Independent Novel Study #1
You are to create a way to share information about the book with your classmates. You should be reading at home and during reading time at school to complete the novel of your choice. Projects will be completed at home, but you will be given time at school on a few occasions and during independent 'KETCHUP' periods. You will have an opportunity to share your book in a creative way of your choice. The goal is to creatively captivate, entertain and inform the audience. Your presentation should include the title, description of characters, description of the setting and summarize what the book is (plot) about without revealing the ending.
Each student must show evidence of effort and creativity. All students must be prepared to present their first novel study to the class by Wednesday, December 11th/2019 As it will be impossible to complete all presentations that day, the order of presentations will be decided by pulling names out of a hat. Presentations will continue the following day. Have fun!
LANGUAGE ARTS - Curriculum and Support....
Some Great Sites to help with Literacy
http://wonderopolis.org
https://newsela.com/articles/?category=science
http://www.dogonews.com/
http://www.learnalberta.ca/Search.aspx?search=bookflix&grade&subject&lang=en
http://www.readworks.org/
Check out: http://wegivebooks.com/
A great site to read fiction and NON-FICTION books! Free! Practice your reading comprehension skills! Plus, every book you read = 1 donated book to a classroom or student in need! (http://wegivebooks.com/about)
This year we will closely examine 3 Types of writing through our Empowering Writer's Unit.
1. EXPOSITORY WRITING (Non-Fiction Writing)
Follow the steps below:
1. TOPIC (E.g. Chilean Rose Hair Tarantulas)
INTRODUCTION - Lead Sentence (E.g. You may fear spiders, think they're creepy or just plain not like them. So why would you like like a tarantula? Learning about the Chilean Rose hair tarantula may change your opinion...)
2. Main Idea #1 (E.g. Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula as a pet)3-4 supporting details
3. Main Idea #2 (E.g. Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula's diet)
3-4 supporting details
4. Main Idea #3 (E.g. Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula's behaviour)
3-4 supporting details
2. Narrative Writing (Story Writing) - Year end PATS!!!
http://education.alberta.ca/media/824888/04_ela6%20mark%20narrative%20exemp%202007.pdf
(PAT Samples)
1. Big Bang Beginning
Sound (Wham! Whoosh! Bang! etc.)
Action
Dialogue ("I can't believe what just happened!"
Story Question (Is it possible that...?, Max wondered to himself.)
2. Describe (Elaborative Detail) critical story components
Characters
Important Objects
Settings
3. Provide Suspense building details
Use of red flag words (E.g. A moment later, in teh blink of an eye, instantly...etc.)
word referents "hints" (Prior to revealing an object, character etc. use hints... E.g. man with an eye patch, sandy beard, stump for a leg...Pirate!)
Story questions
4. Organization
event should make sense
problem should be established
problem should be resolved in a way that makes sense
5. Word choice and word variety
remember to choose interesting words and a variety of them throughout your story to keep the reder interested
E.g. instead of saying small to describe a creature - use a more interesting word - tiny, almost ant-sized critter OR the tiny creature could fit in the palm of a human hand
6. Punctuation
Think back to (Every Day Edit) always edit for proper spelling, punctuation (periods, capitals, comma, quotations etc.)
3. Newspaper Writing ( aka 'Functional Writing') - Year end PATS!!!
PAT Samples
http://education.alberta.ca/media/824884/02%20fun%20ela6_mark_func_exemp2008.pdf
1. HEADLINE (usually 6 words or less - LARGE AND BOLDED - "Eye-catching")
2. Secondary Headline (Bolded) - provides reader with information about the headline/article)
3. By-line (By: Jack Namath)
4. Lead: attention grabbing sentence that grabs the readers attention! (Often in the form of a question, quote or statement - which helps set the "Tone" of the article)
5. 5W's: (Opening Paragraph must include the Who, What, Where, When, Why)
6. Most Important facts.
7. Less important facts
Remember, your article should emphasize 'Tone' throughout.
What is 'Tone' - The message of your article in your own voice! You're simply reporting the 5W's and the important information. But you want to report this info in a way which is captivating and interesting to read. The 'tone' captures your voice through the feeling you communicate! Happy, exciting, sad, fascinating - whatever emotion you wish to communicate you must do so through your writing!
Great ways to create 'tone' include: the use of quotes, questions, wesbites and powerful statements! (Read the PAT samples in the above link and try to identify how the 'exemplary' article displayed tone throughout their article on 'National Forest Week')
Writing Sites
http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/news/index.htm
http://www.fodey.com/generators/newspaper/snippet.asp
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READING KEYS TO SUCCESS (Strategies that GOOD READERS DO/USE!)
- Visualizing (Create a picture in your head about what you are reading)
- Making Text Connections
Text-Self (Does this remind me of something in my life?)
Text-Text (Does this remind me of another character, setting, problem, book...)
Text to World (Does this remind me of real world problems, issues, social justice...?)
Text - Media (Does this remind me of a movie, TV show, song, videogame?)
Summarizing (I'll say to myself the important parts I've read so far and organize those parts into a few simple concise sentences/points.)
Retelling ( I'll say to myself what I've read in my own words.)
Predicting (I will name the problem, give a solution to the problem and give a reason for why I think this will happen!)
Monitoring (I will make sure that what I am reading makes sense... I'll re-read and find target a.k.a. 'important words')
Empathizing ( I'll use my imagination to feel what someone else is feeling - "putting yourself in someone elses shoes")
Elaborating ( I'll add information to what I've read using my own background knowledge a.ka. "what I already know")
Inferencing ( Understanding ideas in a book that the author hasn't even said... We call this "reading between the lines"
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Good Writing Sites
http://www.studentreasures.com
http://www.tech4learning.com/wixie
http://www.studentpublishing.com
Editing
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/edit.shtml (Every day editing lessons)
Writing Paragraphs
http://home.merlin.mb.ca/~dfalk/jerome.html
http://www.mysterydigest.com/ (Mystery Writing)
Grammar
http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/adverbs.htm
http://www.blackgold.ab.ca/ict/Divison2/Grammar.htm
http://www.eastoftheweb.com/cgi-bin/top_scores.pl?game=multieight
http://fen.com/studentactivities/WallOfWords/wow19.html (Wall of words - Sentence Building/Organizing Practice)
Figures of Speech (Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Alliteration, Onomatopoeia)
http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=952a85e8-8da9-472f-b7a4-12de890dd50d (Figurative Language examples)
http://exchange.smarttech.com/details.html?id=96b418a7-e48a-41e1-94c0-4c9b3e4cee47
Poetry
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/poetry/printable/5418.html (Shape Poetry)
http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/student-interactives/theme-poems-30044.html (Various Poem Practice)
http://www.writeshop.com/blog/2008/09/10/writing-diamante-poem/ (Diamante)
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/m-limerick.htm (Limerick)
http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html?q=%22Haiku%22 (Haiku)
http://www.poetry4kids.com/ (Poetry)***
http://www.gigglepoetry.com/poetryclass/limerickcontesthelp.html (Limerick)