Movie time!

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a great weekend!

So, now that we finished A Tale of Two Cities (I'll be working on grading your projects this week) you may be wondering - what's next? What are we going to do with the last three weeks of school?

Well, in many ways, the focus is going to be on - you. It will be about telling your story, about writing personal narratives, about creative non-fiction, and about the tools it takes to bring a story to life.

The first way we'll do that is by watching a movie. Unfortunately, we won't be together in the same room. Actually, we might not all watch the same movie. For the next two days, your assignment is to watch a "coming of age" movie - one that tells the story of a pivotal time in the life of a young person - someone roughly your age. 

• You can watch any of the movies listed below. 
• You do not have to take notes - just watch and enjoy (you can even watch it with your family!). 
• However, I will be asking you to write about two things: Moments of awareness (when a character realizes something for the first time; when a character understands something in a new way) and Moments of change (when a character acts in different ways or develops new beliefs or becomes something other than what they used to be). 
• That writing will happen on Friday, but you can make some notes about it after you watch the film if you think that will be helpful.

Here are the films you can choose from (click on them - they link to the film's IMDB page - that may help you choose which one to watch):

1. Stand By Me (you can watch it for free through IMDB - if you have not seen this one, I highly recommend it!)
2. Now and Then
3. Akeelah and the Bee
4. The Sandlot

Please let me know if you have a problem finding a way to watch one of the films!

Enjoy!

A Tale of Two Cities - Last Day!

Happy Friday!

Here are the directions for the final part of your project, including how to submit everything.

Have a great weekend!

A Tale of Two Cities - Day 40 / E14

Congratulations! You finished your three new multi-genre pieces!

Here are the directions for today's sharing and peer feedback! 

Enjoy!

A Tale of Two Cities - Day 39 / E13

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a good weekend and are doing well.

It is time for our work with A Tale of Two Cities to come to a close. Today is your last time set aside to complete work on your new multi-genre pieces.

Once you are finished, you need to go to this document and insert a link for each one. Whatever format it is in, find a way to make it viewable to everyone in the class. When you put in the link, please be sure to set the sharing settings to all "anyone at township district 113 to view. 

• Multi-Genre Project Sharing Sheet

If you have any questions or need help with making those links, I will be at my computer all day and will do what I can to help, either through email or even a zoom call if needed!

On Wednesday we will be checking out the awesome creations you've been working on - I can't wait!

A Tale of Two Cities - Day 38 / E12

Happy Friday!

No new directions today - just a second day to work on your new M-G's.

If you want to run your topic and question by me, feel free to e-mail me.

Lastly, check out this great story about Jessica and her father!

Have a great weekend!

A Tale of Two Cities - Day 37 / E11

Happy Wednesday! Today there is an optional zoom call at 10:30 a.m. (I will send the link through email). We can use this time to talk about the project and also for some time to talk through everything else going on out there during these challenging times. Now that we know we won't be together in the classroom again, we are all experiencing a range of feelings. I'm happy to set aside as much time as you'd like to be there to talk.

As for the project, the next three days are set aside for your new M-G's. The key for today, as I noted yesterday, is to come up with a good question. Remember: Your question needs to be something the book does not answer directly. Like I showed in the example, you are not just finding things that happened in the novel. Don't just come up with a broad idea like "change" and make M-G's about characters who change. That would be an incomplete project.

Take the time to ask some questions about the topic you discovered - this will lead you to the question you want to answer with your project. Remember: Your new M-G's are answers to the question. Here are some questions to consider:

• What causes your topic to happen? When does it occur? Why?
• What actions come as a result of your topic?
• What are the results of your topic? Are they positive? Negative? Why?
• Who are the different people impacted by your topic, how are they impacted, and why?
• Does every character in the novel link to your topic in the same way? What are the reasons for the difference?
• Who in the book sees your topic as important, who doesn't value it, and why?

Good luck coming up with your question! Feel free to run it by me through email before you get started!

Here is another link to the handout.

A Tale of Two Cities - Day 36 / E10

Happy Tuesday! I hope you had a great weekend and were able to get out and enjoy the nicer weather!

The plan for today is to do step one of the project. I shared the handout with you last week and we talked through some of the basics of the project.

• Multi-Genre project handout

For those of you ready to move on to step two, of course you are welcome to do that. However, be sure to follow the directions for step two and create a question about your topic. This needs to be an interpretation of your topic - something that cannot be answered directly by the book. If you look at the examples (in the handout) you can see what I'm talking about. For the Othello example, you would not just find three examples of jealousy. That would make for an incomplete project. Instead, you can see that I created a question about it that I will answer with the project: How does a person’s jealousy inspire their actions?

Again, I will talk more about this tomorrow but I wanted to give a sense of that before people went too far with their work.

Also, tomorrow (Wednesday) I will have an optional zoom call at the start of class. There are two topics for this call. First of all, I will be happy to answer any questions about the project. Second, more importantly, I'm sure the cancellation of the end of the school year brought out mixed feelings. Lots of disappointment and loss and sadness and uncertainty, just to name a few. All year, we have been a close community and I want to be available to you to talk about these topics as well. I'll send the link tomorrow night.

Good luck with the start of the project!