Wednesday, October 31, 2018 A-Day

Announcements and Reminders for Wed, October 31, 2018 -- A-Day:                           Your spelling test is today.   C.S.I. Commonly Confused Words, Set 1 Finish reading your book by November 2 (Friday) for A-Day students, and by November 5 (Monday) for B-Day students.  You will bring your collections of evidence for themes, will write about a theme in your book (using the PEE format), and will hand both in.  Extra Credit Opportunity:  Memorize the poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost. Recite it to the teacher.  You can find copies in the front of the English 7 handouts file.

Targets for Today: I can show that I know how to spell the commonly confused words "its/it's" and "to/too/two." I can find words to use instead of overly used words. I can prepare, then listen to and read a short story. I can study examples for a writing assignment to understand how to improve my own writing.     (to make a point and support that point with evidence and explanation)

Today’s  Agenda for Wed, October 31, 2018 -- A-Day: Take a ride on the Haunted Mansion! 1.  Take your spelling test. Then, take a test on spells. We will correct your tests in class.  On the paper you correct, write CB:  [your name] When you receive your paper back,  please check whether your corrector corrected  your test correctly. 2. Dead Words  Lay them to rest.  You may create your tombstones either individually or as a twosome.  Write first on another paper  or in pencil before you use marker.  Make sure you have all these parts:  RIP "Dead Word" (today's date) Survived by (5 synonyms) Cut out the tombstone. Place your names on the back. Select synonyms that are more exact, that are not dead words themselves. Use a thesaurus to locate synonyms that could be substituted for the "Dead Word."   The chosen synonyms should be appropriate for a seventh-grade student's writing.  *Do not use slang or other very informal words.  Write first on another paper  or in pencil before you use marker.  Make sure you have all these parts:  RIP "Dead Word" (today's date) Survived by (5 synonyms) Cut out the tombstone. Place your names on the back. Select synonyms that are more exact, that are not dead words themselves. Use a thesaurus to locate synonyms that could be substituted for the "Dead Word."   The chosen synonyms should be appropriate for a seventh-grade student's writing.  *Do not use slang or other very informal words.  3. Listen to "Three Skeleton Key,"               a short story by George G. Toudouze.            It takes about 30 minutes.   Prereading:  “Three Skeleton Key” by George C. Toudouze Step 1.   Preview the story and build background. a)  Look at the title and the illustration on page 65 of your Elements of Literature textbook. b)  Silently Read page 64. c)  Do the quickwrite on page 64.  If you were writing a horror story or directing a horror movie, what details would you use to create a scary setting?   Write your answer on the page provided.  Step 2.  More background building:  Read the following summary of part of the story:  “Three Skeleton Key” is a horror story set in a lighthouse twenty-odd miles off the coast of South America.  The nightmare begins when the three lighthouse keepers realize that a derelict (abandoned) sailing ship heading for their tiny, rocky island is filled with thousands of giant rats.” Step 3. Make predictions about what is going to happen in the story.  Write your answer on the page provided.  This is another PEE Writing example about theme. You will be doing this for your book-of-the-month project. Point: Pink or Red        Evidence: Blue          Explanation:  Green     Unhighlighted:   background information to help the reader understand         A theme expressed in the short story “Three Skeleton Key” by George G. Toudouze is  “"Don't let one bad experience stop you from doing what you enjoy.”    The unnamed narrator of the story goes to work at a lighthouse on an island that is actually just a rock rising out of the sea twenty miles from land.   He volunteers to work there because the pay is high and he is saving his money to get married.  The island is said to be haunted, and the sea is shark-infested, but those details don’t bother the narrator.        The narrator tells us that “it was a nice life there,” and that he and his two companions “liked it there.”   In other words, he enjoys it.  He has companionship, the work is not too hard, they have views of the ocean and, at night, of their huge light illuminating the sea.  They have plenty of provisions, a supply ship comes about every forty days, and each man gets shore leave every eighteen weeks.  For this young man who has chosen to work on lighthouses and who hopes to save up a great deal of money, it is the perfect job.       His experience there becomes not so perfect when a ship filled with starving rats wrecks on their tiny island, and the rats invade the island.  For almost two weeks the narrator and his two companions fight to survive the rat invasion.   What they go through Is horrific, the stuff of nightmares.  They cannot open doors or windows of the lighthouse which is literally covered with hungry rats.  Then the rats break in, and the men have to fight them off, and are bitten and scratched.  They are finally rescued, but one of the narrator’s companions dies and the other has gone insane.         Our narrator,  in spite of the horrors he has experienced, decides to return to the lighthouse after it has been cleaned up and repaired. He tells us this: “As for me—when they fumigated the light and repaired the damage done by the rats, I resumed my service there. Why not? No reason why such an incident should keep me from finishing out my service there, is there? Besides—I told you I liked the place—to be truthful, I’ve never had a post as pleasant as that one, and when my time came to leave it forever, I tell you that I almost wept as Three Skeleton Key disappeared below the horizon.”      The message seems to be that if people have a passion for something they should not stop doing it because they are afraid of past incidents. The narrator puts the past behind him, and continues doing what he likes.  In fact,  at the beginning of the story, he had revealed that he ended up working on lighthouses for thirty-five years.   Perhaps it is true that too often that people let less traumatic experiences place limits on the rest of their lives.  Three Skeleton Key  4:26 -- 35:15 \http://talestoterrify.com/tales-to-terrify-no-31-george-g-toudouze/ Text:  http://www.mpsaz.org/taylor/staff/bjdavis/short-stories/files/threeskeletonpdf.pdf

If You Were Absent: See above. Arrange to take the spelling test. Ask about creating your own tombstone. Listen to the short story "Three Skeleton Key" and read along on the PDF: Three Skeleton Key  4:26 -- 35:15 \http://talestoterrify.com/tales-to-terrify-no-31-george-g-toudouze/ Text:  http://www.mpsaz.org/taylor/staff/bjdavis/short-stories/files/threeskeletonpdf.pdf Study the example of PEE writing as you prepare for your book of the month writing. Make sure you have collected evidence for themes in your book, including two or three for one theme. Here is another example of  using PEE (Point-Evidence-Explanation):  See this presentation created by Mrs. Hilton:   HP PEE presentation.pptx Be ready to do your own PEE writing -- Point, Evidence, Explanation -- next time.

Vocabulary: Dead Word:  a word that is overused or not specific enough to carry very much meaning.  Replace dead words in your writing with stronger, more meaningful words.

Help and Enrichment  Lay Them to Rest Dead (overused and weak) Words 1.     A lot or lots 2.     Also 3.     Awesome 4.     Awful 5.     Bad 6.     Big 7.     Boring 8.     but 9.     Cool 10. fine 11. Fun 12. Funny 13.  Go/went 14. Good 15. Got, get 16. Great 17. Guy 18. happy 19. have to 20. interesting 21. just 22. Kid 23. know 24. Like  (comparing) 25. Like/love (verb) 26. little 27. Mad 28. Nice 29. Pretty 30. put 31. Really 32. sad 33. said 34. Scary 35. see 36. Show (verb) 37.  stuff 38. terrific 39. then 40. totally 41. Very 42. Walk 43. want 44. Well not humongous Dictionary.com is useful for finding synonyms.  Go to the site, click on the thesaurus feature (or just go to Thesaurus.com.) and type in the word you wish to replace.