22 February 2017

1. Research Challenge Blog
2. "Why I Want A Wife" Actively Learn assignment
3. Update SIN2017TOC w/N6 & W8
4. Students will take notes while watching videos with small class discussion (Ancient Greece)
5. Students will finish working with partners on Night & UDHR Essay Draft #1
6. HW: Define Civil Disobedience

21 February 2017

1. Agenda Review
2. EdPuzzles Due (2)
3. Work with Partner on Night & "UDHR" Essay
4. Share body paragraphs
5. Edit paragraphs to flow logically together and fit grammatically (present tense)
6. Submit paragraphs to HemingwayApp to help edit your writing.
7. Compose Intro & Conclusion
8. Type together into 1 cohesive essay
9. MLA format
10. If you finish working on your partner essay, begin the Actively Learn assignment for "Why I Want a Wife" by Judy Brady

13 February 2017

1. 8th Grade Open House tonight.
2. Update SIN2017TOC
3. Submit (copy/paste) QQVS Chapter 4, 5, 6 to Question posted on Classroom
4. Stems #36
5. Flocabulary
6. Return "Never Again" packets
7. Discuss "Never Again"
• Highlight & Discuss diction (strong emotional words) & imagery
8. Select Groups using Wheel
• 3rd
• 4th
9. In small groups, pick 1 topic for comparison from Chapter 1-4 Elie Chart
10. Discuss: Which quotes did you use? Why? 
11. Pick a leader. Create a Doc & Share with members.
12. Together, compose at least 2 paragraphs answering: How does Elie change from chapter 1 to chapter 4? Correctly cite 4 blended quotations.
• Paragraph 1: Chapter 1
• Paragraph 2: Chapter 4
13. Submit writing.
14. HW: Listen to Shylock's speech from Merchant of Venice. Annotate the speech & answer guiding questions.
15. HW: Chapter 7-8 & QQVS
16. HW: Study Stems
17. HW: Academic Hour

8 February 2017

1. Add these extensions to Chrome today
• Google Classroom Notification
• Classroom Split OR Side by Side
• Goobric for Students  (in case you missed it yesterday)
2.  ReadTheory (10 minutes)
3. Stems #35 Quizlet Live game
4. Chapter 2 & 3 QQVS Check
5. Type Chapter 1 Paragraph & Submit to Classroom
6. Review Citation Practice Night
7. "First They Came"
• Annotation Notes
8. HW: Complete "Never Again"
9. HW: Quill
10. HW: Chapter 4 QQVS
11. HW: iWitness
12. HW: Study Stems -Quiz tomorrow

31 January 2016

1. Stems #4 -Play Quizlet Games 5mins
2. ReadTheory Review 10mins
• Actively Learn Holocaust Article due today
3. Agenda Review
• Quill: Commonly Confused Words due Friday
4. Kaizena (code is in Classroom- add to Google Docs as addon)
5. Rhetorical Terms Game
6. Chevy Truck Rhetorical Strategies  (Update/Add to SIN2017TOC)
• Commercial
• Key
7. HW: Write précis paragraph script
8. HW: Study Stems
9. HW: Quill
10. HW: 3rd pd Rewrite Danger paragraphs
11. HW: Research Hitler's Rise to Power & WWII on EdPuzzle- Links in Classroom

Degas, Edgar. “The Star.” Edgar Degas: The Complete Works, Musée D'Orsay, Paris, 2017, www.edgar-degas.org/The-Star-1876-77.html.

25 January 2017

1. New seats
2. Turn in 2081 3 paragraphs online (individual work)
3. Turn in Trump opinion articles -annotated & a comment posted on the blog
4. ReadTheory Practice -10 minutes
5. Stems #33 Review- Quizlet Live
1. Stems Quiz #3 tomorrow (will consist of list 31, 32, & 33)
6. SIN2017TOC Update- NOTES
7. Topic Sentence & Paragraph Structure Notes
8. Revise & Edit 2081 paragraphs to fill in structure from notes
9. Resubmission of 2081 due tomorrow before class begins
10. HW: Revise & Resubmit 3 paragraphs
11. HW: Study

24 January 2017

2081 Full Movie by 2081movie

1. Agenda Review
2. Stems #3 Review
3. Watch 2081
4. While watching, list similarities and differences on the back of your "HB" packet (the blank page)
5. After watching, in small groups, work together to discuss your findings.
6. Begin planning/drafting your 3 paragraphs.

Week of 9/7/12 Review

After our first attempt at posting Weekly Blog Reviews, I decided to help my students by giving some guiding questions.  Although some students are really good at intuitively organizing their writing, overall organization is a weakness.  So, I created this guide: 

Guiding Questions for your weekly blog:1: Define any new terms this week (does not include stems)2: What new web 2.0 tool(s) did you learn about this week? Describe and hyperlink or embed it.3: What are some positive & negative aspects of this new tool? Explain.4: What digital literacy component did you learn about this week? Explain it.5: How does this new information affect your personal/academic life and/or interactions online?6: Overall, how has your week been?7: Anything else you want to add.Min. 300 Words

 We also worked on learning how to correctly cite photos in a blog while using photos that are okay to reuse (as in not copyrighted).  I know that a lot of people cite photos differently; there really isn't only one way to do it.  So, I decided upon the most common way, and students added photos this week.  We follow these steps that I blogged about last April and found at eHowTech.

1 Write down a very brief description of the image. You don't have to go into detail. If the image is of a grandfather clock, the description "Grandfather clock" will suffice. 

2 Note the website address at which you found the image. For example, if you found the picture of a grandfather clock on example.com, the source URL would be something like http://example.com/grandfatherclock.jpg. 

3 Locate the date on the Web page from which you are sourcing the image. If you can't locate a date on the page, use the date you downloaded the image. 

4 Combine all of the above information into a caption and place it below the picture on your website. The caption should follow this format:
Image description, available at website URL, date.

Several of us decided that the URL is so long and chunky that we will accept linking the "Available here" section of the descriptor.  Others decided that they want to use goo.gl to shorten the URL.  Either way, I think will make this look neater when posted.

Additionally, e-mail etiquette was our focus for digital literacy.  It is surprising how many people don't realize that ALL CAPS MEANS YOU ARE SHOUTING.  I always hate getting those emails.  

Finally, in addition to grammar and stems (all taken from Michael Clay Thompson's Magic Lens and Word Within a Word), we worked on setting up Google Reader and how to effectively comment on a partner's blog.  I think the students are really enjoying being bloggers.  Real world writing is much more effective. 

RSS Icon. Available at: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3305/3223086466_07409c8084_m.jpg. January 24, 2009.

Commenting Steps 1-3

Step 1: Compliments

Always start your peer editing with compliments!

Tell the writer what he or she did well:

• I think you used a lot of good details, such as _______
• I liked when you used the word ______ because _______
• My favorite part was ________ because…
• This was really fun to read because…
• I liked the way you_________…

Step 2: Suggestions

Making suggestions means giving the author some specific ideas about how to make his or her writing better.

Remember – stay positive and be specific!

• Instead of, “It doesn’t make sense,” say, “If you add more details after this sentence, it will be more clear. For instance, _______.”
• Instead of, “Your word choice is boring,” say, “Instead of using the word good, maybe you can use the word exceptional.”

Here are some areas that you may want to make suggestions about:

• Word choice – Did the author choose interesting words?
• Using details – Descriptive language, well-chosen quotes
• Organization – Can you understand what the author is trying to say? Is it in the correct sequence?
• Sentences – Are the sentences too long or too short?
• Topic – Does the author stick to the topic or talk about other things that don’t really fit?

Step 3: Corrections

The third step in the peer editing process is making corrections.

Corrections means checking your peer’s paper for:

• Spelling mistakes
• Grammar mistakes
• Missing punctuation
• Incomplete or run-on sentences

Weekly Current Event Assignment

Current events assignment

It is very important for responsible citizens to be aware of what is going on around the globe.  Thus, you are required to do a weekly current events activity in this class.  This assignment will require you to read an article dedicated to technology and analyze it.  Additionally, you will peer edit your analysis each Thursday.  Your post (on your Schoology blog) must have the following criteria:

1. Topic: 1 pt.

• What is the topic of your article?

2. Article Title: 1 pt.

• What is the title of your article? Exact wording.

3. Article Source: 1 pt.

• Where did you get the article? Hyperlink it.

4. Summary: 2 pt.

• Briefly, and in your own words, summarize the content of the article.
• 3 sentence minimum

5. Reaction: 5 pt.

• Take a position on the issue in the article.
• How do you feel about this event?
• How does this event affect you?
• Five (5) sentence minimum.

6. World Impact: 6 pt.

• How does this event impact the world?
• Five (5) sentence minimum.

Your work must be in complete sentences and use excellent grammar.  Copy/pasting anything from the article without correct MLA citation is considered plagiarism and cheating.  This will result in a 0.  The weekly current events assignment will be a classwork grade.

This is an opinion piece.  You must make a commitment on the issue and use specific example to support your thoughts.  If you do not attach the original article, you will receive ½ credit.  This assignment is due every Thursday, without fail.