03.28 - Meat

We started today's class with fifteen minutes of reading from everyone's free choice books (or any class novels that are currently being read). During this time I met and spoke individually with people about their books. At the end of this reading time, everyone recorded their progress on their reading sheets.

Next, we started work with a text that is more of a vignette than a short story (a vignette is a scene exploring a topic, character, idea, setting, or emotion). To prepare for this vignette we talked a little bit about making inferences.

The Inference

An inference is something that goes deeper than what is immediately observable (a direct observation). A direct observation could be that a person on the bus is carrying an umbrella. An inference would be that that person is going to be outside later and suspects it is going to rain. If the umbrella were hot pink you could infer that that person has a bold and fun personality.  

 We then practiced making inferences by using some activity cards to infer meanings beyond what was immediately observable (If you'd like to continue practicing this, check out my activity card Tumblr).

Next, we read the vignette "They're Made out of Meat" by Terry Bisson. Two students alternated reading the piece. Then everyone wrote down their first impressions on what this story was about on the "Inferencing with Meat" sheet provided in class. We will continue working with this sheet next class.

Handouts:
They're Made out of Meat
Inferencing With Meat


Homework:

Read for two hours from your free choice book and/or novel-style class texts.

Complete missing work and revise any assignment that scored below a 92.

Keep up to date on your grades through Pinnacle:
In school: 192.168.8.7/Pinnacle/PIV
Outside of school: http://pinweb.lisbonschoolsme.org/pinnacle/piv