "what I'm good at" and "what I'm not good at," and today's heart map and visual writing territories.

The heart map...let's see...imagine all the things that are close to your heart, things you love. Next imagine all the things that are outside your heart, things you can't let in or don't like to think about. Either way, it's easier to write about the things you feel strongly about, so this map may help in your search for topics.

We'll talk about techniques for finding writing ideas within your reading. One we will use in class is the "cloze poetry" technique where we look at a poet's style or frame and use it for a framework for our own. The "I Meant To Tell You" template is an example of this technique.

In the meantime, I hope everyone has the Internet agreement turned in so that we can all participate in the computer lab exercise in netiquette.