Today's Class: May 3rd

AM Core:
Today we listened to a story about a rogue squirrel and a rookie cop and then wrote our own story about a time when everything went wrong. During 3rd period, students went up to Mr. Kaltwasser's room for a lesson in diagramming sentences.

PM Core:
Today we learned how to craft a theme summary for the book conference. Theme summary rough drafts are due on Friday, final drafts, along with all other conference materials are due on Tuesday!

Tips for Summary Writing
1. Don't use dialogue
2. Don't ask the reader questions
3. Don't use personal pronouns (for example: "my book" or "the story I read")
4. Don't use extra words (for example: "It all started out with" or "The book I am reading takes place")
5. Don't repeat (for examples: "As I said before")
6. When first mentioned, briefly describe/explain characters and locations
7. Theme summary should be complete--give the ending
8. Write at least 5 sentences, but no more than 7

Key Points to Writing a Theme Summary
1. In sentence one, include the title (underlined), author and a theme for your book.
2. Select different events to show the development of the theme (events need to relate to the theme that you included in sentence one)
3. Summary needs to be: BRIEF, CLEAR, CONCISE

Theme Summary example:
The story, "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes, shows that using humans in an untested experiment can have detrimental effects. Charlie, a thirty-seven-year-old mentally impaired man who wants to be smart and liked, undergoes surgery to briefly make him the most intelligent man in the world. When his intelligence has regressed to its original level, he finds himself more alone than ever before.