NFL Picks Week 15

Steelers (-3) over FALCONS - W
Packers (-3.5) over BILLS - L
Jaguars (+14) over RAVENS - W
GIANTS (-4.5) over Washington - W
Dolphins (+8.5) over PATRIOTS - L
Raiders (+11) over CHIEFS - L
Texans (+7) over COLTS - D
Bengals (+1.5) over BROWNS - W
Bucs (+3.5) over PANTHERS - L
TITANS (+3.5) over Jets - L
CHARGERS (+4) over Broncos - L
LIONS (-7.5) over Vikings - L
SEAHAWKS (-9.5) over 49ers - W
Cowboys (+3) over EAGLES
BEARS (+3) over Saints

NFL Picks Week 12

NFL Picks Week 12

Browns (+3) over FALCONS

Titans (+12) over EAGLES

Lions (+7) over PATRIOTS

PACKERS (-7.5) over Vikings

COLTS (-13.5) over Jaguars

Bengals (+2.5) over TEXANS

BEARS (-4) over Bucs

SEAHAWKS (-7) over Cardinals

Rams (+5.5) over CHARGERS

BRONCOS (-6.5) over Dolphins

Washington (+10) over 49ERS

Cowboys (-5) over GIANTS

SAINTS (-3) over Ravens

BILLS (-2) over Jets

NFL Picks: Week 7

Home team in CAPS

RAVENS (-6.5) over Falcons
Titans (+5) over WASHINGTON
Seahawks (-6.5) over RAMS
Browns (-4) over JAGUARS
Bengals (+3) over COLTS
BILLS (-6) over Vikings
BEARS (-3) over Dolphins
New Orleans (+1) over LIONS
Panthers (+6.5) over PACKERS
CHARGERS (-3) over Chiefs
Cardinals (-3.5) over RAIDERS
Giants (+5) over COWBOYS
49ers (+6.5) over BRONCOS
Texans (+3) over STEELERS


Last Week: 9-5
Season: 16-9-1

NFL Picks: Week 6

Week 6

Broncos (-7) over JETS - W
BROWNS (Pick) over Steelers - W
TITANS (-4) over Jaguars - L
FALCONS (-3) over Bears - L
Packers (-3.5) over DOLPHINS - L
Lions (-1) over VIKINGS - W
Panthers (+7) over BENGALS - W
BILLS (+3) over Patriots - L
Ravens (-3) over BUCS - W
Chargers (-7) over RAIDERS - L
Cowboys (+8) over SEAHAWKS - W
CARDINALS (-2.5) over Washington - W
EAGLES (-3) over Giants - W
49ers (-3.5) over RAMS - W

Week 6: 9-5

Last Week: 7-4-1
Season: 16-9-1

NFL Picks Week 5

The season's a month old. You know what that means. I'm back. 2014 edition.



PANTHERS (-1) over Bears - W
Browns (-1) over TITANS - T
EAGLES (-4.5) over Rams - W
Falcons (+4) over GIANTS - L
Bucs (+10) over SAINTS - W
Texans (+5.5) over COWBOYS - W
Bills (+5.5) over LIONS - W
Ravens (+3) over COLTS - L
JAGS (+6) over Steelers - W
Cardinals (+7.5) over BRONCOS - L
49ERS (-4.5) over Chiefs - W
CHARGERS (-6.5) over Jets - W
Bengals (-2.5) over PATRIOTS - L
Seahawks (-7) over WASHINGTON - W

Week 5: 9-5-1
Season: 9-5-1

Cookin' Some Stuff: Broccoli Habanero Mac and Chee

After my last few low-effort attempts resulted in a greasy, straight-out-of-a-Velveeta ad homemade mac and chee, I decided to switch it up tonight and try a more mild and balanced cheese sauce instead of just tossing the sharp cheddar in with the hot noodles along with a stick of butter and stirring them until the three become one. Also I saw some habanero peppers after I grabbed the broccoli at the goddamn Jewel on Montrose and Broadway so I upgrayedded and added a new ingredient to the old stand-by. Check it out:

Ingredients
1 lb. pasta (I used rigatoni this time)
5 oz. Tillamook Sharp Cheddar (sliced and diced)
1-2 handfuls Mexican blend cheese (anything mild will do, but I used this because I had it around the house)
3 crowns broccoli (maybe more, maybe less)
2 habanero peppers (diced)
2 cloves garlic (diced)
1/2 cup milk (maybe more)
2/3 stick butter (maybe more, maybe less)
1-2 Tbsp. Coarse black pepper
1-2 Tbsp. yellow mustard

A couple minutes after I started boiling the water, I began slicing up the cheese into small rectangular towers, although any small shape will do, and placed a little over a half a cup of milk into a separate pan and put the stove on low to let the milk warm up. Then I added the sharp cheddar and stirred a little bit while I chopped up the garlic, peppers and broccoli.

So in saucepan one you start with the milk and get it warmed up, quickly add the sharp cheddar, let it melt and yellow the milk, add mustard and pepper whenever, then about 2 minutes before the pasta is set to be done, add the shredded cheese.

Peppered cheese sauce cookin'!

In a separate saucepan a few minutes after the pasta has started cooking, combine butter, roughly half of your broccoli, garlic and habanero and cook on medium, occasionally stirring and turning the brocc.

That haba-brocco-nero stuff

All three pans should be done around the same time. When the pasta is done, quickly drain it, put it back in the big pot, add contents of cheese pot and broccoli saucepan, stir and serve.

Roll that beautiful mac and chee footage

Add meat and/or Sriracha sauce as preferred.

It ain't Grandma Mae's Mac and Chee, but it's still damn good, and that's a very special thing.

Author Study: Jacqueline Woodson

How to Eat Fried Worms: Unit Overview

This unit focuses on using the characters, themes, events and language of Thomas Rockwell's How to Eat Fried Worms in order to consider how literature can describe character types, imagery, and feelings that allow readers to connect the text to their own life, and to those who have lived a different culture than the one being described in the text (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.9). Lessons from this unit allow students to be creative and display multiple intelligences, yet remain rooted in comprehension, metacognition, broadening vocabulary, proper spelling techniques, and close reading (4.1, 4.4). Lessons will allow students to compare text to similar themes and experiences in their own lives and those from different cultures and locations from the characters in the book, and present them in multiple styles of expression (4.9, 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, 4.3). This unit focuses on promoting good character and morals so that students might inspire change in their community and within themselves, all the while understanding that one bad act does not make a villain. A student's ultimate goal is to relate to the text so that they may improve their ability to communicate and understand life situations, and to understand that they, too, can become an everyday hero, and that the choices they make in the long run determine if it characterizes them as a hero or a villain.

How to Eat Fried Worms Unit Assessment

Overview

This assessment, The Final Dig: Showing Your Understanding of How to Eat Fried Worms, gives students two opportunities to show their understanding of the unit’s key questions. This will be done in a group format and an individual format. The group format has students using working together and using multiple styles of presentation to demonstrate reading comprehension, understanding of important unit vocabulary, key themes relating to heroes and villains and the ambiguities that surround each archetype. The individual format checks for deep understanding of key questions about demonstrate reading comprehension, understanding of important unit vocabulary, key themes relating to heroes and villains, the ambiguities that surround each archetype, and allows them to compare it to their own life.

Day 1: Group Assessment Project: Talk About Your Favorite Worms

Introduction

Group Project on carpet (5 minutes)

Prompts: Now that we’ve finished the book, what did you think? Did you think he was going to win the bet? So, how many worms did Billy need to eat? (15)

OK, remember how in your journals, what did I ask you to do all along throughout the book?

That’s right, I asked you to always write down something about each worm that Billy had to eat. What are some of the ways that you could think about each worm? (How was it cooked? What was new vocabulary for you? How did the words make you feel? Was there a scheme? Did anything heroic happen?)

So your project for today is this: we are going to break into your groups from chapter 7, We are going to start off discussing our favorite worm scenes. We will spend 5 minutes quietly reviewing our journals to come up with ideas and examples from the text, then your group will spend 5 minutes discussing and choosing which ten worms you will pick to describe.

On the handout, you’ll then work together as a group to write a little bit about each of your ten favorite worms. Remember, you’ll have more to say about some worms than others.

Choose your ten favorite worms and present a little something about each of them. This could look like a paragraph about how the worm was prepared, a picture with a descriptive caption, a way this particular worm made you feel, a heroic or villainous way a character acted during this worm eating section, things like that. These prompts will be on the graphic organizer I give you help present your favorite worms. Remember, I want multiple kinds of descriptions about these worms. If you just tell how all ten of your worms are cooked, will that be very fun to share? Or will it be better if you also talk about how you feel and what you’ve learned? Use the journal. Use the word wall. Unit vocabulary is important! Have fun with onomatopoeia!

Process

Send to groups for journal reflection (5 minutes)

During this time teacher will be circulating among groups giving prompts and checking for understanding.

Turn and talk within groups (5 minutes)

During this time teacher will be circulating among groups giving prompts and checking for understanding.

Complete assessment (25 minutes)

During this time teacher will be circulating among groups giving prompts and checking for understanding.

Day 2: Personal Assessment Project: Heroes and Villains (40 minutes)

Introduction (10 minutes)

All together on the carpet, review and discuss the book.

Ask each group to name some of their top favorite worm eating scenes from the book and share how they chose to present them.

Review themes of the book. Write them on an anchor chart for class display.

Review vocabulary by having students choose their favorite words by physically taking them off of the word wall or pointing to them on the anchor chart.

Review the characters. Write them on an anchor chart for class display.

Now let’s go write about it. Share what you’ve learned. Use your journals to help you answer the questions on your sheet. Use the book to refer to text  

Remember, be courageous!

Process (30 minutes)

Assessment

Question 1

List three characters you think are heroes in the book. Describe what characteristics make a hero and why you chose these three characters.

Question 2

Name two characters who are villains in the book. Describe what characteristics make a villain and why you chose these two characters.

Question 3

In what ways are the lines between heroes and villains blurred? Use a section from the text to help support your statement.

Question 4

Write about one way that you have been an everyday hero in the classroom. Use vocabulary words and talk about

If students don’t finish, they may take it home and turn it in the next day.

Background Knowledge

Students should have read the entire book.

In previous lessons, students have been introduced to: characteristics of heroes and villains, relating characteristics to characters, major themes of the book, relating text to self, new vocabulary, understanding complexity of characters, conveying comprehension of text.

Materials

How to Eat Fried Worms

Paper

Pencil

Word Wall

Graphic Organizer for 15 Worm Descriptions

Review Anchor Charts

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.9

Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.2

Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3

Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).

Essential Questions

Must a story have a moral, heroes, and Villains?

How we can too become an everyday hero?

How does an individual’s perspective of heroes reflect their own personal values?

What are the expectations for a hero?

What happens if a hero goes against expectations society set for them?

What happens in the book?

How do words help us think about content?

Instructional Strategies:

Group Review

Displayed Anchor Charts

Assessmen

Adaptations

Extra time to create stories and show understanding

None, unless as necessary per IEP

The Final Dig: Showing Your Understanding of How to Eat Fried Worms

Group Members:

Worm 1

Worm 2

Group:

Worm 3

Worm 4

Worm 5:

Group:

Worm 6:

Worm 7:

Group:

Worm 8:

Worm 9:

Worm 10:

The Final Dig: Showing Your Understanding of How to Eat Fried Worms

Name: ____________________________________________

Question 1

List three characters you think are heroes in the book. Describe what characteristics make a hero and why you chose these three characters.

Name:________________________________________

Question 2

Name two characters who are villains in the book. Describe what characteristics make a villain and why you chose these two characters.

Question 3

In what ways are the lines between heroes and villains blurred? Use a section from the text to help support your statement.

Name:_____________________________________________

Question 4

Write about one way that you have been an everyday hero in the classroom. Use vocabulary words and talk about

Lesson: How to Eat Fried Worms

Lesson 7: Hero Drama (45 minutes)

Overview

Students will create brief skits about a confrontation between a hero and a villain over a food bet. Students will come up with the terms of the bet and, using multiple vocabulary words from the unit word wall, will write a brief dialogue skit that successfully uses unit vocabulary words to convey characters feelings and actions.

Background Knowledge

Students should have read chapters 15-23 as homework.

In previous lessons, students have been introduced to onomatopoeia, characteristics of heroes and villains, reading and writing dialogue, relating vocabulary and characteristics to characters, and major themes of the book, the idea that words can convey pictures, images and characters.

Journal Prompts for future reading:

What Happens with the worms?

How can heroes act?

Materials

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

Paper

Pencil

Word Wall

Voice

Process

Read aloud Chapter 19. (10 Minutes)

Read aloud highlights:

Discuss setting clue: Remind students that good readers always try to learn the setting. Sometimes it makes a difference, sometimes it doesn’t. The clue is Shea Stadium. What can specific places tell us about setting? They can help us figure out where the book takes place. Does anyone know what Shea Stadium is? What does it sound like? (Quickly look it up on smartboard if no one knows, New York)

Discuss descriptive passage:

Discuss how words help us make pictures in our minds:

How long is two feet ( length of worm, p.63)? Imagine eating that.

What does that specific description make you feel?

What do the italics mean on page 64? How would you say that line?

What onomotapoeia does the authoer use on page 67?

Discussion of heroes and villains in chapter:

Yikes! Hitler and Jack the Ripper! What does that tell us about heroes and villains? Do you see shades of gray in the book we are reading now?

What happened in this chapter? Is cheating good or bad? What kinds of devious things were done in this chapter? Did anyone respond heroically? How so?

Introduce Lesson (4 minutes)

Now that we’ve talked about what how heroes and villains can interact with one another, now it’s time for you to imagine how that might go. So today we get to be heroes and villains, and create hero dramas!

Let me have three volunteers to demonstrate what we’ll do. (have students come to front of class and read aloud and act out the narrator’s description passage from page 66 from “That’s not true”...through “whatever you said.”)

Ask clarifying questions to check for understanding.

Divide into groups of 4 with mixed reading levels.

Assignment: Each skit has one hero and one villain arguing over a gross food bet. Use descriptive narration to supplement dialogue, use multiple vocabulary words from word will. Skits only need to be a few lines of dialogue and a couple pieces of descriptive narration, but you may write more if you wish. Assessment includes a performance and submission of written piece with proper attempt at spelling and punctuation usage.

In groups, discuss what gross food bets you want to use in turn and-talk. (2 minutes)

Decide bets (1 minute)

Begin skit writing (20 minutes)

During this time teacher will be circulating among groups giving prompts and checking for understanding.

Performance (8 minutes)

Students read through their skits in front of class.

Essential Questions

How does onomatopoeia convey meaning?

How can we use words to show feelings?

What is the relationship between heroes and villains?

What characteristics do heroes and villains show in their actions?

What role does descriptive writing play in storytelling?

Instructional Strategies

Brainstorming

Journals/Note Taking

Cooperative Learning

Learning through Drama

Turn and talk

Adaptations

Word Wall

Using drama tools for reading comprehension and to show vocabulary understanding.

Assessment

Hero Drama Rubric:

Scale based on participation and following directions around descriptions and use of word wall

0 = no participation

1-5 = minimal effort to present, minimal to no effort to meet vocabulary standards. Many grammatical spelling errors, disorganized presentation.

6-8 = high effort but missing vocabulary requirement, a few grammatical errors

9-10 = exemplary, meets all requirements of vocabulary, effort and grammar. Few to no mistakes.

Common Core Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.7 Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.2.D Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to inform about or explain the topic.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.A Orient the reader by establishing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters; organize an event sequence that unfolds naturally.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.3.B Use dialogue and description to develop experiences and events or show the responses of characters to situations.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.2.B Use commas and quotation marks to mark direct speech and quotations from a text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.3 Use knowledge of language and its conventions when writing, speaking, reading, or listening.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.3.A Choose words and phrases to convey ideas precisely.*

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.3.B Choose punctuation for effect.*

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.4.3.C Differentiate between contexts that call for formal English (e.g., presenting ideas) and situations where informal discourse is appropriate (e.g., small-group discussion).