Goodbye!

This year certainly flew by. I am going to miss you all so much! Thank you for making my first year so memorable. Have a safe and happy summer!

^ HR 301 :-)

The Last One! :-O

The final days of seventh grade are upon us! Summer is within reach and 8th grade is just around the corner. Before you know it, you'll be heading up the the high school! WAIT--before you move on and leave me :(..... lets reminisce about ELA!

1. What was something you learned this year or something you feel you've improved upon?

2. Most of you wandered into school last September not knowing what to expect from your new teachers. Over these past few months you have grown immensely. How have you changed since that first day? (More confidence? More responsible? Different friends? etc.)

3.

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

Which direction do you choose? Flash forward ten years from now, where do you see yourself? Did you graduate college? Do you have a job? What are your aspirations?

Please post your comment as a response to this post. Your post is due Monday, June 17th at 5pm.  

 

 

Authors at Work!

Students are working hard to complete their final project for the Oral Tradition Unit. They are working alone or in partners creating a fable, folk tale, myth, legend or epic and illustrating it. The creative juices are flowing as they prepare to present next week.

SO IMPRESSED WITH THEIR WORK ETHIC THUS FAR!

Blog Post of the Week

Congratulations to Brittany T of B Block for earning "Blog Post of the Week!" Her explanation of why one should be careful when trusting flatters is interestingly presented! 

Take a look below:

"I do agree with the moral of the fable “The Fox And The Crow”. You should never trust flatterers because some people don’t mean it. For example, in the movie “Mean Girls”, one of the main characters, Regina says to a girl “I like your bracelet” and when the girl walks away, Regina says “that’s the most hideous bracelet I’ve ever seen”. Some people, like Regina, just flatter you to be nice or when you are just standing there awkwardly, they compliment someone just to start a conversation or to just to say something. Some flatterers exaggerate. For instance, if someone says to you “That’s the most prettiest bracelet I’ve ever seen,” they are totally exaggerating. They have probably seen prettier bracelets, they are just saying that to make you feel special. Flatterers should never be trusted!"

Idioms and the Oral Tradition

 

We have been discussing just how powerful and important storytelling can be and how it can give us great insight into different cultures. When reading How the Snake Got Poison, by Zora Neale Hurston, the class realized that using dialect in the retelling of a folk tale can honor oral tradition by helping the reader to "hear" how the story was first told. In How the Snake Got Poison, the dialect helped reflect the roots of African American folklore.

We also began to discuss idioms and how they play a role in oral tradition. An idiom is a form of expression natural to a language, person, or group of people and often times it can be difficult to understand if you are not a part of the particular culture were the idiom originated. In class today, pictures representing various idioms in our culture where spread out around the room and students worked eagerly to try and figure out which idiom each picture represented. 

 Take a look below:

The real challenge presented itself when students had to describe what the idiom meant!

Blog Post of the Week

Congrats to Sarah L of D Block for earning Blog Post of the Week! Her random funny story about her terrifying/ridiculous dream was quite comical --- check it out!

 

"Once I had a dream that I was in an open field with no one around. Then suddenly, a bunch of random farm animals started to appear! A humongous hill started to grow out of the ground, and so did a brick wall. It started to rain, then thunder and lightening. A big flash rose into the air, and tumbling down the hill, gigantic hamburgers were tremendously rolling down the hill at a rapid pace! I tried to run away as fast as I could but the kept rolling until they knocked something down! One by one cows were being squashed by the hamburgers, and suddenly, one flew towards me! I got on the ground trying to save myself. Then, with a loud thud, I burst out of my bed and hit my head on the banister! It was the funniest most terrifying dream I have ever had."

 

Pluto or Persephone?

Today in class after reading Anne Terry White's myth, Demeter and Persephone, students quickly formed sides to argue over who is more worthy of sympathy.

For the most part, the guys seemed to side with 

Pluto, God of the Underworld

[ "He's very lonely"

"He had his true love taken away from him"

"He was shot with an arrow by Eros" ] 

and 

the girls seemed to side with Persephone, Goddess of Springtime

[ "She was kidnapped-- taken against her will"

"More people were affected when she was sad than when Pluto was"

"She loves flowers and there are none in the underworld" ]

Blog Post of the Week

Voted by a majority of his classmates, Billy A of A Block earned Blog Post of the Week for his creative new ending and moral for the fable Grasshopper Logic. Check it out below!

Alternate Ending To The Other Frog Prince:

Once the princess kissed the frog a whimsical rainbow light beam shot from his chest and left leg. The frog began to morph into a prince and the princess was amazed. She was a loner with no friends but now she has a swaggy man-frog to keep her company. She charged at the man-frog and tried to ask it to marry her. He said no and walked away. Then Tony Stark came and said to the frog man “Hi, How are you?” Then he put the Iron-man suit on. The metal suit made Jesus mad so he struck the frog-man with lightning and burned his swagical cashmere sweater. Then frog-guy dresses up as Master Chief and him and Iron-man fight. Since the frog-guy wasn't really a Spartan, he lost. Iron-man flew away to go save the world or something (which isn’t important at all). Since Jesus was a big Iron-man fan he wanted Iron-man’s autograph, but Iron-man was gone so Jesus, in a fit of rage made it rain Pope Franci (Franci is the plural for Pope Francis, example- A pack of Pope Franci) and then the princess with no friends, the frog-man, Jesus, and Barack Obama sing “Raining Men”.
 

THE END!
MORAL!
The moral of this whimsical story is:
Never let a rainbow light beam shoot out of a frogs left leg!

Alternative endings....

Based on a different moral, write an alternative ending for one of the two fables, Grasshopper Logic and The Other Frog Prince. You can add details to the beginning and middle of Sciezka’s original story to help you with the new ending.

Draft your story in google docs in case you do not finish today.

After proofreading your story,

POST IT HERE AS A COMMENT. 

Your post is due BY Thursday, May 15th at 5pm!

 

Blog Post of the Week

Congratulations to Emily K. of D Block. Her retelling of a childhood a story was heart-warming. Take a look at her solid post below! She even included the moral of the story.

One fable my cousin told me was about a crab. It was about a crab named Jerry.

One day Jerry was walking on the beach, he knew a storm was coming in the next few days so he hid in the rocks until the storm passed. After the storm passed Jerry wondered the entire beach looking for the hole in the sand to enter his house. After searching the beach for hours he could not find it anywhere. Another crab, named Cindy, noticed how distressed Jerry was and asked him what was wrong. Jerry told her that he can not find his house. Cindy said that he can stay with her until he rebuilds his house. Thinking that Jerry was too good for Cindy he declined her offer and slept outside for the night. Cindy offered Jerry a place to sleep and he finally accepted the offer. Jerry entered Cindy’s sand house and loved it! It reminded him of his house, so after that connection he warmed up to her. Jerry started to get a crush on Cindy after he realized what kind of personality she had. He became very connected to Cindy and one day asked her to marry him. They had a little crab wedding and one day found some of Jerry’s things washed up on shore. As they picked up the items on shore they remembered the days of when they first met. Jerry thought back when he disliked Cindy and he was very thankful he did not decline her offer again.

Moral - Never judge someone before you get to know them. (Never judge a book by its’ cover)

Im not sure if it is still popular today because it seemed to stay within my family. I heard it when I was 5 years old in New Hampshire- my grandmother's house.

Vocabulary Quiz Thursday!

oral tradition

theme

universal theme

moral

heroes/heroines

storytelling

hyperbole

personification

allusion

myths/mythology

legends

folk tales

tall tales

fables

epics

quest

Symbolic Video Productions

 The discovery of symbolic meaning in lyrics and poetry can offer deeper messages and enhanced understanding of language and themes; it can influence individuals and society.

Based on an existing song, poem or original set of lyrics create a digital production and written introduction explaining and showing influence of figurative language, including symbolism.

Just some examples of how creative Beauport 7th graders are!

Blog Post of the Week

Congratulations to Zoe V. of D Block. Her brief post summarizing this article was excellent! She hit on all the main points and was able to smoothly transfer the information out. Take a look at her writing below:

"The current leader of North Korea is Kim Jong Un. Many countries are very worried about the new leader because, he is using military threats to display his power and control. He is very dangerous and will do harm to the United States and many other countries. North Korea is mainly fighting with South Korea. They have had conflict for about 60 years and more. Even though they share a language and a peninsula they still despise each other. The U.S.A is even more worried because North Korea has access to destructive Nuclear weapons. Many countries do not believe in this for example, China’s president Xi Jinping said no country “should be allowed to throw a region and even the whole world into chaos for selfish gain”.

Oral Tradition

Take a look at this website and read through some (3-5) of the Folklore and Mythology stories. Many of them you may have heard of before. After you have read through a few, pick one and illustrate a significant or important scene from it with colored 

pencils/markers/crayons on paper. 
OR 
 You can create a few illustrated slides on EDUCREATIONS that portray important scenes from the story.

Reflection Time

Reflect on the last assignment.  Think about these questions.

Did you enjoy creating your video production? Would you want to change anything about your final product? Was anything confusing or unclear about the project? Do you think it was beneficial to have the option to work in groups? Overall, how do you think you did on the project---- were you able to truly represent the song meaning and symbolism in your video production? 

TYPE YOUR REFLECTION AS A COMMENT TO THIS POST.

1. When you have completed your reflection be sure to re-submit any poems to the Poetry Without Paper Contest as they experienced technical difficulties and may have lost your previous entry. 

Poetry Without Paper

2. Then, try this entertaining quiz and see what results you get!

Personality & Symbolism Quiz

3. When you have completed that,  read some of your classmates' blog posts here or on kids' blog and reply. Were their posts clear? Could you recommend anything to help them? Do you agree or disagree with their comment? 

  

Project-Based Learning

Students have been working diligently on the IPADS the past few days creating their video productions to illustrate symbolism in their chosen song or poem. They had the option to work alone or in groups of 2 or 3. Their creative juices are flowing as they search for images and dissect the lyrics to develop their interpretation. I cannot wait to see the final products!

Blog Post of the Week

 Congratulations to Ava T. of A Block on earning Blog Post of the Week. She chose three symbols that could possibly represent her and clearly explained why. Take a look below!

          
                                                             

"I chose a picture of a gymnast because gymnastics has become a really big part of my life. I don't compete, but a lot of my time is spent doing it! I love flipping around and when my friends or family see a picture or watch someone doing gymnastics they would definitely associate it with me and what I do.

I also put up a picture of a smiling/laughing face. I love to laugh and smile because it makes me happier and other people happier too! I am almost always laughing or smiling and I think that that makes up part of my personality and how I am today.

Lastly, I put a picture of someone surfing. In the summer I spend all of my time at the beach catching waves and riding them. And when winter comes I cant wait for it to end so I can go back out into the water. I asked my friend and she says that when she sees someone surfing she thinks of me! These are three pictures of things that I think represent who I am."

Symbolizing the Abstract

To further our understanding of symbolism, we began to discuss abstract nouns. Each student was assigned a "secret" abstract noun and needed to draw a symbol to represent it. 

 JUSTICE

 FRIENDSHIP

 TRUST

LOYALTY

Today in class the illustrations were spread out amongst the desks and students recorded what they believed each drawing was intended to represent. They began to understand connotative meaning. What one symbol means to one person may not necessarily mean the same to another. They began to learn about different perspectives. In addition, they had the opportunity to explain their symbols and how their illustration relates to or represents their abstract noun. Their comfort level with symbolism has definitely increased and they should feel more confident as we begin to examine symbolism found in literature.

 

Vocabulary Quiz Friday

Symbol- something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial;

Symbolism- The practice of representing things by means of symbols ---  attributing symbolic meanings or significance to objects, events, or relationships.

Abstract-- doesn't have a solid existence. You can't realize it using any of your senses (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell).
Example--> feelings, like happiness or sadness

Concrete-- Existing in a material or physical form; real or solid; not abstract.

Connotative-the subjective meaning that an individual brings to a word/symbol based as experiences, prejudices, and life's lessons.

Denotative- the meaning that nearly everyone agrees upon