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September 29th & 30th - Analyzing Central Ideas

9/28/2016

 
1. Review Topics vs. Central Ideas
2. Identify Central Ideas & Supporting Details
3. Explain how the Details Develop the Central Idea

Analyzing Central Ideas - What does that mean?

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Review Practice - Making Inferences & Identifying the Central Idea and Supporting Details

Making Inferences
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Identifying Central Ideas & Supporting Details
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Analyzing Central Ideas

Once we identify the central idea and relevant supporting
details, we need to explain how the author uses those supporting
​details to develop the central idea.

Analyze the Development of Central Idea

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Whole group practice - Steven Spielberg
  • Can I identify the central idea?
  • Can I identify relevant supporting details?
  • Can I explain how the relevant supporting details develop the central idea?
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Try it on Your Own - Suzanne Collins: Author Biography

  • ​Can I identify the central idea?
  • Can I identify relevant supporting details?
  • Can I explain how the relevant supporting details develop the central idea?
Novelists come up with original ideas the same way everyone
else does - by thinking creatively, putting ideas together in
new ways, drawing on past experiences, and looking at the world
​differently.


Suzanne Collins's Novel Idea

As a child, Suzanne Collins loved myths--in particular,
she loved the myth of Theseus. In this myth, as a punishment
for past wrongdoing, the citizens of Athens are forced to
send their children as tributes to Crete.  There they will fight the
Minotaur - a monster they had no hope of defeating. 


Collins was fascinated by the idea of a society so powerful
and cruel that it could force another society to give up its
children, sacrificing them as retribution for past crimes.  Her
fascination with the myth helped shape her idea for the novel 

The Hunger Games.


​The idea came about one evening as Collins was "channel surfing."  
She switched between two programs: one was about a group
of teenagers competing for prizes, and the other program was about
teenagers fighting in a war.  As Collins flipped from one channel to
the other, she asked a question man great writers ask:  what if?


What if children competed in games to the death like Roman
gladiators did?  What if a government controlled citizens by randomly
selecting their children to participate in a brutal game that could only
have one winner?  What if a girl took her little sister's place in this
fight to the death; could she survive?

By combining her channel surfing experience and her childhood
fascination with the Theseus myth, Suzanne Collins created a
story idea that has captured the interest of many, many readers.  

Collins's writing career began in 1991 when she started writing
for children's television shows.  She had been working on TV
scripts for several years when a fellow writer encouraged her to
try writing a novel.  Her first book was Gregor the Overlander.
It's the first book in a series of five novels that tell the story of a
boy who discovers a world underneath the streets of New York City.


Themes


Both The Underland Series and The Hunger Games deal with
themes of war.  Perhaps that is because Collins's father was in
the Air Force, and he fought in the Vietnam War.  As a child, Collins
was aware of the war; she sometimes saw scenes of it on the evening
news.  Although she was a young child at the time, those images and
thoughts stayed with her and influenced her ideas while she was 
writing The Hunger Games.

In the novel, the citizens of the fictional North American country
of the future called Panem are forced to watch the scenes of the
Hunger Games on TV as the contestants battle to the death.  The theme
of TV as entertainment, regardless of what is on the TV is something
Collins finds troublesome.  She is concerned that TV viewers may be
becoming "desensitized" to the horros of war that they see on television. 
In The Hunger Games, death becomes entertainment.  Today, it is easy
to think that all TV is entertainment and gorget that some things, like
wars and starvation, are real events that happen to real people.  The
​problems those people face don't go away once the television is turned off.

September 27 & 28 - Making Inferences

9/26/2016

 
Agenda:
1. Inference Practice
2. Analyze a text using the A.C.E. method
​3. X Files - Point of View

Making Inferences

1.What can you infer about this cartoon?
2. What clues support your inference?
3. What background knowledge helped you to 
​
understand this cartoon?
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Analyze a Text Using the A.C.E. Method

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Point of View - The X Files: Bad Blood

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We will watch an episode of The X Files, titled "Bad Blood." In this
​episode we are told a story twice, each time being from a different 

character's point of view.

1. After the first character tells the story from her perspective, 

we will record the information she tells us, her tone, what 
events she witnesses, and any other details we note. 

2. Next, we will generate a list of questions we have. What 
information are we missing, when we only hear the story 
from the 1st person's perspective?

3. As we watch the story being told a second time, we will 

record our new observations. What information does this 
character reveal to us? What is his tone? Which questions 
did he answer for us?

4. After the video, we will compare and contrast the two 

versions and reflect on why Point of View is important in a story.

September 26 - Stages of Plot

9/25/2016

 
Agenda:
1. 2nd Read "The Tell-Tale Heart"
2. Stages of Plot

2nd Read - "The Tell-Tale Heart" - Page 78

Stages of Plot

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Made with Storyboard That

Video - The Tell-Tale Heart

September 23 - Identifying Central Idea & Making Inferences

9/22/2016

 
1. Level 2 Assessment:
Identifying Central Ideas & Supporting Details
Making Inferences
2. 1st Read - "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe

Level 2 Assessment - Identifying Central Ideas & Making Inferences

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misslewisreading.weebly.com   *Daily Work

Meet Edgar Allan Poe

1st - Video Biography - Edgar Allan Poe

The Tell-Tale Heart

Read along as you listen to the audio recording of "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. (You can turn the audio off and read to yourself if you'd prefer.)

This story does have some difficult vocabulary words. The best way to acquire new vocabulary is to follow along in the text. 
2nd - Audio Story - Click to listen
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3rd - All done? Click here to go the Classzone Arcade

Sept. 22 - Finding the Central Idea & Supporting Details

9/21/2016

 
Agenda:
1. Central Idea - Goals & Targets
2. Video Introduction
3. Practice - Identify Central Idea & Supporting Details

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What do we mean by Central Idea?

An example of finding a central or main idea.

Identifying the Central Idea & Supporting Details of a text.

Let's Practice

As we read a passage, let's practice identifying the
central idea & the supporting details of a text. This is a
level 2 skill.

Exit Slip:

Read the passage on your own.
1. Identify and state the central idea in a simple sentence.
2. Identify 2-3 details that support your central idea.
3. Come up with an original title for the passage that relates
to the central idea.

September 7&8: Identifying Story Elements - The Elevator

9/6/2016

 
Today's Agenda:
1. Finish Commercial - Making Inferences
2. Story Elements - "The Elevator"
3. Inference Practice
4. Fluency Practice - Mount Rushmore

Story Elements - The Elevator

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Story Elements
As a class we will read aloud William Sleator's short story, "The Elevator." (Literature Book, page 27).

As we read we will discuss the 5 stages of plot as they occur in the story.

As a class will use examples of story elements 
found in the text to complete the 
sentences for our vocabulary foldable notes.
(mood, tone, irony, suspense and humor)

With a partner, you use examples of story elements found 

in the text to complete the sentences for your vocabulary 
foldable notes. (internal conflict, external conflict, protagonist, 
antagonist and characterization)


The Elevator from Coyote Lion on Vimeo.

Inference Practice - The Elevator

You have a passage taken from the short story, "The Elevator"
located on page 10 of your foldable notebook. Read the passage
carefully and practice writing an inference.
A. Answer the prompt fully
C. Cite text evidence, or explicit details from the story
E. Explain how the evidence or details, helped you make
an accurate inference


Prompt - Make an inference about the relationship between Martin
​and his father. Use textual evidence to support your thinking. 

Fluency Practice - Mount Rushmore

PictureClick on the photo to see an AWESOME video that tours Mount Rushmore
Fluency Practice - Mount Rushmore: Four Famous Faces
If you were a famous sculptor, given the same opportunity as Robinson and Borglum, which four famous faces would you like to see carved into a National Monument?
 
Write 8 lines stating which four famous people your 
monument would feature. Be sure to explain why you 
chose each person. You have 5 minutes.

North by Northwest

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