One of our 8th grade English teachers created the neatest bulletin board for the Winter Holiday. The title was Figurative Furs. She cut out and stapled four large, at least 4 ft "Christmas Tree" silhouettes. One Fur was the Metaphor Fur, one was the Simile Fur, the Personification Fur and the Hyperbole Fur. She gave each student four ornament shaped cutouts. Their assignment was to write a seasonal metaphor, simile, idiom and hyperbole, then decorate the cutout. The ornaments were then attached to the corresponding tree. It was so creative. I took all my classes down to look at and read their examples.
I'm currently putting up a Simile Snowman and a Metaphor Mountain outside my door. The students love to have their work up and admired by others.
Talking about rice, have you had your students go to Freerice.com? It was in our SOL Review Ideas for High Student Engagement. Thank you SURN! It is a lot of fun and addictive, too.
Brooks Spencer - Cedar Lee Middle School - Fauquier County

Rice Picture Book

I was telling another teacher about the picture book about the grains of rice book....what was it called again???? I don't believe it was one we were given, and I think I want to order it!

Semester Ending

As the semester is ending, I feel like I have not accomplished all that I had hoped to do....I have definitely made progress, but the juggling of responsibilities has left me wanting summer to arrive so I can plan better for next year!!

Julius Casear project

Wow! I implemented the lesson plan I wrote and it was exciting to see the students so engaged!! I had a crime scene investigation and even with interuptions (due to snow days), the students were loving reading real world texts about blood splatters, studing scenes to find out facts about suspects, etc! It created really strong interest and desire to get into Act 3!!

School wide focus

Due to a school wide focus on improving test scores, I have been totally amazed at faculty meetings hearing other core content areas joining in the literacy focus and supporting reading instruction! It is very encouraging and I sincerely hope that all our classes will begin to implement the Magnificent Seven!

Passport Project

I wanted to expose my students to a larger selection of myths and legends. Therefore, I created a project where they could use selected sites on the internet to explore myths and legends from different countries. The students have to select five different stories from five different countries. They have to create a stamp representing the country and the story, rate the story out of four stars, summarize the story, and evaluate what makes it a myth or legend and how they liked the story. Through this project, they will be using the Magnificent Seven Comprehension strategies we have worked such as determining important ideas and summarizing!
The students are currently looking through stories on the laptops and will have two weeks to complete the project. I created a document that allows them to input the information they find and save it to their account. I hope they are going to read way more than five stories. I'm honestly hoping that they will go "story shopping" and read until there are five that they actually enjoy. I can't wait to see how if it's a success.

Welcome Back

Welcome back, I hope that everyone had a restful winter break. This week marks the end of The Odyssey for all of my English classes. I am looking forward to using new Power Tools in the new year.