Tag Archives: Common Core

Common Core Overload

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What does any normal teacher do with an afternoon free, three weeks before the end of the school year?  They research for next year, of course.

duh

Anyways, I want to be sure that I completely understand the expectations of the Common Core State Standards for 9th grade ELA, so I began my search by looking up “ways to kill myself with paperwork” “common core ela 9th grade.”  I was blessed with the best resource: the Live Binder for the ELA Common Core State Standards Resource Binder.  If you are a teacher of any grade level, ELA or not, this would be an amazing resource for you to look through.  It contains information and resources that pertain to other grade levels and subjects than 9th grade ELA.

I took many many screen shots, and I will display them here in an effort to keep myself organized and represent the resources effectively.

Set One: Focus on Text Complexity and Deeper Meaning

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Set Two: Rereading for Deeper UnderstandingScreen Shot 2013-05-19 at 4.55.38 PM

 

Set Three: Academic Vocabulary

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Set Four: Text Complexity

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Characterization Pictorial

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I have used Characterization Pictorials in the past; it’s a wonderful tool to help students identify key characteristics in a character, locate the textual support for their conclusions, as well as being able to have a creative outlet.  Sounds pretty close to Common Core Standards to me!

I assigned this project to my English I classes as they continue to read Romeo and Juliet.  In my description of their assignments we reflected first on the two different types of characterization:  direct and indirect.

Examples:

Direct: Kristen Stewart is an odd person.

Indirect: Nobody could quite figure out Kristen Stewart’s behavior.

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There are five methods of Indirect Characterization:

1.  What a character says

2.  What a character thinks

3.  What a character does (actions)

4.  What a character looks like

5.  What impact a character has on other characters

Keeping these five methods in mind, most students are able to define them, but identifying them in a text proves to be more difficult.  But with enough practice, and examples, I’ve been the proud teacher to see students identify and label examples of indirect characterization.

Once the quotes have been chosen for a particular character, they are spread out on a sheet of colorful paper and graphics are added to complete the pictorial.  I have an example from Looking for Alaska by John Green.  The character that was chosen was Alaska Young herself.

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This was my best attempt at recreating an example on my Promethean board.  The quotes that I chose were:

“I’m not really up for answering questions that start with how, when, where, why, or how.”

“Ya’ll smoke to enjoy it.  I smoke to die.”

“If people were rain I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane.”

“Sometimes you lose the battle.  But mischief always wins the war.”

This is a great exercise for teachers to gauge their students’ abilities to understand the characters and characterization in a text.

Falling Back Into Place

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Happy Monday, All!

I can safely say that I will be glad to put as much time and space between myself and an airplane.  Our flights were smooth, just too many in a 24 hour period.

Flying is for the birds.

What a fantastic way to begin the week: waking up in your childhood-ish bedroom, drinking coffee before the sunrises, and getting in a powerful 6 mile run!

You’ll have to excuse me for a lack of photos; I’ve been taking in all the new stimuli of being back at home in Michigan.  The thought keeps running through my head, “Oh man, I should take a photo of/this belongs in my blog, but I Can’t.Be.Stopped.Must.Eat.More.Fresh.Produce.”  I’m sure you’ll forgive me as time goes by and I am uploading more pictures of mundane food items than the author of 1001 Recipes for Saltines and White Bread.  Please don’t take my cookbook idea from me.

Anyways, what I do have for you is a list of all the wonderful things I’ve been able to experience since returning to Michigan that the average person would rather shove off onto someone else’s shoulders:

  • Rode in a car that was traveling over 30mph AND for over a 5 minute period of time;
  • Answered my cell phone and responded to text messages;
  • Opened and recycled the cardboard from some packages that I received in the mail that I did NOT ship from Alaska;
(My Boilermaker Road Race training shirt arrived in the mail.  Owning the race t-shirt is half the battle of any race.)
  • Made my own coffee this morning, and drank it while watching the local news;
  • Wrote down and purchased all the items on a grocery list in quantities that should last me through the week and not the next month and a half +;
  • Flipped through some curriculum books that I ordered in the Spring:
  • Commented on the price of gas as being “cheap;”
  • Unpacked four suitcases worth of clothing and put 3.5 of the contents into “Winter Clothes” storage;
  • Scanned the isles of a bookstore (or the book section of a super store…whatevs)
  • Made plans to get a pedicure tomorrow afternoon
My thoughts exactly!

Ah, such is the life of a rebel gypsy like me.

Oh!  And since the name of this blog is Fancy OATMEAL, I thought I should share with you a great discovery that I made when looking for a quick, easy breakfast for the bonus morning we spent on the island.

It’s a new line of Quaker Oatmeal called Real Medleys.  I chose the Summer Berry Oatmeal flavor:

I was a little hesitant to purchase a pre-flavored oatmeal, but since it was only going to be one morning without my trusty traditional flare, I decided to give it a shot.  I sure am glad that I did.  It was much easier than adding in my own ingredients; you just add boiling water and in 1,2,3 you’ve got breakfast!

The taste wasn’t overly sweet, and there was no after-taste like you get with some packaged oatmeal, and the nutritional information was pretty pleasing as well:

Quaker offers three more flavors that you might enjoy:

 

I am in no way being compensated for my opinion by Quaker or any other company.  However, I am not too proud to take a free sample or two as a thank you for spreading the word.