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Leadership qualities in Girl Who Owned a City [re-posted]

September 14th, 2010

This is a re-posting of an activity we did last year. It has been updated to include the 2010 Time List.

This is for Ms. Redden’s 7th grade Language Arts class. We’ll be looking at leadership characteristics in both a modern day setting and in the novel The Girl Who Owned a City.

The first site to look at is the Time Magazine Top 100 Influential People of 2010. You can find the site by clicking here.

Click on a person’s name from the list. Read through the person’s description looking specifically for leadership qualities.

Look at the Venn diagram side of your handout. In the middle of the diagram, write down qualities that Lisa and your person share.

On the left-hand side of the diagram, write down qualities that Lisa has as a leader that your person does not have.

On the right-hand side of the diagram, write down qualities that your person has that Lisa does not have.

The next site you’ll look at is the Top 10 Leadership Qualities from HR World. You can get to the site by clicking here.

On your own, answer the three questions on your handout in complete sentences.

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Posted in Assignments, lessons

ToonDoo

January 28th, 2010

ToonDoo had been blocked by our district’s Internet filter for a long time. It’s now open for use, so I thought I’d highlight it.

ToonDoo gives you a selection of comic layouts that you can add text and pictures to. It’s a perfect set-up for a quick classroom lesson in the computer lab. I can see its application as a jigsaw activity, where students become experts on one area of the content and other students view their comics. It could work as a final assessment where students have to prove that they learned something in the unit.

You won’t make complex comics with ToonDoo (Kazu Kibuishi, you don’t have anything to fear), but you can create some pretty decent ones. Here’s one that I made in five minutes:

Your jokes don’t have to be so bad. That’s optional.

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Posted in Assignments, Technology

We Didn’t Start the Karaoke

May 8th, 2008

First off, I’m excited for this 8th grade Social Studies project.

Students will be creating the next verse to Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire”. (Click here for a history teacher’s explanation of the lyrics. Scroll past the ‘terrific video tribute’.)

What I love about this song is that very soon a new generation of students will come through HJHS and your present day life will be history to them. How would the song sound to include modern history?

We didn’t start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world’s been turning
We didn’t start the fire
No we didn’t light it
But we tried to fight it

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Posted in Assignments

Call of the Wild

February 22nd, 2008

This is a research project for Ms. Clerke’s Call of the Wild unit.

Â We will be usingÂ Destiny1Â to look up the information, Inspiration to create the outline, and Word to make the Works Cited page.
You will be looking for information about Call of the WildÂ in three categories: Jack London biographical info, Gold Rush historical information, and details that help develop the setting and the characters of the novel.
When you are done, your outline will look like this:

Click here to see a larger version:Â

Use Destiny1 to find your information. Record where you found each article in a Word document.
At the end you will have a printed Inspiration outline and a Works Cited (check your Write Right) typed up in Word.

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D-Day Blogs

January 17th, 2008

This is for Pendola’s and Fraher’s 8th grade classes.Today you’ll be starting your D-Day blogs, taking on the role of a person involved in one of the biggest battles of World War II. You’ll be posting your writings in the Virtual Classroom for each teacher.Once you are enrolled, you can just go to core.gilbert.k12.az.us/virtualclassroom and log in with your school computer ID. If you have not used a Virtual Classroom before, you will need to set up your profile first.Â

The link to Mr. Fraher’s Virtual Classroom set up isÂ here.
The link to Mr. Pendola’s Virtual Classroom set up isÂ here.Â

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Posted in Assignments

Tags: WWII

Questions for Star Wars: A New Hope

December 17th, 2007

This is in regard to the theme of striking out on your own, as well as state standards on the elements of literature:

What purpose do the droids C-3PO and R2-D2 serve?
How do the droids demonstrate the theme of “out there on your own”?
What colors do the Imperials wear? What might they symbolize? How are the outfits different from what everyone else in the galaxy is wearing?
What might the twin suns sunset that Luke watches symbolize?
What is the mood of the Mos Eisley Cantina? (Where Luke and Ben meet Han Solo)
How does the choice of setting affect the story?
How does Ben’s death demonstrate one of the main themes?
What’s ironic about Princess Leia’s rescue from the Death Star?
Identify one conflict present already. Which type is it? (character vs. …)
Name one example of suspense.
Name one antagonist from the movie and give evidence to support your choice.
From which point of view/perspective is the story told?
Create a simile, metaphor, and alliteration about the movie (those are three separate things).
Identify the:
Exposition –
Rising Action –
Turning Point –
Falling Action –
Resolution –
Which genre does this story fit into? What are some parts of the story that help you figure that out?
What are three words used in the story (either dialogue or names of people/places/things) that evoke a certain mood?
Are there similarities/references/allusions in this story that you’ve seen in other stories from other cultures?

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Anne Frank and Food Rationing

December 1st, 2007

To introduce The Diary of Anne Frank, I would simulate a day at a market under shortages and rationing. We then followed up with the “Homefront” article. Little slips of colored paper helped me to demonstrate real life history.

Each student got one of the three lists and a randomly selected pile of colored slips of paper. The object is to get your groceries for the week, with the starred item being crucial to your specific family. The corresponding article delves into the different rationed items.

At the end we debriefed (crucial for learning) and I pointed out each year how there was someone willing to lie and steal just for little scraps of paper, without anyone’s life on the line.

Make do – Wear it out – Do without, my friends!

“The Home Front: 1941-1945” by Hazel Shelton Abernethy

Rationing Requirements

Your family needs stamps to purchase all of these items for this week. One point for each item acquired. A bonus point if you can purchase the starred item.

Food = 1 pink
* Gasoline = 3 purple
Metal/Electronics = 3 yellow
Hygiene products = 2 green
Sugar = 1 blue

__________________________________________________________________

Rationing Requirements

Your family needs stamps to purchase all of these items for this week. One point for each item acquired. A bonus point if you can purchase the starred item.

Food = 1 pink
Gasoline = 3 purple
* Metal/Electronics = 3 yellow
Hygiene products = 2 green
Sugar = 1 blue

__________________________________________________________________

Rationing Requirements

Your family needs stamps to purchase all of these items for this week. One point for each item acquired. A bonus point if you can purchase the starred item.

Food = 1 pink
Gasoline = 3 purple
Metal/Electronics = 3 yellow
Hygiene products = 2 green
* Sugar = 1 blue

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Posted in Assignments

Tags: WWII

Writing Process Comics

November 19th, 2007

In an effort that would make Stan the Man proud, we will be creating comic books about the different steps of the writing process. Each comic needs to have:

A hero that has the step of the writing process in his/her name
A power/ability/device that demonstrates the specific 6 Trait of Writing that goes with that step of the writing process
Three examples of dialogue that demonstrate a knowledge of the details of that part of the writing process
Use two of the three templates for pages:
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

We will use the following sites for inspiration:

To save the background layout image, Control + Click on the image to save it.
In Word, select Insert->Watermark. When your options come up, selectÂ ‘Picture’ and then make your options look like this:

Now you’ll have more than just your usual Word layout!
Design your hero using the links above. You’ll now need a screenshot.
Press Apple + Control + Shift + 4 to get the screenshot cursor. Draw your box and then paste what you copied into Word.
Click on the picture. In your formatting palette (View->Formatting Palette), select Wrapping (the picture needs to be selected for wrapping to show up). Change ‘Wrap To’ to ‘None’ and change ‘Style’ to ‘In Front of Text’. For each picture you’ll need to change the wrapping.
Move and resize your pictures using the squares (handlebars).

You can even flip images by resizing to the opposite side.
To add dialogue, in your formatting palette select Add Objects. Click on the tab with the green square and the yellow circle (the AutoShapes).
Click and drag whatever object you want onto the page.
You can also add WordArt (the shiny ‘W’ in Add Objects) to give your comic that extra BAM/KAPOW!

Witness the awesome power of The Editor, wielding the Ring of Conventions.

Excelsior!

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Posted in Assignments, Tech How To

Tags: lessons superhero word

Digital Booktalks – Movie Trailers

November 15th, 2007

When I was teaching Language Arts I wanted my last student-created booktalk to be an exceptional one. (I didn’t want a simple summary (probably from the back of the book) book report).

We watched the Spider-Man 3 trailer, looking for theme and symbolism. We then looked at a trailer storyboard to find the same elements of literature.

Students had read a literature circle book as a group of 4 and now they were ready to create the movie trailer.

Trailers needed:

5 different scenes from the book
10 different camera shots
an interweaving theme
3 examples of text
a music soundtrack
to be 30-60 seconds in length

I tell you nothing teaches precision in words like a 30-60 second limit. If they were under, they didn’t have enough content. Over, and they were boring.

These editing skills transferred later into their essays and narratives. (Woo!)

A week with iMovie and then we were ready for the HJHS film festival. At lunch we had standing room only in the library (my obsession was long-building) as most of the 8th grade student body watched everyone’s trailers on an iDVD.