Flash Fiction Workshops: Days 92-95 January 27, 2012

Sorry for the lack of posting this week, everyone! Sitting in as the faculty representative for Thoroughly Modern Millie auditions has been awesome, but time-consuming! Here’s what we’ve been up to:

Monday and Friday were both Flash Fiction workshops.

We followed these procedures: Flash Fiction Workshop and used these To Do Lists: Flash Fiction To Do List 1 (Tuesday) and Flash Fiction To Do List 2 (Friday).

Basically, the workshop format was this: 1. Students read their work aloud, with the author making corrections as needed during the reading. The listeners take plus/delta notes. 2. Students pass their story silently to another group member; that group member checks for the presence of a key literary element (syntax shift, plot, figurative language, characterization, theme). They also make editing marks and comments on the story. 3. The group shares feedback. For each author, we do two rounds of compliments and one round of suggestions. Throughout all of this I mingled about, listening and giving plus/delta notes for everyone I could.

Tuesday we looked at the results of our CA and reviewed some especially tricky questions.

Thursday was a straight-up work day for Flash Fiction.

HW: Flash Fiction, final draft, typed and printed out due MONDAY at the beginning of class. Bring all of your rough drafts and To Do Lists with you on Monday to turn them all in at once. We need to see your drafting process and how your story evolved over time.

To Kill a Mockingbird essay revisions are due on Friday, February 3. First, second, fourth, and fifth period classes have all received their grades on these essays. Any revisions will earn them extra credit. Print out the revised essay by Friday (or ask me to print it out for you).

P.S. Thank you, students, thank you, parents for being open to participating in a revision process. There is nothing I love more, nothing I find more rewarding than engaging with you, students, about your writing and your ideas. You are incredible.

CA Results are in! January 20, 2012

Hello everyone! Update! Update!

Our CA results are in. Unfortunately no one got all of the answers correct. This is a huge disappointment, but let’s celebrate our success and aim for perfection next time.

Three students missed only 1 question!

Eleven students missed only 2 questions!

Nine students missed only 3 questions!

Wow.

Sixteen students missed only 4 questions. And on, and on.

We are so near to perfection, I can taste it. Better focus next time, everyone.

x o x o

Ms. Garvoille

HW this weekend: Finish Flash Fiction rough draft typed or handwritten for Tuesday.

Cumulative Assessment: Day 90 and 91 January 19, 2012

Thursday and Friday we are taking our second Cumulative Assessment, which is like a benchmark for the EOC. Although this test is not graded, it is corrected and the scores are reported both to the district and to your child. Doing well on the cumulative assessment is an important step to doing well on the EOC at the end of the year — and that is worth 25% of the entire grade for the year. In other words, the 4 hours spent taking the EOC are weighted more than an entire 9 weeks of work in one quarter.

I am challenging students to do better than they did on the last CA and, if possible, to get every single question correct. We’re on our way!

HW: Flash fiction rough draft (complete) due on Tuesday. Come prepared to work on it in class tomorrow!

Writing Fiction: Day 89 January 18, 2012

1. Sentence Patterns check. Students identified the following sentence patterns using their Sentence Patterns handout, #1-5. If you were absent, you should examine these sentences at home, identify which number pattern each is, and bring in your answers:

• My mother ate my Cheetos, so I ate her lemon chiffon cake.
• While I know my father loves me, sometimes he just needs to tell me.
• In my house I feel safe.
• Because I believed, the basketball team won.
• Jimmy loves Sarah, but Sarah loves cupcakes.

2. Finishing Narrative Modes notes. We completed our notes on narrative modes (L18). If you were absent, download them here: Narrative Modes Teacher Notes.

3. Narrative Modes practice: Little Red Riding Hood. Next, students were given a chance to practice narrative modes in small groups. We reviewed the story of Little Red Riding Hood together; then, each group of students was given a number from 1-6 to correspond with six different perspectives one could tell the story from. Finally, using one of the perspectives, they rewrote the story of Little Red Riding Hood. If you were absent, choose any of the perspectives listed at the top of page two and write your own version of the story at home: Narrative Modes (L18).

4. Flash Fiction assignment. We reviewed the Flash Fiction assignment and students received this handout with the guidelines: Flash Fiction Assignment. Here are the main points:

• the rough draft is due typed or handwritten on Tuesday
• it must be between 1 and 5 pages long
• it must be MYSTERIOUS; in other words, don’t tell your reader everything. Toy with them. Play mind games with them. Don’t let them know exactly what’s going on.
• write in third-person
• characters may NOT HAVE NAMES; this will ensure you describe the character and investigate his or her motivations thoroughly

Students also received two example Flash Fiction stories similar to what they will write, annotated to point out key techniques. Download the examples here: Flash Fiction Annotated Examples

Tomorrow and Friday we will take the second Cumulative Assessment for the year, which tests reading comprehension.

HW: Flash Fiction planning and rough draft due on Tuesday.

Narrative Modes: Day 88 January 17, 2012

1. Turn in essays. Students turned in their collaborative essay rewrites. I need to have all rough drafts; I printed out the final for you.

2. Review of plot. Students got out L16, their notes on plot. We reviewed the notes and filled in any gaps if needed.

3. “Yogurt” by Robert Wallace. We read the fabulous short short “Yogurt” (not available online). It’s in the short story collection, Flash Fiction: 72 Very Short Stories, which is excellent! As we read, we reviewed the plot diagram (exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, this story had no conclusion, which is typical) (they had been fighting; they fought over sugar cereal at the story; he thinks about divorce; he gets yogurt thrown in his face by a random stranger; they discuss the incident; he holds her and she holds him).

4. Narrative Mode notes. We reviewed narrative modes with these notes (download them and print them off if you were absent): Narrative Modes Teacher Notes

No homework tonight.

Essay Revisions: Days 85, 86, 87 January 13, 2012

For the past three days we have been working on our To Kill a Mockingbird essay revisions in class. Some classes got written feedback only; other classes got audio feedback using these awesome online recording tools:

Vocaroo: There’s no max recording time and it’s somewhat reliable, but it has poor sound quality and you can’t pause the playback. And occasionally the site crashes for, like, 24 hours. I used this one most of all since it was simplest and fastest.

Chirbit: You can pause the playback and it has good sound quality, but the max recording time is 5 minutes. And it’s kind of glitchy and takes a long time to upload.

Audioboo: It’s not so glitchy, but the max recording time is only 3 minutes and the recordings can’t be made private.

I recommend using these web-based programs in other classes, too! Read your history essay aloud and then listen to yourself read it. Awesome.

HW: Finish your revisions in GoogleDocs by Monday evening at midnight. But that doesn’t mean you should put it off until then. 

Email me if you need help or would like me to Vocaroo you again. I am more than happy to!

Works Cited January 13, 2012

COPY AND PASTE:

Works Cited (center this)

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Glencoe-McGraw Hill, 2000. Print. (left align this)

***

optional:

Capote, Truman. Other Voices, Other Rooms. New York: Vintage Books, 1994. Print.

if using Other Voices, make sure to organize the authors in alphabetical order.

Preparing for revisions: Day 84 January 10, 2012

Today our different classes worked on different activities, as some were guinea pigs and others were not.

1st period worked on essay revisions in the lab. Tomorrow, we meet in the media center to continue our work.

2nd period listened to audio comments and worked on essay revisions in the lab. Bring those headphones back tomorrow.

4th, 5th, and 6th period worked on sentence practice to ensure their essays will be in tip-top shape. The sentence practice can be found on the previous post.

We all reviewed the Fanboys Coordinating Conjunctions Song (W26).

This song is written by and owned by Inner Circle and is adapted here for educational purposes:

Sing along with your lyrics here!

FANBOYS! Whatcha goin’ Whatcha goin’ Whatcha gonna use

When the run-on comes for you

Tell me! Whatcha gonna use? Whatcha gonna use?

FANBOYS, FANBOYS

Whatcha gonna use, Whatcha gonna use
When you join those two?

FANBOYS, FANBOYS

Break it out go

For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So
Coordinate

the clauses you state

Stop the comma splices

and the run-on crisis

Each conjuction

has a special function

Here’s the rule:

use a comma then go!

FANBOYS, FANBOYS

Whatcha gonna use, Whatcha gonna use
When you join those two

FANBOYS, FANBOYS

Break it out go

for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

You show a cause with for

You link ideas with and

You didn’t do with nor

You however with but

You show a choice with or

You show contrast with yet

You show results with so

Use a comma then go!

FANBOYS, FANBOYS

Whatcha gonna use, Whatcha gonna use
When you join those two

FANBOYS, FANBOYS

Break it out go

for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

[repeat]

Two sentence’ with no break

Can’t have them with no break

Period or semicolon gives you a break

A comma and FANBOYS will give you that break

Hey!

FANBOYS, FANBOYS

Whatcha gonna use, Whatcha gonna use
When you join those two

FANBOYS, FANBOYS

Break it out go

for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so!

[repeat]

No homework. 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th period bring your headphones to class.

Grammar Review January 10, 2012

Choose an exercise below to help you practice grammar rules. Focus on the starred topics; if you finish early, you may move on to other topics.

* Fragments and Run-ons

FR1. http://www.quia.com/pop/37752.html

* Fragments

F1. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/fragments_quiz.htm

F2. http://www.chompchomp.com/frag01/frag01.htm

F3. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/fragments_add1.htm

F4. http://www.chompchomp.com/frag02/frag02.htm

F5. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/fragments_add2.htm

F6. http://www.chompchomp.com/frag03/frag03.htm

F7. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/fragments_add3.htm

F8. http://www.chompchomp.com/frag05/frag05.htm

F9. http://www.chompchomp.com/frag06/frag06.htm

F10. http://www.chompchomp.com/frag07/frag07.htm

* Run-ons

R1. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/nova/nova4.htm

R2. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/nova/nova3.htm

R3. http://www.chompchomp.com/csfs04/csfs04.htm

R4. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/runons_quiz.htm

R5. http://www.chompchomp.com/csfs05/csfs05.01.htm

R6. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/run-ons_add1.htm

R7. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/run-ons_add2.htm

Subject-Verb Agreement

SV1. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/sva01.htm

SV2. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/sva02.htm

SV3. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/sva03.htm

SV4. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/sva04.htm

SV5. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/sva05.htm

* Commas

C1. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/nova/nova1.htm

C2. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/commas01.htm

C3. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/nova/nova2.htm

C4. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/commas02.htm

C5. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/commas03a.htm

C6. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/commas04a.htm

* Sentence Combining

SC1. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/combining_quiz2.htm

SC2. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/combining_quiz1.htm

SC3. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/primer_quiz.htm

Wordiness vs. Conciseness

W1. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/wordy_quiz.htm

W2. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/nova/nova8.htm

* Parallelism

P1. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/parallelism_quiz.htm

P2. http://www.chompchomp.com/structure01/structure01.htm

P3. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/parallelism2_quiz.htm

P4. http://www.chompchomp.com/structure02/structure02.htm

P5. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/niu/niu10.htm

P6. http://www.chompchomp.com/structure03/structure03.htm

P7. http://www.chompchomp.com/structure04/structure04.htm

P8. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/structure05.htm

P9. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/structure06.htm

Homonyms

H1. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/wordchoice03.htm

H2. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/its_there_quiz.htm

H3. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/wordchoice01.htm

H4. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/wordchoice02.htm

H5. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/wordchoice04.htm

H6. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/wordchoice05.htm

H7. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/wordchoice11.htm

H8. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/wordchoice12a.htm

H9. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/wordchoice13.htm

H10. http://www.chompchomp.com/hotpotatoes/wordchoice14.htm

Prepositions and FANBOYS: Day 83 January 9, 2012

1. Sentence Pattern notes. We took notes on the 5 sentence patterns by labeling W23 with the different sentence parts (for example, S, V, CC, PP).

2. Writing with Prepositions. We learned how to use prepositions in writing: Preposition Writing: W25.

3. FANBOYS! We learned the FANBOYS song (Fanboys Coordinating Conjunctions Song).

HW: None

2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th period bring your headphones tomorrow. All students meet in the media center tomorrow or computer lab tomorrow.