Tell us a story! What are you doing? What are you thinking? What does your world look like now that you are home?
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Based on your Thursday’s gallery walk, research, and today’s picture books, reflect upon the following in at least 150 words:
Take one of the beginnings of the short story starters that we worked on in class over the last two weeks and finish the story.
Remember, in order for it to be a sci-fi short story, it should have:
Write a 6-8 sentence summary in which you identify the following about the book you are currently reading outside of class:
1. What is the TAG? 2. Who is the protagonist? 3. What is the setting? 4. Who are the other important characters? 5. What is the conflict 6. Do you like the book? Why or why not? The recent weather might make you excited for winter or sad that fall is coming to an end. Regardless of your stance on the snowy days ahead, I thought that the change in weather would provide a great muse for our blog posts this week. In this blog post, I challenge you to write a poem (yes, a poem!) about snow. It could be in any poetic form, but make sure that it makes sense overall. Ready for a challenge with poetry? Try to include a few examples of figurative language (metaphor, simile, personification, alliteration, etc) that you might remember from 6th grade too! Check out Billy Collins' poem below if you want to see an example of a poem that wows!
Snow Day BY BILLY COLLINS Today we woke up to a revolution of snow, its white flag waving over everything, the landscape vanished, not a single mouse to punctuate the blankness, and beyond these windows the government buildings smothered, schools and libraries buried, the post office lost under the noiseless drift, the paths of trains softly blocked, the world fallen under this falling. In a while, I will put on some boots and step out like someone walking in water, and the dog will porpoise through the drifts, and I will shake a laden branch sending a cold shower down on us both. But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house, a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow. I will make a pot of tea and listen to the plastic radio on the counter, as glad as anyone to hear the news that the Kiddie Corner School is closed, the Ding-Dong School, closed. the All Aboard Children’s School, closed, the Hi-Ho Nursery School, closed, along with—some will be delighted to hear-- the Toadstool School, the Little School, Little Sparrows Nursery School, Little Stars Pre-School, Peas-and-Carrots Day School the Tom Thumb Child Center, all closed, and—clap your hands—the Peanuts Play School. So this is where the children hide all day, These are the nests where they letter and draw, where they put on their bright miniature jackets, all darting and climbing and sliding, all but the few girls whispering by the fence. And now I am listening hard in the grandiose silence of the snow, trying to hear what those three girls are plotting, what riot is afoot, which small queen is about to be brought down. Billy Collins, “Snow Day” from Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (New York: Random House, 2001). Copyright © 2001 by Billy Collins. Reprinted with the permission of Sll/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Source: Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (Random House Inc., 2001) In 150 words or more, which The Outsiders character can you relate to most: Ponyboy? Johnny? Dally? Randy? Bob? Cherry? Darry? Sodapop? Two-Bit? Steve? Use two pieces of evidence from The Outsiders to support your response.  The Syracuse Post-Standard has published the beginning of a short story, written by Bruce Coville (of Bunnicula fame), and has asked its readers to finish it. Your blog assignment is to do just that. First, you'll need to read Coville's story starter at the link below:
www.syracuse.com/living/2019/09/bruce-coville-halloween-writing-contest-2019-room-213.html Publish the ending to your short story here in the comments to this blog post for blog credit. Your ending needs to be at least 150 words. You should be sure to resolve the conflict in the story and have it fit Coville's writing style thus far as well. **Extra credit: If you submit your story ending to the actual contest via email and copy (CC) me on the email ([email protected]), I will give you a homework pass for a future blog post. You can use your JD email account or a personal account. See me if you're not sure how to do this by Wednesday, 10/8. Here are the directions to submit via email: Include your name, address, age, grade and a phone number where you can be reached on your entry. You can submit an entry via email at [email protected]. Be sure to include CNY Halloween Contest in the subject line. The deadline is noon on Thursday, October 10. Two years ago, Luke Cantone WON the contest in 7th grade! As promised to him, if you win the whole contest, I will excuse you from blog posts for the rest of the year. If you get an honorable mention, you will earn an additional homework pass for the year. Best of luck! Think about your personality and the way that your friends would describe you. Choose two character traits (not physical traits) that could describe you and explain using evidence. Challenge yourself to use good vocabulary when choosing your character traits (i.e. instead of "nice," use "affable").
Be sure to proofread your response and make sure it meets the 150 word minimum for this week. Beware of being too repetitive and remember, no text language. Hi, 6th graders! Welcome to Mrs. Palmisano's blog. Each week, I post a question here and seventh graders respond. It's a great way to share your ideas. Please answer the following question in complete sentences: 1. What was your favorite book this school year that you read? Be sure to provide the title, genre, and author of the book. 2. Why was it your favorite? Explain. My post: One of my favorite books this year was Wishtree, a fantasy book by Katherine Applegate. It was my favorite because I liked how some of the the main characters were animals and trees. It was interesting to think about all of the changes a tree has "seen" over many years. I also thought the theme was very important. It was an inspiring book about helping others and treating people how you would like to be treated. I would highly recommend it to you if you haven't read it yet! If you have read it, did you like it? :-)  For this week's blog post, I've written a poem for you to read. After you're done reading the poem, your assignment is to add a stanza (or more) of your own to it that reflects your 7th grade year. You can focus on ELA class or any part of your 7th grade experience. Your stanza needs to be at least 4 lines long and you should challenge yourself to incorporate at least one example of figurative language within it.
Where We're From We are from JDMS, House 2, Room 203, We are from notebooks and binders, Pencils that quickly run out of lead, Books that are dog-eared and loved, Bookmarks and blog entries. We are from burgundy lockers, Their doors slamming through the hallways, Scuffed up by abusive kicks, "Do you have the locker key?" Echoes through the corridor. We are from ISNs and FPs, Writing pieces that were never finished, Digital portfolios that are still being polished, Reading records that cite our progress. We are from impromptu speeches, Debates that go on and on and on, Literature circles and reading workshops, Heroes like Ponyboy and Moana. We are from Miran's relentless questions, Leo's stealth missions to destroy Mrs. Stillitano's technology, Kool-Aid and pretzels in poetry cafe, and "it's not about the cake." We are from 68 vocabulary words, The arduous task of learning all of them, rueful when we get one wrong and indignant when losing dictionary races. We are from "borrowed" pencils, Notecards and research envelopes, Library visits and computer carts, Conferences and deadlines. We are from room 203, House 2, JDMS. |
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