Vocab worksheets

If you'd like to create vocab worksheets to go along with the books, literary terms, or even just using Dolch words, you can download a 30 day trial of Vocabulary Worksheet Factory from http://www.schoolhousetech.com/Products/Vocabulary/Download.aspx . You can use the word lists they have, or create your own. It's only good for 30 days, but you can probably delete it and download it again.

Survivor Man

The Science Channel has a TV show called Survivorman and they have an Alaska episode. The Monroe County Library System has this on DVD. I am going to show the students what winter in Alaska looks like and how to survive. One problem from the show is he catches a rabbit and shows skinning it. It's not bloody, but the idea is squimish. You can always fast forward that part. It's a very interesting show and my own children (6 and 5) love it too.

Carvings

To go along with Touching Spirit Bear book, we did carving yesterday. I gave the students each a bar of ivory soap and a plastic knife. Ivory Soap works the best because other brands tend to break apart(I've tried diffferent kinds). It was interesting to see what kinds of designs and patterns and symbols the kids came up with. Some even painted outlines on them. Then they had to write about why they chose to do that design. It was an intereting activity that kept them busy for the entire class period. Those students not finished could take their soap(not the knife) home and use untensils from home to finish.

Moving right along

We have just finished Chapter 16. We have had some great discussions about this book. We watched a Walk to Remember and read A Serious Habit first. We did one class essay together and I have taught some mini lessons along the way with the 6 Traits. We did a Web Quest in the Media Center and the kids had to navigate through the sites. They loved it! And all were able to do it. We learned a lot about the author and found out how he gets his ideas for books. Vocab has been done before I read on index cards and then I will have them do a matching activity. We also did I Am poems using the vocab and being one of the characters in the book. Cole was the one most of the kids used because he was the easiest to describe. But some of my kids wrote from the Spirit Bears's perspective. That was kind of cool. The kids are really enjoying the book but I am concerned about how long it is taking and the final assessment which is a research project.

How far are you?

Well, I started with Touching Spirit Bear and am on Day 15 of the lesson plan. I feel like I'm not getting very far. We've skipped a lot of the writing activities and just had discussions instead. I don't have very many grades for the students, because we're reading most of the time. Is this how it is for everyone else, too? The one thing that is definitely working for us is that I took all of the vocab words from the lesson plans and made a spreadsheet for the kids to write the definitions on. We discuss the word and look at the context to determine the meaning. Sometimes we get the dictionary out. I only have 5 students, so it works. I did the same for literary terms, because that is a portion of our general ed English exam. If you want a copy of the spreadsheets, I'd be glad to e-mail them to you, just let me know.

Beginning Touching Spirit Bear ideas

Ok, I am ready to begin the new year. I have been thinking about the theme of relationships and specifically maturity. I am going to begin the year with making a list of what makes a person mature. I am going to put the students into pairs for the following exercise. Then I am going to give the students pictures of famous people (Brittney Spears, Tom Cruise, Tiger Woods etc..) and I'm going to have the students put the pictures in two groups: Mature and Not Mature. After they make their groups, both people must agree, we will discuss how they chose which person to put in each group. These ideas I will use to begin our class list of Mature Traits. From here I will have the pairs discuss a time when they had to act mature. Then I will open the floor for all students who want to share what they discussed. After I will have some kind of writing assignment that will be used as a pre test for writing.
Any one have ideas, I would love to make this a great opening lesson so all the students will buy into it.

FREE book for your summer reading!

I came across an ad in the Scholastic Administrator for a FREE copy of Don Johnston's autobiography, Building Wings.

Don Johnston's auto-biography encourages students to identify their unique learning styles and motivates them to take charge of their learning potential. It is thoughtful reminder to teachers of the critical task of applying different instructional approaches to deliver core subject knowledge. Published by Start-to-Finish.

Click the link below to receive your free copy (limit one per person): http://www.donjohnston.com/offers/buildingwings/buildingwingscompbookoffer.html

Night Websites

Night
Websites:

1. http://www.webenglishteacher.com/wiesel.html
2. http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/wiesel.htm
3. http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/night/nighttg.html
4. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=884
5. http://www.holocaust-trc.org/night.htm
6. http://academic.kellogg.edu/mandel/Kern.htm
7. http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=884
8. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/wie0int-1
9. http://ctap295.borderlink.org/jmcalpin/
10. http://wiki.elearning.ubc.ca/tela/NighT?show_comments=1
11. http://www.teachnlearn.org/HolTeachingGuide.htmhttp://www.learnnc.org/lessons/sandrarhurd952004092

Night and Romeo and Juliet

At the Science Curriculum meeting we will be getting the lesson plans for Night and Romeo and Juliet. If you did not make it there and didn't get it contact your supervisor to get one.

Mississippi Trial 1955 Websites

http://english.byu.edu/Novelinks/Novel%20Pages/Mississippi%20Trial%201955.htm

http://www.chriscrowe.com/civilrights/gallery.html

http://ucwi.org/info.htm
Scroll down for Chris Crowe

http://www.bobdylan.com/songs/emmetttill.html
(words to Bob Dylan song “The Death of Emmit Till)

http://www.heroism.org/class/1950/heroes/till.htm
(actual article) (Historical Document)

http://www.jimcrowhistory.org/resources/lessonplans/hs_es_emmett_till.htm

http://www.state.lib.la.us/la_dyn_templ.cfm?doc_id=417
(study guide)

http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/curric/languagearts/grade8.html#ln
(Go to the letter M)

http://www.grandcanyonreaderaward.org/ayr.htm
(scroll down to Teen books)

Stop school bullying

WOW! What an incredible video from YouTube! Here's the potential of blogging-- to find and share resources like this one, that may not ever make a major media outlet, but are just as powerful and motivating and moving as anything Hollywood has produced!

Do you think your students could appreciate seeing this? Are there any ELA connections? Any bullying themes in any of the literature your students are reading? I also wanted to show you how easy it is to add video to your blog. Send me an email if you need an explanation on how I did it-- it's VERY simple to do!

What is the purpose of this blog?

I'm just an observer here--not sure how much I'll be able to contribute. But I'd like to start a dialogue with all of the authors of this blog on what this blog is supposed to be about.

Remember, what you post here is visible to the whole world (the "blogosphere"). But that's a good thing (as Martha Stewart would say), because who knows what other educators may occasionally drop in to read what you have to say, and to maybe even add a comment or question, or suggestion. My little blog (http://edtechupdate.blogspot.com in case you're interested) has had visitors from Hawaii, China, Australia, South America... either accidentally or on purpose. It's very exciting to think that I have the potential to reach a worldwide audience!!!

I know this whole "blogging" thing is brand new, and you may not know what it's capable of. Might I suggest you read some other blogs? I follow educational technology, and there are MANY outstanding blogs that I read on a regular basis. You can see a list of links to the blogs that I read here: www.bloglines.com/public/jdornberg I'm sure there must be some great ELA curriculum blogs that other organizations or individuals have started. Maybe one of your goals could be to find those and to share them on this blog?

Blogging is all about an exchange of information and ideas, and dialogue. It's sharing, but also discussion. You can rant, but remember EVERYONE IN THE WORLD can read what you've written, so use discretion.

So how about an ELA Curriculum MCISD roll call? Please share some ideas you have for this blog, and add a comment to someone else's post. If you have any questions, please email me at dornberg at misd dot k12 dot mi dot us

Jill - Let me know if you get this. I don't have anything exciting to post as of yet. Am working on my "new presentation for the 22nd. This is sort of like email but of course I need to save all my exciting ideas for the big blog.

Websites for To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/98/mock/intro.html

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/lee.html

http://www.aresearchguide.com/mock.html#mocklesson

http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/tokil/mocktg.htm

http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LAKillAMockingbird89.htm

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=265

http://thwt.org/tokillamockingbird.htm

http://www.pbs.org/theblues/classroom/intidentity.html

http://www.education-world.com/a_tsl/archives/00-1/lesson0005.shtml

http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek4/literature.htm
(scroll down half a page)

http://www.learnnc.org/lessons/bsackert952004723
(goes with the movie A Time To Kill)

http://www.vocabulary.com/VUctkillamock.html
(99 vocabulary words)

http://www.learningtogive.org/lessons/unit114/lesson1.html

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001778.shtml

Websites for Odyssey

The Odyssey

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/homer.html

http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/techlp/techlp049.shtml

http://edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?id=234

http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/odyssey/index.html

http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/1347.html
(watch the movie Superman)

http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/ody/odytg.html
(#3 compares to Star Wars)

http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/250.html
(students plan their own odyssey)

http://jc-schools.net/tutorials/Eng9/homer.html

http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/greekmyths.htm
(Greek Gods)

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/Home.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED481207&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=eric_accno&objectId=0900000b8012c59f
(on the top left click on Eric Full Text)

http://www.secondaryenglish.com/unit_plan_on_the_odyssey.htm
(list of supplementary movies and other genre)

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/morse/homer_odyssey/
(web quest)

http://litplans.com/authors/Homer.html
(lots of links to websites)

Websites for Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet websites
1. http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/MobRome.html
(online text)
2. http://www.janaedwards.com/romeo.html

3. http://www.romeoandjuliet.com/

4. http://academic.csuohio.edu/wangl/ete566/Michelle_Webster/Shakespeare.htm

5. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1986/1/86.01.06.x.html

6. http://www.lessonplanspage.com/LARomeoJuietLicensePlateIdea7-12.htm

7. http://www.teachersfirst.com/winners/romeo.htm

8. http://www.teachersfirst.com/lessons/shak-feast.htm

9. http://www.shakespearehigh.com/faculty/teachers/lessons/

10. http://www.eduref.org/cgi-bin/printlessons.cgi/Virtual/Lessons/Language_Arts/Literature/LIT0204.html
(resources)

11. http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/2571.html

12. http://www.teachers.net/lessons/posts/1094.html

websites for Touching Spirit Bear

Touching Spirit Bear
Websites

http://www.webenglishteacher.com/mikaelsen.html

http://www.emints.org/ethemes/resources/S00001547.shtml

http://www.teach-nology.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2723
(this is a web blog, but there were some neat ideas listed)

http://www.benmikaelsen.com/lesson_plans_ten.htm
( a reverse vocab lesson for the whole book)

http://english.byu.edu/Novelinks/reading%20strategies/Touching%20Spirit%20Bear/Bibliography.pdf


http://www.benmikaelsen.com/lesson_plan_eleven.htm
(Managing anger)


http://www.benmikaelsen.com/lesson_plan_twelve.htm
(I am poem)

http://www.altedinfo.com/tsb/spiritbear00.html
(this is a website for classrooms like cross categorical)


http://curriculum.egcsd.org/ela/Integrated%20Thematic%20Unit.wps.pdf
(the is another whole curriculum with different linking text.)

I'm here too!

Got my invitation, clicked on the link, signed in, and here I am! WOO-HOO!

New Blogger

Hi Everyone!
That wasn't hard at all.