Writing Unit

Overview: The writing class serves as an extension of our reading class but as the course title suggests it is a writing class and our main focuses will be on creating various genres and styles of writing, grammar, vocabulary, word usage, and punctuation. In addition, we will work on finding our own distinctive voice ( style) of writing and refining our word choice for our writing. As we begin each new piece writing, we will go through the writing process such as brainstorming, drafting, peer editing, conferencing and revision.

CCSS

W9-10 3a-3f :Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation,
establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or
characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.
b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple
plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.
c. Use a variety of techniques to sequence events so that they build on one another to
create a coherent whole.
d. Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid
picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.
e. Provide a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed,
or resolved over the course of the narrative.
f. Adapt voice, awareness of audience, and use of language to accommodate a variety

W9-10 2a-2f Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

a. Introduce a topic; organize complex ideas, concepts, and information to make
important connections and distinctions; include formatting (e.g., headings), graphics
(e.g., figures, tables), and multimedia when useful to aiding comprehension.
b. Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions,
concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the
audience’s knowledge of the topic.
c. Use appropriate and varied transitions to link the major sections of the text, create
cohesion, and clarify the relationships among complex ideas and concepts.
d. Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the
topic.
e. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms
and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
f. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the
information or explanation presented (e.g., articulating implications or the significance of the topic).

W 9-10 1a-1e Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. Explore and inquire into areas of interest to formulate an argument.

a. Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims,
and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among claim(s),
counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly, supplying evidence for each while pointing
out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audience’s
knowledge level and concerns.
c. Use words, phrases, and clauses to link the major sections of the text, create cohesion,
and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and
evidence, and between claim(s) and counterclaims.
d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms
and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.
e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented.

Assessments:

1. Well-crafted vignette
2. A well-developed personal narrative with a distinctive voice and style
3. An expository essay based on research
4. A literary analysis
5. A well-supported argument paper based on various readings on the topic and with a clear claim

Lesson 1

Objectives: Students will be able to understand the essence of a vignette

Aim: How do we characterize and define a vignette?

Text: The House on Mango Street

Learning Sequence:

1. Review the agenda
2. What do you know about vignette?
3. Read a sample vignette by Sandra Cisneros -“the 1st chapter ” The House on Mango Street”
4. Read the chapter and Turn-Talk to a partner about the chapter:

• What’s the chapter about?
• What do you know about the house? Is there a specific purpose the author portrays the house in the way it’s written?
• Is it a kind of narrative you are used to? In what ways is it different? Identify some  distinctive characteristics in the vignette.
• Would you have described your house in the same way?

Application: Write a vignette about your house.

Wrap-up: Share one sentence of the vignette you have written about your house.

Closing: Vignette writing is descriptive and to observe things from a unique perspective. It is impressionistic and yet delivers a special meaning about the subject. It is not about a complete report of an event but a captured moment.

Lesson 2

Objectives: Students will be able to use a unique perspective to write a narrative about their lives. They will use descriptive language and the technique of synecdoche.

Aim: How do we use the technique of synecdoche to write a narrative?

Learning Sequence:

1. Agenda
2. Quick Write review
3. Discuss “House on Mango Street”- a) What aspect of life does Cisneros describe  in the chapter? b) Why and how does she use the element of “house” to approach her life? c) Is she successful in telling her life story?

.Homework: Use the techniques of synecdoche to revise your own vignette.

Lesson 3

Objectives: Students will be able to use more author’s purpose to refine the selection of details included in the vignette.

Aim: How do we use the purpose of writing to shape the structure and refine the selection of details included in the writing?

cc Standards:

W9-10 3a-3f :Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

9-10 3b. Use narrative techniques, such as dialogue, pacing, description, reflection, and multiple
plot lines, to develop experiences, events, and/or characters.

Texts: The House on Mango Street- “Hair” and “Laughter” chapters

Learning Sequence:

1. Review standards
2. Share vignette in pairs and peer comment
3. Choose one line or two  from your partner’s vignette and share with the class.
4. Guess the purpose of your partner’s vignette.
5. Identify the pacing of your partner’s writing.
6. Read the two chapters  “Hairs” and ” laughter” and identify the usage of details. Respond: how would you describe the pacing in each vignette? How is it created?

Closing: Read your vignette and jot down two ideas of how you would change the pace of the writing.

Homework: Write a 2nd vignette on any subject of your choice. Revise the first vignette. Due Friday.

Lesson 4

Objectives: Students will be to understand and use a variety of punctuation and syntax in the vignette.

Aim: What’s syntax? How does it translate into meanings in a writing? How do we use punctuation to create meaning?

Texts: “Cathy’s Cats”, “Laughter”, “Hairs”

Learning Sequence:

1. Review the writing standards W9-10 3a-f-Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
2. Collect the final draft of the first vignette. Share the experiences of writing as a process: drafting, peer editing and revision
3. Join the writing contest- by Scholastic Arts and Writing. Read the guidelines for submissions.  Deadline 1/8/2014. View sample winners’ work.
4. Introduce a new technique: syntax- The arrangement of words in a sentence.  the study of the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form phrases, clauses, and sentences. ( cited from http://grammar.about.com/od/rs/g/syntax.htm)
5. Read Cathy Queen of  Cats and identify sentences with unusual syntax or even run-on sentences. How does the unusual syntax create meaning?
6. Read the same passage and examine the usage of punctuation and how it helps create meaning such as  comma or period.

Homework: Use unique syntax and add unusual punctuation to create new meaning in your 2nd vignette.

Lesson 5

Objectives:Students will be able to set out a situation and use their keen observation to establish a unique point of view for their narrative.

Aim; How do we establish a unique point of view for the vignette by setting out a situation and using our keen observation?

Texts: “Hair” and “Laughter” excerpts from House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

CC Standards

W9-10 3a-3f :Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
a. Engage and orient the reader by setting out a problem, situation, or observation,
establishing one or multiple point(s) of view, and introducing a narrator and/or
characters; create a smooth progression of experiences or events.

Assessments:

By the end of the lesson, students will revise their 2nd vignette and explain the connection between the situation and perspective from which the story is told. Is there a better point of view one might use? Why or why not?

Learning Sequence

1. Review the standard for the lesson.
2. Share the 2nd vignette with a  partner.a) Identify interesting syntax and punctuation. b)Can you identify the situation  in which the event takes place? c)Do you feel the perspective is unique? Is there a better perspective from the the story could be told?
3. Write  peer comments directly on the paper.
4. Turn and Read “Hair” and “Laughter”. Discuss the TDQ: a) What is the situation in which the story is told? b) What are the details that are sued to describe the situation? c) Is the perspective of hair and laughter used effectively to portray the situation and convey the author’s purpose? Explain.
5. Share the responses to the TDQs.
6. Reread the 2nd vignette and comments from your partner.
7. Revise.

Quick Write: Explain the connection between the situation and perspective from which the story is told in the 2nd vignette. Is there a better point of view one might use? Why or why not?

Homework: Revise Vignette #2.

Lesson 6  Supplementary lesson on phrases and clauses.

Objectives: Students will be able to identify and analyze main and subordinate clauses.

Aim: What’s the difference between a clause and phrase? What are the main and subordinate clauses? What are the noun clauses?

CC Standards

CCS W. 9-10.5: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grades 9–10).

Assessment:

Students will use online resources to practice  identifying various types of  noun clauses and recognizing the differences between a phrase and clause.

Materials:  Online resource 1,  Online source 2,

Learning Sequence:

Part I

1.Sentence Clauses and Phrases 

Sentences can be broken down into smaller units called clauses and phrases. The main difference between the two is that clauses have a subject and a predicate whereas phrases do not have a predicate.

Example: She was walking with a friend who went to my school.

                    Clauses contain both a subject and a predicate,
                    so who went to my school constitutes a
                    clause in the above example.

                    With a friend is one example of a phrase
                    from the above sentence, since it has no
                    subject and no predicate.

2. What is the difference between a main clause and a subordinate clause? 

Clauses can be either main or subordinate.

A main clause is one which is independent.

A subordinate clause depends on the main clause which it often modifies. Subordinating conjunctions (as, since, because…) or relative pronouns (who, which, that) usually introduce dependent clauses.

Example:

     While I was driving, I noticed the leaves had begun to turn autumn colors.

     The first clause, while I was driving, is a subordinate clause introduced by the subordinate conjunction "while." The clause is subordinate because it cannot stand by itself as a complete sentence.

     The second clause is the main clause. By itself, I noticed the leaves had begun to turn autumn colours can be a whole sentence.

Practice: Click open the website to practice at least 5 sentences of identifying clauses and phrases

Homework: Make 5 complex sentences in which there 
should be one main clause and one subordinate clause.

Part II
Agenda

• Share sample complex sentences
• Mini Lesson on Noun Clauses
• Students practice identifying various noun clauses.
• Notebook check ( reading and writing )
• Folder check
• Homework Reminder : artifact

               Thomas made her angry.

                    "Thomas" is a proper noun, functioning as the
                    subject of this sentence.

               That he had even asked her made her angry.

                    The clause "that he had even asked her" is the
                    subject of this sentence.

               We discovered his arrogance.

                    "Arrogance" is the object of "discovered."

               We discovered what he had asked her.

                    The clause "what he had asked her" is the
                    object of the verb "discovered" in this
                    sentence.

		We showed the professor the error.

		"The professor" in this sentence is the indirect
		object, and "the error" is the direct object.

		She gave every little error her full attention.

		The noun clause "every little error" is the indirect object,
		and "her full attention" is the direct object.  Remember that 
		the direct object should answer the question, "What did she 
		give?" while the indirect object answers, "To whom (or what) 
		did she give it?"

               The insult was his audacity.

                    "Audacity" is an abstract noun which is
                    the subject complement (predicate noun) of the
                    subject "insult."

               The insult was that he had even asked her.

                    The clause "that he had even asked her" is the
                    predicate noun (subject complement) of this
                    sentence.

               She found fault in his question.

                    "Question" is the object of the preposition
                    "in."

               She found fault in what he had asked her.

                    The clause "what he had asked her" is the
                    object of the preposition "in" in this
                    sentence.

               You can call him a scoundrel.

                    The word "scoundrel" is an object complement
                    that describes the direct object "him."

               You can call him what you wish.

                    The clause "what you wish" can take the place
                    of "scoundrel" as object complement.

               We adults understand life better than children.

                    "Adults" is an appositive that defines the
                    subject "we."

               We that are older understand life better that
               children.

                    The clause "that are older" replaces the word
                    "adults" and becomes the appositive to the
                    subject.

               I hate those brats.

               I hate those that oppose me.

Application: Revise your vignette by Adding  sentences with noun clauses .

Homework: a)Add  sentences with noun clauses  in your 2nd vignette. b) Bring in an artifact from your home. The artifact should represent your culture and have special meanings to you. We’ll write our 3rd vignette on the artifact.

Lesson 7    Excerpt from My Antonia

Standards: W9-10. 3d : . Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.

Assessment: Students will use precise words and phrases to describe an object ( an artifact they brought in from home) and  tell an experience associated with it.

Objectives: Students will be able to use precise words and phrases to convey experience and portray characters.

Aim: How can we use precise words and sensory details to convey experience and portray characters?

Agenda

1. Review writing standards
2. Return the graded student work ( 1st vignette)  and review the rubric. Discuss perspective, purpose, scope, details, etc.
3. Peer share and edit 2nd vignette. Can you locate a complex sentence in the vignette?  Comment by circling items in the rubric.
4. In pairs , talk about your artifact. Why is it important to you and your family? What cultural aspect does it represent?  How can you convey a specific idea through the artifact? What will that be?
5. Read the excerpt from My Antonia by Willa Cather. Pay special attention to the details and sensory language. What purpose does it all serve?

”I sat down in the middle of the garden, where snakes could scarcely approach unseen, and leaned my back against a warm yellow pumpkin. There were some ground-cherry bushes growing along the furrows, full of fruit. I turned back the papery triangular sheaths that protected the berries and ate a few. All about me giant grasshoppers, twice as big as any I had ever seen, were doing acrobatic feats among the dried vines. The gophers scurried up and down the ploughed ground. There in the sheltered draw-bottom the wind did not blow very hard, but I could hear it singing its humming tune up on the level, and I could see the tall grasses wave. The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers. Queer little red bugs came out and moved in slow squadrons around me. Their backs were polished vermilion, with black spots. I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy. Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become a part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge. At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.”

Application: Use precise words and phrases to describe the artifact that you have brought in from home and  tell an experience associated with it in a vignette style.

Homework: Finish the final draft of your 2nd vignette and turn it in on Monday ( typed).

Lesson 8  D.H, Lawrence “Snake”

Standards: W9-10. 3d : . Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.

Assessment: Students will use precise words and phrases to describe an object ( an artifact they brought in from home) and  describe an experience associated with it.

Objectives: Students will identify special characteristics of an object and use sensory details to portray an experience associated with it.

Aim: Why does the artifact feel special to you? If it relates to a particular feeling or memory, how can we use descriptive words to portray that feeling?

Text:  D.H, Lawrence “Snake”

Learning Sequence:

1. Exchange your 2nd vignette with a partner. We will use the vignette rubric to evaluate it. After reading, pick out a line or two to share with the class. Explain why you have picked out the lines.
2. Collect the 2nd vignette and rubric.
3. Read the poem. First, I’ll read the poem and you will follow. Annotate the poem while following the reading. Review the symbols of annotations.
4. For poetry, to annotate, you will also need to identify literary elements and techniques used, for example, figures of language, diction, poetic syntax and tone, etc.
5. For the 2nd reading, two groups read up to ” And climb again the broken bank of my wall-face.” and the other groups will read from “And as he put his head into that dreadful hole,”…Continue to annotate while reading and respond to the TDQ a) How does the speaker feel about the snake when he first encounters  it at the water trough  and later when the snakes withdraws into a black hole ? b) What text evidence do you have to support your answer? c) For the language perspectives, are there any special literary techniques used in the poem by the author to enhance his feelings?
6. Now, let’s think about the 3rd vignette you are about to write. Consider: a) How do you feel about the object? b) What  words can you use to describe that feeling? c) Can you use a special imagery, diction, and figures of speech such as simile or metaphor to describe the object?

Application: Use at least one of the techniques you have learned today from the poem in your vignette writing.

Homework: Continue working on the 3rd vignette.

Lesson 9  Continue working with  D.H, Lawrence “Snake”

Standards: W9-10. 3d : . Use precise words and phrases, telling details, and sensory language to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters.

Objective: Students will describe the artifact in details and use precise words or phrases to describe the feelings associated with it.

Aim: What memories come to your mind when you see the artifact? What was your emotional state associated with the artifact?

Learning Sequence:

1. Discuss in a small group, how the speaker feels toward the snake as described in the beginning ? What words or phrases does the author use to portray that emotion? How does the speaker’s feeling change? What words or phrases does the author use to convey that shift of emotion?
2. Make a list of words and phrases used by the poet  to describe each feeling. What have you noticed about the nature of the words and phrases?
3. Describe a feeling you have toward the artifact. Use relevant details to portray how and  why the feeling came about.
4. Describe an opposite feeling you may have toward the artifact. Again use relevant details to portray why and how the feeling came about.

Application: Select one technique you like the best from the Snake poem and apply it into your own writing

Homework: Use today’s writing activity to revise your final vignette.

Lesson 10 Vignette 3

Objectives: Students will apply the techniques such as imagery and sensory language to  describe a  situation or character, or emotions by using specific details.

Aim: How can we grasp readers’ attention?

Learning Sequence:

1. Share with a partner  the T chart you  have created on two opposing emotions related to the artifact.
2. Circle the words or phrase that help you visulize or feel what the student is writing
3. Peer comment on ‘ Do details and language used match the emotions?” Explain why not.
4. At this moment, if you still do not experience any connection between your artifact and emotions, then change the title to “My Name”.
5. Read the vignette “A Rice Sandwich”
6. A Rice Sandwich “The special kids, the ones who wear keys around their necks, get to eat in the canteen. The canteen! Even the name sounds important. And these kids at lunch time go there because their mothers aren’t home or home is too far away to get to. My home isn’t far but it’s not close either, and somehow I got it in my head one day to ask my mother to make me a sandwich and write a note to the principal so I could eat in the canteen too. Oh no, she says pointing the butter knife at me as if I’m starting trouble, no sir. Next thing you know everybody will be wanting a bag lunch—I’ll be up all night cutting bread into little triangles, this one with mayonnaise, this one with mustard, no pickles on mine, but mustard on one side please. You kids just like to invent more work for me. But Nenny says she doesn’t want to eat at school—ever—because she likes to go home with her best friend Gloria who lives across the schoolyard. Gloria’s mama has a big color TV and all they do is watch cartoons. Kiki and Carlos, on the other hand, are patrol boys. They don’t want to eat at school either. They like to stand out in the cold especially if it’s raining. They think suffering is good for you ever since they saw that movie 300 Spartans. I’m no Spartan and hold up an anemic wrist to prove it. I can’t even blow up a balloon without getting dizzy. And besides, I know how to make my own lunch. If I ate at school there’d be less dishes to wash. You would see me less and less and like me better. Everyday at noon my chair would be empty. Where is my favorite daughter you would cry, and when I came home finally at three p.m. you would appreciate me. Okay, okay, my mother says after three days of this. And the following morning I get to go to school with my mother’s letter and a rice sandwich because we don’t have lunch meat.Mondays or Fridays, it doesn’t matter, mornings always go by slow and this day especially. But lunchtime came finally and I got to get in line with the stay-at-school kids. Everything is fine until the nun who knows all the canteen kids by heart looks at me and says: You, who sent you here? And since I am shy, I don’t say anything, just hold out my hand with the letter. This is no good, she says, till Sister Superior gives the okay. Go upstairs and see her. And so I went.I had to wait for two kids in front of me to get hollered at, one because he did something in class, the other because he didn’t. My turn came and I stood in front of the big desk with holy pictures under the glass while the Sister Superior read my letter. It went like this: Dear Sister Superior,Please let Esperanza eat in the lunchroom because she lives too far away and she gets tired. As you can see she is very skinny. I hope to God she does not faint.Thanking you, Mrs. E. Cordero
7. You don’t live far, she says. You live across the boulevard. That’s only four blocks. Not even. Three maybe. Three long blocks away from here. I bet I can see your house from my window. Which one? Come here.Which one is your house? And then she made me stand up on a box of books and point. That one? she said, pointing to a row of ugly three-flats, the ones even the raggedy men are ashamed to go into. Yes, I nodded even though I knew that wasn’t my house and started to cry. I always cry when nuns yell at me, even if they’re not yelling. Then she was sorry and said I could stay—just for today, not tomorrow or the day after—you go home. And I said yes and could I please have a Kleenex—I had to blow my nose. In the canteen, which was nothing special, lots of boys and girls watched while I cried and ate my sandwich, the bread already greasy and the rice cold.Homework: Revise your 3rd vignette by adding specific details or a indirect speech.

Lesson 11 Text: Old Man and Sea– Character Portrayal

Objectives: Students will be able to use relevant details to portray a character.

Aim: How do we use relevant details and good word choice to reveal a character?

Text:  Old Man and Sea excerpt

Learning Sequence:

1. Share your 3rd vignette with a partner and each student picks out a line or two that vividly depicts a piture for the reader.
2. Share a lineor two from the vignettes.
3. What is abstract noun? Why could it ruin your vignette writing?
4. Read the excerpt below. Make two column sin your notebook, one for abstract nouns and the other concrete ( descriptive) nouns.

“The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. But none of these scars were fresh. They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.

Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same color as the .sea and were cheerful and undefeated”

“He rolled himself in the blanket and slept on the other old newspapers that covered the springs of the bed

He was asleep in a short time and he dreamed of Africa when he was a boy and the long golden beaches and the white beaches, so white they hurt your eyes, and the high capes and the great brown mountains. He lived along that coast now every night and in his dreams he heard the surf roar and saw the native boats come riding through it. He smelled the tar and oakum of the deck as he slept and he smelled the smell of Africa that the land breeze brought at morning.

Usually when he smelled the land breeze he woke up and dressed to go and wake the boy. But tonight the smell of the land breeze came very early and he knew it was too early in his dream and went on dreaming to see the white peaks of the Islands rising from the sea and then he dreamed of the different harbours and roadsteads of the CanaryIslands.

He no longer dreamed of storms, nor of women, nor of great occurrences, nor of great fish, nor fights, nor contests of strength, nor of his wife. He only dreamed of places now and of the lions on the beach. They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy. He never dreamed about the boy. He simply woke, looked out the open door at the moon and unrolled his trousers and put them on. He urinated outside the shack and then went up the road to wake the boy. He was shivering with the morning cold. But he knew he would shiver himself warm and that soon he would be rowing.”

5. How does Hemingway use concrete nouns and verbs in his writing?

Application: Identify the abstract nouns from your vignetter and replace them with more concrete or descriptive ones. Underline the verbs used, can you replace them with a more accurate one?

Reflection: What kind of lesson have you learned today to help you revise the vignette?

Homework: Finish the final draft of the 3rd vignette. Due on Friday.

Lesson 12: Gallery Walk

Objectives: Students will be able to recognize the merits in a good writing.

Aim: What make a writing a “good” one?

Learning Sequence

1. Finish the completed vignette three and exchange with a partner. Comment on each other’s vignette such as, language, sensory details, word choice, good pacing etc. with a post it.

2. Leave the  vignette on the desk and walk in clockwise direction to read the rest of the vignettes by your classmates. Make sure to write your positive comments and suggestions on a post it.

3. Review the feedback and jot down one positive comment and one suggestion on a post it and hand it in for future references.

4. Talk to each other about the experience.

5. Turn in your final vignette with the comments.

Homework: Have a great weekend!

Lesson 13: final touch and publishing( Tues)-“The Maker’s Eye” by Donald Murray

Objectives: Students will be able to finalize  their vignette and  make final revision before publishing

Aim: What do we need to do before fine-tuning our final draft of vignette?

Learning Sequence:

• Read in pairs an excerpt of  DONALD Murray’s “The Maker’s Eye” where we’ll find ideas to do the final revision. Jot down the ideas while reading.
• Share in a smaller group your findings from the article and post them on a chart paper.
• Distribute the graded vignette
• Go to your writing folder to gather all vignettes and reread each one.
• Make a decision which vignette will be the one you will prepare for the oral presentation
• Publish your finest vignette using publisher.
• Hand in a hard copy of your best vignette.

Homework: Share your vignette with your family.

Lesson 14:The Moth/ Rehearse( Wed.)

Objectives: Students will recognize the essential elements in an oral presentation.

Aim: What do we need to do in order to give the best oral presentation?

Learning Sequence:

1. In pairs, discuss with each other what you know about the best practice of an oral presentation.
2. In class, share the ideas and record the ideas on chart paper.
3. Listen to a Month story telling and jot down new qualities in a great presentation.
4. Add more elements/qualities for a successful presentation.
5. Practice with each other using the criteria of presentation.
6. Make comments and suggestions.

Homework: Practice  your vignette telling.

Lesson 14: Dress rehearsal ( on Friday)

Lesson 15: SUPA Moth Presentation ( Tuesday) Oct. 15

Lesson 16: Solitude by Henry Thoreau

Objectives: Students will use their newly acquired writing skills to evaluate the essay “Solitude” by Thoreau and identify the merits in the writing.

Aim: What are some of the merits you can recognize in Thoreau’s “Solitude”? What do you like about this writing?

Text: An excerpt from Solitude by Henry Thoreau

Agenda

1. Review the 1st  unit’s writing standards
2. Discuss the upcoming progress report
3. Read, annotate and discuss in pairs the essay
4. Teacher-student conference about the progress report
5. Share in class the findings of merits in the essay

Learning Sequence:

1. Review and discuss the writing standards for unit 1
2. Distribute Thoreau’s essay “Solitude”
3. Students work in pairs identifying “merits” such as diction, figures of speech, syntax, voice etc.
4. Pairs  report back to the class their findings. Write the merits on a chart paper.

Quick Write: What have you identified in “Solitude” that you feel you can emulate in your writing? How  can we learn from great writers’ work?

“THIS IS A delicious evening, when the whole body is one sense, and imbibes delight through every pore. I go and come with a strange liberty in Nature, a part of herself. As I walk along the stony shore of the pond in my shirt-sleeves, though it is cool as well as cloudy and windy, and I see nothing special to attract me, all the elements are unusually congenial to me. The bullfrogs trump to usher in the night, and the note of the whip-poor-will is borne on the rippling wind from over the water. Sympathy with the fluttering alder and poplar leaves almost takes away my breath; yet, like the lake, my serenity is rippled but not ruffled. These small waves raised by the evening wind are as remote from storm as the smooth reflecting surface. Though it is now dark, the wind still blows and roars in the wood, the waves still dash, and some creatures lull the rest with their notes. The repose is never complete. The wildest animals do not repose, but seek their prey now; the fox, and skunk, and rabbit, now roam the fields and woods without fear. They are Nature’s watchmen — links which connect the days of animated life.”

Lesson 17 Self-Reflection and Scholastic Writing Competition

Objectives: Students will reexamine the writing standards for unit 1 and write a self-reflection; students will familiarize themselves with the NYC Scholastic Competition

Aim:What do I need to do to continuously improve my writing? What type of entries can we submit for the NYC Scholastic Writing competition?

Agenda

1. Review and reflect on the writing standards of this unit.
2. Share our reflections in pairs and then in class.
3. Join the writing contest- by Scholastic Arts and Writing. Read the guidelines for submissions.  Deadline 1/8/2014.
4. Read about the NYC Scholastic writing competition.View sample winners’ work.
5. Read at least one writing from each category and make notes of each one. Respond: a. What do I like about this writing? b. I f I had to align it with the writing standards, what would they be? c. What is that one technique I can emulate in my own writing?
6. Repeat the same process with other two piece of writing.
7. Share in pairs your observations and responses.
8. Share in class our observations and responses.
9. There will be individual conferences while the writing activity is taking place.

Quick Write: What do I need to do to continuously improve my writing?