1. Wednesday Daily Edit
Rihanna thinked the best performance was given by himself but she still thought Cold Plays show were incredible

2. Wednesday Daily Edit
Rihanna thought she gave the best performance, but she still thought Cold Play’s show was incredible.

3. Poetry and the Importance of Weird Words
8th Grade English

4. Weird words
Odd things, like a button drawer

5. So Why the Button Drawer?
It’s a way of saying that, in his journal, he’s got a button drawer. Doesn’t really mean anything until you think about what a button drawer is. It’s a place to put odds and ends, full of stuff that used to be important or relevant, but perhaps is not anymore. It’s “just in case pieces”, it’s missing pieces.

6. What the heck?
Then why not just say “my journal is full of odds and ends and missing pieces and pieces that used to be important, but aren’t anymore”?
Because “button drawer” says all of that in just two words

7. Take Notes: Connotation vs Denotation
Denotation: the literal meaning of a word
Connotation: the idea or feeling that a word invokes in addition to its literal or primary meaning

8. For example, the word “man”:
Denotation: an adult, human male
But let’s think of some other words that also mean “man” but carry more connotations…

9. Write down the denotations for all of the following words:
Monday
Weekend
Summer

10. Now write down the connotations for each of those words
Monday
Weekend
Summer

11. “What’s in my Journal?”
So why does the author use such weird words instead of saying what he might literally mean?

12. “What’s in my Journal”
Circle all of the “weird words”: “Odd things, like a button drawer. Mean things, fishhooks, barbs in your hand.”

13. Homework
Record the connotations of all of the words you circled. Be sure to include if those words are positive or negative