Last week, I introduced the “writer’s toolbox” that includes Ba-Da-Bing!  Writers use Ba-Da-Bing to add details to a sentence.

Ba – What are your feet doing? What kind of action is in the sentence?

Da – What did you see? Did you see anything or make any observations?

Bing – What did you think? What thoughts did you have in this part of the story?

For example:

Original sentence: “A truck hit a telephone pole.”

Ba-Da-Bing!: “While walking down the street, I saw sparks flying and thought, “What is going on?”

Today, we added Dialogue to our toolbox.  Punctuating dialogue reminds me of “The Chicken Dance.”  Ask your student to demonstrate how it works.

To practice punctuating dialogue, I sent home with your student an orange sheet with sentences to complete.  It is due Friday, October 16.

Quick Writes:

A Quick Write (QW) happens in the first few minutes of class.  I will have a prompt on the board and students are to respond to the prompt in their compositions books.  They write the date and then give 5 blue lines of response.  QWs are designed to get brains thinking and to help build writing stamina.  QW grades are based on completion and not necessarily on content, since QWs are merely warmup exercises.

Zero260 Words:

Ask your student what these words are.  I am curious if they remember what the title “Zero260” means.  The grade for these words (entered October 7) was based on completion.  Students were to copy the word, the proof, and use the Zero260 word in a sentence.  If your student’s grade is not a 100, then points were lost for not following the instructions given for entering the words into the composition books.

Silent Reading

Every other Wednesday is our day to go to the library and check out books.  After taking care of what I call “library business”, we spend the rest of the class period silently reading our book(s). Student earn a daily grade based on their ability to take care of business and silently read.  Points are lost when students fail to follow those directions (i.e., they choose to talk instead of read).

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

djames@kaufmanisd.net

The Academic Vocabulary Test will be this Thursday, October 1.  The words are below:

• Meter – the basic rhythmic structure in verse, composed of stressed and unstressed syllables
• Rhyme scheme – the pattern of rhyming lines (e.g. ABAB, ABBA) Note: The pattern starts over with each new stanza
• Personification – figurative language in which non-human things or abstractions are represented as having human qualities (e.g., necessity is the mother of invention)
• Biography – the life story of a person as told by another
• Autobiography – the life story of a person as told by himself or herself
• Memoir – the autobiographical story of one stage or time in a person’s life; typically highly emotional; focuses on a short period of his/her life, rather than the entire life
• Fictional adaptation – a fictional story based on an autobiography; the point of view is often changed and details are often added that weren’t in the original text
• Implicit message – a message that is not stated, but is implied (must be inferred by the reader)
• Explicit message – a directly stated message
• Figurative language – language layered with meaning by word images and figures of speech, as opposed to literal language

Last night was Meet the Teacher. We called it “Paws to Claws.” It’s a Kaufman thing.

Many came out to pick up schedules and shake hands with teachers. Next to the first day of school, it’s my favorite day of the new year.

Nothing broke my teacher heart more than when I realized the following:

My students hate to read and write.

That is a generalization, of course, because I have students who have learned to enjoy the written word. But by and large, most assignments are met with collective moaning and groaning.

Today, I am amending the aforementioned truism to read as follows:

My students hate being forced to read and write.

I’m reminded of the words of my dear friend and youth pastor

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. However, put salt in his oats and that sucker will drink anything you present.

I want my lessons to be filled with salty oats. Creativity adds salt. I don’t want my lessons to be boring. Boring lessons do not make students thirsty. Quite frankly, boring lessons don’t make me thirsty either.

I bought a creative writing journal that is refreshingly salty. Hopefully, my classes will find it salty, too.

Parents, I have sent home the permission slip needed for your child to go on the “Divergent” field trip to Hometown Cinemas in Terrell.  Please sign and have them returned with $4.00 before March 7 to guarantee a spot for your student.

When I was younger, I had a pet hamster named Cotton. So one day I was in the game room looking at my hamster’s cage, after I heard it squeaking. My hamster started climbing the side of its cage, taking me by surprise. My pet hamster had climbed the side of the cage, getting to the top of the cage and then stopped when it reached the top. The hamster fell of the top of the cage into its food bowl. I then learned that my pet hamster is a true daredevil and that I shouldn’t have named it Cotton. The End.

One day we were eating breakfast and our dog threw up everywhere. We called the doctor and he said to bring him to the vet and we said ok. The next day we took him to the vet but on the way there he threw up again on me. When we got there we had to wait what felt like an hour but it was only like five minutes. When we saw doc he took the weight of him and his temperature (which was not pleasurable to see). He finally said that he has heartworms and we had to give him stuff every day and finally they went away and we were so happy.

My brother and I were jumping on the trampoline. We were doing flips and cartwheels and jumping really high. When all of a sudden my brother jumps really high, screams like a little girl, and face plants into the trampoline and both of us start busting out laughing. We had so much fun.