Week 6(7) – Study Guide – ELA 8th

Unit two’s focus is perception vs reality and determining and evaluating truth: using irony, foreshadowing, point of view, character analysis, and evaluating textual evidence.

Guiding Questions:

  • What is truth?
  • How can truth be validated?
  • How does our perspective or point of view shape reality or truth?
  • What role do emotions or experiences play in defining our realities or truths? Do we create our own reality or truth for us (ex. Family, friends, society, media, and other outside sources)?
  • In which situations does the truth matter? To what degree does it matter?

Assignment / Due Date / Parent Signature
(Bonus Point Each Day Signed)
Monday
  • Complete “Truth” quote activity (25 Points)
  • Discuss the truth or lie that is perception

Tuesday
  • Explain LINCS strategy and create flashcards
  • Discuss & Annotate “truth” articles
/
  • LINCS flashcards: Due Wednesday (25 Points)

Wednesday
  • The “true” story of “The Three Little Pigs”

Thursday
  • Students write a fairy tale from their own POV (50 Points)
/
  • Written tale and presentation: Due 10/5/16 (50 Points)

Friday
  • Read “The Tell-Tale Heart” and discuss
  • Group – students will create group presentation in class (50 Points)

Week 6 - 8th Grade Grammar – Be able to list these and describe each as a short answer (this is IMPORTANT).

  1. Ideas are the heart of the message. They reflect the purpose, the theme, the primary content, the main point, or the main story line of the piece, together with the documented support, elaboration, anecdotes, images, or carefully selected details that build understanding or hold a reader’s attention.

  1. Organization is the internal structure of the piece. Think of it as being like an animal’s skeleton, or the framework of a building under construction. Organization holds the whole thing together. That’s why it’s such an important trait. Many students say it is also one of the hardest traits to master. Maybe so. Isn’t it hard sometimes to organize your room? Attic? Garage? A trip? Absolutely! Organizing your writing is much the same. You have to ask: Where do I begin? What comes next? After that? Which things go together? Which can be left out? How do I tie ideas together?

  1. Voice is reader-writer connection – that something that makes a reader feel, respond, and want more. It gives writing life, energy, individuality, and zest. Writing that’s alive with voice is hard to put down; voiceless writing is a chore to read. Voice is the personal imprint of the writer on the page, and is so different with each writer. Each voice is unique. Voice is part concern for the reader, part enthusiasm for the topic, and part personal style. Voice also differs with purpose and audience.

  1. Word Choice is the skillful use of language to create meaning. Careful writers seldom settle for the first word that comes to mind. They constantly search for the “just right” word or phrase. Consider the word ‘big.’ Just think of the many different meanings you could create if you wrote….massive, enormous, considerable, numerous, momentous, prominent, conspicuous, or self-important. Notice that these words do NOT all have the same meaning. Yet each of them could mean big.

  1. Sentence Fluency is the rhythm and beat of the language you hear in your head. Writing that’s fluent is graceful, varied, rhythmic – almost musical. It’s easy to read aloud. Sentences are well built. They move. They vary in structure and length. Each seems to flow right out of the one before.

  1. Almost anything a copy editor would deal with comes under the heading of conventions. This includes punctuation, spelling, grammar, and usage, capitalization, and paragraph indentation. When a paper is strong in conventions, it looks polished and edited. In a strong paper, the conventions are handled so skillfully, the reader doesn’t really need to think of them. (You might find some if you look carefully, but they’re rare). Correct conventions made reading easier, and so enhance meaning.

+ 1: How does it look on your paper? This is your presentation, and it will determine if someone wants to read your paper or not - this can overshadow your hard work.

Week 6(7) – Reading Vocabulary Words – ELA 8th

From the short story by Edgar Allan Poe “The Tell-Tale Heart”

conceive / have the idea for (It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.Keep in mind the difference between the author and his fictional creation: despite writing from a first-person point of view, Poe is laughing at the narrator. This is seen in the word "conceive" which the narrator uses to connect to the chosen definition, but Poe uses to also suggest pregnancy and birth (inconceivable for a male). See the descriptions surrounding the word "sufficient" where the narrator seems to be both laboring mother and child being born.)
gradual / proceeding in small stages (Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees—very gradually—I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself of the eye forever.)
sufficient / of a quantity that can fulfill a need or requirement (And then, when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern, all closed, closed, that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head.)
vex / disturb the peace of mind of (And this I did for seven long nights—every night just at midnight—but I found the eye always closed; and so it was impossible to do the work; for it was not the old man who vexed me, but his Evil Eye.)
sagacity / the ability to understand and discriminate between relations (Never before that night had I felt the extent of my own powers—of my sagacity.)
stifled / held in check with difficulty (It was not a groan of pain or of grief—oh, no!—it was the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe.As a verb, "stifle" means "smother or suppress" and "conceal or hide"--the example sentence uses the past tense form of the verb as an adjective to describe the old man's groan. This stifled groan foreshadows the method of murder, the concealment of the body, and the narrator's struggle to suppress his guilt.)
supposition / a message expressing an opinion based on incomplete evidence (Yes, he had been trying to comfort himself with these suppositions: but he had found all in vain.)
envelop / enclose or enfold completely with or as if with a covering (All in vain; because Death, in approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him, and enveloped the victim. The word is also used in descriptions of a beating heart: "It was a low, dull, quick sound—-much such a sound as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton." Compare with the note for "stifled"--both foreshadow later actions and emotions. Here, the narrator connects the verb to Death, which he personifies to separate from himself.)
resolve / reach a decision (When I had waited a long time, very patiently, without hearing him lie down, I resolved to open a little—a very, very little crevice in the lantern.)
stealthy / marked by quiet and caution and secrecy (So I opened it—you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily—until, at length a simple dim ray, like the thread of the spider, shot from out the crevice and fell full upon the vulture eye.)
stimulate / cause to act in a specified manner (It increased my fury, as the beating of a drum stimulates the soldier into courage.)
refrain / resist doing something (But even yet I refrained and kept still. Poe is a poet as well as a short story writer. This is suggested by the word "refrain" which also means "a phrase or verse repeated at intervals throughout a song or poem." This poetic device can be seen throughout the story, but is most evident with this example sentence, which uses "refrain" as a verb but also serves as a refrain whose idea and words are repeated in the same paragraph.)
hastily / in a hurried manner (The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence.)
cunningly / in a sly or crafty manner (I then replaced the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye—not even his—could have detected any thing wrong. "Cunningly" and "cleverly" are synonyms connected to being smart, often in a dishonorable way. The use of both adverbs seems unnecessary, but it emphasizes the narrator's pride, which he adds to with mentions of his "sagacity" and "wise precautions." The repetitive points about how smart he is are contradicted by almost everything else he describes about his thoughts and actions.)
suavity / the quality of being charming and gracious in manner (There entered three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police.)
audacity / aggressive boldness or unmitigated effrontery (In the enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph, placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the victim.)
vehement / marked by extreme intensity of emotions or convictions (I talked more quickly—more vehemently; but the noise steadily increased.)
gesticulation / a deliberate and vigorous motion of the hands or body (I arose and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise steadily increased.)
derision / contemptuous laughter (Anything was more tolerable than this derision!)
hypocritical / professing feelings or virtues one does not have (I could bear those hypocritical smiles no longer!)