DDS 7th & 8th Grade English Blog!

Dear Eighth Graders,

Please post your poems inspired by Arthur Rimbaud’s “Vowels” here!

Colorfully yours,

Ms. Roberts

Dear Eighth Graders,

Please post your A to Z poems here by 11:59 pm on Wednesday May 13, 2009.

Here is Barbara Hamby’s to help inspire you!!

“Ode on Dictionaries”
by Barbara Hamby 

A-bomb is how it begins with a big bang on page 
     one, a calculator of sorts whose centrifuge 
begets bedouin, bamboozle, breakdance, and berserk, 
     one of my mother’s favorite words, hard knock 
clerk of clichés that she is, at the moment going ape 
     the current rave in the fundamentalist landscape 
disguised as her brain, a rococo lexicon 
     of Deuteronomy, Job, gossip, spritz, and neocon 
ephemera all wrapped up in a pop burrito 
     of movie star shenanigans, like a stray Cheeto 
found in your pocket the day after you finish the bag, 
     tastier than any oyster and champagne fueled fugue 
gastronomique you have been pursuing in France 
     for the past four months. This 82-year-old’s rants 
have taken their place with the dictionary I bought 
     in the fourth grade, with so many gorgeous words I thought 
I’d never plumb its depths. Right the first time, little girl, 
     yet here I am still at it, trolling for pearls, 
Japanese words vying with Bantu in a goulash 
     I eat daily, sometimes gagging, sometimes with relish, 
kleptomaniac in the candy store of language, 
     slipping words in my pockets like a non-smudge 
lipstick that smears with the first kiss. I’m the demented 
     lady with sixteen cats. Sure, the house stinks, but those damned 
mice have skedaddled, though I kind of miss them, their cute 
     little faces, the whiskers, those adorable gray suits. 
No, all beasts are welcome in my menagerie, ark 
     of inconsolable barks and meows, sharp-toothed shark, 
OED of the deep ocean, sweet compendium 
     of candy bars—Butterfingers, Mounds, and M&Ms— 
packed next to the tripe and gizzards, trim and tackle 
     of butchers and bakers, the painter’s brush and spackle, 
quarks and black holes of physicists’ theory. I’m building 
     my own book as a mason makes a wall or a gelding 
runs round the track—brick by brick, step by step, word by word, 
     jonquil by gerrymander, syllabub by greensward, 
swordplay by snapdragon, a never-ending parade 
     with clowns and funambulists in my own mouth, homemade 
treasure chest of tongue and teeth, the brain’s roustabout, rough 
     unfurler of tents and trapezes, off-the-cuff 
unruly troublemaker in the high church museum 
     of the world. O mouth—boondoggle, auditorium, 
viper, gulag, gumbo pot on a steamy August 
     afternoon—what have you not given me? How I must 
wear on you, my Samuel Johnson in a frock coat, 
     lexicographer of silly thoughts, billy goat, 
X-rated pornographic smut factory, scarfer 
     of snacks, prissy smirker, late-night barfly, 
you are the megaphone by which I bewitch the world 
     or don’t as the case may be. O chittering squirrel, 
ziplock sandwich bag, sound off, shut up, gather your words 
     into bouquets, folios, flocks of black and flaming birds.

I can’t wait to read what you come up with!!

-Ms. Roberts

Hi Readers of Coraline,

Check out this link on the making of the movie Coraline!

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/06/movies/20090206-coraline-audioss/index.html

If you haven’t read it yet, definitely pick up this little book with a dark sensibility.

Take care,

Ms. Roberts

Dear Seventh & Eighth Graders,

Today was a historic day for America and the world. President Obama chose many different individuals to help mark this occasion, and one of them was the poet Elizabeth Alexander. Below is the text of her poem. Please read it and then write your own in response. You may do this a number of different ways. You may choose one line or phrase from her poem as your jumping off point, or you may simply respond. What I am encouraging is a conversation through poetry. You may use the haiku form if you like, but I ask that you write three of them. You may use any poetic form that you have learned or prefer.

Enjoy the poetry!

All the best,

Ms. Roberts

Elizabeth Alexander’s Inaugural Poem, January 20, 2009

Praise song for the day.

Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each others’ eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.

A farmer consider the changing sky; A teacher says, “Take out your pencils. Begin.”

We encounter each other in words, Words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed; Words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of someone and then others who said, “I need to see what’s on the other side; I know there’s something better down the road.”

We need to find a place where we are safe; We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain, that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle; praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign; The figuring it out at kitchen tables.

Some live by “Love thy neighbor as thy self.”

Others by “first do no harm,” or “take no more than you need.”

What if the mightiest word is love, love beyond marital, filial, national. Love that casts a widening pool of light. Love with no need to preempt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, anything can be made, any sentence begun.

On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp — praise song for walking forward in that light.

Dear Seventh & Eighth Graders,

Some of you requested a place to post the poems you wrote in class today. Please do so here!

Thank you,

Ms. Roberts

Hi Eighth Graders,

Look to the right side of this site and scroll down! There is now a link to the DDS Writes 8 Writing Lab Website.

Check out each others “This I Believe” essays.

Best,

Ms. Roberts

Dear Seventh & Eighth Graders,

I apologize for the absence, but this ice storm was a doozy! Lots of trees went down taking many power lines with them. I have now posted the 7th graders list 12 and the ideal HW schedule to go with it. I am not certain if we’ll be able to do it all, but we’ll try!!

As for your vocab quizzes(both 7th & 8th grade) that were supposed to happen on Friday, be prepared to take them in class tomorrow (Monday, 12/15/08).

If you are a seventh grader and finish early, you can get to work on the final vocab list of the year (2008 that is, you still have 2009 ahead of you…)

If you are an eighth grader, you can start reviewing the list for the mid-year vocab test that will happen in January.

Looking forward to seeing you all!

Take care,

Ms. Roberts

P.S. I will have hard copies for everyone tomorrow morning!

Dear 7th and 8th graders:

I am writing at the request of Ms. Roberts (my daughter) to let you know that she has neither electrical power nor internet access.  When she does, she will post the vocab, but that may not be until Sunday, the 14th.

Don’t worry about pink slips; focus on the reading, on  writing your papers, and on enjoying the snow day.

A week ago, our seventh graders were visited by my long-term substitute to be: Mr. Paul Smith. He did a wonderful job extending our Haiku lesson, and introduced us all to the forms of Tankas and Rengas.  We extended the lesson. The seventh graders divided into groups of three and collaborated to write their own Rengas, a collaborative form of Japanese poetry. While the traditional form includes 36 verses, I limited them to six.  Please peruse and enjoy these amazing pieces!!

7th Graders….

I hope this creates a page under which all other poetry posts will fall.

Keep your fingers crossed…

-Ms. R