Poetry and Poster Project

Homework/Classwork Assistance
Students have various times to work on assignments or receive help at school: sometimes during class, during morning resource (M/W/F 8:30-9:00am), or after school - if arranged with Ms. Barnes. We welcome Ms. Wyatt as our UO student teacher for 4th period.

Poetry

Students have started a unit on poetry. By the end of the week they will need to select their favorite poem or poet. Students may wish to explore poetry in the class textbooks, the public library, or poetry websites like http://www.poets.org/.

Final Project Posters - Due Tuesday, June 7th

Students have been assigned to star their year-end culminating project posters. This is an annual tradition for 8th graders; the final products will be displayed in the courtyard for "promotion day." The posters will contain students' best writing assignments from this year, personal images and/or symbols, and a decoratively designed layout with a name alliteration phrase (ie., Crystal's Cachet, or Crystal's Capsule, or Creative Crystal). The design will include a border, a color scheme, spacing, and matting. Things to avoid: overcrowding, no color or too many colors, no images, light pencil sketches, drawing directly on the background paper.

Poetry and Poster Planning

Homework/Classwork Assistance
Students have various times to work on assignments or receive help at school: sometimes during class, during morning resource (M/W/F 8:30-9:00am), or after school - if arranged with Ms. Barnes. We welcome Ms. Wyatt as our UO student teacher for 4th period.

Reading

All students should have finished A Soldier's Heart and returned their copy to the school library. Students are studying the theme of the American Dream in relation to the 8th grade Ellis Island unit. They will soon begin studying poetry.

Writing

PAST DUE - Autobiography and BioPoem - edited and typed final drafts were due Tue., May 17th.

PAST DUE - Soldier's Heart study guide (blue book) and vocab chart.

Final Project Posters

Students will begin planning year-end culminating project posters this week. This is an annual tradition for 8th graders; the final products will be displayed in the courtyard for their promotion day. The posters will contain students' best writing assignments from this year, personal images and/or symbols, and a decoratively designed layout with a name alliteration phrase (ie., Crystal's Cachet, or Crystal's Capsule, or Creative Crystal). The design will include a border, a color scheme, spacing, and matting. Things to avoid: overcrowding, no color or too many colors, no images, light pencil sketches, drawing directly on the background paper.

Writing Assignments Due

Homework/Classwork Assistance
Students have various times to work on assignments or receive help at school: sometimes during class, during morning resource (M/W/F 8:30-9:00am), or after school - if arranged with Ms. Barnes. We welcome Ms. Wyatt as our UO student teacher for 4th period.

Reading

All students should have finished A Soldier's Heart and returned their copy to the school library. We are studying the theme of the American Dream in relation to the 8th grade Ellis Island unit. Next week we will also begin studying poetry.

Writing

Per. 3, 4, 5, 6 - Autobiography and BioPoem - edited and typed final drafts due Tue., May 17th.

PAST DUE - Soldier's Heart study guide (blue book) and vocab chart.

Assignments due

Homework/Classwork Assistance
Students have various times to work on assignments or receive help at school: sometimes during class, during morning resource (M/W/F 8:30-9:00am), or after school - if arranged with Ms. Barnes. We welcome Ms. Wyatt as our UO student teacher for 4th period.

This week...
We are doing assignment catch-up, along with completing online Easy CBM testing in reading and vocabulary.

Reading

All students should have finished A Soldier's Heart and returned their copy to the school library.

Writing - assignments were due Friday, May 6th
Soldier's Heart blue booklet study guide; autobiographies, biopoems.
Drafts must be edited with an staff member of our class
and submitted to Ms. Barnes before final editions will be accepted.

"Soldier's Heart," Autobiographies, Punctuation Practice

Homework/Classwork Assistance
Students have various times to work on assignments or receive help at school: sometimes during class, during morning resource (M/W/F 8:30-9:00am), or after school - if arranged with Ms. Barnes. We welcome Ms. Wyatt as our UO student teacher for 4th period.

Reading

All of Ms. Barnes' students have checked out a copy of A Soldier's Heart from the school library. We are continuing to read approximately one chapter per day.

Reading Schedule

Read Ch. 9 on Monday, May 2nd

Read Ch. 10 together in class Tuesday, May 3rd

Soldier's Heart blue booklet study guide due Friday, May 6th

Writing

Autobiography - complete draft due Friday, May 6th

Plenty of time was given in class for this writing assignment, but if behind, students should've continued writing at home. Skip lines, keep your copy in your binder, and bring to class everyday.

Paragraph 1: intro paragraph - state thesis w/a "hook"

Paragraph 2: 1st body paragraph - describe your past w/an anecdote

Paragraph 3: 2nd body paragraph - describe your current life w/one memorable middle school event

Paragraph 4: 3rd body paragraph - describe your future w/plans, goals, hopes

Paragraph 5: conclusion paragraph - summary of highlights, conclude w/quotation or your personal "motto"

BioPoem - due Monday, May 9th

A direction and sample sheet was provided for this assignment and we started this project in class Thursday, May 5th.

Punctuation Practice

We are practicing identifying independent clauses, coordinating conjunctions, and accompanying punctuation.