Woo Hoo! Let's Chat About Reading!

I so hope you are head over heels with your book. I hope you are having a phenomenal reading experience. I love reading a good book, and I hope that you feel that same passion at some point in your life (if you have not already felt it).

Right now I want you to do two things:

1. Make a plan in your group about how much you will read by block day each week.

2. Make a plan about who is doing which role when.

3. Complete one of the roles and tell me what is going on in your group in a comment below.

Here are the roles. You will complete one role per week and no two people in your group should perform the same role each week.

Poet

When it is your turn to be the poet, you will have the exciting task of creating an original 10 line poem about one theme explored, character described, emotion felt, etc. Your poem should use at least two poetic devices: simile, metaphor, personification, imagery, rhyme, rhythm, etc.

Illustrator

If you should choose the task of illustrator, you will have the opportunity to convey something in the previous reading in an artistic way. You may draw something that happened or you may make an abstract representation of some aspect of the book. It should be attractive and colorful.

Discussion Director

Your job is to come up with three good questions that will get your group talking on discussion days. Write out each question and make sure to write an answer to each question.

Connector

Your task is to connect parts of the novel to your experience or to members of your group’s experience. You are to connect passages from the book to your own life, to the work of other’s, etc. Think about what you think about when you are reading the book. You are making comparisons between the characters, events, wording, etc. of the novel and other things. Write a paragraph explaining your connection.

Cool quote finder

Your job is an exciting one. You get to find passages that interest you and share them with your group. Your passage could be an interesting phrase, a neat sentence, a paragraph that has depth. It also could be something you noticed that was repeated over and over again or that uses figurative language, imagery, or any of that stuff that Mrs. Denton likes to talk about. Write out each quote and the reason you chose each quote.

Research Activity for English 8

In preparation for our study of Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred Taylor and to help you learn how to write a thesis statement, how to research a topic, and how to write a research paper, you are going to research a topic related to the novel and create a research based PowerPoint that shows a thesis statement, organization, and understanding of how to cite a source.

Directions:
1. First you will to choose a TOPIC (Due end of class Wednesday, March 3)
a. You may choose one of the following topics—
i. Racism
ii. Reconstruction (the period of time after the Civil War)
iii. Integration of Public Schools
iv. Sharecropping
v. Jim Crow Laws
vi. Mob Violence/KKK
2. Then you will come up with THREE QUESTIONS you would like to answer about your topic. (Due end of class Friday, March 5)
3. Next, you will begin ANSWERING your three questions.
4. As you are answering your questions, you will TAKE NOTES on the note sheet provided by Mrs. Denton and CITE your sources. (Notes due Tuesday, March 9)
5. You will then ORGANIZE your notes and CREATE A THESIS STATEMENT. (Organization and thesis statement due at the end of class on Wednesday, March 10)
6. After your notes are organized and you have created a thesis statement, you will prepare an organized POWERPOINT OR KEYNOTE that will share your findings with the class. (Due Tuesday, March 16)
7. You will also create and submit a WORKS CITED PAGE that shows the sources for your pictures as well as the sources for your information. It will be submitted at a Word document. (Due Tuesday, March 16)