Homework Due Tomorrow

Homework due Tomorrow;
Remember to bring in the five words you have chosen for your Weekly Word Studies.
Spend thirty minutes working on the first draft of your personal memoir.

Ongoing Homework: Students should remember to read for thirty minutes each evening. Reading the assigned novel does count towards the nightly reading. Remember there are no restrictions on what you choose to read, as long as you make sure you get your assigned reading done. Please remember to record the date, the title of what you read, and how many pages you read on your Reading Journal entry form. Please turn in your entry forms on Friday, so that I can review how your reading is going. I will return them to you on Monday. I would encourage you to keep up with your reading over the weekend.

In writing workshop today we moved on from poetry and looked at a new genre, personal memoir. After learning what memoir was the class brainstormed ideas about what an effective memoir looks like. We then looked at the first draft of a memoir of mine, and discussed what made it an ineffective piece of writing.

The First Time I Scored On My High School Basketball Team.

The year was 1975. I was fifteen years old. I was living in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, at the time. I had made my high school basketball team. The name of my high school was Kingston College. I had been trying out for the team for the past two years and I finally made it. I was short so I played guard. I was a good defender and an okay passer, but I was not a good shooter. After four games I still had not scored a point, even though I was the captain of the team and a member of the starting five.

Our fifth game was against Saint Jago High School. They had not won a game. They were in last place. After the first half, we had fifteen points and they had twelve points. In the second half I was called for a technical foul for arguing about a call. With a minute to go we were still leading, but the score was thirty-one points to thirty points. Then I got a pass in the corner, and I shot. The ball rattled around and went in. That was the first time I scored.

The students noted that there was a lack of emotion or feeling in the writing. They pointed out the lack of variety in the length of the sentences, and the overemphasis of the first person pronoun. Janet summed up by saying that the memoir lacked any “Wow” factor. After our discussion, the students were asked to take a subject from their heart map and begin to draft a personal memoir of their own.

In cultural studies the 6^th graders continued work on the California Indian project. Each student’s first draft is due next week Monday, November 16.