Language Arts 12: Magical Realism

Warmup:  On one half of a piece of paper, draw a picture of what you think of when you hear the word "angel."

"In My World" game, for extra credit. 

"In My World" concept attainment with examples and non-examples of magical realism. Based on what all of the examples have in common, how would you define magical realism? 

Notes on magical realism. 

Read Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings."  Reading strategy: 

• Find places where, in a single sentence, you have a magical detail and a realistic detail.

• Mark all of those sentences with a star.

• Underline the magical detail and double underline the realistic detail. MARK AT LEAST TEN. 

Revisit your angel drawing. On the other half of your paper, draw a picture of the angel from the story, using the passages of descriptive imagery to create your representation.


Homework: None!

Language Arts 9: River of Words, Arizona Water Web

Today we had a visit from Yajaira Gray, of the Pima County Natural Resources Department.

After discussing the sources of water and consumers of water in our local area, you participated in a hands-on demonstration. You created a model of what happens to our water resources when there are competing demands from a wide variety of water users.


Homework: None!  Tomorrow we will be working on writing original poetry for the River of Words poetry contest. How can you turn what you learned today into a poem?

Integrated Writing, section 1: "The Veldt"

Read "The Veldt" by Ray Bradbury while listening to Stephen Colbert read the story.

Discuss the nature of imagination and reality in the story.

Discuss story vocab.

Boggle!

Homework: None.

Language Arts 11: The Internet and Your Brain

Writer's Journal entry: What is multitasking? Do you do it well? Give some examples of multitasking and how it fits into your life. Is it a valuable skill in today's society?

 

Take New York Times "task juggling" test to see how well you truly multitask.


Read two Wall Street Journal articles ("Does the Internet Make You Dumber?" and "Does the Internet Make You Smarter?") and answer questions about them on the handout.


Writer's journals were collected for a grade. 

Homework:  Wall Street Journal article responses due Thursday.

Language Arts 10: Corrido Writing

Writer's Journal entry: Write a long paragraph about an event, place, or a person that you believe deserves to be remembered, commemorated, or celebrated. This could be historical, political, or personal. If you were going to immortalize something or someone in song, what or who would it be, and why? What things would be most important to describe about them?

Read examples of corridos. Identify rhyme scheme and other features of a corrido.

Draft your own corrido for the Tucson annual bilingual corrido contest! 

Requirements: 

• 36 lines (either 6 stanzas of 6 lines each, or 9 stanzas of 4 lines each)
• approximately 7-10 syllables per line
• traditional corrido rhyme scheme (ABCB, AABB, or ABCBDB)

Homework: 

Corrido rough and final drafts will be due on Thursday.

Language Arts 9: Peer Editing

Warmup: sentence variation practice: Choose a topic to write about. Nonvolunteers will be chosen to roll a set of dice. Whatever number comes up, you will have to write a sentence about your topic using that number of words. You can NOT begin any of the sentences with the same word! 

Review the Six Traits rubric.

Peer edit TWO classmates' essay drafts for all 6 traits, using the rubric and the peer editing handout.

Homework: FINAL essay draft, with all rough drafts and peer editing sheets attached for full credit, is due on Tuesday. This will be graded according to the six traits rubric you worked with today and will be worth 25 points.

Language Arts 12: Peer Editing

Review the Six Traits rubric.

Peer edit TWO classmates' essay drafts for all 6 traits, using the rubric and the peer editing handout.

Homework: FINAL essay draft, with all rough drafts and peer editing sheets attached for full credit, is due on Tuesday. This will be graded according to the six traits rubric you worked with today.

Don't forget to have your copy of Anaya, Curse of the Chupacabra, on Wednesday!