Of Picture Books and Perspectives...

Today, we are handing in our final drafts of the SYNTHESIS essay. You made it! I really appreciate your hard work on an arduous skill--and I am very proud of each of you writing and revising these essays paragraph by paragraph.

Yes!

Yesterday, after reviewing the proper heading and workshopping engaging titles, we had the chance to channel our inner five-year old selves. We left our seats and gathered on the floor in the center of the room for a reading of the awesome picture book Emmanuel's Dream by Laurie Ann Thomspon. Since we had just finished writing our synthesis essays based on the documentary about Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah and the novel The Breadwinner, it was a great time to read a fabulous picture book.

WE ARE NEVER TOO OLD FOR PICTURE BOOKS! 

Our word of the day yesterday was ANTIQUITY, which simply means ancient times. An example of the the word in a sentence is One of my favorite people is Socrates, who lived in antiquity, but whose wisdom still resonates today.

Our word of the day for today is DUBIOUS, which means causing doubt or untrustworthy.

Today, we are beginning our new novel, Nothing but the Truth by Avi. We read aloud from the opening pages and for tonight, share a couple of sentences on the class blog with your response to this question: WHAT IS PATRIOTISM, AND HOW IMPORTANT (or unimportant) IS IT?

Examples of Synthesis...Yes!

Hello Class!

Yesterday, we dove into our Synthesis essays, but we did so backwards. Instead of beginning at the, well, beginning,, we began with our second and third paragraphs. Even though it seems crazy, the easiest way to write a synthesis essay is to figure out each part first, and THEN combine them together to make the whole.

So, yesterday we write our theme paragraphs about Emmanuel's Gift and then about The Breadwinner.

Here is a snapshot of one example from our board on how to craft the paragraph about Emmanuel's Gift:

And today, we are building our Introductions--complete with our actual synthesis statements! Here is a link to the examples we'll discuss in class today on how to find your synthesis statement. 

And finally (finally!) here is a video that explains how to get your synthesis statement in case you need a refresher, or you love synthesis SO much that you just can't wait until school tomorrow to hear all about it again!

Our word of the day yesterday was PERPETUAL, which means continuing on forever. And our word of the day today is ARDUOUS, which means incredibly hard!

Have an awesome day and evening!

Peace,

Mr. R

Rhythm & Retention

Today we are venturing out from school and into the field to make music. Using a diverse mix of percussion instruments, we are translating the work we did yesterday on thematic statements into actual musical movements that correlate to The Breadwinner.

I am loving hearing your musical creativity and seeing how you tie in Deborah Ellis's message in the novel to the musical themes you create to match it.

Here is the project overview of the Rhythm & Retention musical mission that we've worked on yesterday and are continuing today. 

This past Monday, we did a prediction-oriented writing activity where you each tried to write Chapter 4 from The Breadwinner from the point of view of a character in the story--inferring what may happen next. Here is the link to that creative writing mission. 

Our word of the day from yesterday was THEME, which refers to both the subject / big idea of a novel, song, or film AND the author's message in any of these (the thematic statement is often how the author's message is characterized). 

And our word of the day from Tuesday was FALLACY, which means a mistake in thinking or logic as in this sentence: when I thought that people who drove mini-vans were criminals, that was a fallacy from my five-year old days.

Have an awesome day!

Peace,

Mr. R