Revising Seedfolks Narratives - Part 2

Aim:
IWBAT revise and edit my Bayview Seedfolks narrative, in order to add properly capitalized and punctuated dialogue to my story.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Review how to correctly capitalize and punctuate dialogue:

• practice capitalizing quotations: click here
• practice adding commas to quotations: click here
• practice deciding when to add quotation marks: click here
• finished early? continue practicing these activities or read silently

2. Partner Revision:

• Open a spreadsheet with the link to your teammates' narratives: click here
• Find the teammates' names from your table group. Click on the link to one of their narratives.
• Read each of your tablemates' narrative. 
• For each narrative, write at least 1 positive (Something I loved...) and 1 constructive (Something you could improve...) piece of feedback.
• Remember, you can make comments by clicking Comment in the Insert menu, or you can just click Ctrl + Alt + M.

3. Practice Correctly Writing Dialogue: 

• Open "Dialogue Practice #2" in the Writing Portfolio of your Google Drive 
• Remember these rules:
• start new paragraphs when a speaker changes
• add quotation marks before and after a character's direct words
• use a comma between the speech tag and the dialogue
• place punctuation marks (commas, periods) inside the quotation marks
• capitalize the first word of dialogue
• do not capitalize the second part of interrupted dialogue
• do not use quotation marks when describing a character’s inner thoughts

4. Revise & Edit for Dialogue:

• Find places in your narrative where you could add dialogue, in order to show, rather than tell.
• Use words besides say and said.
• For a list of over 100 synonyms for said, go to this link
• Remember, you can also add sounds or noises.
• Edit for the capitalization and punctuation rules listed in Task #3.
• Remember, each time a new character speaks, you need to begin a new paragraph (press Enter to skip to the next line and Tab to indent)

5. Continue Revising: You can never be done improving your writing. If you cannot think of how to improve your writing, try these ideas:

• vary the way you write dialogue
• Put the speaker tag ("Quiet!" moaned Mr. T) in different places. It can be in the front, in the middle, or after the dialogue. Or, speakers can be identified in a separate sentence.
• make dialogue sound more authentic
•  Reread your dialogue to make sure it sounds realistic. Ask yourself, would the character say this in real life? If not, revise the dialogue to sound more authentic.
• vary sentence length and type
• Writing becomes more interesting when authors make the sentences different lengths. Long sentences can offer a lot of information but are harder to read. Short sentences  are fast and easy to read, but using only short sentences is boring. Revise your writing so that you have a combination of shorter, medium, and longer sentences.
• You can also vary sentence structure by writing a combination of simple, compound, and complex sentences.
• add a simile, a metaphor, or personification
• A simile compares to unlike things using like or as (examples: Don't just sit there like a bump on a log. Watching the dance recital was like watching grass grow. You were brave as a lion.)
• A metaphor compares to unlike things directly (examples: I rode the roller coaster of emotions. Your love is an ocean. Her home was a prison.)
• Personification gives nonliving things human (or person)-like qualities (examples: The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky. The wind howled. My computer throws a fit every time I try to use it.)
• add sensory details
• Writing becomes more realistic and interesting when authors make the reader feel like he/she is actually there. Add sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings (sensory details) in order to add imagery to your narrative.
• add foreshadowing or suspense
• Does something bad happen in your story? If so, at the beginning of your story, hint that something bad will happen, but don't say it!
• You can add suspense by waiting until the very last moment to reveal important details and keep your reader guessing until the very end.
• change the ending to make it more memorable
• You can make your story immediately better by having a stellar ending. Maybe you reveal an unexpected twist, or you add an especially strong/memorable image or dialogue at the end. Maybe you circle back to the beginning of the story, or you force the reader to imagine exactly what occurred.
• make it funny
• Everyone likes humor, especially when it's not expected and not over-the-top. Add in funny little descriptions, events, or dialogue.
• improve your word choice
• Find boring, dull, or imprecise words and find more colorful, vibrant, and specific words to replace them. You can use your own head or a thesaurus (there's one on the side of the class website). Note, if you use a thesaurus, only use the words that you know.

6. Edit Your Writing. Check for these things:

• you have capitalized the first word of each sentence
• you have a punctuation mark at the end of each sentence
• there is a space after each period and each comma
• you have indented each paragraph using the TAB key
• you have skipped to next line when starting a new paragraph
• there are no misspelled words (no words with squiggly red line underneath)

You must finish your narrative by the end of the day!

Homework: "The Lottery"

  

Revising Seedfolks Narratives

 Science Class: Click Here

Aim:
IWBAT revise my narrative, in order to:

• begin my story with an interesting hook
• end the story with a satisfying conclusion
• add three or more additional character traits to the story
• show, not tell, details about my character

Tasks:
1. Do Now:

• Open your the draft of your Bayview Seedfolks narrative. Reread your draft.
• Complete a questionnaire about your draft: click here
• When you finish:
• continue working on your draft, or begin revising your draft
• complete parts of speech activities:
• Nouns #1 / Nouns #2 / Nouns #3 / Nouns #4 / Nouns #5 / Nouns #6
• Verbs #1 / Verbs #2 / Verbs #3
• Prepositional Phrases / Adjectives & Adverbs
• Noun Dunk
• Grammar Gorillas
• Toon University Parts of Speech
• Word Invasion

2. Copy Your Narrative into Mr. T's Template:

• Open Google Drive. Click Writing Portfolio. 
• Open your narrative draft. 
• Select the text of your draft (not the title or heading, just the writing). 
• Change the font to Verdana and the size to 14.
• Press Ctrl + C to copy the text.
• Go back to the Writing Portfolio in Google Drive. Click on the document titled My Bayview Seedfolks Narrative - Your Name.
• Change the title Leader to the first name of your community leader (not your name).
• Change the byline to your first and last name.
• Select the helper text below the horizontal line.
• Press Ctrl + V to paste the text from your draft.
• Make sure the formatting looks okay and that you have indented each paragraph using the Tab key. Delete any spaces between paragraphs (to keep it the same).

3. Submit Your Narrative to Mr. T:

• In the upper right corner of My Bayview Seedfolks Narrative - Your Name, click Share (the big blue button).
• Under Who Has Access, click the blue link Change.
• Select Anyone with the link.
• Next to Access, select Can comment from the drop-down menu that currently says Can view.
• Click Save.
• Copy the link (or web address) to your writing project: use Ctrl + C.
• Complete the form below with the link to your narrative: use Ctrl + V.

 

4. Examine the Opening: 

• Reread the opening of your narrative to make sure that it catches (hooks) the reader's attention. Make it fresh and exciting, not stale.
• If you need some ideas for the hook, try one of these:
• Select an interesting piece of dialogue ("What was that noise?!")
• Insert an exclamation (Bam! A door slammed in the other room.)
• Describe an interesting character (Mr. T was not the usual teacher.)
• Describe an interesting setting (It was an especially cold and foggy morning in San Francisco.)
• Start with an exciting event (I ran down Third Street as fast as I could, trying to outrun the man behind me.)
• Appeal to the senses by describing an interesting smell, sight, sound, feel, or taste (My nose burned with the smell of smoke.)
• Ask the reader to imagine something (Imagine that...)

5. Examine the Ending:

• Reread the ending of your narrative to make sure that it brings the story to a satisfying ending.
• It should feel like the story comes to an actual end.
• The ending should be exciting or fun, if possible.
• Do not write The End
• Do not write To Be Continued
• If needed, revise the ending of your writing.

6. Characterization Checklist:

• Have a partner read through your narrative.
• While reading through your narrative, your partner should highlight (or underline) any traits from your characterization graphic organizer (click here) that you've included in the story.
• When your partner finishes, examine which of the un-highlighted traits on your graphic organizer are important and should be added to your narrative. Highlight these in a different color (or circle them).
• Then, revise your narrative to add at least three more character traits to your writing. Remember to show these traits, don't tell them!

7. Show, Don't Tell:

• Identify three or more places you have told, not showed, details about a character's feelings or personality (for example, saying that a character is nice, interesting, fun, bored, excited, happy, angry, frustrated, hopeful...)
• Replace these parts of the stories by showing, not telling -- use dialogue and actions
• To show a feeling, write what a character might do or say when feeling a certain way and let the reader decide what feeling this shows.
• To show a personality / character trait, write specific events or dialogue (direct words from a character) that demonstrate how the character is a certain trait
• To show a different detail, add more sensory details to your writing (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings)
• Be creative! Use your imagination! Make your writing interesting!

8. Partner Revision:

• Open a spreadsheet with the link to your teammates' narratives: click here
• Find the teammates' names from your table group. Click on the link to one of their narratives.
• Read each of your tablemates' narrative. 
• For each narrative, write at least 1 positive (Something I loved...) and 1 constructive (Something you could improve...) piece of feedback.
• Remember, you can make comments by clicking Comment in the Insert menu, or you can just click Ctrl + Alt + M.

Homework: "Soul Mates Are Everywhere" (need to reread the story? click here)

Science Class: Animal Research Reports

Aim:
IWBAT type my animal research report as a Google document.

Tasks:
1. Open Google Drive. Sign in with your first.last.student@kippbayarea.org account.
2. Click Writing Portfolio.
3. Open the document called Animal Research Report - Your Name.
4. Replace the heading with your name and homeroom.
5. Change the title of the report to the name of your animal. Capitalize each word of the title.
6. Delete the helper text and start typing your report. Remember to indent each paragraph. Please do not change the font; it should be Verdana, 14 point size.

Finished Early? (Complete in order.)
1. Complete today's activity on TeenBiz3000.
2. Complete practice modules on Khan Academy or Reflex Math.
3. Read an AR book silently.

Draft Bayview Seedfolks Narrative

Aims:
1. IWBAT plan how I will show, not tell, the character traits of my community leader.
2. IWBAT draft my Bayview Seedfolks narrative, from the perspective of my community leader.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Identify Parts of Speech (seventh grade standard):

• Complete all of these activities first (in any order):
• Nouns #4
• Nouns #5
• Verbs #3 
• Prepositional Phrases
• Finished early? Complete these activities (your choice):
• Nouns #1
• Nouns #2
• Nouns #3
• Nouns #6
• Verbs #1
• Verbs #2
• Adjectives & Adverbs
• Noun Dunk Game
• Grammar Gorillas Game

2. Plan how you will show, not tell, the traits of your character

• characterization graphic organizer: click here
• showing, not telling, planner: click here

3. Drafting your narrative (find the document in the Writing Portfolio in your Google Drive):

• write in first-person, from the perspective of the community leader you selected
• make your character seem as real as possible -- in what he/she says and does
• use quotation marks when characters directly speak to one another
• remember, only one character can speak per paragraph, so if a different character responds to what someone said, you should begin a new paragraph
• write about 1-2 typed pages
• make sure your story covers your homeroom's common ground and is interesting 

Need help getting started? Begin your narrative with one of these hooks:

• SETTING: Give your reader some sense of time or place in which your story takes place. An easy way to begin is to use the words, “It was...” (but we don’t always have to do this)
• example: It was an especially cold and foggy morning in San Francisco.
• example: The sun had just set on October 31st, Halloween day. 
• CONVERSATION: Begin with someone talking (direct dialogue) or some kind of other noise/sound.
• example: “David, you’re going to be late for school!”
• example: “I can’t believe it’s already time to get up,” I grumbled to myself that morning. 
• example: Beep! Beep! Beep! I reached over and hit the alarm clock. It read 6:30 AM--time to get ready for school.
• HIGH ACTION: Begin with suspense, an exciting event, or something that will surprise your reader.
• example: When my mom drug me out of bed, I thought it would be just a normal school day. Man, was I wrong!
• example: I was awakened by smoke filling the room. A white haze clouded my vision, and I started coughing uncontrollably.

Homework: Finish Rough Draft of Narrative (must be done by Monday morning)

Plan & Begin Drafting Seedfolks Narrative

Aims:
1. IWBAT plan the conflict and characterization for my Bayview Seedfolks narrative.
2. IWBAT begin drafting my Bayview Seedfolks narrative with dialogue, instant action, or the setting.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Identify Parts of Speech (seventh grade standard):

• Complete all of these activities first (in any order):
• Nouns #2
• Nouns #3
• Verbs #2
• Adjectives & Adverbs
• Finished early? Complete these activities (your choice):
• Nouns #1
• Nouns #4
• Nouns #5
• Nouns #6
• Verbs #1
• Verbs #3 
• Prepositional Phrases
• Noun Dunk Game
• Grammar Gorillas Game

2. Finalize your homeroom's common ground
3. Determine how your character will become involved: view classwork

4. Determine the conflict for your narrative

5. Begin drafting your narrative (find it in the Writing Portfolio in your Google Drive). Start your writing with a hook:

• SETTING: Give your reader some sense of time or place in which your story takes place. An easy way to begin is to use the words, “It was...” (but we don’t always have to do this)
• example: It was an especially cold and foggy morning in San Francisco.
• example: The sun had just set on October 31st, Halloween day. 
• CONVERSATION: Begin with someone talking (direct dialogue) or some kind of other noise/sound.
• example: “David, you’re going to be late for school!”
• example: “I can’t believe it’s already time to get up,” I grumbled to myself that morning. 
• example: Beep! Beep! Beep! I reached over and hit the alarm clock. It read 6:30 AM--time to get ready for school.
• HIGH ACTION: Begin with suspense, an exciting event, or something that will surprise your reader.
• example: When my mom drug me out of bed, I thought it would be just a normal school day. Man, was I wrong!
• example: I was awakened by smoke filling the room. A white haze clouded my vision, and I started coughing uncontrollably.

Homework: "As I Grew Older"

Characterization of Community Leaders

Aims:

• IWBAT identify internal and external traits of a character from his/her biography, in order to complete a character graphic organizer.
• IWBAT brainstorm ideas for my Bayview Seedfolks memoir. 

If we write carefully, we can give an excellent idea of who a character is and what he/she is like, with very few words.
In your memoir, your job is to make your character come to life, to describe who he/she while telling his/her story.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Identify Parts of Speech (seventh grade standard):

• Complete all of these activities:
• Nouns #1
• Verbs #1
• Adjectives & Adverbs
• Prepositional Phrases
• Finished early? Complete these activities (your choice):
• Nouns #2
• Nouns #3
• Nouns #4
• Nouns #5
• Nouns #6
• Verbs #2
• Verbs #3
• Noun Dunk Game
• Grammar Gorillas Game

2. Bayview Seedfolks Project Overview and Timeline:

• In Seedfolks, 13 diverse individuals tell their stories, and together, these stories create a larger story of how a vacant lot was turned into a thriving community garden.
• We will select positive leaders in the Bayview community and tell their stories in our own version of Seedfolks.
• These stories are not biographies. They are short memoirs that show who the character is by how he/she interacts with a larger plot. 
• We will write these memoirs from the perspective of our community leaders.
• When we compile our stories of these leaders, we will be able to tell a larger story and how each of the leaders played a role in the story.
• During the last week of school, we will publish our book, and (hopefully!) each student will receive a copy of the finished product.
• Timeline:
• last week: interview a community leader
• yesterday: write a biography of community leader
• today: characterize a community leader, choose common ground, brainstorm ideas
• Thursday-Friday: draft narrative
• Monday: revise narratives
• Tuesday: revise, edit, and publish - narratives due by end of day
• Wednesday: publish books, reflect on growth

3. Determining Our Common Ground: In our book, we could tell the story of how we create a community garden, or we could tell a different story--from the different perspectives of our community leaders. What ideas do you have for the common ground of our story?


4. Characterization of Community Leaders:

• About three different teammates will read your biography.
• Your reviewers will complete and add to a characterization graphic organizer based on what you wrote in your biography.
• Your reviewers will also give you feedback and ideas to use when writing your narrative.
• View the classwork form: click here

5. Select Our Common Ground: Vote on your teammates' ideas for the common ground for our book

6. Brainstorm Ideas for Your Narrative


Homework: Final Draft of "Where I'm From" Poem

Biographies

Aim:
IWBAT compose a biography of a community leader using information gathered in a personal interview.

 

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Identifying Parts of Speech (a seventh grade standard)

• Activity 1: click here
• Activity 2: click here
• Activity 3: click here

2. BrainPop: Biographies

• Answer questions to the quiz on Socrative

3. Writing Thesis Statement to Describe My Community Leader: click here

• The thesis statement is the main point (or argument) of your biography.
• To create a thesis statement for your biography:
• look for patterns in the person's life
• focus only on the most important events
• what positive influence did your leader have on the community?
• how would the world be different if your leader had never been born?
• what adjectives describe him/her best?
• how did his/her childhood shape the rest of his/her life?

4. Preview the Format of Your Biography:

• Introduction: Introduce who your community leader is and basic information about him/her. You could begin with an interesting story, a quote from your interview, or a description of the person in his/her usual setting.
• Background: Describe what events from the past (childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, or all of these) that influenced your community leader and how things from his/her background helped shape who he/she is today.
• Today: Describe what your selected person currently does. You could describe his/her job, hobbies, and family. Focus on what is most significant--probably what he/she does that makes him/her a positive leader in the community.
• Influence: Describe why your leader chooses to do what he/she does and how he/she influences or helps other people in the community. You could also explain how the community (or world) would be without this person, and/or what he/she will do in the future.
• Conclusion: Summarize the most important points from your biography. Describe what your community leader's legacy will be (what he/she will be known for).

5. Read Mr. T's Exemplar Biography of Teresa Goines (from Old Skool Cafe): click here

6. Draft Your Biography on Google Drive

• Title your document "The Biography of FirstName LastName by YourFirstName YourLastName"
• Mr. T's example: The Biography of Teresa Goines by Bryan Twarek
• If it is difficult for you to access the Internet at home, you may hand write your biography on lined paper.
• Remember, your biography should be five paragraphs in length.

Finished early? Learn more about Teresa Goines & Old Skool Cafe:

• Old Skool Cafe website: click here
• CNN Heroes article & video: click here
• other newspaper articles:
• Edible San Francisco: click here
• The Bay Citizen: click here
• Teresa receives FBI community leadership award: click here
• Teresa speaks to her college about her journey to create Old Skool: click here
• other videos: click here and click here

Homework: Finish Biography (due tomorrow)

Portrait Poems

Aim:
IWBAT compose two types of original portrait poems: "I Am" and acrostic poems.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Review for your weekly skills quiz tomorrow (pronoun/antecedent agreement).

• additional practice on Socrative

2. Homework Check: Share your 2-4 best questions to ask during your interview on Google Moderator.

3. How to Conduct an Interview of Your Community Leader

4. Write an "I Am" Poem

• view more examples

5. Write an Acrostic Poem

• view more examples

6. Author's Chair


Homework: Interview a Community Leader (Due Tuesday! No excuses. No exceptions.)

Identifying Community Leaders

Aim:
IWBAT identify positive leaders in my community, and IWBAT select one leader to interview for my final Bayview Seedfolks  project.

 
Tasks:
1. Do Now: Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement

• Practice Activity #1: click here
• Practice Activity #2: click here
• Practice Activity #3: click here
• Finished early?  Rags to Riches: Version 1 and Version 2 (complete ALL three practice activities first!)

2. Homework Check: "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou

3. Watch a video about Hunter's Point Heroes (created by students at BAYCAT):

 

4. Explain what and who community leaders are on this form.

• Based on students' comments from other homerooms, Mr. T has created this Wordle that illustrates what it means to be a leader in the community:

5. Brainstorm positive leaders in your community using a brainstorm web.

6. Describe one of these positive community leaders on Google Moderator.

7. Select one community leader to write about.

8. Bayview Seedfolks Project Overview: 

• In Seedfolks, 13 diverse individuals (people of different ages, races, professions, and genders) tell their stories, and together, these stories create a larger story of how a vacant lot was turned into a thriving community garden.
• We will select positive leaders in the Bayview community and tell their stories in our own version of Seedfolks. When we compile our stories of these leaders, we will be able to tell a larger story and how each of the leaders played a role in the story.
• During the last week of school, we will publish our book, and (hopefully!) each student will receive a copy of the finished product.

Homework: My Community Leader (finish backside of classwork)

Community Gardens in the Bayview

Aim:
IWBAT describe how community activists transformed a rough median strip on Quesada Avenue into a community garden.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement

• Practice Activity #1: click here
• Practice Activity #2: click here
• Practice Activity #3: click here
• Finished early?  Rags to Riches: click here 

2. Learn about the Quesada Gardens Initiative:

A) Watch a video:

B) Read an article from the San Francisco Chronicle: "A Little Bit of Eden in the Bayview"

C) Think and write: respond to some questions about the article here

D) Discuss the transformation of Quesada Avenue and the influence of the community gardens on area: Pomona / Harvard / UC Irvine

Quesada Gardens Initiative - Bayview ,San Francisco CA from Michael Patrick Perez on Vimeo.

Previewing Seedfolks

Aim:
IWBAT complete a variety of pre-reading activities, in order to prepare to begin Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman.

Tasks:
1. Do Now:

• Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement Practice Quiz #1: click here 
• Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement Practice Quiz #2: click here
• Pronoun Placement - Practice Activity #1: click here
• Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement Practice Activity #2: click here
• Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement Practice Activity #3: click here
• Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement Practice Activity #4: click here
• Identifying Pronouns & Antecedents Rags to Riches: click here
• Pronoun/Antecedent & Subject/Predicate Agreement Rags to Riches: click here

2. Quiz #33 on Socrative

3. Define Community:


4. Anticipation Questions:

• On Socrative, you will show how strongly you agree or disagree with a statement:
• Response Choices:
• A: Strongly Agree
• B: Agree
• C: Neutral
• D: Disagree
• E: Strongly Disagree
• Anticipation Questions:
• Most people in a neighborhood get along with one another.
• One person can make a difference in the world.
• Good things that happen in one part of the world do not affect things that are happening in other parts of the world.
• People who do good things always know exactly whom they will affect.
• People of different races usually keep to themselves.
• Differences in people do not matter.

• In Today's Meet (closed chatroom), discuss why you agree or disagree with a particular question.
• Open your chatroom here: Pomona / Harvard / UC Irvine
• Use college-bound conversation starters to respond to your teammates:
• Ways to agree:
• I agree with ____ because ____.
• I was also thinking ____ because ____.
• At first I thought ____, but now I think ____.
• Ways to disagree:
• I disagree with ____ because ____.
• I would argue ____ because ____.
• I have a different opinion because ____.
• Clarifying your understanding:
• I became confused when you said ____.
• I understand ____, but can you clarify when you said ____?
• In other words, are you saying ____?
• Asking a question:
• What do you mean when you said ____?
• Do you think that ____?
• Why do you think that ____?
• Making a connection:
• I have a connection between ____ and ____.
• This reminds me of ____ because ____.
• This is similar to ____ because ____.

5. Preview the Book:



6. Learn About the Author:

Paul Fleischman is a Californian who likes to read while he enjoys his morning cup of coffee and a bagel. Frustrated when he couldn’t find a copy of the local newspaper, he picked up a free new age newspaper and was “instantly rewarded.” There he found an article about a psychotherapist who used gardening as therapy. She mentioned that doctors in ancient Egypt prescribed walking through a garden as a cure for the insane. “That’s the line that set the hook deep,” he stated in an interview.

From there, he began to develop memories, ideas, and newspaper stories. Interviewing others who have experienced therapeutic gardening, he began to develop the various characters for his new book, Seedfolks. It is set in the present where the story is told from the points of view of 13 different multicultural characters. The setting is a patchwork of plots in the community garden. Several characters are developed from his association with people and their experiences, while others are completely fictional. “For me, the ancient Egyptians were right. A stroll through a community garden leaves me happy and hopeful,cheered by the sight of what we can accomplish together.” 

7. Questions for the Author:

Where did the idea for Seedfolks come from?

In a place where many of my books have started: the newspaper. I spotted an article about a local psychologist who used gardening as a therapy for her clients. I’d been looking for a setting that would bring a varied cast together. Suddenly, I realized I’d found one—not the garden in the article, but a community garden.

Are parts of the book autobiographical?

My parents were true plant people, gradually replacing the front lawn with fruit trees and even a cornfield. My mother had also volunteered in a garden at a veterans’ hospital, teaching shell- shocked soldiers how to raise plants. There’s a little of her in Nora, the nurse, and a little of me in Sam. Like him, I like to bring people together. I’m also in Kim, since my mother had recently died and I was wishing she could read the books I was writing—especially this one.

How did you choose the title?

Seedfolks is an old word for ancestors. I’d come across it somewhere in my reading and had planned to use it for a very different book—interviews with first- generation immigrants who’d planted their families in the United States. It’s a subject close to me, having two sons adopted from Mexico.

What research did you have to do?

I’ve never lived in Cleveland and have never had a plot in a community garden. So I visited gardens, took notes, asked questions. I read books on Cleveland, recent immigrants, and gardening. I remembered the melting pot neighborhoods I’d lived in Berkeley, Omaha, and Albuquerque. Writers learn how to find out what they need to know.

Why did you tell the story from many characters’ points of view?

I seem to have been born with a multitrack mind and wanted to write music rather than books when I was young. Before Seedfolks I’d written two collections of poems for two speakers. Then came Bull Run, an account of the Civil War battle from sixteen characters’ points of view, my attempt at something symphonic. That work was the first use of the form in novels for children as far as I know. It’s now commonplace because of its many advantages: Writers get to write in different voices, can show events from different perspectives, and get to present an unpredictable, kaleidoscopic surface to their readers.

8. Read Chapter 1: Kim

9. A Local Connection: The Quesada Garden Initiative, Bayview-Hunter's Point, San Francisco

Homework: "Spring Garden"

The Importance of Reading

TPG Survey: click here


Aims:

1. IWBAT explain why reading is important.
2. IWBAT explain how the brain develops, to allow us to read.
3. IWBAT state my MAP reading goal and explain how I will meet my goal.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Complete the following activities (in order):

• A: Select the correct pronoun: Pronoun Poppers 1 (mild)
• B: Select the correct pronoun: Pronoun Poppers 2 (mild)
• C: Write the correct pronoun: Pronoun Clubhouse (mild)
• D: Select the correct pronoun: Which Pronoun? (medium) 
• E: Select the correct pronoun: Battleship (mild)
• Finished early? Select the correct pronoun: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (medium)

2. Explain Why Reading Is Important: Click here for Classwork

• Mr. T's Scoop: 
• Students who read 40 minutes a day, regardless of their reading level, make much higher gains in reading growth than students who only read 15 minutes a day.
• On average, students who achieved in the 98th percentile in reading ability read about 4.5 million words in a school year, whereas students in the 10th percentile read only 8,000 words.
• To be an expert in something, you need to do it well for at least 10,000 hours. If students are practicing reading just over two hours a day, 365 days a year, for 13 years, they will reach mastery--which would be just in time for college.

3. The Videos & Articles:

• A: Justin Tuck explains the value of reading: click here
• B: Keke Palmer explains the value of reading: click here
• C:  Will Smith explains the two keys to life: click here
• D: article: "Why Reading is the Most Important Thing You Will Ever Do": click here 
• E: video(s): "Why Reading Matters": click here for part 1 and click here for part 2
• F: article: "If They Don't Read Much, How They Ever Gonna Get Good?": click here 

4. MAP Testing:

• computerized: different than paper, easy to rush
• adaptive: gets harder or easier when you answer correctly/incorrectly
• taken 2-3 times per year: assesses progress
• compares students from different schools across the country

• about 42 questions, with passages: read and reread carefully!
• 90 minutes to test: usually, the more careful you work, the better score you get
• grade in ELA: 
• A: exceeded goal
• B: met goal
• C: made some progess towards goal
• D: no progress
• F: made backwards progress
• incentives: progressive ice cream sundae (part-ay!), eternal glory

 

Homework: Pronouns #5

Want to see students' Xtranormal videos (replaying favorite scenes from books)? Click Here