The Red Wheelbarrow

by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

How to Earn Extra Credit in Ms. Poulter's Class (all year long!)

Throughout the school year you will have the opportunity to earn extra credit by imitating poems written by published poets.  Don’t forget you have an example of this assignment your reader/writer notebook.  (Remember “The Red Wheelbarrow”?)

1.      Find a poem you would like to imitate. 

***Dear Parents, Teachers and Friends

Please resist the urge to help the student find the right poem.  This is the research portion of the assignment and worth half the credit the student will receive. 

2.  Decide HOW you intend to imitate this poem.  Will you imitate syntax?  Theme?  Rhyme scheme?  You decide! (We imitated syntax with “The Red Wheelbarrow”)

3.  Write your imitation.

4.  Tell me how you imitated your poem by completing the following sentences.

I used __________________________________________ by

 _________________________________________________

as a model for my poem.  I imitated his/her use of

_________________________________________________

5.  Attach your imitation and the original poem to this sheet and turn in all three items for UP TO 10 points on a major grade!!

***PLEASE NOTE!!  The difficulty of the poem will determine the value of the extra credit.  A great imitation of a Shel Silverstein poem will probably earn you 1 point.  A great imitation of William Shakespeare might earn you 10.  Most poetry imitations earn between 2-5 points. 

Welcome Back!

Welcome to 8th grade ELA!  We are going to have a great year!  I look forward to helping each one of you become a better reader, writer, and thinker.

What you miss if you miss this week:

Policies and Procedures
How to log in
Reading Interest Inventory
Find Your Strengths
How to access your school email account
How to set up your Reader/Writer notebook in Google Docs
How to access your Epsilen Account
How to earn extra credit in this class all year long!
PreAP Independent Reading Assignment

What Do I Do When I'm Finished?

1.      READ!!! 

·         your independent novel

·         an ebook

·         another selection from our current genre study

·         a news article (Check out New York Times Learning or Teen Tribune)

·         some poetry (Poetry 180)

2.  Start planning for college!  (Check out Big Future)

3.  Practice your research skills at agoogleaday.com

4.  Learn something at TED-ed.  (view by series)

5.  Practice SAT or Commonly confused words (Quizlet)

The fact is that anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.
                                                                                            ~Flannery O'Connor

How To Set Up Your Reader/Writer Notebook in Google Docs

1.  Go to google and open your mybisd account.  Your username is firstname.lastname@mybisd.net.

2.  Choose the drive tab.  It will either be at the top of your screen or in a drop down box under "more".

3.  Choose the red "create" button on the upper left side of your screen.

4.  Choose "folder" at the top of the drop down tab.

5.  Name your collection "Reader/Writer Notebook" and choose the "create" button.

6.  Now your notebook will appear under the drop down tab "My Drive" on the left of your screen.

7.  Click the down arrow to the right of the words "Reader/Writer Notebook" and choose "share."

8.   At this point, the small size of your Netbook screen may prevent you from seeing the entire box you are using.  If this is the case, hit the button "F11" at the top of your keyboard.  This will allow you to view your entire screen. 

9.  At the bottom of the box where it says "add people" enter my email address.   Sharing your notebook with me allows me to grade your assignments.  My email address is carolyn.poulter@mybisd.net. PLEASE NOTE:  Any assignment NOT shared with me will receive a zero.  I cannot grade what I cannot see.

10.  Select done.  If you skip this step, you have not shared your notebook with me. PLEASE NOTE:  All of your documents will automatically say they are shared because they are shared with the district office.  This does NOT mean they are automatically shared with me.  Just because your folder says it is "shared" does not mean I can see it!

11.  When you wish to add a document to your reader writer notebook, select the arrow to the right of the words "My Drive" and choose create, then choose document. PLEASE NOTE:  If you choose to use the big red CREATE button, you will have to share every single document with me separately.  It is much easier to simply open a document that is already INSIDE your notebook.  (Imagine you are writing on a piece of paper that is already inside a binder as opposed to having to put the paper in the binder after you complete the assignment).

12.  Try this now.  After you choose document, you will select the blue button that says "create and share."

13.  Click the words "untitled document" to name your document.