Here's the skinny on dystopian fiction!

Notes & videos embedded below! CLICK HERE for the film clip analysis chart. 

Hi all!

Here is this week's Mentor Text, "Fish Story" by Rick Bragg. Remember the idea is to read, examine, and then IMITATE (that is, make a few mentor sentences you own sentences). 

You guys did a BEAUTIFUL job with your first Mentor Text writing prompt, You Won't Remember But I Will (stay tuned for student essay publication!), and the work you did in that assignment -- using the essay's structure to communicate your own ideas -- is the guiding principle of MTM.

Have questions? Please ask!
More next week, of course, but until then...check out dystopian fiction!  

Yesterday was our first Mentor Text Monday. Welcome to Mentor Text Monday (Monday, Monday...)! (Imagine that all echo-y with smoke and pyrotechnics.)

We defined a mentor as a teacher, a guide, a trainer, and someone you learn from and aspire to.

We defined a mentor text as a text we would study to learn from to become stronger writers.

Our goal is to examine real, professional writing imitate it. It is also to develop an awareness of the effective use of language.

Our first essay out of the gate was You Won't Remember, But I Will. You filled out this Mentor Text Monday chart, and you cranked out some pretty lovely sentences.

Shew. Now, for your writing assignment. You will write your own You Won't Remember, But I Will essay. I'm excited to see what you guys come up with, because I have a feeling it's gonna get in the feels. :)

The essay is due this Friday, 9.25. 

So for the remainder of this week, we will write our essays, do a little more close reading work, and rock some writing portfolio set up. Sound good? Let's do it. 

It was an all over the place week last week, and here's how it went!

Monday: OLWEUS kick off day

Tuesday: This amazing TED Talk, To This Day, plus a trip to the media center

Wednesday: English department Read What You Want Day

Thursday: An anticipation guide to prep for the story "Say Yes" and a few rounds of Philosophical Chairs (Which , by the way, you guys ROCKED. TONS of positive feedback and many, many great ideas. Shout out to 2nd and 4th period for getting deep, 5th period for following the protocol perfectly, and 7th period for being so down!)

Hi guys! We're overdue for an update here. Let's cut the chase, yes?

Last Friday, 9.4, we spent a class period creating a positive/negative chart for "A Game of Catch." Click HERE for that task. 

Your work was outstanding, and what your charts "said" was very interesting. Lots of folks made great connections and had insights into the story that they hadn't had before. Some of my favorites were: 

When Monk went down, Scho went up. 
Things went downhill fast for Scho. 
Everybody ends up negative. 
Scho is back and forth,  not consistently positive or negative. 


This week we've returned to lit vocab and written our first essay along the way. Click HERE for the vocab assignment and HERE for the essay. 

You were tasked with writing about what's in your imaginary box or to write about your passion. For vocab, we've been working creating student friendly posters that feature your assigned vocab word, definition, example, and illustration. 

So far, so good. Both the essay and the mini-poster are due Friday, 9.10. 


Shew! Questions? Comments? Let me know!