Hill’s Write Stuff

Warm Up Question: You are writing a persuasive research paper on the importance of community service for teenagers.  Which of the following resources would not be a credible source to use? (You will actually need to open these links and look at the resources – you can’t tell just from the titles)

Community Service And Social Responsibility in Youth

“How Teens Become Involved in Youth Development Programs“

“Service Projects for Teens: Developing Empathy While Helping Others”

Youth Activism

CLASSWORK ACTIVITY: We are going to do a “mini” persuasive research paper together to teach you the steps.  Today we will focus on the RESEARCH, NOTE-TAKING, and CITATION part.

*Research Questions

*Look through the provided resources (BUT NOT THE ONE WE ELIMINATED!) and take notes (type them into your word document – NO CUTTING AND PASTING because you need to PARAPHRASE)

*If you take notes from a source, you need to DOCUMENT it.  Use EasyBib to help! (You can register and save your information if you want to!)

You will put all of this information on the outline we create together in class and then save it to the STUDRIVE – HILL – (your class’s folder) – Research Minilesson- your name(s).

The students continued brainstorming their ideas for the Pepsi Refresh project.  Your brainstorming sheets are due next class (3/17A-3/18B) AND you must narrow it down to your top three choices and write about them (a couple sentences to describe each project at least) in your writer’s notebook.

The students started brainstorming different ideas for the Pepsi Refresh project…those brainstorming sheets are NOT due next class.  You will have some more time to work on them!

Next class, make sure you have your Pepsi Refresh information sheet (asks the questions about the project) and that you have evaluated 5 different commercials. That’s right, your HW is to watch TV! Evaluate what makes the commercial effective (or not) – HOW are they accomplishing their purpose of pursuading you to buy their product???

Today we looked at some pesky pronouns that cause a big problem in our writing: INDEFINITE PRONOUNS.  It’s really important to examine all the rules and learn when to use singular vs. plural pronouns. (Although the rules we did in class today work for ALL pronoun situations, not just indefinite). *See the post below (Pronoun Usage) for the handout and websites if you need to make up the acitivity.

HOWEVER, it’s the indefinite ones that seem to cause the most trouble (especially in our writing), so that’s what I’m going to quiz you on next class (Wed 3/10 B – Thurs 3/11 A).  Here is a link to a page that gives more information and many pages of practice Indefinite Pronoun Practice

Don’t forget that WRITER’S NOTEBOOKS AND READING ARE DUE AT THE END OF THIS WEEK (Thurs 3/11 A – Fri 3/12 B)

**This is a classwork assignment for 3/8 and 3/9

Learning to use pronouns correctly seems like an easy task; however, as your sentences get more involved and mature, sometimes determining the right pronoun is a little more tricky.  The following website has 9 Rules for pronoun usage.  Go through it, and take notes on the provided page.  This will be a classwork grade, so make sure you work carefully!

Here is the handout from class: MS Word 97-2003 file Pronoun Usage   or PDF file Pronoun Usage   (they’re the same – just different file formats)

Start with this site: Rules for Pronoun Usage Website

Once you have finished the rules, go to this link to practice….record your answers on the table in your notes. 

Pronoun Practice Sentences

Today we started listing things that were RIGHT in our world, community, and school and things that we think are WRONG in those places as well.  The biggest question when discussing the things that we think are wrong is: DO YOU HAVE ANY POWER TO CHANGE IT? Most students said that they did not, using thier age as the primary reason.

BUT…then we looked at examples of teenagers across the country who are making a difference for causes they believe it.  They didn’t just get involved – they STARTED programs to make change. (all of this information is located on the “Kids Making a Difference” page to the left). They selected five students, researched their programs, and evaluated the different media included on their webpages (pictures and videos).  This will serve as a springboard for our discussion of this new unit…   (The assignment does not necessarily have to be completed for homework.  You will have some time to work on it next class as well).

HOMEWORK: You may work on the Kids Making A Difference assignment (but it is not required); STUDY FOR YOUR POETRY TEST!!! It’s this Thurs(B) and Fri (A)!!!! Remeber: you need to know all of your terms, what those devices do, be able to analyze a poem and answer questions about it, and then there are 2 essays (paragraph responses like you did on your think-tac-toe…same checklist for grading as well).  There’s a lot – so be ready!

***POETRY THINK-TAC-TOE REDO OPTION: I gave the think-tac-toe assignments back, and I also am giving students an opportunity to rework ONE of their assignments to raise their grades.  They need to redo the part(s) where they missed points and then ATTACH THE ORIGINAL assignment to the redo when they turn it in. (Redo is due on the day of their tests)  Let me know if you have any questions or need help!

Since we’ve pushed the poetry test back a week, we went ahead and started our new unit.  What that new unit is, I haven’t quite said yet.  BUT…we did start by examining concepts of right and wrong and where we developed those judgments.  The students read a story “Out of Bounds,” about South Africa during apartheid and a play called “Sitting In for Freedom” about the Greensboro sit-ins in 1960.  We’ll discuss these pieces next class.

HW: Go back to your list of right/wrong from the warm up and add to it: This time, think about what you think is right and wrong with the world, community, school, environment, etc around you.  Then write a poem about one of the topics you think is wrong with the world/community that you wish you could change.

So I’ve been thinking, if your  Think-Tac-Toe activities are meant to prepare you for the test, you should get them back with enough time to look over your responses/explanations and learn where you need to add more details, how you can better incorporate quotes as evidence, etc. And you also need to see your use of poetic devices to make sure that you are doing everything correctly.  Because you have all done a good job on your activities, they’re taking a little longer to grade than I thought (the best laid plans, right?!) SOOOOOOO…I’m postponing the test to make sure that you are ready and prepared and have all of the resources that you need!

NEW POETRY TEST DATES: Thursday 3/4 (B day) and Friday 3/5 (A day)

Let me know if you have any questions! Thanks!

On Thursday and Friday we worked on creating sonnets….and we have the start to some very interesting ones! Remember that they have very specific rules: 14 lines (3 quatraines and a couplet), 10 syllables per line – iambic pentameter, and a rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD  EFEF  GG.  We’ll continue working on these next week!

**Think-Tac-Toe assignment #3 (final assignment) and your bonus assignment (if you are doing one) due next class (Monday for B day classes and Tuesday for A day) Make sure they are ready and that you have written explanations and poems that meet the criteria on the checklists (see the Poetry Think-Tac-Toe page on the left for copies of the checklists).

*Poetry test next week: you will have terms to define, and poems to analyze/explain – Test is Thurs 2/25 A and Fri 2/26 B

Have a great weekend!

We practiced writing good, detailed, specific response to literature paragraphs about Langston Hughes poem “I, Too.”  The students used the checklist that I will use to grade their poetry think-tac-toe assignments to help shape their paragraphs and make sure that they included enough details.  This checklist and an example paragraph have been added to the Poetry Think-Tac-Toe page on the left. 

HW: Read “Slam, Dunk, and Hook” (Reader’s Journey p. 340-341) and “The Eagle” (p. 342).  Answer questions 3,4,5,6, and 7 on p. 343.

Continue working on Think-Tac-Toe activities.  Your next assignment is due 2/16 B and 2/17 A.