"Epilogue: Women Like Us" Blog

Now that we've read several pieces by Edwidge Danticat, (Behind the Mountains, "Caroline's Wedding," "Women Like Us"), what similarities do you see in the three pieces? Focus on at least one significant similarity between all three stories. What examples from each piece provide evidence of the similarity you've chosen to write about?

"Caroline's Wedding" Blog

"Caroline's Wedding" is a story filled with symbols. Find one person, place, thing or event in this story that, in your opinion, is a significant symbol. What is it? What does it represent? Include at least one direct quote from the story related to the symbol you've chosen. How does the quote support your thinking about this symbol?

Blog Posting Expectations and Evaluation

Hi Triplets!

I was excited to read your first blog posts this morning. Many of you shared great insights about the story, using detail to explain your analysis and commenting not just on the question but on the insights of your peers as well.

To be clear, the blog is a place for a conversation about the reading. This conversation works best when people are sharing their thinking and insights in a thoughtful and detailed way. To ensure that everyone is taking time to post on the blog with care, you will be graded on your blog posts on a regular basis. The following are the criteria for how a blog post will be graded:

Grade: 1

Filled with detail and insight. Post moves beyond a summary of the reading and focuses on analysis. Specific examples from the text support your thinking. You answer not just the question, but you also respond to the comments of your peers as well. It is clear that you reread your posting before submitting it (little or no spelling and grammatical errors).

Grade: 2

Answer the question with a good amount of detail or insight. Some example used to support your thinking. Even more detail and development would enhance your explanation. Some issues with clarity and proofreading.

Grade: 3

A less detailed answer. Some interesting insights but little evidence or analysis present. Significant clarity or proofreading issues.

Grade: 4

Little detail or analysis. The question is answered without evidence from the reading or any analysis. Significant clarity issues.

Grade: 5

Little or no evidence that you completed the reading. Your comment is brief and does not adequately address the question.

Wordly Wise Lesson 1 Quiz

Please note that both 7th and 8th grade will have a Wordly Wise quiz for the words from lesson 1 on one of the following dates during the farm weeks:

Center Homeroom

- Tuesday, 9/21

Front Homeroom

- Tuesday, 9/28

Quizzes will include a multiple choice section as well as a section where you create your own sentences using specific words from the list

Fall Farm Weeks

English Work for Farm Weeks—Fall 2010

During the fifth floor farm weeks, you will work on several long-term English assignments. This work includes homework for the next few weeks as well as class work both for school and farm. While the amount of work is certainly manageable, it is important that you spread this work out over the two weeks! Please email me if you have any questions at tgrattan@manhattancountryschool.org.

Triplets

• Read the following stories from your Stories of Modern-Day Immigration Packet: “Caroline’s Wedding,” “Epilogue: Women Like Us” & “First Crossing” – Due Monday, 10/4
• Answer blog posts for both “Caroline’s Wedding” and “Epilogue: Women Like Us” – Due Monday, 10/4
• Write a piece, no shorter than a page in length, focusing on the connections between two of the stories we’ve read.
• Choose two of the stories— “Double Face,” “Caroline’s Wedding,” “Women Like Us” or “First Crossing”—that in your opinion have a significant similarity or connection. The similarity can be in tone, theme, symbol or experience. Find examples from each story to support your thinking. Use at least two direct quotes. Your piece should include an introduction that highlights the similarity you’ve chosen to focus on, two body paragraphs providing evidence of the similarity and a brief conclusion. While I am asking you to provide an intro and a conclusion, the heart of this assignment is to show your thinking about how two of the stories connect as well as how you provide evidence to support your thinking. For tips on how to incorporate quotes in MLA format, please go to the following link: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/03/

7^th Grade Writing

Writing

Your writing work needs to take place at the farm, so be sure to bring your three-subject notebook to the farm with you!

q Take two walks at the farm with your notebook and something to write with. It would be great for you to take these walks at different times of day. It’s amazing how much the farm changes from first thing in the morning to twilight. Find a place at the farm that interests you, a place full of details that stand out.

q During each walk, write a 1-2 page freewrite in your notebook. This is not something that needs to be polished. Focus on finding as many details as you can. Write about the larger, immediate details you observe, but focus on the smaller ones too. The more details you can cull the better. Be sure to move beyond the visual. What sounds and smells make this place unique? What does it feel like to sit where you are sitting?

q After you’ve completed both of the freewrites, look back at what you’ve written. What images seem the strongest? What details from the natural world might serve as a symbol for something else?

q Next, write the first drafts a two poems inspired by the poetry of Robert Frost. The first will be an homage to his poem “October.” Since you will be at the farm primarily in September, however, it should be about September. What are the main symbols in the “October” poem? What does October represent? How can you write your own poem using September to symbolize an idea or emotion?

q The second poem should also incorporate symbolism from the natural world, yet it also needs to follow the same rhyme scheme and meter as Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” The actual rhymes don’t need to be the same, but the structure should be. Remember that the rhyme scheme of that poem was AABBCCDD and that each line except for the eighth and last had the same number of syllables. So for this poem, the subject, tone and theme are up to you, but you’re following Frost’s structure.

q Bring both poems to class on Wednesday, 10/6.

Vocabulary

• Complete the Wordly Wise Lesson 2 exercises, Due Monday, 10/4

8^th Grade Writing

Writing

• While you are at the farm, complete a two-page brainstorm in the writing section of your notebook. Your brainstorm should focus on a certain activity at the farm that has special meaning to you, something you’ve done several times and have a lot of memories about. Think about the Julia Alvarez poem “Ironing Their Clothes” that we read last year. Ironing was more than ironing to the narrator, just as the activity you will write about (milking a cow, baking bread, hiking up Thyme Hill, etc) should hold a special significance to you. The first page of your brainstorm should focus on a description of the activity in as much sensory detail as possible. This is a brainstorm, so the more details you can squeeze out, the better. The second half of your brainstorm should focus more on why this activity is significant to you. What lessons have you learned from that activity? What part of your personality does it bring out in you? What memories stay with you related to it? How might your experiences as a NYC resident who has spent several weeks a year at a farm influence who you’ll be in the future? How has it changed you already?
• Revise your “This I Believe” Essay

Vocabulary

• Complete the Greek and Latin Roots Sheets by Wednesday, 10/6. There will be a quiz on Greek and Latin Roots on Wednesday, 10/13
• Wordly Wise Lesson 2 exercises, Due Monday, 10/4

8th Grade Writing-- "This I Believe" Peer Review

This I Believe Peer Review

Author:

Reader:

1. What belief is the author is writing about? Is it clearly stated? If not, how might the author state it with more clarity?

2. How would you describe the author’s tone (humorous, serious, argumentative, etc)? Include one quote in your answer from the piece that makes the author’s tone clear.

3. What examples does the author use to support his or her belief? Do they all connect directly to the main belief of the piece? Why or why not?

4. What is the greatest strength of this piece? Include one quote that highlights writing in this piece that is evocative, funny, clever, thoughtful, etc.

5. What is the most significant suggestion you have for the author as she or he moves toward revision? Be as specific as possible.

"Double Face" Blog Post

In "Double Face" by Amy Tan, the narrator states: "It's hard to keep your Chinese face in America." What does she mean by this? What examples and quotes from the story give us insight into this quote's meaning?