The Hawks Talk

On Monday we made a book called Poetic Devices. we defined the following words in this book: simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, onomatopoeia, and alliteration. On Tuesday we took our understanding of Simile and Metaphor, and we did RFA #3. On Wednesday we did a word wall which is writing a sentence using the words that we defined in our Poetic Devices booklet,and did RFA #4. Thursdaywe did RFA#5 and we picked groups for our Digital Storytelling Projects. In our Groups we brainstormed ideas for the poem and themes for the pictures.Friday we did RFA#6 and brainstormed more ideas for the Digital Storytelling projects.

As a group, create a letter to Dear Abby that reflects a problem arising from a conflict either in the workplace (either employee or employer) or in college.  As individuals, read and respond to one letter from a group other than your group’s entry.  Write your name, screen name, time, and date of your response on a piece of paper and hand in to Mrs. O’Hara as soon as you write your response.

What features do you think the cell phone of the future will have? What tasks would you want that cell phone to be able to perform? 

As part of the Horizon Project, several students have envisioned the future of the cell phone.

 Here is a video by Atif, a student at the ISD school in Bangladesh, who is one of the students involved in this project. I learned of this video from the coolcatteacher blog. What marvelous ideas Atif displays!

Take a look at the presentation I have embedded in this post. I first discovered this incredible slide show, “Do You Know,” on Karl Fisch’s blog. Recently, Mr. Fisch permitted a young man named Jeff Brenman to remix the presentation. Mr. Berman’s new version won Slideshare’s World’s Best Presentation Contest.

Jeff’s version is awesome. Does this give you ideas for your next presentation?

I have also embedded a modified version of Mr. Fisch’s original presentation for the sake of comparison. This modified version was created by Scott McLeod. Mr. McLeod has removed slides that were specific to Mr. Fisch’s school district.
While the presentation was intended for educators, I think it is important for students to view.

I have restored the link to the South Fayette Library blog. Because I had not prepared you properly for commenting by having each create a Google account, many of you were not able to leave comments on this blog. We have received excellent responses to our commenting from other authors.

I have learned, through our Speak experience, that effective blogging and commenting is about conversation. Removing the link cut off a thread of that conversation. My thanks to all of you–my students, Vicki Davis, and James Brush–for helping me learn a valuable lesson.

Update May 6, 2007 - I have restored the link to the South Fayette Library blog.

After completing your assignment, return here to write your comments about Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel Speak.

1. Read three on-line book reviews about Speak
2. Visit one of these blogs and write a comment about your feelings about the book
   • Coyote Mercury (by James Brush - high school teacher and writer)
   • South Fayette Library
     
   • Memphis Reads
   • Hopkinton High School
     
3. Write your own review

Here is a copy of a story I shared with my students to demonstrate the writing of a narrative. They really enjoyed it.

While searching for examples of English teachers using blogs in the classroom, I discovered Smith’s 9th Grade Blog. I like some of the ideas proposed. She offeres her students an opportunity to write for an authentic audience on a national stage.

Read some of the ideas on the blog. Return to our blog and write your comments or write your comments in your journal. Would you like to create something for a national audience? Why?