Extraordinary Eighths

Language Arts – Homework: Read AR books. Deadline for taking tests is June 1.

DCAS testing in LA

Finishing 3 essays from the Capstone Project mentioned near the teddy bear below.

They are Accomplishment, Proudest Moment and Middle School Memories essays. These are well developed essays, with a 5 paragraph minimum.  Please pay close attention to the title, development and organization of your essays. Print on paper and post on your blog.

Also, please create a post on your blog that reflects your opinion of an important topic: you choose the topic.

Social Studies Homework – watch or read the news

Topics this week: cyber-bullying and healthy body weight

Finish theme projects relating to your team’s issues.  Present the report and the website this week.

Tue and Wed: DSTP Testing  Thursday: DCAS Testing: Modified Schedule for testing

Homework: Read AR books and take 3 tests by May 31

Poem in your pocket

• Poems #8,9,10 – read to someone and reflect on your blog
• Final Exam – due Monday
• Essays – see the Lifestory post – Accomplishment, Middle School Memories, Proudest moment

Write and post on blog.

Contemporary Issues

• Daily News
• Response Questions
• Team Project – develop a website, write news report, submit notes and report

This original poem is by Tonya – Core 2

Beautiful Storm

Stand in the rain
Let it wash away your pain.
Let it hide your tears,
That you held for years.
Tears you refused to be shown.
For reasons only you have known.
One tear for all the things you have lost.
One tear for all the pain you came acrossed.
One tear for every hit you indored.
One tear for all the blood you poured.
But every storm comes to a end.
Then the skies clear and then there is a rainbow
And that’s all you need to know
Every storm has a beautiful end.

Every year I ask the students what music they would like to hear during the slide show at Transition.  So this is your chance. Think of a good tune that captures the spirit of your class or inspires you as you look at pictures from this year.  Post your suggestions on the comment including the title and recording artist.

We have an awesome book fair. Please respond here to tell me what new books I should buy for the class library!

1. Write 5 Little Poems

Haiku, Limerick, Cinquain, Free Verse. Save and post on your blog.

Go to  <http://teacher.scholastic.com/writewit/poetry/poetry_engine.htm#> and seek Poetry Idea Engine

2. Poem in Your Pocket

Keep a poem in your pocket. Share it with family and friends each night. Discuss the ideas that come from it. Reflect on the sharing of your poem on your blog the next day.

3. Recite a Poem

Find a poem from a master poet (see me).  Memorize it and make a copy for each person in the class. Recite the poem from the Poetry Corner.

Just for the months of March and April, earn points for all your AR tests! That’s right! You can earn the total number of points you read regardless of how many books you read. So read as many books as possible and take as many tests as possible and earn every last point!  Your grade will be calculated for #/300!!! READ READ READ!

by me

layers of gratitude
piles of hope
lists of longing
words of wonderment
files of faith
epoch encouragement
soulful survival
blissful being

Probably the most often cited estimates come from a book titled The Top 10 of Everything by Russell Ash. The following lists come the The Top 10 of Everything, 1997 (DK Pub., 1996, pp 112-113.)
The Top 10 Bestselling Books of All Time:

1. The Bible
“No one really knows how many copies of the Bible have been printed, sold, or distributed. The Bible Society’s attempt to calculate the number printed between 1816 and 1975 produced the figure of 2,458,000,000. A more recent survey, for the years up to 1992, put it closer to 6,000,000,000 in more than 2,000 languages and dialects. Whatever the precise figure, the Bible is by far the bestselling book of all time.”
2. Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (Little Red Book)
“Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book could scarcely fail to become a bestseller: between the years 1966 and 1971 it was compulsory for every Chinese adult to own a copy.”
3. American Spelling Book by Noah Webster
“First published in 1783, this reference book by the American man of letters Noah Webster (1758-1843) remained a bestseller in the U.S. throughout the 19th century.”
4. The Guinness Book of Records
“First published in 1955, The Guinness Book of Records stands out as the greatest contemporary publishing achievement. There have now been 37 editions in the UK alone (it was not published annually until 1964), as well as numerous foreign-language editions.”
5. The McGuffey Readers by William Holmes McGuffey
“Published in numerous editions from 1853, some authorities have put the total sales of these educational textbooks, originally compiled by American anthologist William Holmes McGuffey (1800-73), as high as 122,000,000. It has also been claimed that 60,000,000 copies of the 1879 edition were printed, but – since this is some 10,000,000 more than the entire population of the U.S. at that time – the publishers must have been extremely optimistic about its success.”
6. A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard
“Now forgotten, Hubbard’s polemic on the subject of labor relations was published in 1899 and within a few years had achieved these phenomenal sales, largely because many American employers purchased bulk supplies to distribute to their employees.”
7. The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care by Dr. Benjamin Spock
“Dr. Spock’s 1946 manual became the bible of infant care for subsequent generations of parents. Most of the sales have been of the paperback edition of the book.”
8. World Almanac
“Having been published annually since 1868 (with a break from 1876 to 1886), this wide-ranging reference book has remained a constant bestseller ever since.”
9. The Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
“This tale of sex, violence, and drugs by Jacqueline Susann (1921-74), first published in 1966, is perhaps surprisingly the world’s bestselling novel. Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind, which has achieved sales approaching 28,000,000, is its closest rival.”
10. In His Steps: “What Would Jesus Do?” by Rev. Charles Monroe Sheldon
“Although virtually unknown today, American clergyman Charles Sheldon (1857-1946) achieved fame and fortune with this 1896 instructive religious treatise on moral dilemnas.”

World’s Bestselling Fiction

Ash notes in his preface to this list that “Although only Jacqueline Susann’s The Valley of the Dolls appears in the all-time list, and publishers’ precise sales data remain tantalizingly elusive (it has been said that the most widely published fiction is publishers’ own sales figures), there are many other contenders for this list. It seems certain that all the titles in this list have sold in excess of 10,000,000 copies in the hardback and paperback worldwide.”

* Bach, Richard. Jonathan Livingstone Seagull
* Blatty, William. The Exorcist
* Benchley, Peter. Jaws
* Caldwell, Erskine. God’s Little Acre
* Heller, Joseph. Catch-22
* Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird
* McCullough, Colleen. The Thorn Birds
* Metalious, Grace. Peyton Place
* Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With the Wind
* Orwell, George. 1984, Animal Farm
* Puzo, Mario. The Godfather
* Robbins, Harold. The Carepetbaggers
* Salinger, J.D. Catcher in the Rye

Bestselling Children’s Authors in the World

Ash notes that “based on total sales of their entire output”, the following authors “have produced titles that have been bestsellers – especially those in numerous translations – over a long period.”

* René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo
“René Goscinny (1926-77) and Albert Uderzo (b. 1927) created the comic strip character Astérix the Gaul in 1959. They produced 30 books with total sales of some 250,000,000 copies.”
* Hergé
“Georges Rémi (1907-83), the Belgian author-illustrator who wrote under the pen name Hergé, created the comic strip character Tintin in 1929. Tintin appeared in book form from 1948 onward. He achieved worldwide popularity, and the books have been translated into about 45 languages and dialects. Total sales are believed to be at least 160,000,000.”
* Enid Blyton
“With sales of her Noddy books exceeding 60,000,000 copies, and with more than 700 children’s books to her name (UNESCO calculated that there were 974 translations of her works in the 1960s alone), total sales of her works are believed to be over 100,000,000, making her the best-selling English-language author of the 20th century.”
* Dr. Seuss
“His books in the U.S. Top 10 alone total about 30,000,000 copies: to this must be added those titles that have sold fewer than 5,000,000 in the U.S. and all foreign editions of his books, suggesting total sales of more than 100,000,000.”
* Beatrix Potter
“The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) was one of a series of books, the cumulative total sales of which probably exceed 50,000,000.”
* Lewis Carroll
“Total world sales of all editions of Carroll’s two classic children’s books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, are incalculable. However, just these two books probably place Lewis Carroll among the 20 bestselling children’s authors of all time.”

After reading Scene One and Two, respond to this question in the comment section on this post please.

In the play The Diary of Anne Frank , Mr. Frank said to Anne, ” There are no walls, no bolts, no locks that anyone can put on your mind.”

Think about other famous people who were physically imprisoned but maintained mental freedom. Write about them, their challenge and how writing allowed them to overcome their situation.

Vocabulary: rucksack, mercurial, curtsy, settee, carillon, ration, watercloset