Beginning to Blog

I've enjoyed keeping a class blog this year, and have now challenged the grade 7 students to try it for themselves.

Each section of ELA 7 will have their own blog. Period 4 here: http://kidblog.org/ELA4/, period 6 here: http://kidblog.org/ELA6/ and period 7 here: http://kidblog.org/ELA73/.

On Friday, John Stack, who blogs for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise will be a guest speaker in class. He'll talk about how he became a blogger, where he gets his ideas, etc.

John is also a past competitor in the Lake Placid Ironman and blogged about that experience here.

Chivalry in Medieval Times

In honor of Winter Carnival, we've been reading about the legend of King Arthur. Today we discussed the idea of chivalry, and discussed whether it still exists. We watched this video clip, which seems to suggest that chivalry is dead.

I was pleased that many students argued that they see examples of chivalry at the middle school every day, including politeness and sacrificing for others.

Here's a link from the BBC that translates the chivalric code into modern terms for students.

New Books

I recently received a shipment of new books that I'm sure will be of interest to middle level readers:

I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to be Your Class President by Josh Lieb
Picture the Dead by Adele Griffin and Lisa Brown
The Savage by David Almond
Ruined by Paula Morris
Orphan! by John R. Weber
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the Undead by Mark Twain and Don Borchet
The Boneshaker by Kate Milford
The Pricker Boy by Reade Scott Whinneem
The Stone Child by Dan Poblocki
The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting

I plan to read my way through this list and then get the books into circulation through the middle school library. Please see me if any of these titles interest you.

The Uninvited

One of the books that I read this month is Tim Wynne-Jones' The Uninvited. I liked it, and talked about it in class. It's available in the SLMS library on the eighth grade shelf.

You can hear an audio review of this book, set in rural Ontario, at the North Country Public Radio website.

"The Fan Club" by Rona Maynard

As we work through our fiction writing unit, we've talked about how finding ideas for stories is sometimes very difficult.
Lucy Calkins, author of Units of Study for Teaching Writing, has this advice:
Think about an issue that is important to you and create a character who struggles with that issue.
As an example, we read "The Fan Club" by Rona Maynard. You may want to check it out, and see how the main character, Laura, deals with the issue of discrimination.

Creative Writing Unit

After a non-fiction narrative writing unit that saw students write some truly great pieces, we introduced a unit on creative writing today.

I mentioned a book by Stephen King that I really like, On Writing. This book is part autobiography and part writing instruction. Full disclosure: it's the only Stephen King book I've ever read.

I'm hoping that students will incorporate, like King, some of their real life experiences into their fiction writing.

Guest Book Talker

Mrs. Kennedy was in class today to talk about books related to the theme of "fear and phobias." Here are the books Mrs. Kennedy discussed:

School of Fear by Gitty Daneshvari

Dirty Little Secrets by C.J. Omololu

Rash by Pete Hautman

What Are You Afraid Of? by Donald Gallo, editor

The following books are less directly connected to "fear and phobias," but still come recommended by Mrs. Kennedy:

Secret Saturdays by Torrey Maldonado

The Miles Between by Mary E. Pearson

Time Bomb by Nigel Hinton