And this is it. 
The last days of my classroom teaching. 

Thank you all for being my students, hundreds of you over the last 14 years, enriching my life and my memories in ways I never imagined. 
But, I will be around. Working with high school seniors on those college essays -- more important than ever, tutoring and finishing THAT novel. 
Keep writing, whatever it is, whatever you think or feel. Jot it down. If it's yours, it's meaningful and valuable.

Stay in touch and stay tuned.
You can find me at teachsilver@gmail.com

The long and short of it-a goodbye note

8th Graders Made It To The Finish -- Last Day of Classes! Congratulations!

A few 7th-Grade poems in the style of a Diamante, a seven- line contrast poem set up in the shape of a diamond.   Enjoy. 
(Google classroom as official as it gets, beginning Monday, tomorrow, April 6- directions below.)
  

Getaway

Enjoyable, relaxing

Exhilarating, liberating, exciting

 Health, escape, sickness, solitude

Concerning, distancing, overwhelming  

Unpleasant, boring 

Quarantine

Quarantine

Different, Stressful

Confusing, Interesting, Frightening

Home, Stuck, Fun, Friends

Exciting, Relieved, Jumping

Amazing, Finally

Freedom

Google Classroom Directions: Please go to Google Classroom (classroom.google.com) and sign in using your school gmail account (the same one you use to sign into a chromebook).

There you should find that you have been invited to join your English class.  If you haven't been invited please email me at msilver@twinhillsusd.org and let me know.

Accept the invitation and go to the stream and classwork tabs.

IMPORTANT - PLEASE CHECK YOUR ENGLISH GOOGLE DRIVE TO ACCESS GOOGLE CLASSROOM!
Looking to get in? Go to google classroom, look for yours and use this code:

Period 6 class code rwalk3C

Period 5 class code kuokkzv

Period 4 class code q7ujz2r

Period 2 class code veipk4l

English 7 Period 1 class code n2yfvn

Happy National Poetry Month, April 1.

Below is the winner of the poster contest for this year. Check this link to see other posters and also that you can enter your own if you want.

7th Graders, in celebration  of National Poetry Month, how about writing one Haiku poem.

Instructions:  Haiku is an ancient form of Japanese  poetry, written in three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. It is usually concerned with nature, but doesn't have to be. Try to capture one perfect picture in words.  Remember, you only have seventeen syllables. Don’t waste them.

Examples:

                             

old pond

frog leaps in

water's sound

The last winter leaves
Clinging to the black branches
Explode into birds

8th-Graders--

Poetry is so many things beyond what we traditionally think. Check in at the  Poetry 180 website, where American poets gather 180 days of poetry,  delivering a poem a day to students. 

Begin by reading  "The Blue Bowl"by Jane Kenyon.

The Blue Bowl

Like primitives we buried the cat
with his bowl. Bare-handed
we scraped sand and gravel
back into the hole.
                           They fell with a hiss
and thud on his side,
on his long red fur, the white feathers
between his toes, and his
long, not to say aquiline, nose.

We stood and brushed each other off.
There are sorrows keener than these.

Silent the rest of the day, we worked,
ate, stared, and slept. It stormed
all night; now it clears, and a robin
burbles from a dripping bush
like the neighbor who means well
but always says the wrong thing.

—Jane Kenyon

That’s your daily writing prompt for Wednesday. You can interpret the poem, that is, say what it means, or merely react to it. How would you feel if you lost your pet? How does the narrator feel?

Or maybe this inspires you to write one of your own, or any short response. Usually you read a poem out loud and, at the very least, two times, so do that!

Any kind of writing you would like to share with me should go in your English folder. Title it "Daily Writing" and date each day and write the prompt as you would in your physical writer's notebooks. You also give it a permanent home (to have and look back on someday) even if you are not sharing it with me!

Happy Tuesday.
        Google Classroom for English has been created. Look for your invitation and join. If you cannot get in, let me know by email and I will get you connected. I am not totally clear how different this is from what we have been doing on this website and all your connections via English class folders, but we will see. Every day a new skill!

WORDS of encouragement and urging. To each and every writer, which is each and every one of you:
You, we, are living in the most unique time ever, having to shelter in place, staying at home, like almost every other person in the world, to keep the pandemic at bay, at least in our families and neighborhood.
Do we get it? Do we understand it? What is is like living so close and so constantly with our family like this?  What do I notice about myself? My siblings? My parents? Are my parents away working during this pandemic? What do I think about that?
So, this is what I am getting to.
WRITE. JOURNAL. Those are verbs. Those are ideas to explore.
Set aside a certain time each day and just write your thoughts, what comes to mind in this remarkable time and circumstances. You will have your writing, your experience, your perspective to look back on. Your thoughts at this extraordinary time in the world will matter so much to the future you, to your future family and to your future friends. WRITE IT DOWN. WRITE. 

I trust you all have lots to do, school wise. (Wasn't there a lot yesterday?!)
Again, I want to let you know that I am seeing some of your work in your folders and it is great that you are on it. When we switch to Google classroom and I can contact you via email, there will be feedback, promise! And, oh yeah, that zooming stuff, as long as we are not conflicting with other classes.
I expect you might be busy at home, too, helping to clean and cook and trying to figure out how to talk to every single friend while not WITH every single friend.



7th-Graders -- Have you found any versions of The Call of the Wild to watch? Email me and let me know.
8th-Graders -- Tell me what you are reading and/or working on. Who has started with The Diary of Anne Frank? It's really a worthwhile one. Remember, she was writing in her most remarkable of times, even though some of her days were rather un-remarkable and ordinary. WRITE.

*At my house, my 25-year-old son does his company's work in his old bedroom. He comes out in the morning to make my coffee. We see him again at dinner. Sometimes he practices his new hobby, making bread, or just plays guitar to relax. Often he gets online with friends and they talk or play online board games and trivia. Sometimes he lets me peek in. We try to watch a movie together, or at least a funny show. Annie is getting way more walks than she usually gets. My husband, my son and I each carve out our own spaces and time as best we can each day. Is it crowded? Sometimes yes. But, we are together and I am grateful we can be, and that I can stay somewhat in touch with all of you. I miss you, I miss the other staff and teachers at school, I miss my friends, I miss the rest of my family, probably just like all of you, so, I write.

Today's prompt-
"Mostly today, I wonder about what I will do as soon as I can go out again and who I will do it with. Maybe, just myself. "  
Ponder that, if you will. Dreams are important. Be as dreamy and descriptive as possible.


TOMORROW  NATIONAL POETRY MONTH begins. It will be fun. Stay tuned.

Happy Monday. Thanks all of you for sending and/or sharing with me on google drive. Please keep doing until I get google classroom up and running--soon. Daily and *weekly (by grade) assignments below. (This is a long one so keep scrolling!)

Today's writing prompt, from The Writer's Toolbox:

Begin or end a short story with the following:
"You could make a living doing that kind of thing." I suppose I could, but I had never thought about it, until then. 

A bit of grammar:
Adverbs vs. Adjectives

Use adverbs with action verbs and adjectives with linking verbs.
Action: swim, run, jump , scream, write, sleep eat. She skates (action) gracefully. He sings (action) well. 
He leaves (action) quickly. She yells (action) loudly.
Linking verbs describe the subject. The most common is to be and all its forms: was, will be, have been, will have been, etc. Notice the subject is being described but isn't actually doing any type of action.
Tori is (linking) tired. David was (linking) thirsty. Eliza and Kate are (linking) tall. 
Kacey and Tucker will be (linking) hungry. 
Some words can be linking or action verbs, depending on how they are used. 
Chris appears (linking, the subject is being described) happy. The airplane appears (action) suddenly out of the fog. Marcella feels (linking-the subject is being described) tired. The vet feels (action) the cat's tummy carefully. 
A trick -- substitute the word seems and notice how it sounds. Say it out loud!
Find the mistakes in the following and correct -- like a mugshot:
1. The dog smells badly.
2. Of the three boys, Mike runs faster.
3. You sure can eat a lot of ice cream at one sitting.
4. This is a real pretty dress. 
5. Kate is much less unintelligent than Sue. 
6. Apples turn badly if you let them sit out for too long.
7. This bottle of Coke is emptier than that one.

Correct answers can be accessed at this link.


And for the week of March 30--

*7th Graders for the week of March 30--

Movie versions of The Call of the Wild
A true-to-the book version was done in 1976 and you can rent it through Amazon prime and through iTunes to rent, $3.99. The newer one is supposed to be released this week, but so far it costs more than the older one, at $14.99. Might wait a bit and the price will probably go down. Whatever one you choose, if either, do a book/movie comparison chart and then write a few paragraphs about how they do compare. Make sure to saw which you think is better, the book or the movie, and make clear which movie you saw.

Did you read White Fang by Jack London, or another work? If so, tell me what you thought of it. I will post a few questions about that novel tomorrow.
Any work you have done, please share with me on your google drive, or send to me directly. Soon we will have google classroom up and running and maybe a live meeting. Wait for it!

National Poetry Month begins on Wednesday, April 1. In anticipation of that-

Exploring the genre of poetry--Read the introduction on pgs. 704-705. Then read the poems that appear on pages 706 through 738. Try to figure out the meaning of each poem. Write its title and poet’s name, and one sentence on what you think the meaning is. Complete the following related work: p. 712, questions 1 through 6; p. 721, questions 1 through 5; p. 722, questions 1 through 6. 

*8th-Graders for the week of March 30--

If you read Flowers for Algernon last week, here is a link to the movie version online,  via You Tube. I think it's free. As always, it would be best if you read the teleplay, the story, first, (last week's reading)  that is in your textbook,  pgs. 180-210. Did you also get a look at the questions on p. 210.? Good to check those as well.

After you have seen the movie, try to write a comparison, book/movie, noting the character similarities and changes, plot, etc. Then, write a review, not unlike the best of the ones you saw your last week at school before our break. Send to me what you write. Be sure to do this in essay style.

Exploring historical events through drama and literature.

This assignment on The Diary of Anne Frank is somewhat related to today, but very much steep in world history. (Some of you read it for your biography. ) But all of us are having to stay home with our families and trying to do the best we can in a sometimes crowded and certainly unique situation.

This is the true story, the history of a 13-year-old Jewish girl in Holland during World War II who had to go into hiding from the Nazis. Read the introduction (on. Pgs 696 through 699. ) Make absolutely sure to read the introduction so that you understand the historical context.  In addition, there is a very useful introduction of the time and the diary here. Check that out BEFORE you read. There is a lot to take in.

  Then read the play, The Diary of Anne Frank (based on her actual diary), which starts on p. 700 through p. 778. Try to respond to all the questions on p. 778. For vocabulary and grammar development, complete the grammar and vocabulary work on p. 780. 
There is a guided reading along with the play that you can find here. This link also offers some vocabulary words to pay attention to. There are some terrific exercises to do when you are finished. Go to the postreading worksheet tab, or any of the others you find interesting.

With this work, find any movie version of The Diary of Anne Frank (there are several.) Watch it and then write a reflection on the movie. Write which had more impact on you, reading or watching?

This would be a great movie to watch with family.

Write if you thought the characters/actors were as you pictured the people you read about.  If you have the actual book The Diary of Anne Frank, or can find it online, or borrow it (download it) from the library, it would be great to read that as well. It is often an 8th grade recommended reading.  Audio version #1here and #2 here.
It may be a little cumbersome to read electronically, but here is her diary, online. You might be able to download on Kindle through the library or Amazon or on a different device through Google books.

This is called April Rain Song.  It's not April yet, but I think it works for today. 
A poem by Langston Hughes, one of our greatest African-American poets/writers/essayists. (And I adore him.)
Read it. Read it twice. Read it aloud. Respond to it if you like, maybe 5 to 10 minutes of writing about how you feel about the rain last night, this morning, today. Or a poem of your own about rain.

Let the rain kiss you.
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.
Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
Let the rain make still pools on the sidewalk.
The rain makes running pools in the gutter.
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night.
And I love the rain.

Hey, guys! May I share your creative work on the Twin Hills Facebook page? If the answer is yes, please email me with your own email to me to let me know. If it is okay to post anonymously, that's ok, too, but would love to have your names. Thanks. And Happy Friday!

Limerick from 8th grader Caleb, with the three-phrase prompts from Tuesday:

Three Random Phrases Poem

Sticky raspberry yogurt, 

Oh how much I like thee,

But the thought of a ripe apple,

Makes me much more happy.

I hear the sound of Marcie’s feet, 

It will drive me away,

Because if she cannot eat you,

She will be extremely angry.

I sincerely do hope to achieve,

To eat some raspberry yogurt,

I might have tried to steal it all,

But Marcie is just too alert.

I wish that Marcie would be reasonable,

And let me have my share,

Even if I’m a vegetarian,

She really doesn’t care.

I reluctantly give up my quest

To eat some of that yogurt,

Marcie will not budge at all,

But my stomach really, really does hurt.

So I guess I’ll have an apple.

MORE TO COME!! KEEP WRITING! KEEP SENDING!! THANKS FOR DOING!

GOOD DAY! (On Friday, the end of one full week of our new world.) 

Here are a couple of cuties. Annie is looking for her food because we all got up soooooo early today at 5 am. Yikes. 

Thanks, too, for a few more of you who have sent me writing from the week. It is so great to "hear" your voices even if I can't actually see you. Your writing shows me a lot!  Another one of you just showed up in my inbox. Thank you. 

TODAY'S PROMPT: 
Write out the lyrics to your favorite song, at least the first few sets--maybe 10 "sentences" or so, or maybe just the chorus.  Consider the message in those lyrics. Consider the sound or beat of the music. Play it if you can.  You can find lyrics here: https://www.azlyrics.com/
Then for at least 10 minutes, respond in your notebook or your online journal. 
Visual component: Sketch what you think the protagonist is "singing" about. Protagonist is the main character or narrator in your song "story." 

Example: Lyrics from "My Shot"  from Broadway musical Hamilton. 
I am not throwing away my shot!
I am not throwing away my shot!
Hey yo, I'm just like my countryI'm young, scrappy and hungry
And I'm not throwing away my shot!
I'm 'a get a scholarship to King's CollegeI probably shouldn't brag, but dag, I amaze and astonish
The problem is I got a lot of brains but no polishI gotta holler just to be heard
With every word, I drop knowledge!I'm a diamond in the rough, a shiny piece of coal
Tryin' to reach my goal. 
My power of speech: unimpeachable
Only nineteen but my mind is older...


Sample Response: 
Shots are something I was always told about but took a long time to learn. I was passive for a while. I let things happen to me. I didn't look ahead. I was too scared about what others would think. But one time, just this one time, I thought, yeah, I am going to take my best shot. I set off for California, headed out to college, maybe, but mostly to see what else was out there. I was a clear-headed East Coast girl, pinned to NYC and Philly-bred. I was 19. I had a dear family friend advising me--"Go," she said. "Go find your world and not anyone else's." I took my shot and though I can't say I never looked back, I can say it was the most important step I took at that age. 



SEVENTH-GRADE LONG DISTANCE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR THIS WEEK:

Can finish your novel, The Call of the Wild. If you can find any version of the movie online, watch that.
Consider writing a book/movie comparison, like you  did for The Giver.

If you can find other books by Jack London, in particular, White Fang, consider reading that book, too. 

Other possibilities:  

* Read your SSR novel, or any novel. Summarize it in five paragraphs,  taking note of the five stops
on the plot line. 

1- In literature textbooks, which students should have at home, the following are options that will keep students
keeping up with 7th grade ELA (English Language Arts) curriculum.

 2- - Comparing literary works, memoirs and autobiographies. Read the introduction on p. 552-553
and then the story, No Gumption by Russell Baker on p. 555. Answer the questions at the end of the story,
p. 561.

3- Next Read An American Childhood by Annie Dillard. Answer the questions at the end of the story, p. 566.
Next comparing the two stories, on p. 567, answer questions 1 through 9. Complete vocabulary and grammar work, p. 568.
Next, compare the two pieces of writing, completing the comparison and contrast essay work on p. 569,
under the heading Writing Lesson.


EIGHTH-GRADE LONG DISTANCE LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES FOR THIS WEEK:

* Read your SSR novel, or any novel. Summarize it in five paragraphs,  taking note of the five stops on the plot line.  Consider putting on a plot diagram before you summarize it.

In literature textbooks:

1- Read the teleplay, “Flowers For Algernon,” pgs. 180-210. Respond to all the questions on p. 210.

For vocabulary and grammar development, complete the grammar and vocabulary work on  p. 212.

Next, complete the writing lesson on p. 213. 

Hi on Thursday afternoon. Thanks for waiting
Today's writing prompt. 
What is it that you are absolutely sure you will never forget about being this age, and why have adults forgotten it?

If you are a visual person as well, or instead, why not draw a response to that? 

(Short grammar lesson below)

Thanks  again to all of you who sent yesterday and today. I will compile some of your work and post tomorrow. Keep it going! 
I am also working on setting up google classroom. Hope to be there by next week.

In the meantime, here's Annie. 

Grammar Lesson. A short one, the difference between it's and its.
Confusing the two is one of the most common mistakes in the English language. It's a contraction, short for it is. Or it has. It is never used for anything else. 
WRONG and RIGHT -Its absolutely amazing that people often mistake its use.
RIGHT -- It's absolutely amazing that people often mistake its use.

The word ITS is possessive even though it does not have its own apostrophe.  Like other possessive pronouns, none of the have apostrophes. Consider how silly this looks: my's name, his's cat, your's house. 
Brief exercise: Write one paragraph of four sentences using both the possessive for of its and the contraction. 
An example: 
Its small nose was bent of of shape when the chihuahua  ran after him. "It's crazy," I thought to myself. "Why would a strong tabby cat be annoyed by a tiny little dog?" Its other housemate, a tawny colored cocker spaniel, often ignored the cat, much to its delight. It's just the chihuahua that creates problems.