E. Quinson

Room D-201

8R, periods 2 and 3

 

Monday, September 15, 2008 – WRITER’S NOTEBOOKS WILL BE COLLECTED TODAY!  So! No writer’s notebook entry for homework!  SWBAT:     write in response to a visual stimulus.

DO NOW:       Independent reading.

MATERIALS:  writer’s notebooks, binders, art postcards, status of the class logs, class reading posters, individual reading logs, bookmarks.

DEVELOPMENT: 

1. Students read. I circulate to complete a status of the class log.
2. Discuss H.W:  reading and writing!  How did it go?
3. Discuss Class Posters, status of the clsss and independent reading logs.
4. Ask students to write an entry:  Review you entry from Friday and see what else you can add?  Do you have new impressions today?  Sometimes, when we address a work of art, music, or literature, we have different reactions each time we see it.  Sometimes we don’t.  It has to do with our frame of mind. 
5. Share entries.  Explain varied nature of art itself, so free writing off the word will naturally elicit different responses
6. Have students exchange post cards.
7. Share/Review.  I could give kids post-its to respond to each other’s entries about the similar works of art, that they could pass each other?  Or just a piece of paper?
8. Go over workshop procedures and H.W.
9. Collect notebooks!
10. Independent reading at the end, if time allows.

H.W.:   1.  We are going to begin blogging about our summer reading soon, so make sure you have finished at least two books from the summer reaign list.   If you have already finished that reading, read 30 minutes in another independent reading book.

 

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

SWBAT:          write in response to listening to music. 

DO NOW:       Independent reading.

MATERIALS:  writer’s notebooks, binders, CDs or cassettes with music

DEVELOPMENT: 

1.      Return writer’s notebooks. 

2.      Review last week’s classes and writing off a visual stimulus.  Explain that this does not have to be great art, it could simply be something you see out the car window, or in the school hall ways.  This is called found art and can be just as or more useful to the writer than formal "art."  Indeed as writers, we always want to be looking for the little details or life that can enrich our art, or indeed ourselves.

3.      Review Goal and teach that just as you can respond to a word or to a visual stimulus you can respond to other sensory impressions.  Today we are going to work with auditory impressions.   

4.      Explain format for responding in this manner.  Just as we put the word at the top of the page earlier and yesterday we put the title and artist at the top of the page, so today, they are to put the title and artist of the piece of music at the beginning of the entry.  Otherwise, the response will be difficult to understand, later. 

5.      Play music and have kids write written responses to it. 

6.      Share/Wrap up.

7.      Review H.W.

H.W.:   1.  Listen to silence alone for five complete minutes.  2. Write two (2) pages in your writer's notebook in response to the experience.  Writer’s notebooks will be collected Thursday.  3.  We are going to begin blogging about our summer reading soon, so make sure you have finished at least two books from the summer reaign list.   If you have already finished that reading, read 30 minutes in another independent reading book. 

 

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

SWBAT:          write in response to a short piece of writing. 

DO NOW:       Independent reading.

MATERIALS:  writer’s notebooks, binders, copies of “Names” reader response questions, 66 ways of responding to reading in your writer’s notebooks.

DEVELOPMENT: 

1.      Discus H.W.  Review previous responding techniques.   

2.      Mini-lesson on reader-response.  Have kids heard this term before?  What does it mean?   What is response?  An answer to a question or a reaction to a situation, etc.  So, with literature, too, we all have responses. 

3.      Create list of kinds of responses we can have in our writers’ notebooks on overhead.

4.      Distribute Reader Response lists as well.

5.      Put "Names " on overhead and read along with students. 

6.      Class discussion of what kind of response one can have to this piece.

7.      Students write responses.

8.      Share/Wrap up.

H.W.:  1.  Write one page in your writer's notebook in response to “Names.”  Write an entry, like Cisneros does about YOUR name!  2.  We are going to begin blogging about our summer reading soon, so make sure you have finished at least two books from the summer reaign list.   If you have already finished that reading, read 20-30 minutes in another independent reading book. 

 

Thursday September 18, 2008 and Friday September 19, 2008

Blogging in response to our summer reading????

 

Monday, September 22, 2008

SWBAT: create a map of their own writing territories.

DO NOW:  Independent reading.

MATERIALS:  writer’s notebooks, binders, copies of writing territories handouts, copies of Linus Pauling quotation

DEVELOPMENT:

1.      Ask students to write an entry:  if you could choose any topic to write about, what would it be and why?

2.      Discuss DO NOW and the fact that most of us, when given the choice, choose what we like or prefer, what is to our taste.  It seems obvious, but I want us to have that choice in writing, too.

3.      Discuss that so far, I have been showing them some techniques for getting writing going.  I will continue to do so, I have many ideas left up my sleeve.  But, I also want to get their ideas going. 

4.      I am going to demonstrate on the overhead how I (and many other writers keep lists of writing territories.  This way, when we are stuck with “nothing to write about” we have a bank of ideas we can draw upon.

5.      Model lists on overhead.  Model adding ideas to the list.

6.      Students create their own territories.  Make a list of all the possible ideas you have for topics, genres, and audiences for your writing.  What would be interesting for YOU.  Be as complete as you can, but you will all need to be adding to these lists throughout the year.

7.      Share/discuss territories.

8.      Distribute notebook ideas sheet, just to have in their binders, if they ever get really, really, stuck. 

H.W.:  1.  Add at least ten new ideas to your territories list.  Remember Linus Pauling:  the best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas!  2.  Writer’s notebooks will be collected TOMORROW!  3.  We are going to begin blogging about our summer reading soon, possibly TOMORROW!!!, so make sure you have finished at least two books from the summer reaign list.   If you have already finished that reading, read 20-30 minutes in another independent reading book.