The conference was AMAZING!  We had just under 200 people. (Read below to learn why that is impressive.)  We have already discussed changes for next year’s conference.  We hope you will consider joining us.  Check RMWP.ORG for updates.

This conference schedule is a thing of great beauty.  You can now also download the conference program.

When I first started planning for this conference, I was told to expect around 30 people to show up.  As of today we have about 152 registered.  I am amazed at the support.  I have never done this before.  It has been eye-opening.If you are interested in hearing Kylene Beers and Bob Probst along with 12 other presenters speak, I would encourage you to come on down, over, or up to Birmingham, Alabama on Saturday (27 February 2010).Here is a link to the page where you can register: 21st Century Literacies Conference(I will remove the option to register at 11:59 p.m. the night before the conference.)

I purchased a copy of Janet Allen’s Inside Words this summer at a workshop. Among the AMAZING activities in the book I discovered the Frayer Method. (Click HERE to see a demonstration of the Frayer method with vocabulary).

When I saw it, I immediately thought of how useful it would be to use this to teach voice/style within your students’ writing. If you had them fill out a graphic organizer like the one used with vocabulary above, you could really get them thinking about their own writing.

Then I started thinking about how useful it would be in teaching the differences between the literary periods I teach (everything from romanticism to modernism). Because the influence of these period is often subtle and lacking a strict definition, this will certainly be useful for me next year.

Anyway…this post was more for me than my readers. Just thought I’d share, though.

Here are some PDF worksheets that feature the Frayer methods:

What is the Frayer method?

Frayer Vocabluary PDF

Because of the nature of English, it is difficult to give concrete definitions to parts of speech (verbs can work like nouns; nouns can be verbs), but grammar books tend to avoid this fact, thereby leaving students completely confounded when they return to the texts to complete assigments. I have found the MOST AMAZING grammar book ever; it has helped many students who couldn’t quite get this often loathed aspect of the English curriculum.

Analyzing English Grammar by Thomas Klammer is be an awesome resource for those students who cannot get past the inconsistencies of grammar. EVEN BETTER NEWS: It is in its 5th edition, but there have only been very minor changes, so you can find really cheap copies (here it is on amazon.com or half.com).

The reason it is so good is because it provides different tests to go through to figure out if a word is a noun, verb, etc.  These tests are kind of like the duck test (if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and waddles like a duck, it is a duck). This works because the authors focus on the FORM and FUNCTION of each word.  They look at how the word appears (FORM) as well as how the word works in the sentences by using frame sentences (fill-in-the-blank sentences that you can insert the word being examined into to figure out what it is).

Here is the noun chart from the book:

TESTS FOR NOUNS

Formal Proof:

1. Has a noun-making morpheme (governMENT)
2. Can occur with the plural morpheme (governmentS)
3. Can occur with the possessive morpheme (government’S decision)

   Function Proof:

1. Can directly follow an article (THE government, A government)
2. Can fit in the frame sentence: (The) ________ seem(s) all right.

Here is the verb chart from the book:

TEST FOR VERBS

Formal Proof:

1. Has a verb-making morpheme (criticIZE)
2. Can occur with present-tense morpheme (criticizeS)
3. Can have past-tense morpheme (criticizeD)
4.  Can occur in present tense (criticizING)
5. Can occur with past-participle morpheme (had fallEN, was citicizeD)

Function Proof:

1. Can be made into a command (CRITICIZE the novel!)
2. Can be made negative (They did NOT criticize the novel)
3.  Can fit in one of the frame sentences
   1. They must ______ (it).
   2. They must ______ good.

The book does the same thing for clauses and phrases.  I love this book so much that I have purchased two copies of it.

CONTXTS.com is made for business people who run out of business cards. The idea is for people who find that they have run out of business cards to tell the person to send a text message with their username to 50500.

CLASSROOM USE:
I have set up a contxts account. Text davisbg to the number 50500. (For the purpose of this blog I did set it up as a business card–so if you’d like me to speak at a conference–but I will open another account for classroom use.) You can change the information recipients will see as often as you’d like. Therefore, all you’d have to do is put in homework information instead of business contact information and you’d have an easy way for students to get homework assignments and test reminders. Since students of all socioeconomic levels have cell phones, this might be pretty interesting.

Go ahead. Try it. Text “davisbg” to the number 50500.

I discovered contxts at lifehacker.com.

I discovered this list from the Santa Cruz Public Library.  I thought it might make for some interesting discussions in conjunction with literature.  Click the link above for the source.

• Amaranth - Immortality
• Anemone - Anticipation, Frailty
• Apple Blossom - Admiration
• Aspen Leaf - Fear
• Asphodel - Death, Memorial sorrow
• Bay - The poet’s crown
• Begonia - Dark thoughts.
• Blue violet - Faithfulness
• Buttercup - Wealth
• Calla - Magnificent beauty, pride
• Camelia, White - Innate worth
• Candytuft - Indifference
• Cardinal Flower - Distinction
• Chrysanthemum - Cheerfulness and optimism.
• Cornflower - Delicacy
• Cowslip - Youthful Beauty
• Crocus - Good cheer
• Cyclamen - Diffidence
• Cypress - Mourning
• Daffodil - Unrequited love
• Daisy - Fidelity and innocence; simplicity
• Dandelion - multiple meanings: grief and bitterness; symbol of the sun; symbol of coquetry; used by Flemish and German painters to symbolize the suffering of Christ.
• Everlastings - Unfading love
• Fern - Sincerity
• Fir Tree - Time
• Forget-me-not - True love; Friendship and fidelity as well as remembrance.
• Four-leafed Clover - Good luck
• Foxglove - Insincerity
• Gentian - Virgin pride
• Geranium - Gentility
• Goldenrod - Encouragement
• Heather - Loneliness
• Heather, White - Good fortune
• Heliotrope - Devotion
• Hepatica - Anger
• Hollyhock - Ambition
• Honeysuckle - Friendship
• Hyacinth - Sorrow
• Ivy - Truthfulness, Wedded love
• Larkspur - Lightness, laughter
• Laurel - Fame
• Lavender - Purity; Silence
• Lilac - Fastidiousness
• Lily, White - Purity
• Lotus - Forgetfulness, estranged love
• Lunaria - Prosperity, honesty
• Marigolds - Happiness
• Marjoram and Lily of the valley - Love; purity;happiness
• Morning Glory - Symbol of the transience of man’s life.
• Myrtle - Beauty’s crown, wedded love
• Narcissus - Vanity
• Oak Leaf - Patriotism, Hospitality
• Olive Branch - Peace
• Orange Blossom - Marriage
• Oxalis - Pangs of regret
• Palm Leaf - Victory
• Pansy - Symbol of the loved one, memories, loving thoughts and souvenirs.
• Phlox - Symbol of sweet dreams and implies a proposal of marriage.
• Pink Carnation - I’ll never forget you.
• Poppy, White - Oblivion
• Primrose - Youth
• Red Carnation - I’m carrying a torch for you.
• Rose - Love
• Rosebuds - Pure and lovely
• Rosemary - Rememberance
• Sage - Domestic bliss
• Shamrock - Loyalty
• Snowdrop - Friend in Need
• Sting Nettle - Slander
• Sweet William - Gallantry
• Thyme - Courage, energy
• Tulip - in Persia the tulip is the symbol of love
• Violet - Modesty
• Water Lily - Purity of heart

Here are my worksheets for quote IDs on The Great Gatsby. I hope find them useful. I used the same method as described in THIS post.

 

Chapters 3-6 Get your own - Open publication Chapter 7 Get your own - Open publication Chapters 8-9 Get your own - Open publication

Below you will find instructions for creating a posterous.com blog. This is by far the easiest blog site online. After you set it up all you have to do is email whatever you want to post to your blog.

This week they even added the ability to make your blog private.

If your school’s computers have the unfortunate habit of not recognizing flash drives, you might consider having your students manage projects using KADOO.COM.

I tried it out today.  The 10 GB of space the site allows you will be more than enough for all of the powerpoints, papers, pictures, and emails your students will have to manage for your class.

I really liked how you can decide how you want to share each individual file.  You can share it to everyone on kadoo, specific friends on kadoo, or you can create a link to specific content that you can simply email.

I had a packet for a presentation I conducted at NCTE that will not email because it is too large.  A colleague wanted a copy, so I just told kadoo to make me a link for that document.  I emailed the link to that person (and myself as a test) and I was amazed at how fast it downloaded.

If the site featured a word processing program like google docs or zoho, I might even consider depending on Kadoo for everything.

This is a great way to create a database for all of your lesson plans, worksheets, and tests.

Good stuff!

This sample of my handout for The Great Gatsby was designed for students at level 5, so they no longer need the scaffolding that is described below. To view the handout, just CLICK the picture.

Get your own - Open publication

I have been working on responding to quote IDs. Initially I found that they were leaving out important aspects of the selected passages, like the speaker or literary devices. So I decided to try to come up with an acronym to help them remember what all then needed in their responses.

Then, I found that, though the acronym was helping them to remember to touch on more of the aspects of the quotes, over 50% of them were overlooking the more inferential aspects of the passages. THEREFORE, I had to backtrack. Now I have learned that the following steps must be followed in order to make sure students are writing at the optimal level:

1. Teach them the following acronym to help them to learn what is involved in a complete quote ID.

Speaker- tell the speaker of the quote or passage
Event- tell what is going on where that quote occurs in the literature
Language & literary devices
Explain your examples from the text
Context- relate this passage to other parts of the piece or other pieces of literature.
Themes- relate this passage to the themes within the novel.

2. I do, we do, you do.

Show them how one is written. Allow them to construct a few with you. Then, let them try it on their own.

3. Then have the students respond to a list of passages in which you underline the parts you expect them to include in the responses.

4. Now, instead of underlining all of the important parts, put a number next to each passage showing how many important aspects they need to discuss.

Instead of writing a single number, you might want to write two numbers, such as 4 to 5. This will cut down on the number of students who approach you saying, “I cannot find five of them. Could you tell the last one?” It is one of those little psychological tricks that saves you time because they will try to find five, but they will settle for four if the bell rings.

5. The last step will have no training wheels. They will just get the passages along with your high standards. Because they have had a lot of practice, they will be well prepared.

As you progress through these steps, may also want to consider either raising the point value of the assignment or count off more for information that is left out of the students’ responses.

If you have not used Google Maps to enhance your students’ understanding of the settings of the literature you are reading, you really should go and check it out.

Below I have some screen shots of my visit to West Egg from The Great Gatsby.

FIRST you have to do is type in where you want to go. You do not need an address. I just typed in New York and dragged the map until I saw the less fashionable West Egg glittering on my screen. (If Nick can describe it that way, so can I.)

SECOND, I zoomed in until I was able to see the names of the streets.

THIRD, (notice the red arrow on the second picture to your right) drag that little yellow man under the compass on the left side of the map to the street you want to visit. **Street view will only work for streets that turn BLUE when you drag that little yellow man. The green circle is where you will start.

FOURTH, use your arrow keys to move. Left and right turn you around. Up and down move you up or down the street. Double-click to zoom.

They actually have a street named Gatsby Ln. that winds its way to the point where Gatsby would have lived.

I have also done this with the book Copper Sun, by Sharon Draper, Of Mice and Men, by Steinbeck, and for William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheel Barrow.” (I happened upon a bookstore in Paris called The Red Wheel Barrow using street view while wasting time with this rather addictive technology. We happened to be studying it the poem the next day.)

I hope you’ll make use of this technology. I know here in Birmingham, Alabama we have had our streets photographed by the Google van, so we now have street view. You should check it out for your own city.

HERE is a link to other posts dealing with The Great Gatsby.

I recently discovered the Naked Scientists Radio Show podcast. (I found it on iTunes HERE, but the link provided is to the website.)

One of the episodes featured a story about how we can estimate when the story took placed based on the astronomical references. It was just another way to show the possible connections between math, science, and literature. I have (Here is the iTunes link–you’ll find the story at the 6:00 mark). The link and description below are from the results of searching for Odyssey on their website.

There is another episode that mentions The Odyssey listed below as well. The link is to the website, but here is a link to the iTunes podcast where you will find the story at the 21:09 mark.

I hope you will find these useful.

		Ancient Poet Astronomically Accurate
	Ancient Poet Astronomically Accurate , , A few weeks ago on the Naked Scientists we followed the story of the Odyssey, and how although the land has changed in the 3000 years since it was written, the poet knew his geography. Parts of the poem allowed modern …
	Size: 2.1 K - Created: 01-07-08 - Modified: 01-07-08 17:21

		The Secrets of Odysseus
	… of the most famous of those ancient Greek myths, the Odyssey, might actually be based on a lot more fact than … of the most famous of those ancient Greek myths, the Odyssey, might actually be based on a lot more fact than … of the most famous of those ancient Greek myths, the Odyssey, might actually be based on a lot more fact than … stand these two great epic poems, the Iliad and the
	Size: 14.9 K - Created: 10-06-08 - Modified: 11-06-08 21:09

Visit English CompanionJim Burke, author of numerous Language Arts books, has created a network via ning.com. I would encourage you to join. In addition to offering an avenue for conversations with other professionals, this network gives you access to countless resources as well as big-name authors.

So come join in the fun at englishcompanion.ning.com today.