prompts2

=__ Prompts: __= __ Tuesday, November 9, 2010: __ respond to the following quote- “In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” -Mortimer J. Adler, philosopher, educator and author (1902-2001) __ Monday, November 8, 2010: __ -explain what you learned after viewing the movie, give a few irony examples of your own, Connect to the novel we are reading.

__ Friday, November 5, 2010: __ none for seventh grade; poem for eighth __ Thursday, November 4, 2010 __ : Free write your own topic

__ Tuesday, November 2, 2010: __ no school and no prompt =__Monday, November 1, 2010:__ View this video and then respond. Write what you think the video is about and then compare that to your creative process. [|Video]= __ Friday, October 29, 2010: __ no prompt __ Thursday, October 28, 2010: __ Go to the //New York Times//[| Learning Site] and read about the young man who risked his life for the sake of journalistic integrity. Then, explain for what you would risk your life in your prompt response. If you would like extra credit, send your response to the Times (see the bottom of the page on the link.) __ Send me the link to your response. __ __ Wednesday, October 27, 2010: __ Respond to the photo - __ Tuesday, October 26, 2010: __ Please think about what away-message you could creatively write if you needed people to know you will get back to them when you return. Write yours in today’s prompt and then explain why you chose it and what humor technique you used (irony, sarcasm, understatement) Check out the Best E Mail away message yet published by the New Yorker magazine:

From //The New Yorker//:Posted: 22 Oct 2010 11:37 AM PDT > in the interim, please rest assured that I am attempting to address, resolve, or think about the matter you have described, unless, of course, I’m avoiding the matter entirely. Some possible reasons for this include: > //—Thinking about the matter gives me a headache.// > //—Thinking about the matter takes longer than forty-five (45) seconds.// > //—Thinking about the matter is simple enough, and takes less than forty-five (45) seconds, but, when combined with all the other e-mails in my in-box, it creates a synergy of matterdom, exacerbating the headaches mentioned at the beginning of this list.//

__ Monday, October 25, 2010: __ Birds on a Wire [|video] response __ Friday, October 22, 2010: __ 8th grade has poetry cafe (Humanities students write a sonnet/English students annotate the William Carlos Williams poem) 7th grade must write a poem based on a previous prompt Thursday, October 21, 2010: respond to the picture - __ Wednesday, October 20, 2010: __ Respond to the quote - "Extreme justice is extreme injustice." Marcus Tullius Cicero, (106-43 B.C.) __ Tuesday, October 19, 2010: __** No prompt so review and elaborate on previous prompts. ** __ Monday, October 18, 2010: __ view the [|video] and respond to it.

7th grade has to respond to the following quote: Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active. -Leonardo da Vinci, painter, engineer, musician, and scientist (1452-1519)
__ Thursday, October 14, 2010: __ picture of Lake Michigan response (see photo in class folder) __ Wednesday, October 13, 2010: __ no prompt __ Tuesday, October 12, 2010: __ Respond to the following quote: •" It is not pain that undoes us but our response to it, the way we let it keep lingering in the mind." -Epictetus __ Monday, October 11, 2010: __ Respond to the video with ideas about what the monkey and bananas symbolize. [|short video]

__ Friday, October 8, 2010; no prompt __ __ PROMPT CHECK from the start of school to October 6 __

__Thursday, October 7, 2010:__ How is boredom beneficial? Watch this [|video] first and then respond to the question regarding the value of boredom.
__ Wednesday, October 6, 2010: __ No prompt __ Tuesday, October 5, 2010: __ respond to the following quote: Words are loaded pistols. -Jean-Paul Sartre, writer and philosopher (1905-1980) __ Monday, October 4, 2010: __ Write a story that the linked prompt and picture provokes __.__ __ Friday, October 1, 2010: __ 8th grades respond to poetry 7th grade respond to this quote: "Boredom is a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half of the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it." -Bertrand Russel __ Thursday, September 30, 2010: __ no prompt __ Wednesday, September 29, 2010: __ for 8th Humanities (Respond to "Detective fiction is the most moral type of fiction) for 8th English and 7th Humanities (respond to "The lust for comfort murders the passions of the soul." -Khalil Gibran, mystic, poet, and artist (1883-1931)

__ Monday: __ see the video on my blog and decide how the video shows what makes a good story __. __ __ Wednesday, September 22, 2010: __ "Confusion is a word we have invented for an order that is not understood." - Henry Miller (paraphrase the quote, explain what you think Miller meant, whether you agree or disagree and why, then make a literary connection to it. __Tuesday, September 21, 2010:__ two pages reactions for Changing Worlds Exhibit.  __Monday, September 20, 2010:__ picture prompt for changing worlds exhibit. I Am poem for your character.

__Friday, September 17, 2010:__
7th graders: Today is constitution day; what does our constitution mean to you? Why? http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/constitution_day/ http://ratify.constitutioncenter.org/constitution/search_results.php?framein=results_Privacy.html

(From //Selected Poems// by Mark Strand. Copyright © 1979, 1980 by Mark Strand. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.) and the following question for 7th grade students:

Thursday, September 16, 2010: no prompt

Wednesday, September 15, 2010: picture prompt - respond with a five minute free write

__ Tuesday, September 14, 2010: __ no new prompt

__ Monday, September 13, 2010: __ periods 3/4 - connect this quote to "Ozymandias" : “ Don't let yesterday use up too much of today.” - [|Will Rogers]

Periods 5/7 and 8/9: Discuss this quote: “ No answer is also an answer.”-German Proverb How is no answer an answer? Use life examples to illustrate what you understand.
__ Thursday, September 9, 2010: __

__ Wednesday, September 8, 2010: __ Make five better sentences than the following- "The house was old." In what ways can you revise the the previous sentence to make it more specific and create imagery?

__ Tuesday, September 7, 2010: __ Losing one glove is certainly painful, but nothing / compared to the pain, of losing one, throwing away the other, and finding the first one again. -Piet Hein, poet and scientist

Prompt questions: How might Hein be correct? In what way does his point apply to life?

__Thursday, September 2, 2010:__ Duck story

__**Tuesday, August 31, 2010:**__ •“Natural talent is like an athlete’s strength. You can be born with more or less ability, but nobody can become an athlete just because he or she was born tall, or strong, or fast. What makes an athlete, or the artist, is the work, the vocation, and the technique. The intelligence you are born with is just ammunition. To achieve something with it you need to transform your mind into a high-precision instrument.” -Carlos Ruiz Zafon Explain what you think Zafon means literally. Then connect that meaning to something you have read, heard or know. Finally, explain whether you agree or disagree and why.

**__Monday, August 30, 2010:__** Review the video "Words" embedded in my blog, and connect what you learned from that video to the act of writing and reading.

__**Friday, August 27, 2010**:__ "I think, therefore I am." (Cogito, ergo sum) - René Descartes Discuss the meaning of this quote by René Descartes. How might it be a syllogism? What connections can you make to it? Descartes was an important thinker during the 17th century scientific revolution; how might that fact impact your understanding of this quote? __ **Thursday, August 26, 2010** __ [] Photo without headline or caption first.  Study the photograph, and then write what you think is going on in it. Extend your thinking and analyze the photo properties like color, shadow and light, placement of people and objects. Try to understand what the photographer had in mind and explain your thoughts. Always support your ideas with details from the photo.

•“Every work of art is aggressive. . . And every artist’s life is a small war or a large one beginning with oneself and one’s limitations. To achieve anything you must first have ambition and then talent, knowledge, and finally the opportunity.” -Carlos Ruiz Zafon

•" I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination." - [|Dean, Jimmy]
•" It is not pain that undoes us but our response to it, the way we let it keep lingering in the mind." -Epictetus