Oral Language

The oral language curriculum includes creating and presenting oral language material (like presenting a dream vacation, as students did earlier this year) and also the skill of taking note of a speaker's key points.

Through this year I have been the speaker, telling stories of my life (like how I prepared for my job interview to be a teacher, for instance) and as I speak, students are asked to jot down the key thoughts that they hear, then share at the end. I have also sometimes asked for them to identify the most important point...this, in turn, is the main idea.

Being able to jot down the key points of a speaker is a skill we use later in life...at high-school, college, university and work environments (I still use this skill at meetings!).

This builds on skills taught earlier in the year in reading...namely, trying to find the key points in a non fiction text...and underlining or highlighting then.

Besides myself, I have included other 'speaker' material. Once again, the interent is able to provide a diverse and interesting material.

Here are some of the speaker's we have listened to:

TED Talks
Kevin Allocca from YouTube "Why do Videos Go Viral"
Erik Johanson, photographer "Impossible Photography"
Charlie Todd from Improv Everywhere "The Shared Experience of the Absurd"

YouTube
How Matt Harding Got People to Dance With Him  for which you should probably watch his around the world dance video first. 
How Mystery Guitar Man made the 4 iPhones video puzzle
How Freddiew made the special effects in 'Skydiving out my Front Door"
Ross Capicchioni Survival Story Part 1 and Part 2 (a teen in detroit survives a shooting. This is an amazing story of strength in the wake of adversity; dealing with stress; the importance of positivity in life)

National Film Board of Canada
The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes

Reminder to Parents: Online Writing Portfolio!

Dear Parents,

Students have now completed three major writing assignments. Each assignment built on the last, with the techniques and form growing more specific. Each writing assignment came with very specific expectations outlined. These clear criteria were always handed out to students and posted within the classroom.

Assignment #1 -- a game review
Assignment #2 -- a movie review (Romeo & Juliet related)
Assignment #3 -- a review of a game, movie or book of student choice

These assignments incorporated the full writing process: brainstorming with graphic organizers, drafting a first copy submitted for teacher feedback, and then creating a final draft based on feedback.

The first two assignments are on line. The third has been recently marked...and will be coming soon!

Many students showed progress over time.  Looking these samples over, you will likely note growth in the use of transition words (ie: using lead ins like 'first, next, then' (and others) to organize points for the reader), specific details, diverse word choice, sentence variety, and clear(er) explanations/reasoning.

These particular writing skills (transition words to organize, being specific, choosing 'wow' words, not being repetitive, editing for clarity, etc) are adaptable to many different writing forms, not just the review. This process is also adaptable to reading...in the sense that you would apply the same skills to answering reading comprehension questions...

I chose to focus specifically on the review, however, because I like how reviews include an expository section (summary/explanation) and also persuasive paragraphs (opinion section supported by proof)--both expository and persuasive writing are very common in high school--and real life.

A review makes a comfortable arena for practising these skills because it is very familiar to us as a 'real world' writing genre...we read reviews all the time in real life.

These final reviews needed to include a clear, detailed summary section, an opinion section with three clear criteria, and a personal connection section (the three beef patties, to use my hamburger analogy). They needed an intriguing introduction at the top (top bun) and a short conclusion recapping main points and rating at the bottom (bottom bun). The opinion section needed to have three, clear criteria, well reasoned and supported by specific examples.

If you would like to see these writing samples, please click HERE. And remember, there are more to come as the third sample gets added soon! So remember to check back!

YouTube as Teaching Tool

Honestly, I don't know what I'd do with out youtube.com! I use this site for all sorts of literacy learning...as writing prompts (prompts for summaries and main ideas of narratives, study of character, making connections)...we've used it for poetry, lyrics, music videos ('visual poems'), media interpretations of Poe stories and Romeo & Juliet...really, the list is endless!

Lately I took to youtube again to source out commercials. Part of the media literacy curriculum for Gr. 7 and 8 is to interprete how media makes meaning...for example, how images/music are used to convey a particular mood or idea.

There is a list in the sidebar of commercials that we have thus far reviewed. We have defined what is being sold, who the  audience is (aka demographic), what mood or feeling is being connected to the product through the images/text/music (typically, a sense of satisfaction, perfection) and then providing specific proof from the commercial to support that connection.

"Use Irish Spring and you can
be urber-sexy like me!"

Some are very obvious (If a man uses Irish Spring, he is apparently instantly attractive to women! For example, in the commercial we see women swooning over a guy using Irish Spring body wash, and in fact he is so unbelievably sexy/hot, lighting stikes! Wow! So Irish Spring is supposed to = instant sex appeal!).

But others, like the Pes shoe commercial, are more subtle in their approach. In this video, Wear these shoes and you can be magically powerful and an awesome skateboarder! For example, we see that the boy wearing the shoes has been transformed into a skateboard! So if we buy those shoes we will also experience power and originality! Or so the ad would have us to believe...

Commercial are meant, at the heart of it, to manipulate us...to convince us that we NEED that product (to be attractive, to be original, to be creative, to be...FILL IN THE BLANK) which means they should be watched with a critical eye...but they are also creative art in their own right and should be appreciated as such.

Lyrics Poems and Visual Poems aka Music Videos!

We are well now well into our lyrics/poem unit and I must say, this has got to be my favourite unit of the year! This is for a number of reasons.

First of all, I love making connections to real world literacies! Poetry is all around us, for example, on the radio and our mp3 players! Also, I really love how students are making connections between old and new: poets of 1800's connect to poets/lyricists of today. I also love discussing metaphor, symbolism, imagery... as written in texts and as expressed through visual means (like in a music video or a 'visual poem' interpretation). I have pushed students to 'think deep' about what is being constructed for them both in songs and on TV.

Last summer I create a website that gave examples of lessons that combined modern day lyrics, old fashioned 'traditional' poetry,  music videos, and youtube visual interpretations of poems. This site is called lyrics.poplit.net. I have built upon that premise in this unit, using more variety and more current examples.

Our focus has been on determining key words and 'main idea', determining mood, point of view, discovering and explaining figurative language, and creating personal connections to the texts. We often compared the text/poem/lyric to a visual version, assessing whether the visuals chosen were a 'good or bad' representation of text meaning.

Before we got started, I asked students for input regarding favourite songs/lyrics/artists and I incorporated these into my plans.

So far, here's what we've done:

The 'Hope/Survival/Personal Strength' Playlist

Katy Perry's 'Part of Me' & music video (where upon Katy 'shows' her strength by joining the marines! The visual thus acts as a metaphor/simile of the song's main idea which is her personal strength in getting over a break up...In visual form, she is as strong as a marine, running through obstacle course, lifting logs, etc)

This song was compared with the more 'traditional' poem, Emily Dickenson's Hope is A Thing With Feathers, and with additional lyrics: Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive, Mac Miller's Live Free (clean edit) and Eminem's Lose Yourself (clean edit).

The Grade 8's spent some extra time with Eminem's Lose Yourself lyrics. Whatever you may think of Eminem, his writing is deft, playful bordering on cheeky (sometimes bordering on crude...but that's not the case in these particular lyrics) and full of figurative language and imagery. We spent some time with the line:

tetter totter, caught up between being a father and a prima donna

to explore how the image of the tetter totter provides clarity into his struggle between fatherhood and stardom.

The words provide the image in our minds which then clarifies the idea or adds to the mood as we bring our own associations to it. 

The 'Choose Wisely' Playlist

We started by looking at Coolio's 1990's hit 'Gangster's Paradise', comparing it to the video (which is mostly from the 1995 movie Dangerous Minds). When we look at a video, I ask students to make a list of all the images they see. Then we compare the images to what we have already discovered about the lyrics...does it match? how well does it reflect the mood or main idea?

We went through the lyrics closely, documenting all the aspects Coolio lists about gangster life, and came up with this main idea (as one student succinctly put it): 'being a gangster ain't no paradise!'.

The general consensus with the video is that it did represent the song very well...though some students disliked the pacing (too fast!), which is another component of media (and one which students have explored themselves in their own media creations in Frames 4...but I'll save that for a separate blog post!). 

The scene where Coolio removes the sunglasses off the boy, we realize that this is meant to represent the removal of the gangster life. The sunglasses are a symbol of gangster life and Coolio is saying he doesn't want that for the boy.

We then compared this lyric to Percy Shelly's 'traditional' poem 'Ozymandias'. (We stopped briefly to look up Shelly on wikipedia, as we do with all the poets we study). Again, we read this poem closely and I drew a little comic on the board, showing two legs, a face half buried in sand and the speech bubble that said: "I am Ozymandias, the mighty!" to which a student cried out: "not so mighty now! HA!"...which sums that poem up exactly...where did his 'sneer of cold command' get him? Like the gangster in Coolio's song...his life ends, he becomes buried in the sands of time...was his cruelty and violence worth it? Did his power last? (No!)

There are some really great 'remakes' of Shelly's poem on youtube...we watched the one where the face in the sand slowly erodes as the waves wash in...a great visual interpretation of the impermanence of life. 

We then briefly looked at Red Hot Chili Peppers "Under The Bridge', which I have asserted is 'the best visual poem ever created' (students are welcome to prove me wrong!). In these lyrics, the lead singer documents the lowest moment of his life, and how he turned away from that negative choice (awesomely represented visual in the video by showing him running away from an explosion...or as one student put it 'it is like he is running away from death'). 

The 'Everybody Hurts' Playlist

We looked at the Nelly Furtado/K'Naan's song 'Anybody Out There?'and 'Bad Day' by Daniel Powter, again comparing the lyrics to the videos. These two songs are very similar in concept, but the main idea (and thus the ending to the videos) is very different and has a very different message. One ends with hope and connection, the other, with continued isolation. We started to get even more precise in our observations: for example, Nelly and K'Naan are wearing very dark clothing, and kakhi/army like clothing...how does that contribute to the representation of the lyrics? etc.

We also looked at again at 'Under the Bridge'--which documents a feeling of loneliness and isolation (and taking comfort from a sense of place/location). One student asked 'why isn't he wearing a shirt?' (the lead singer is shirtless for a large part of the video) to which I asked what that would symbolism: a few answers: 'freedom, exposure'. And how did that relate to the lyrics, hmmm?

Looking at the video encourages students to look even more closely at the related text to analyze, compare and then ultimately judge how well it is being interpreted in images.

I love all the 'deep thinking' going on in this unit!

Next up! Lyrics as Narrative: songs & poems that tell stories! This will include The Cremation of Sam McGee (Robert Service) and The Devil Went Down to Georgia (Charlie Daniels Band), as well as Skater Boy (Avril Lavigne) and Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen).

Interviewing Kevin McGill!

Today we had the pleasure of speaking with author Kevin McGill via Skype!

Like with previous guest speakers, students paired up to create interview questions, with one student asking the question at the Skype event, and the other student writing them down (oral language curriculum: speaking in a clear coherent manner AND taking notes to record key points of a speaker).

Kevin was a participant last year in my J/I Boy's Literacy Event held here at Goodfellow. He co-created guyscanread.com with buddy Luke Navarro (who was a guest speaker with our class in the fall, when we were writing our game reviews!) Kevin is the author of a teen fantasy novel 'Nikolas & Company: The Merman and the Moon Forgotten'. He recently sent his book into space! Check out the video!



Want to know how Kevin got the book down from the tree? Want to why Kevin decided to send his book into space? Want to know why he used a balloon instead of a rocket? How about what his favourite book is? We found out about that, and more...

To document today's interview session, I have created a prezi at prezi.com. Check it out to see what we found out! THANKS KEVIN FOR JOING OUR CLASS TODAY!

More About Narratives! A GUEST SPEAKER! Plus: Review Writing!

NARRATIVE HOT WRITES

We have completed our short story unit but continue to work with narratives in other ways, for example, by doing 'hot writes' (5 minute writing bursts) which focus on describing in specific detail a character or setting for the other students to guess.

Students have had a lot of fun with this activity.

They have also created 'characters from scratch' as a hot write, in other words, just describing a character for us to picture in our 'minds eye'. Some fun figurative language has naturally arisen in these writing exercises (like 'he smells like a pickle' or 'he has a beard like ZZ Top".)

NARRATIVES AS MEDIA

Rather than writing full short stories, which is a bit time consuming, students are creating short animations using the Frames 4 program. They are to write/show a narrative: it must have character, setting and--and this is the tricky part--a plot, complete with a problem and a solution. Students in this class are endlessly creative at manipulating images and coming up with unique ideas and images...but the next challenge for them is to put those images into a context that tells a story. And, of course, as a media project, they are expected to adjust pacing so it is appropriate and also to add appropriate text and music to support the narrative tale.

Also, as a media project, students are taking the idea of 'character description' and applying it to themselves, creating Who Am I? powerpoint, prezi.com or Frames 4 video. They are to describe 4 to 5 points about themselves, and include pictures...then, eventually, we will watch these and try to guess who in the class they describe!

GUEST SPEAKER! KEVIN MCGILL TO VISIT OUR CLASSROOM!

Kevin McGill,  writer of the teen fantasy novel Nikolas & Company, is going to be our guest speaker via Skype! I hope to have this occur this Friday! Recently, Kevin launched his book into space...yes, you read that correctly! He LAUNCHED HIS BOOK INTO SPACE! And we watched this video of it. As with previous guest speakers, like Luke Navarro and Chris Simon, students will be creating interview questions and 'acting like reporters' as they interview Kevin this Friday.

Kevin is also co-creator of the Guys Can Read website and podcast (along with Luke Navarro), where he reviews books, and thus can also speak to our ongoing review writing, which is the last and final point of this blog entry...

REVIEW WRITING: LAST MAJOR ASSIGNMENT!

With our short story study session completed, we will be spending quite a bit of class time on our final large writing assignment, the third in our non-fiction persuasive essays. Near the beginning of the year, students wrote a review about video games...then, in the winter, students wrote a review about one of the Romeo & Juliet movies...now, they have a choice, writing a review on either a video game, movie or book of their choice.

These are multi paragraph essays that comprise a summary section, an opinion section and a personal connection (I call these 'triple decker hamburgers' because there are three 'meat patties' aka paragraphs in the middle of two buns (an 'introduction' bun on top and a 'conclusion' bun on the bottom). As usual, students are working on including specific examples, transition words, a variety of sentences, a 'hook' to capture the readers attention (ie: by using a question as an opener).

If you are interested in seeing some of these great reviews, I have a STUDENT ON LINE PORTFOLIO that includes most of the game and movie reviews completed thus far.

As always, any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Financial Literacy, Oral Language & Media

As an oral language project, students recently created a presentation...documenting a dream trip.

This task involved: a) internet research skills b) financial skills (calculating total costs based on real world amounts), c) preparing a media presentation (using the medium of their choice: Frames 4, Prezi, PowerPoint or old fashioned bristol board) and d) oral language skills (speaking to the topic using appropriate terms, clear loud voice, etc)

Students were given 'an unlimited budget' for a long weekend getaway (approximate time frame) that required air flight. They were to research flight times and costs, as well as hotel costs, and transportation at the destination. They were to plan an itinerary (things they planned to do), with incidental expenses included as needed. The total cost of their getaway was to be included (in Canadian dollars). Pictures were also to be included.

Some of the places we have visited so far include Banff, Las Vegas, Cancun, Madagascar, Paris, and Moscow. We are not quite finished, and have a few more places yet to travel to...

With each presentation, we have been noting the 'total costs' of each trip on chart paper. Our final task, once all the presentations are completed, is to look at minimum wage in Ontario and calculate how many hours it would take to work and save for each trip's final tally. Just to put some of these dream trips into perspective!

Here are photos from some of today's presentations!

Narratives...and more!

We have finally moved into a new area of reading study...narratives! This is partly as preparation for our CASI assessments in late April (CASI's are board wide reading comprehension assessment tools performed three times through out the year...the proceeding two were non-fiction, this time it will be fiction). Partly, it is also so we can deepen our discussion (started in our Romeo & Juliet study) about fiction texts.

Our focus will be on:

-explaining the characteristics of narratives and providing specific examples (of character, setting and plot).

-explaining the traits of characters (through stated and implied information) and connecting those traits to evidence in the text

-summarizing important ideas (key events of a plot, using strategies like first/next/then, who/wants/but/so or beginning/middle/end)

-determining the main idea/theme of a text, citing evidence from the text to support your opinion

We have already done quite a bit of work on SUMMARIZING...and CITING EVIDENCE FROM THE TEXT TO SUPPORT YOUR OPINION. These were key components of our last two major writing assignments....in both our video game and movie/play reviews.

In our writing assignments, I have hammered home the concept of SPECIFIC DETAILS OR EXAMPLES.  I'm hoping, by the end of this year, that I will have ingrained in student memory the high importance of being SPECIFIC, of grounding your writing responses, to whatever it may be--wether a text, movie, game, whatever--in the CONCRETE DETAILS provided there in. The more specific you are, the stronger your point/opinion/answer.  Being specific = clarity. Clarity = good communication.

Good communication is fundamentally what literacy study is all about. Understanding what others have written and in turn writing to be understood.

In our study of narratives, we started with an excerpt from the Hunger Games and are currently reading a modernized version of the Edgar Allen Poe story 'The Cask of Amontillado'. We will be reading additional short stories to examine the above concepts.

And the flip side to reading...is always WRITING!

Time permitting, I'm hoping to cap this unit off with student's exploring their own narratives through short fiction writing.

Also, narratives will be included as an option for the final persuasive writing assignment in mid April--a multi-paragraph persuasive essay/review. Students will be writing a review on a video game, movie --or narrative--of their choice as a way to exemplify and consolidate the skills we have been working on with the previous two reviews.

R&J Drama/Art Projects

One of the final assignments for our Romeo & Juliet unit, before March Break, was to choose a drama or art project from the list. This included such things as drama interpretation of the play, or a scene or scenes (in 5 minutes!), fashion design (designing clothes or a charm bracelet for a character or characters), creating a rap or song about the play, or drawing a picture book or comic (among other choices). Students could also come up with their own option...as a pair of students did, making an animation of the Tybalt/Romeo fight (see below)

I know we were a bit pressed for time, but most students were able to come up with very interesting material and thus demonstrate knowledge of the play.



I also quite enjoyed the interpretative drama performance that put the story of R&J in Gingerbread land with unicorns, or the imaginative 'Juliet & Romeo' version, where everything was opposite...

Here are some photos of other R&J themed pieces: Facebook entries, costume design, and charm bracelets...

Showcasing Student Writing!

I am finally getting to this project, which has been on my mind for a while...an online class writing portfolio!

This is partly for parents, so they can see student work. I currently don't send home completed writings. Instead students keep all their writing in one book/folder, so they can notice progress and trends in their work over time. It's important to keep all this work, as part of the reflection process inherent in writing. This writing book will go home at the end of the year (but in the meantime, check out a few samples on the online portfolio!)

This is also for students, so they have a broader audience for their writing...it isn't just for the teacher, you know! Your parents, your peers, and other educators (who are, frankly, curious and intrigued by some of the projects we have been doing, like the gaming reviews!) might like to see what's going on, the different writing styles, opinions and approaches.

And knowing you will be 'published' for a wider audience is a great motivator!

This online portfolio is really no different than hanging class work in the hallway...though it allows parents and others easier access. They don't have to come to the school physically to view it!

Please note that I keep it quite private, however, in the sense that I only use student initials and I do not include grades or teacher comments. That is private to the individual. If parents would like to discuss the work on display in more detail, please do not hesitate to contact me!

Also please keep in mind that this is a work in progress...I do not yet have all students, or all examples, on the site. I will email parents once this is more conclusive.

I just wanted to explain and share the idea!

Regards,
Julie Johnson

Revised Due Dates

With the two snow days from last week, the skiing trip this week, and the assembly on Weds. morning (which eats into most of our literacy block), I've changed the due dates for the R&J projects. Hoping to have all projects and assignments completed for end of day Thursday but Friday will also do.

I would like all assignments handed in before March Break!

"The Mushroom is Bathazar!"

Yesterday we finished watching Gnomeo & Juliet and it was very interesting to hear student observations about this movie after having studied Romeo & Juliet and watched the 1996 film version of Romeo + Juliet.

Students made all kinds of fabulous comparisons! Some were obvious...the rival families are now red and blue garden gnomes, Tybalt is still an angry and vengeful Tybalt, 'Benny' is Benvolio, the street brawl scene is now a lawn mower race, the  ending is happier and no one dies!...

And then there were the subtler observations:

The frog is like the Nurse...
Instead of swords or guns they fight with lawn mowers...
The flamengo is like Friar Lawrence...
The cutting of the flower is like Mercutio being stabbed...
The mushroom is Bathazar, Romeo's loyal friend....

And many more...

Students were very observant and detailed in making comparisons between the two. Almost every scene brought a round of 'what does this represent', 'what part of the play is this', 'who is missing' and 'who is this character supposed to be?'. Great!

Afterwards, we read a movie review, discussing (and justifying) our own opinion of the movie in comparison to what this reviewer said. Students were (and are) encouraged to provide *very specific* details to support their reasoning, referencing examples/evidence from the film/play.

Students will soon be writing their own movie reviews, choosing either this one or the 1996 film starring Leonardo Di Caprio.

I look forward to reading these!

Back on Track!

Whew! Am I glad to be back! For those that don't know, I was ill for an entire week with a terrible stomach virus. Not only was this very unpleasant for me personally, but it delayed some of the Romeo & Juliet activities I wanted to get to!

My goal is still to have two assignments completed before March Break:

1. writing assignment (a movie review (click to download or view), that includes a comparison between the play and either Romeo + Juliet (1996),  Gnomio & Juliet, or West Side Story) GOOD COPY DUE WEDS MARCH 7th

2. a drama/art project which involves students demonstrating an understanding of the play (character, plot) through a project of their choice (such as creating a picture book, comic book, flipbook, dramatic interpretation, commercial, soundtrack, rap song...etc) (click here to download or view assignment options document) *please note, a project checklist will be provided to students in class  DUE MONDAY MARCH 5th for presentation

These are still on the agenda! But to make that happen, I have had to 'speed up' our approach to the play. This means we will not be able to do all the Character related Facebook entries I had hoped to do, or the closer words-in-context studies using Shakespeare in Bits. :(

Right now, we are focusing on completing our understanding of the play, by filling out our R&J question booklet (click to download or view). Next, we will be watching the various movies and looking at a variety of movie reviews (written by actual 'real life' reviewers) as preparation for writing our own reviews. Students should be choosing their drama/art project by this coming Monday! (and we'll be taking a look at some projects created at other schools or by other people, as evidenced on youtube...these are in the links sections in the sidebar!).

That should, hopefully, get us back on track!

Please let me know if you have any questions!