SOW Lesson #1: Put Your Sentence to the Test

Our first Sentence of the Week lesson focuses on creating a simple sentence.  In order to make sure your sentence is a complete sentence and not a fragment, be sure to put your sentence to the test!

 Your sentence should be able to answer the following 2 questions:

Who or what did or is something?

What did they do or what are they?

For more practice on telling a fragment from a complete sentence, check out this link to my Thinglink of web resources!  You will find games, a set of Quizlet flashcards, a video, online poster, and resources to help your sentences (and you!) pass the Sentence test!

An Artist Must Know The Colors

Writing is an art.
Writers are artists.

Since artists rely on splashes of color- deep, fiery reds, strips of clear, blue sky, dark shadowy blacks, to create an image, it is crucial that they know how to blend those colors into just the right shades.  Likewise, it is as important for writers, who paint pictures with words, to know how to use their words as effectively as possible.

We start with the tools you have available... The parts of speech.

In 8th grade, I do not spend weeks teaching you what a noun is, what an adjective is, what a verb is.  What we do explore is how to use those strong nouns, those striking adjectives, those exciting verbs to make your writing come alive and pack a powerful punch.

However, if you do not remember what a verb is, my comment to strengthen your verbs will not be very helpful.

Just as visual artists knows what colors to blend together to reach the perfect color, you need to know how to use your colors, or words, to make your writing impactful and memorable.

If talking about prepositions, adverbs, conjunctions, adjectives makes you nervous and say, "Huh??" Here are  two resources to review the different parts of speech.

http://partofspeech.org/ is a wonderful website to review the parts of speech and get to know your tools.

Once you're more familiar with the parts of speech, give it a try and play Word Invasion to test yourself and your skills.

Remember, a writer has a limited tool belt to create sunsets, special moments, memories, nightmares, love stories, walks in history, celebrations, and conversations... know your tools.  Know how to blend and strengthen your colors so you can paint a vivid picture in the mind's of your readers.

You are an artist! 


                                            

Welcome to the 8th Grade!!

I am very excited to be your 8th grade English teacher!! It is my job to guide you through your final year in middle school and get ready for high school and what lies ahead!  We'll be using many different resources in our English class to start discussions, analyze, write, respond, and research.  You'll find some great resources here on our class blog.  I hope that by having these resources here at your fingertips, you'll feel like you have your own Miss Enos at home to help when you need it!  If you have trouble finding something here on the blog, just let me know and I will help you find it!  If you ever have suggestions for a great resource/topic to add to the class blog, just let me know!!

Here is a video tour that I created to show you around the blog. 

In fact, let me know if you have any questions at all (any time at all!).  You can ask during class, before/after school, through an e-mail.  I don't care how you ask but ask!!!  I want to help you.  You are my number one priority!

One thing you will hear me mention about a million times is my hope for you to have a Spirit of Excellence! I recently heard a quote "Keep working until you are proud!"  Make that your motto for your final year at DMS and many more after!


My goal is to help you strengthen your reading and writing skills this year, but I also want to teach you skills to help you be successful as you grow into the amazing adult you are meant to be.  I want to see you get better at collaborating, creating, and communicating.  I also want to see you become champions! Just like these boys! Check out their story and think about what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it!

Are you up for the challenge?  Because I know I am!


Let's enjoy the year!!

Go, White Team!!!

Sample Genius Hour Presentations

Hi Everyone,

Here is something Mrs. Roberti made in Powtoon (her new favorite tool!)

The presentation will introduce this document.  We wanted to show you that a Powtoon is an entertaining way to present material and is pretty simple to use (it took her about 20 minutes to make this).  I bet some of you would enjoy using it for your Genius Hour presentations.

I hope it helps,

Take care,
Miss Enos

Technology: A Vehicle For Amazing Creation

Today's TED talk actually features two different talks.  These talks both use technology in a powerful way to impact an audience and tell a story.

The first, is an extraordinary performance by a dance troupe... a small, metallic dance troupe.  You guessed it, robots.  Bruno Maisonnier or Aldebaran Robotics choreographs a group of tiny humanoid Nao robots.  It's amazing!  Their performance brings us on a journey, soaring past just "Wow!" to a incredible realization at the complexity and depth of their surprisingly emotional piece.  The power of technology to evoke emotion rings loudly in this talk.  Let it be an inspiration, not just to those I know who are interested in robotics or dance, but anyone who is looking to create art that moves people.  See Dance, Tiny Robots here.

The second talk involves an aspect of technology that I am quite new to: emoticons.  Even though most of you, I would bet, are very fluent in the "developing language" of emoticons, I, myself, basically rely solely on the smily face to punctuate my emotions :).  If you had asked me before, I would say the need for elements of punctuation to represent emotions only shows that our writing lack power and strong description; however, after seeing this talk, I think I'm jumping on board!

Performance artist and storyteller Rives has been called "the first 2.0 poet," using images, video and technology to bring his words to life. Full bio

A Junior Varsity Cheerleader!

His Ted Talk A Story of Mixed Emoticons is creative and engaging.  It is a typographical fairytale that is "both short and bittersweet."   It's a whole new type of storytelling!  

I encourage all of you out there to let these two unique, but creative, TED talks plant seeds of creativity in your imagination as you consider how you can take storytelling and art to the next level.  Let the technology in your hands be the vehicle to create something amazing!

Enjoy!