Book Report - Final Draft!

Please submit the final draft of your book report here. This final draft does NOT need to be printed, but MUST be submitted to the blog before Friday, January 15.

Summary!

Today in class we viewed the beginning of the film Jason and the Argonauts. For homework tonight, please spend TEN MINUTES writing a ONE PARAGRAPH SUMMARY of what we saw. In case you forget anything important, here is the video.

Empathy - "Jason and the Golden Fleece"

This period, write a retelling of the myth of "Jason and the Golden Fleece" in the first person from the perspective of one of the Argonauts. This is NOT homework. You should spend the WHOLE class writing, but should finish writing at the end of class. Let this represent forty minutes of your best work.

Book Report First Draft!

Today we will begin writing first drafts of book reports on the books we have been reading independently. Book reports should include one illustration of a moment in the story’s action with a caption, be six paragraphs long and include all of the following.

Paragraph 1: An introduction including the book’s title and author.

Paragraph 2: A discussion of the book’s setting (the “where and when”) and main characters.

Paragraph 3: A summary of the book's plot. (This paragraph may be long, but you should use just one paragraph for this!)

Paragraph 4: A discussion of the way that the book connects with one or more other texts. Have you read similar books? What are the similarities? Can the themes of this book be found in other books? Have you read other books of the same genre? Other books by the same author? How do they compare? etc.

Paragraph 5: A discussion of the way that the book connects with you. What is your personal response to this book? What did it make you think about? Did you empathize with the characters? Did anything about the story give you insight into aspects of your life? etc.

Paragraph 6: A conclusion including a discussion of whether or not you recommend this book to other 6th graders and why. Include at least two good reasons for recommending or not recommending.

This first draft is to be finished for homework before Monday and submitted as a comment to this entry.

Let's have fun with this project!

Three Versions of the Perseus Myth

Today in class we will be writing an essay about the three versions we have been working with of the Greek myth of Perseus. Your essay should take the following form.

Paragraph 1 - An introduction.

Paragraph 2 - A summary of the myth as told by Geraldine McCaughrean in her book Greek Myths.

Paragraph 3 - A summary of the myth as told in an episode of the television series The Storyteller.

Paragraph 4 - A summary of the myth as told in the film Clash of the Titans.

Paragraph 5 - A conclusion including comparison and contrast of the three versions.

Reading Log - Monday December 14

Please submit your reflective writing from today's reading time here.

Please also remember to submit any other work you may be missing as comments to the appropriate places on the blog!

Group Presentations!

This week we will be working on projects that will involve the retelling of Greek myths by small groups. We will give oral presentations of these retellings on Thursday and Friday. Each retelling will have a poster that has the following.

The TITLE of the myth.

The CONFLICT of the story. (Conflict = Problem)

The RESOLUTION of the story. (Resolution = Solution)

At least one illustration corresponding to the BEGINNING of the story.

At least one illustration corresponding to the MIDDLE of the story.

At least one illustration corresponding to the END of the story.

The following will be our groups and their respective myths.

Luke B, Isabella - "The Wooden Horse"
Michael, Max - "Arachne the Spinner"
James, Oceane - "KIng Midas"
Albert, Luke W - "Atalanta's Race"
Alex, Charlotte, Begimai - "Odysseus"
Denis, Celine, Amber - "Jason and the Argonauts"

It is important to remember that in these presentations, you will be retelling the story of the myth, but you WILL NOT be READING. You need to know and understand the beginning, middle, and end of the story as well as the CONFLICT and RESOLUTION. Please do not include sentences or paragraphs of summary on your poster that you plan to read. Your group should be retelling the story in your own words with every group member speaking for about the same amount of time. Be sure to plan who in your group will be retelling what parts of your story, who will be explaining which illustrations and who will be discussing the CONFLICT and RESOLUTION. There should be more than enough for every group member to do!

Let's have fun with these projects!