Today's Activity

Discuss an ‘important choice/action/inaction’ that was made by  your main characters or a supporting character. Do you agree with the character's decision? What does the character’s choice teach you about the person, the stage of character change he/she is at, what he/she values, the character’s blind spots, or the message from the story?

Use the lenses that you were given in yesterday’s class to collect your thinking (Interpretive thinking sheet) - examples of lenses

Work Submission

Book club use the graphic organizer to do a video recording in Seesaw (as a team) sharing their thinking/answer to the prompt given above

Interpreting Characters Actions/Inaction

Student Samples - Part to Whole Sumative - Why didn't I get a 4? Read this work and decide what you need to do to improve your grade in your retake!

Lesson Recap - Critiqing character's actions

Next Week

Next WEEK - Membean week - 35mins (MEETS) 45mins (Exemplary) TEST NEXT FRIDAY
Thursday - Growing Ideas in Book Clubs - Summative (text: Popularity)
Friday- Book Club Discussion Summative (Your present book club book)

Subjects and Predicates Grammar Assessment

Lesson Recap: Tracking character change

Part to Whole: Mentor Samples

H/W - Have you done enough practice for your subjects and predicates assessment?
You will get TWO grades. Language grade and a Writing grade. (look below for a BIG tip!)
Grammar Summative is tomorrow: I am telling you EXACTLY what you need to do for tomorrow's writing grammar summative. How will you use this information? It is an open book and open notes assessment!!!

These are mentor samples of answers: Part to Whole
1) Notice how the  argument is structured using transitions
2) Notice how the author's  use analogical thinking

Sample 1

The entire theme of the story is portrayed beautifully on page 249. Sumiko is thinking about Jiichan and the unfair prejudices he’s been through, and how he is still brave and happy. The author writes, “And yet Jiichan had found a type of success. She realized suddenly that he had been a happy man. And a brave one. She spotted a weed and jumped up and pulled it out. Then she saw another one and yanked that out.” Although the sudden transition between contemplating Jiichan’s life journey and pulling out weeds may seem abrupt and irrelevant, it is actually an extremely clever move on the author’s part. In the scene, Sumiko was thinking about how Jiichan has faced many wrongs on his journey of life, but he’s still happy and brave. This angers her, as she feels the way Jiichan and countless others are treated is unfair and prejudiced. In her anger, she pulls out a weed. Then, she spotted another weed. She pulls this out as well. The weeds symbolize the problems and prejudice society has in our world. The fact that there were more weeds, represents how no matter how much we try to solve problems, there will always be more. It also conveys that the victims of the evils of the world can’t fix the wrongs alone, and it is up to us to stand up for them and help right the wrongs in this world that is corruption and prejudice. It is amazing to think that in the beginning of the book, Sumiko wouldn’t have even known about half the wrongdoings of the war and the world, let alone try and fix them, but now, she is trying to help make the world a better place, and inspire others, such as when she pulls the weeds out, helps Mr. Moto with his garden, protects Frank, etc. In the beginning of the book, when Sumiko saw something wrong, she wouldn’t have interfered at all, but rather, kept away and hid her emotions inside. For example, when she was rejected from Marsha’s party, although she was more angry than sad, she didn’t do anything, just walked away. She hid the events, and pretended they never happened, not telling anyone else about being “uninvited” (pg 36). Whereas now, she is willing to be an upstander for people like Frank, when he is being beat by other boys for no apparent reason. By being upstanders, and pulling out the weeds that is the diseased evil of our garden, the world, you are not only making space for other, better flowers to grow, you are also reducing the contagious aspects of prejudice in the world. Only when we pull out the weeds, face evil and stand up for others, like flowers growing in a garden, can our world flourish.

Sample 2
  Suzy Swanson’s way of coping with change and loss was clearly shown on pg. 17 when Suzy’s mom told her about Franny’s death, saying, “Some things just happen.” This scene was vital in expressing what Ali Benjamin the author of “The Thing About Jellyfish” was trying to say; “Like poison hidden in wine, the things hurting us the most are the ones we can’t see.” Usually when things happen without an explanation, we would just focus on moving on. However, Suzy desperately tries to find a reason to explain Franny's death instead of just accepting it.This can be shown when her life starts to revolve around finding a cause for her friend’s death. “... everyone else had just given up.” She was so determined to figure out what happened that she considered traveling to a different continent without her parents. Although it was written all over the text, Suzy didn’t realize that sometimes relationships fizzle out. This was represented most importantly by melting of the pee disks Suzy made. This resembles the relationship between Suzy and Franny and one of the greater themes. As the pee disks started to melt, it symbolises their relationship starting to melt, fizzle out, and tear apart. It also symbolizes the two of them slowly drifting away from each other, until their relationship is no more. The end of Suzy and Franny’s friendship shows that change is inescapable but vital. In addition to that, Franny’s death show is definitely one of the most pivotal moments in the story, but how her death was unexplained shows that change is vital but there isn’t always a reason behind it. Change is a one way street that you have to drive down and there’s no turning back. Just as change is inevitable, so is death. And similar to change, you never know when it’s going to happen and sometimes (like in Franny’s death) why it happens. Dealing with loss and change is difficult; sometimes they are unexplained, but have to be accepted. The events in this story show that, life is like an ocean, you can’t control which way the current flows, but you have to follow the flow.

ASK - If you need help on subjects and predicates, bring a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) that uses a variety of subjects and predicates that flow together about one topic to ASK.

Parts to Whole - Summative Tomorrow ( You can use ALL your NOTES from this week) You will be given a text that you have already read and you will have to explain how one part, captures the whole - using 'analogical interpretation techniques.

Friday - Grammar TEST - Make sure you have studied some of the online practice exercises.
Test will be in two part:
Grammar Grade - Naming different subjects and predicates in a multiple choice format
Writing Grade - Writing a short paragraph that correctly uses different subjects and predicates. Example below

Writing Grading Rubric

4- Students used advanced subjects and predicates accurately in 4 sentences and named them correctly. Some sentence tools are also correctly used

3- Students used advanced subjects and predicates accurately in 3 sentences and name them correctly.

2- Students used some advanced subjects and predicates accurately in  3 sentences and named most of  them correctly. Some errors were present.

1- Students mostly confused advanced subjects and predicates and could not craft at least   3 sentences correctly or name the types of subjects and predicates used.