Thursday, April 30, 2015

Friday/Monday, May 1/4, 2015


Announcements and Reminders:

If you have not finished SAGE testing, you will be called out of class when spaces are available.

The last day for retakes for the word parts test was last Friday during Cavetime.

A few items about the last week of school: 


Students need to have all Media items, (ie. books, iPods, overdue fines, etc) turned in by Monday, May 15th.  Media fines need to be paid to the Library.  All Media fines will round up to the dollar once they are turned in to the Financial Office on May 20th.   After the 20th, the clearance slips need to be obtained from the Media Center.  The clearance slips are then turned into the Financial Office to be removed from the student’s record.
[Also return any classroom books you may have by May 15.]


We will do a locker clean out during Cavetime on Wednesday May 27th.  We will have cleaning supplies available for those who need them.  

 On Thursday, May 28th, all students will receive their yearbooks during their A1 period.(Students should attend all periods and should NOT be allowed out of their classrooms and should NOT be in the halls during class time. They should NOT be in a different classroom during class time.  Write your name in your yearbook when you receive it.
All fines will need to be cleared before students receive their yearbooks.

LAST DAY Friday - 5/29
The outside doors will be locked and all students will enter from the west doors at 8:15am.  Students report to the theater. Students will stay in the auditorium until 10:00 am, at which time they will be dismissed from school.  
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May 4: Composition Book Check
War and Water, Water, Vocabulary (5 words), Success, 2 Column I Notice I Think/Wonder -- If you have not done any of these, write them on a separate sheet of paper, hand them in to be graded, then when you receive them back, tape them into your composition book where they belong.
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Today's Activities:

1. Work on your Book of the Month Assignment which is due May 8. (The quality draft is due then.)
Finish reading your book if needed.
Create the rough draft of your cube and check it off with Ms. Dorsey.
Receive the cardstock cube and create your quality copy.


Examples of Themes in A Long Walk to Water
  • We need to persevere.
  • Never lose hope.
  • Always continue to work towards your goals and attain them.
  • Often we can reach a large goal by addressing one small goal at a time. 
  •  Individuals can survive in challenging environments.
  • In the end, the family bond survives despite  problems.
  • A tragedy or a tough situation can be turned into a triumph. 
  • Sacrifices and hard work pay off in the end.
  • Hardship brings understanding of the hardships of others.
  • People need to help each other. 


QuickWrite     (Under Notes and QuickWrites)

Label this entry "Success"  and add today's day.
Answer all of the questions in this column: 

  1. What does the word "success" mean generally?
  2. What makes an adult "successful"?
    •  In A Long Walk to Water, what makes Salva's father successful?  page 2
    • In our community, what makes an adult successful?
  3. What makes someone your age successful?


  Hints: 
  To define a word,  you could use any or all of these:

  •      synonyms
  •      antonyms 
  •      examples
  •      its part of speech
  •      a sentence that includes the word
  •     the category it belongs in 
  •     its word parts or history 



Vocabulary!


Add these highlighted words to the vocabulary section in your composition book: (page 25)

You should already have these words and their definitions:
determine
representation
gist


Today: 
drone on = to speak in a monotonous tone.

bush = undeveloped, wild area






Read from A Long Walk to Water 

What is the difference between reading for the gist and doing a Close Reading



Where Each Class Is 
A1 Close Reading
B5 Begin close reading
B6 Begin close reading
B7 Finish reading for the gist.
http://soundbible.com/tags-machine-gun.html


Chapter 1

What is the gist of this chapter?

On a page in your composition book, divide it into two columns labeled "I Notice" and "I Wonder."
Write in those columns the things your teacher asks you to write, and other items that you notice and wonder.

   I Notice
  I Wonder







Under "I Notice" write notes that answer these questions  --

What do we know so far about Nya?

What do we know so far about Salva? 


What  does it mean to ‘effectively participate in a discussion'?  

         Partners. 



A1 -- not yet
to ‘effectively participate in a discussion'













B5 -- Not yet
to ‘effectively participate in a discussion'












to ‘effectively participate in a discussion'











to ‘effectively participate in a discussion'







Chapter 2

What do we call this type of figurative language?

 "Overhead, a jet veered away like a sleek, evil bird."  page 8  

A1 check!







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Alex Boye' posted this on his Facebook page yesterday -- April 30. 

I wrote this song on the flight home from Kenya last year, after witnessing a community of women who walk for miles with yellow buckets on they're heads to draw water from a poisonous and disease ridden lake so that their children would not die of thirst. I was encouraged when I met with Dean Curtis, the owner of a Non-profit organization called "Interweave solutions" who are actively working to help improve the lives of impoverished families, helping them to become self-sufficient.
Im so excited to announce I have accepted Deans invitation to be on the board of directors. If you would like to know more about this awesome organization,
Go to: http://www.interweavesolutions.org  [You can see Alex's video there.]



Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Wednesday/Thursday, April 29/30, 2015

Announcements and Reminders:
If you have not finished SAGE testing, you will be called out of class when spaces are available.

Retakes for the word parts test are available during Cavetime today, tomorrow, and Friday.

Pick up book orders, if interested.  Orders go in on Friday afternoon.

Today, April 30, is Poem-in-Your-Pocket Day!  

 “Read poetry every day of your life ...Poetry expands the senses and keeps them in prime condition....What poetry? Any poetry that makes your hair stand up along your arms. ...You say you don't understand Dylan Thomas? Yes, but your ganglion does, and your secret wits, and all your unborn children." -Ray Bradbury



[in Just-]
in Just-
spring          when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman

whistles          far          and wee

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old balloonman whistles
far          and             wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's
spring
and

         the

                  goat-footed

balloonMan          whistles
far
and
wee

Spring is like a perhaps hand

e. e. cummings, 1894 - 1962

          III
Spring is like a perhaps hand 
(which comes carefully 
out of Nowhere)arranging 
a window,into which people look(while 
people stare
arranging and changing placing 
carefully there a strange 
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps 
Hand in a window 
(carefully to 
and fro moving New and 
Old things,while 
people stare carefully 
moving a perhaps 
fraction of flower here placing 
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.

More Favorite Poems




Today's Activities:
1.  Work on your Book of the Month Assignment which is due a week from Friday.
Finish reading your book if needed.
Create the rough draft of your cube and check it off with Ms. Dorsey.
Receive the cardstock cube and create your quality copy. 


Poem 


Terms 

  • rhyme
  • metaphor
  • refrain: a phrase or line repeated at intervals within a poem, especially at the end of a stanza. 



Cool Water 
Sons of the Pioneers, 1947

All day I've faced a barren waste without the taste of water,
Cool water.
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry and souls that cry for water,
Water. Cool, clear water.

[Chorus:]
Keep a movin' Dan, don't you listen to him Dan, he's a devil not a man
and he spreads the burnin' sand with water.
Dan, can you see that big green tree where the water's runnin' free
and it's waitin' there for me and you.
Cool, clear water.

The night are cool and I'm a fool. Each star's a pool of water,
Cool water.
But with the dawn I'll wake and yawn and carry on to water,
Water. Cool, clear water.

[Chorus:]
Keep a movin' Dan, don't you listen to him Dan, he's a devil not a man
and he spreads the burnin' sand with water.
Dan, can you see that big green tree where the water's runnin' free
and it's waitin' there for me and you.
Cool, clear water.

The shadows sway and seem to say tonight we pray for water,
Cool water.
And way up there He'll hear our prayer and show us where there's water,
Water.  Cool, clear water.

[Chorus:]
Keep a movin' Dan, don't you listen to him Dan, he's a devil not a man
and he spreads the burnin' sand with water.
Dan, can you see that big green tree where the water's runnin' free
and it's waitin' there for me and you.
Cool, clear water.

Dan's feet are sore. He's yearning for just one thing more than water,
Cool water.
Like me, I guess, he'd like to rest where there's no quest for water,
Water.  Cool, clear water.

found at and adapted from http://www.songlyrics.com/sons-of-the-pioneers/cool-water-1947-lyrics/






Composition Book Prompt:  
Label with the title "Water" and with today's date.
Answer any or all of these questions.  
Have you ever been really thirsty, or ever been short of water?  
Do you know of any stories or books or movies or other shows in which the characters were short on water?  
What do you know about drought?  What do you know about deserts? 





B5, B6, B7  to here:
4.  Begin reading A Long Walk to Water.
(For those students assigned to complete background research, here are the links: Sudan Research)

Targets:
“I can determine the meaning of visual representations on a map.”
 “I can read for gist as we begin Chapter 1 in A Long Walk to Water.” 


Vocabulary!



Add these highlighted words to your vocabulary section in your composition book: (page 25)

Do you know what to do when you are asked to "determine"?

  • Determine means to decide after study
  • The word representation is made up of the root word present, meaning “to show or symbolize,” and its affixes (beginning and endings) re- and -tion. Explain that adding these affixes changes the meaning of the word present with re- meaning “again” (like repeat) and -tion meaning “the act of doing something.” Explain that when these parts of the word are put together, re-presenta-tion, the word means the act of showing or symbolizing something again, in this case with visuals or pictures on a map. 
present:  to show or symbolize

re- :

-tion: the act of doing something


Gist:  Gist” is simply one’s initial sense of what a text is mostly about: it is a low stakes first 

“toe hold” into making sense of a text, preceding and less formal than identifying main idea.

Read Chapter 1 for gist.
Reread for Close Reading -- I Wonder. . . . .  I Notice. . . .

B7 to top of page 6


A1 to here

What  does it mean to ‘effectively participate in a discussion'?  Partners. 








* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
If you need to retake your Word Parts Test this week, carefully study so you will receive full points. It will be offered beginning on Wednesday of this week and through Friday.
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Word Parts with example words 
  1. auto = self    as in automobile, autobiography
  2. bio =  life      as in biology, autobiography
  3. con, co, col, cor, com = together, with  (prefix)   as in conversation, cooperation, communicate
  4. dict =   speak     as in diction, dictate, predict 
  5. duc, duct = lead    as in conduct,  induct
  6. graph =  write        as in autograph, biography
  7. in, im = in, into (or) not  (prefix)     as in import,  ineligible 
  8. inter = between  (prefix)     as in interject 
  9. ject =    throw        as in interject,  reject
  10. meter = measure      thermometer, telemetry 
  11. micro =   small          microscope, microbiology
  12. -ology, -logy = study of (branch of knowledge, science of)  (suffix)  as in biology, geology, etc. 
  13. port =   carry    as in import, export, deport, portage, portable
  14. pre =   before  (prefix)       as in predict, prefix, prepare
  15. re =   again (prefix)      as in reject, redo
  16. scope =   examine     as in microscope, telescope
  17. tele =   far     as in telescope, teleport
  18. tract =   pull    as in tractor,  retract,  attract
  19. trans =   across     as in transport, transact 
  20. vis or vid =  see     as in video, vision, revision