Composition

Today we focused on composition in two different ways.

First, we FINALLY started our Writer's Workshop. I'd been meaning to get this started for a LONG time, but I felt like the pedagogical zeitgeist demanded that I have tasks and criteria charts and and checklists and rubrics and who knows what else for every composition I might possibly assign. It was all so overwhelming that I ended up teaching writing a whole lot less than I should have. Well, I've come to the conclusion that I hate rubrics, those stupid 4-3-2-1 charts which everybody is supposed to use to evaluate everything. I'm sick of them! So, we'll just start writing and sharing our writing and doing it like we used to do before.

Second, we started composing in music today. I gave the students a four measure rhythmic phrase swiped from Musik fur Kinder. They got together in groups of three or four and are setting words to the rhythm. Most of them finished that today. Tomorrow they will compose a simple pentatonic melody for each phrase and will have a song to present the class. I'm looking forward to seeing and listening!

Homework: (1) Complete the "Four Dollars and Fifty Cents" study questions. (2) Do the Chapter Test/Review and the Cumulative review on pages 498-499.