Cindy's Blog of the Day

Week 6 – Blogging Author Perspective Using Two Literary Terms As I continue to submerge myself between pages of  The Scarlet Letter  by Nathaniel Hawthorne, I found that  point of view  and  conflict  were terms that students could identify with through their own life experiences.  Throughout Hawthorne’s story, Hester Prynne is victimized by the community through guilt and shame of having a child born out of wedlock. Hester continues to live her life by remaining true to herself as she does not let the words, actions or distorted thoughts of others get to her.  Prynne does not feel helpless or ashamed, but looks the town people in the eye remaining proud of who she is and the responsibility she has of being a mother.  As human beings, one should place themselves in the shoes of others before chastising a situation; mistakes can be made by choices one may believe to be right in the moment, without foreseeing the outcome...

Week 6 – Substantial Blog Quote and Analysis            A substantial quote I chose was from The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart when Ruby speaks to herself inside her head after having received a phone call from Jackson Clarke (boyfriend # 13) who wants to meet with her to talk.  Ruby senses this is more than just a normal chat especially since they had just been out the night before to a movie and he kissed her.  She ponders on what this talk might be about.  “Any idiot would probably know he was going to break up with me, and part of me knew it too.  What else does “We have to talk” mean? and why else would he come all the way over to my house when he had to be somewhere an hour later?” (Lockhart, Chapter 8, p. 124).     The quote sounds all too familiar for many relationships types (even with family, friends, lover, co-worker, or a supervisor) whether it was said 100 years ago or just last week....

   Week 6:  Blogging Project with Community and Literary Focus      For Week 6, I chose The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Boyfriend List by E. Lockhart.  The pairing of these two books, once again as I must confess the truth, are ones for which I have not read in the suggested course content list, if any for that fact.  It has been a challenge for me in trying to know what book compliment or pair with another, therefore, I have had to use resources such as the town librarian or peers who are currently educators to provide me with help.       As I begin to read bits and pieces from each, general research, and even watch video clips to get an overall understanding of the story lines, I found that the main characters (Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter and Ruby Oliver of The Boyfriend List ) are each singled out by society or peers due to personal situations and matters of the heart tha...

Week 5 - Lessons and Reflection using Blogger      My Lesson I and II Discussion Strategies (golden lines and graffiti board) were chosen because they provided interactive ways for students to truly connect and engage creatively and respectfully.  For Lesson I (golden lines), this would allow for students to seek and write out specific passages they felt were of importance and see what their peers were also thinking, how many had similar or different golden lines, and have students craft a response to a different student’s chosen golden line and why it was important. If golden lines were similar, students could still provide their viewpoints which could compare or contrast with one another while still creating for a fun, learning atmosphere.      With Lesson II, today’s generation of students are very much in tuned with technology.  Students enjoy looking for anything on the internet that can be shown to or used with their friends...

Unit Title: 6 th Grade – “Going High Tech - Padlet Activity” Part II:  Lesson Focus— GRAFFITI WALL Overview:   Students will read The Pearl and complete two of the four activities on Padlet as a focus on literary terms.  This will give a graffiti wall effect as the images, responses, quotes and ideas are integrated on one visual platform.   How to access Padlet:   Type in the Padlet link Click on the key symbol on the right side of the page to sign up for a free Padlet account   Double click anywhere on the board to add your work.     These are the activities you can CHOOSE from ( select two ): 1.             Find something visual that can represent the setting of The Pearl .  You may look for a picture, an artifact or a work of art that shows what you visualize when you think of the setting of The Pearl . Post the picture on Padlet.  Wr...

Unit Title: 6 th Grade – Conversationally Speaking     Part I:  Lesson Focus— Traditional Golden Lines Book:  The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton Central Focus/ Purpose/Rationale   The students will be doing this lesson to analyze how a particular “golden line” is connected to the story, its deeper meaning and the effect it has on the reader. The content of the learning segment is the student’s ability to distinguish important or symbolic lines of the story. This lesson will allow students to practice drawing inferences from the story and determining the meaning of certain lines at a greater context of the novel.  Students will learn that there can be varied interpretations of a “golden lines” importance and effect on the story which will force them to think more critically and learn of others viewpoints as well as how the use of specific “golden lines” have an overall effect as a reader. Alignment with Standards - Common Core and Conten...

Questioning and Discussion Strategies of Week 4 As the saying goes from Ray LeBlond, " You learn something new everyday if you pay attention."   This week I had to select four strategies that would assist students in a higher order of thinking--thinking differently than a yes or no type response and not simply rote memorization of facts and details to answer questions.  Today's students are being asked to think more deeply and critically of how and why about someone or something when it comes to literature and association with the components of a story.  My choices to learn more about were THUNKS , LITERARY LOG , GOLDEN LINES , and GRAFFITI BOARD .   THUNK Who would’a thunk a thought that makes us think?  Say that ten times!  As simple and silly a question that is, thunks provide students with cleverly, created open-ended questions in starting a conversation and allows for thinking at a higher level.  Best part is, answering a thunk...