Children's Book Parable

This week our time has been spent creatively considering lessons to be taught to children.  We reviewed a number of children's books to enjoy and to analyze for the teachable lesson.  After deciding on a lesson (a parable), we worked on a rough draft by completing a storyboard with text and sketches (or words describing the pictures) for the pages of our own book creation.  Choices include creating a hard copy book or a digital book.  Directions are linked here.

We shared our rough draft creations, conferencing with a writing partner and keeping notes.  Our final day of work is Friday, October 30 when we will complete our self-scoring rubric and add any final touches on our books.  Book share presentations are scheduled for Wednesday, November 4th. Books are due at the beginning of class!  Good luck!

Good News and Good Lessons

This Wednesday we'll begin reading the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John.  We will focus on the lessons taught by Jesus through the Parables contained in these opening books of the New Testament.

The writing response to accompany our reading is to select four Parables (there are many), write a brief summary (the gist) and state the moral or point.  See the handout.

Finally, your challenge is to choose one of your four parables to share on a blog post.  Include:

• a short summary, 
• a powerful passage with your explanation as to why it's powerful 
• the point or lesson of the story 
• a picture

Poetry of the Bible

We will try our hand at reading and interpreting the Book of Psalms as the second quarter begins. Psalm 23, a familiar psalm to many of us, served as our sample to interpret on Wednesday. Friday we will begin with an artistic sketch of ourselves, and then we'll read through many psalms (see handout in crate) to interpret and later select one or two others to analyze and present artistically, either through a found poem or tagxedo or the like.

Some things to know about Psalms include:

• written by many people, including David.
• written long, long ago and probably compiled in the third century B.C.
• used for praying and singing, and the underlying theme is there is one God in charge of everything...

We will also listen to psalm lyrics set to music, appreciating how wide spread and appreciated this poetry is.  One common example is the song Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds taken from the Book of  Ecclesiastes.  You may already recognize its origin in lyrics.

Responses to Literature and Presentations

This week we are focusing on responding to literature, beginning with a response to the children's story Fox.  Of course, it isn't really aimed at children because it is a rather grim story.  For practice, however, you wrote a sample "blog post" on paper.  Like a blog post, you included a short summary, a representative quote from the story with explanation, and a connection to other literature, particularly Bible stories.

On Wednesday during class, we wrote "blog posts" to the independent reading you've done this quarter.  These posts are due by Friday.  We will also share presentations on Friday, the last day of the quarter!