Easter Mass Performance

Hi choir members! Our next practice is tomorrow, Friday, March 23.

We'll be performing at the school's Easter mass on April 10th. It's short notice so we'll have to put our other songs on hold for now and bump up to two practices per week. Here's a link to the two songs we'll be singing. We'll also go over the very short pieces we'll be singing as part of the mass.

For the Hallelujah song I'd like to have someone recite a poem while we hum through the song. Please feel free to write a poem if this is something you are interested in doing. Otherwise I have some poems available. Let me know if you're interested!

Here's the songs:

Hallelujah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOLODyaMcrM

Breathe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dB0wGmQMAlg
lyrics
http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Breathe-lyrics-Rebecca-St-James/A1C2274AA3FB91AF48256EBB0011CC5C

RAFT Poetry Writing

click on the picture to watch the video

Spring is here! Actually, so is summer! I'll take it.

As we move into this new season we can't forget the Lenten promises we made. What did you give up and how did you replace it with an act that improves your relationship with God? Today we watched this video (click on the picture to see the video again) and started to think about how we can create a message for an audience about the miracle of Easter, Jesus' resurrection. Everyone will be writing a free-form poem within the RAFT structure below. When brainstorming ideas for your poem try to think of what makes Easter such a special time of the year. What can we learn from the miracle of Jesus' resurrection and how does that mirror the cycle of life and death that we witness in our world? What about Jesus' story inspires a renewed look at the world, at our own lives?

If you are interested, you can read your poem on stage with the choir backing you up at the upcoming Easter assembly.

Have fun writing, and remember that with free-form poetry there are no structural restrictions.

I'm looking forward to seeing what you produce!

Mr. B

Role: You

Audience: Jesus, or the staff and students

Format: Free-form poem

Topic: The miracle of Easter

Procedural Writing 3.0

The common assessment is tomorrow. Below is the review we did today. On the assessment you will be asked to read a procedural composition and assess it's effectiveness. You will also have to rearrange a procedure that has the steps out of order. Finally you will be asked to write a procedure based on a given topic - you will have some freedom to choose your specific procedure, but it will be within a given field (ex. Write the steps to cooking your favourite meal).

Look over the blog posts, read and assess the examples created in class, and visit wikihow.com in order to prepare for the assessment. To practice your writing, choose a procedure to write and use each of the following 7 points in your writing.

Get a good sleep and eat some brain food in the morning! That's a balanced breakfast that has some fruit, protein (milk, pb, egg, yogurt), and some carbs (toast, healthy cereal, bagel, oatmeal).

Here's the review:

1 - Transition words. ex. first, then, secondly, next, lastly

2- Sentences should be clear and concise. Be specific.

3- Titles and topic sentences.

4- Group steps together if they are connected. Ex. Kicking a soccer ball. Step 1: Set up. Put the ball down on the grass and step back three to four feet away from it.

5- Short, simple title. Capitalize the first letter of every word.

6- Use basic, clear illustrations.

7- Introductory sentences. Write a couple of sentences explaining why someone might want to do this thing better, how it will help them.

Procedural Writing 2.0

Today we practiced reading and writing procedural compositions. Here are the results of your work together. Great work, guys! A few more things to remember about procedural writing:

Include a title. It should be simple and explain what the writing is about. Ex. How to Fry an Egg. Remember, in a title you capitalize the first letter of every significant word (ie. do not capitalize "a", "the", "and", "it" UNLESS that word is the first in word in the title - check out some books for examples on this).

Illustrations. You will not be evaluated on if you include an illustration in your writing on tomorrow's assessment, but remember that even a small illustration can help illustrate something that seems very complex.

Introductory sentences. Write a sentence or two addressing why someone might need help with this procedure and how improving in this area will help them in the end. Ex. Keeping a clean and organized locker will help you get to your classes on time and will eliminate the frustration of having to search for a lost book or assignment. Follow these easy steps an you're school days will run much smoother.

Take a look at the examples above. Evaluate the writing. What level would you give it? Does it include the necessary forms of procedural writing. What does it do well? What would you add?

Procedural Writing

Hi FR grade 8 English students! I hope you had a nice March break. We're back at it and preparing for our common English assessment which will be held this Wednesday, March 21. We will be assessing your procedural writing skills.

Here are some things to remember about procedural writing:

Sentences should be clear and concise. That means they provide only information relevant to the topic, but they should also not be too short that they break up processes that are connected.

Use titles and topic sentences. At the beginning of a new series of steps or information include a title heading or very short topic sentence.

Group two or three steps together under one heading. Don't break up your instruction into too many steps. Put together things that are closely connected. Personally, I avoid recipes that have too many steps in them.

So remember these important points. On your common assessment you will be asked to write the procedure for something and you will also be asked to evaluate a piece of writing. Think about what makes written instructions effective or not. Open a cookbook for some examples or cruise through Wikihow.com to check out some examples. You decide how effective they are.

I'll post your examples tonight!