Welcome to the blog

Time to share and compare

Our first activity is to share our notes on the two activities we made in class: reading the first chapter of the novel and watching the very first scene of the film.
Visit the following link, write a complete sentence adding your comparison to a character, a detail, a dialogue, this is what we will call 'collaborative writing'. At the end of the activity we'll have a summary of this comparison. Go ahead!

http://novel-and-film.wikispaces.com/

Listen to this fable and draw the ending

Now let’s try listening to a fable. A fable always ends with ‘a brief moral observation’. Do you remember any of the most famous? Aesop’s “The Turtle and the Rabbit”?
We’ll listen to a ‘modern’ fable by James Thurber (an American writer), it begins with a very short introduction about the author and the journalist Keith Olbermann reads four fables.
Just listen to the first one. (Of course you can listen to the other ones whenever you have time)
Write the title of the fable on a piece of paper, draw the ending of this fable, and write the moral of the story, the lesson of it.

Writing a poem

In literature there are different genres where creators find their way of expressing feelings, ideas. Fables, short stories, novels, let’s try some poems.


Today's topic of inspiration is "learning English at home".


Visit http://ettcweb.lr.k12.nj.us/forms/newpoem.htm


Surf through the types of poems: Diamond, If emotion, Little rhyme, Big Day Haiku and give it a try. Once you have it send it to me via e mail, I'll collect them all and we'll publish them as a book.

Don't forget to write your name!!

The one I created reads as follows, the format is called "Once I was":

Once I was in an English class

Once I was a regular student

Once I was learning what the teacher said

Now I am cyber-learning

Once I was just following the text

Once I was doing furious homework

Once I was solving multiple choice questions

Now I am blogging questions and comments

Once I was paying attention

Once I was waiting for my turn

Once I was writing compositions

Now I am exploring, sharing and chatting

Once I was learning verbs

Once I was deciding where to write definite articles

Once I was focusing on pronunciation

Now I am doing all that on line!!!!

Alma

Choosing the novel you'll read this semester

I will read "Persuasion" by Jane Austen, she is one of my favorites. I needed some information about her, her books, the time she wrote her novels.
I went to http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Jane_Austen

and read some of the elements in her life that seemed important to me in order to understand the novel I'm about to read. I made a list of the author's novels, titles, dates, what year was she born, where.

You do the same, choose a novel and take note of all the characters in it to draw a genealogical tree, or a time line, also read the summary of the book, it will help you understand it.

Leave a comment with the name of the novel you'll read and the author's name.

Your novel, its author, your information, ... a cloud.

Now that you have made the choice of the novel you'll read, show the information you found out in Wikipedia by means of a "word cloud".
Have the list of words you'll use, check the spelling, see the example I made.
Go to http://www.wordle.net/
Follow the instructions, no need to sign up, just create your "word cloud".
When you're satisfied with it print your screen, save your work with PAINT in your computer or USB, you´ll have it stored.
Print it and bring it to class. Be ready to tell us about your choice using the "word cloud" as reference. We'll have a contest: the most impressive "word cloud" will be uploaded in our blog and we'll give you credit. Have fun!!!