15 Peer Review and Biography Works Cited Page // Due the week of January 7, 2016

Hi Everyone!

Enjoy your break! (But you do have homework :D :D :D)

WEDNESDAY and FRIDAY:

• Complete the peer reviews for the final people in the class's biographies. This means about one handwritten page for each of the two people we have left to review; I will be checking to see that it's written down beforehand :D. Consider:
• What information would you like to know more about?
• What information seems irrelevant or uninteresting?
• Is the organization easy to understand?
• How's the flow?
• Is the introduction attention-grabbing?
• Etc

THURSDAY:

You have a fair amount of homework… but… homework is amazing, so it's great!

1. Make sure you have the last two girls' book/movie reviews are peer reviewed for the peer review we will be having next class period.
2. Biography Prep:
1. Pick a person who interests you!
2. Make a works cited page of 5 good sources about that person
1. Use easybib.com for the citations
2. Make sure each provides good information
3. Make at least 10 notecards of information about your person
1. Nothing boring to you—everything interesting! If it doesn't interest you or seem important to their life, leave it out!
2. One piece of information or story per card
3. Revise your book/movie reviews if you've already been peer reviewed. Make sure to really go through and make the changes that were suggested to you—I will be looking for big differences!

Email me if you have questions!

14 Peer Review and Biography Rough Draft // Due the week of Dec. 17, 2015

Hi Everyone!

WEDNESDAY:

1. Revise your Book/Movie Review rough drafts using the tips you received from the peer review.
2. Write your biography rough drafts using the information from your 10+ notecards and 5+ sources from your works cited page. It should be 2-3 pages and must have an introduction and a conclusion. The body may discuss the person's life in categories (i.e.: their modeling career, their acting career, and their doctoring) or chronologically (by time). Just be sure to include the things that interest you about the person!

THURSDAY:

• Peer review the final two people's papers for next week. Make sure you're actually writing down your comments and bringing them to class.

FRIDAY:

• Write your biography rough drafts using the information from your 10+ notecards and 5+ sources from your works cited page. It should be 2-3 pages and must have an introduction and a conclusion. The body may discuss the person's life in categories (i.e.: their modeling career, their acting career, and their doctoring) or chronologically (by time). Just be sure to include the things that interest you about the person!

13 Peer Review and Biography // Due the week of December 8, 2015

Hi Everyone!

WEDNESDAY HOMEWORK:

• Complete peer reviews for the final two papers, as we skipped peer review this week, and be ready to discuss in class next week.
• Begin the process for writing the biography paper:

Select a person that truly interests you. Check out the following website for a list of very interesting people! (You can pick someone not on the list if you want.) http://www.biographyonline.net/people/famous-100.html Find out the basic facts of the person's life. Start with the encyclopedia and almanac. While these should not be the main focus of a biography, they can be nice information for the introduction. Think about the following questions: What makes this person special or interesting? What kind of effect did he or she have on the world? other people? What are the adjectives you would most use to describe the person? What examples from their life illustrate those qualities? What events shaped or changed this person's life? Did he or she overcome obstacles? Take risks? Get lucky? Would the world be better or worse if this person hadn't lived? How and why? Find at least 5 different sources that talk about the person. 5. Write a Works Cited Page of those sources. Check previous blogposts if your forget how to write a works cited page. 6. Make at least 10 notecards with one relevant fact/story on each. If you don't have notecards, feel free to cut up paper. Be sure to note on the card where the info came from (which source). THURSDAY HOMEWORK: Peer review the book/movie reviews of the remaining three boys of the class that we did not peer review this week. That means at least one good comment per paragraph. Consider: Is the synopsis well-explained, but short (max 3 sentences)? Is it well-organized? Are there good examples and evidence from the movie/book? Flow? Etc FRIDAY HOMEWORK: Revise your rough drafts into final drafts Begin the process for writing the biography paper: Select a person that truly interests you. Check out the following website for a list of very interesting people! (You can pick someone not on the list if you want.) http://www.biographyonline.net/people/famous-100.html Find out the basic facts of the person's life. Start with the encyclopedia and almanac. While these should not be the main focus of a biography, they can be nice information for the introduction. Think about the following questions: What makes this person special or interesting? What kind of effect did he or she have on the world? other people? What are the adjectives you would most use to describe the person? What examples from their life illustrate those qualities? What events shaped or changed this person's life? Did he or she overcome obstacles? Take risks? Get lucky? Would the world be better or worse if this person hadn't lived? How and why? Find at least 5 different sources that talk about the person. 5. Write a Works Cited Page of those sources. Check previous blogposts if your forget how to write a works cited page. 6. Make at least 10 notecards with one relevant fact/story on each. If you don't have notecards, feel free to cut up paper. Be sure to note on the card where the info came from (which source).

12 Book/Movie Review and Peer Review // Due the week of December 2, 2015

Hi Everyone!

WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY:

• Complete a written peer review for each of the remaining classmates in your class. 
• Each peer review should be about 1 page and contain comments that are relevant, helpful, and specific. 
• Consider comments relating to the following topics:
• Attention-grabber
• Synopsis/Summary
• Reasons for why the author did or didn't like a book/movie
• Evidence from the book/movie supporting the above reasons
• Conclusion

THURSDAY:

• Now that you have chosen your book or movie to review, write a review on it that is 1-2 pages double-spaced. 
• It should follow the outline of:
• Introduction:
• Attention-grabber
• Opinion—good or bad movie/book?
• Synopsis (1-3 sentences max.)
• Paragraph 1
• Evidence for opinion
• Paragraph 2
• Evidence for opinion
• Paragraph 3
• Evidence for opinion
• Conclusion

11 Book/Movie Review 1 // Due the week of November 17, 2015

Hi Everyone!

The homework is once again split up this week:

Wednesday and Friday:

• Now that you have chosen your book or movie to review, write a review on it that is 1-2 pages double-spaced. 
• It should follow the outline of:
• Introduction:
• Attention-grabber
• Opinion—good or bad movie/book?
• Synopsis (1-3 sentences max.)
• Paragraph 1
• Evidence for opinion
• Paragraph 2
• Evidence for opinion
• Paragraph 3
• Evidence for opinion
• Conclusion

Thursday:

• Write 8 Synopses 

Think similar to the one or two sentences  that describe a movie on Netflix.

• 1-3 sentences max
• Includes:
1. Main character(s)
2. Setting
3. Main conflict/goal
• Examples:
1. In the movie Finding Nemo, a fish named Marlin must travel across the ocean to find his son Nemo who has been captured by humans. Along the way, he finds must overcome many dangers, but he also finds several new friends.
2. In the movie Jurassic World, Owen, a raptor trainer, must help several new friends survive in a living-dinosaur amusement park where a terrifyingly dangerous dinosaur has escaped and is wreaking havoc!

10 "About Me," Revisions, and Book Review // Due the week of November 12, 2015

Hi Everyone!

Once again, the homework is a little different depending on your day:

Wednesday:

1. Write an "About Me" page about yourself! Talk about your hobbies, interests, how long you've been writing, what you like to write about, your pets, etc. Just nothing super personal or identifying like your phone number or address, because this will be going up on the blog next week. It should be 1/2 to 1 page, double-spaced, and posted on Google Drive.
2. Find a book or movie on which you would like to write a book/movie review next week.
3. Write a synopsis for your book/movie.
1. Think similar to the one or two sentences  that describe a movie on Netflix.
2. 1-3 sentences max
3. Includes:
1. Main character(s)
2. Setting
3. Main conflict/goal
4. Examples:
1. In the movie Finding Nemo, a fish named Marlin must travel across the ocean to find his son Nemo who has been captured by humans. Along the way, he finds must overcome many dangers, but he also finds several new friends.
2. In the movie Jurassic World, Owen, a raptor trainer, must help several new friends survive in a living-dinosaur amusement park where a terrifyingly dangerous dinosaur has escaped and is wreaking havoc!

Thursday:

1. Spend at least around an hour making revisions on your rough draft (if you have not already done so. Many people think you can just change a word here or there to revise (fix) your rough draft, but this is usually not the case. Look for common mistakes to fix like:
1. Changing up the organization
2. Adding more evidence/information
3. Removing irrelevant evidence/information
4. Explaining your evidence in your own words more
5. Etc
2. Write an "About Me" page about yourself! Talk about your hobbies, interests, how long you've been writing, what you like to write about, your pets, etc. Just nothing super personal or identifying like your phone number or address, because this will be going up on the blog next week. It should be 1/2 to 1 page, double-spaced, and posted on Google Drive.

Friday:

1. Pick 8 interesting books or movies about which you feel strongly (you really like or dislike them). Write a synopsis for each book/movie.
1. Think similar to the one or two sentences that describe a movie on Netflix.
2. 1-3 sentences max
3. Includes:
1. Main character(s)
2. Setting
3. Main conflict/goal
4. Examples:
1. In the movie Finding Nemo, a fish named Marlin must travel across the ocean to find his son Nemo who has been captured by humans. Along the way, he finds must overcome many dangers, but he also finds several new friends.
2. In the movie Jurassic World, Owen, a raptor trainer, must help several new friends survive in a living-dinosaur amusement park where a terrifyingly dangerous dinosaur has escaped and is wreaking havoc!
2. Decide on a book/movie on which you write your book/movie review.

Email me if you have questions!

09 Revision and Journaling // Due the week of November 5, 2015

Hi Everyone!


Homework is a little different again this week because of the different days' class sizes:

Wednesday and Friday:

• Now that everyone's papers have been peer reviewed, spend this week fixing your rough drafts!
• A lot of people in the world think that revising (fixing) the rough draft involves just changing a couple of words and then you're done. This is not the case :D Even the most amazing rough draft written by the most amazing doctor has plenty of things to fix, so I'll be looking at your rough drafts and your final drafts for big changes like:
• Adding more evidence or cutting out irrelevant information
• Explaining your evidence in your own words more
• Tweaking your thesis so it better fits the evidence you found
• Adding citations to your essay***
• Etc
• I would say most people should spend at least 1-3 hours revising

Thursday:

• Your class is larger and therefore still working on peer review—but you've all already home-reviewed the essays, so your homework this week is:
• Write for 1-3 hours. 
• This writing can involve any of the following:
• Short stories
• Journaling/Diary
• Research papers (yay!)
• Etc

***This is a big one a lot of people forgot about—it's incredibly important to tell people where your information came from!

• To do so (at least in this class for now):
• Write in parentheses after each fact (at the end of the sentence) which source it came from by writing the number of the source from your works cited page. 
• ie: "Cats are 98% better than dogs (4). They even have saved several people from burning buildings (3)."

08 Peer Review 2 // Due the week of Oct. 28, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week, your homework is to complete peer review on the essays you were assigned in class. Look at the post below (last week's post) for guidelines and tips for peer reviewing). If you're not sure who you should peer review, email me and I'll let you know.

Thanks!

07 Peer Review // Due the week of October 22, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week's homework diverges a bit depending on your day. Check out the directions for Peer Review below and then look at the homework for your specific day.

Peer Review:

1. Read through the entire paper once
2. On a separate sheet of paper/notebook:
1. Write a head comment which includes at least:
1. 1-2 specific things the writer did well
2. 1-2 specific things the writer could change for a better paper
2. Write marginal comments:
1. At least 1 comment per paragraph for a total of 5 comments
2. If you need ideas, look at the bottom of this post. 
3. We will be discussing your comments in class, so make sure they are clear and specific and kind :D

Wednesday:

• If your paper was peer reviewed in class this week, spend time at home making changes to it.
• If you didn't include in-text citations in your rough draft (whether it was peer reviewed in class or not), add those in before our next class period.
• In-Text Citations: Tell where you got your information from, within your paper. If you got it from the third source from your Works Cited page, then write (3) right after the fact/quote.
• IE: Dr. Jane Doe says, "Cats are the best" (3).
• Check your email for further directions. 

Thursday and Friday:

• Peer review the student papers I assigned to you at the end of class. 

———

Questions to consider when peer reviewing:

1. Attention-grabber:
1. Is it relevant? If not--how could it be made more relevant?
2. How could it be made more interesting? Even if it is somewhat interesting, what is another type of attention-grabber they could have used?
2. Thesis:
1. Does it follow the formula: Opinion because r1, r2, r3
2. Is the opinion an actual opinion?
3. Are the reasons relevant? Separate? What could be better reasons?
3. Body Paragraphs:
1. Give 1-2 suggestions for more evidence that the person could try to find.
2. Any evidence that should be left out?
3. Topic sentence and concluding sentence?
4. Concluding Paragraph:
1. Does it wrap up the whole paper?
2. Does it give new information not seen in the rest of the paper? (This would be bad.)
3. Is there a call to action?

06 Rough Draft // Due the week of October 16, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week, you'll be writing your rough draft!

The organization checklist of everything you need to write is below:

1. Introduction Paragraph:
1. Attention-grabber
2. Thesis: Opinion because R1, R2, and R3
2. Body Paragraph 1 about R1
1. Topic sentence
1. Evidence
2. Evidence
3. Evidence
4. Evidence
2. Concluding sentence
3. Body Paragraph 2 about R2
1. Topic Sentence
1. Evidence
2. Evidence
3. Evidence
4. Evidence
2. Concluding Sentence
4. Body Paragraph 3 about R3
1. Topic Sentence
1. Evidence
2. Evidence
3. Evidence
4. Evidence
2. Concluding Sentence
5. Conclusion
1. Wrap up the paper (Don't add new information!)
2. Call your audience to action ("So go out and save a cat!")

The rough drafts need to be completed on time for next week so we can spend time in class peer reviewing them.

**Double-space your paragraphs and post your rough draft to Google Drive.

Email me if you have questions :D

05 Research // Due the week of Oct. 7, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week, use your sources that you found last week to find at least 15 different pieces of evidence (ethos, pathos, and logos) to support your thesis' reasons!

In class, I gave your three colors of notecards (if you get home and realize you've lost them, you can always make more by cutting out colored paper).

Each color corresponds to one of your three reasons from your thesis, so everything that goes on the cards should fit into one of these three reasons. (If you find an interesting fact/quote/etc that would work well for your intro or conclusion paragraph, you can write these on separate color notecards--or just on a piece of paper in your notebook.)

You should have at least 5 notecards (one piece of information on each) for each of your 3 reasons (15 total).

Make sure to note on each card where the evidence came from (did it come from the 4th source in your works cited page? the 2nd? the 6th?)

If you feel the need to find more or different sources, definitely feel free to do so!

04 Research // Due the week of Sept. 30, 2015

Hi Everyone!

For homework this week, you will be completing a Works Cited page!

1. Find at least 6 sources (internet web pages, videos, newspaper articles, books, people to interview, etc) that relate specifically to your topic (the topic you wrote your proposal and outline on).  
1. Scan over each source carefully to make sure it will actually help you accomplish the three reasons in your thesis. No need to spend the time citing sources that won't help you!
2. IE: If your thesis is: "Cats are the best animal because they are friendly, cute, and helpful," the following sources wouldn't be useful if they said:
1. Alligators are the best animal. 
2. Cats are the best animal because they are funny.
2. Go to Easybib.com and input all of the needed information that you can find. 
1. Easybib.com will try to input some of the information for you, but usually can't find everything so you need to find pieces like the publisher or the year of publication.
2. Make sure you click the box that says to include the URL in the citation.
3. Make your Works Cited Page in the format you see at the bottom of this post--listing the sources alphabetically using their first letter.
4. Post this page on Google Drive in our class folder.

For sources, keep in mind the following criteria:

1. No Wikipedia or other crowdsourced website (Answers.com, WikiAnswers.com, etc)
2. Make sure it seems well-designed and well-written.
3. Well-known sources are not required, but tend to be more reliable than non-well-known sources (New York Times vs. Bob's Cool News Blog)

03 Persuasive Outline // Due the week of September 23, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week in class, we reviewed the persuasive essay outline, which looks like this:

1. Introduction
1. Attention-grabber
2. Thesis = Opinion because Reason1, Reason2, and Reason3
2. Paragraph about R1
1. Info
2. Details
3. Evidence
3. Paragraph about R2
1. Info
2. Details
3. Evidence
4. Paragraph about R3
1. Info 
2. Details
3. Evidence
5. Conclusion

For homework, you will write one of these for the topic you chose for your persuasive article. 

Keep in mind:

• You do not need to write out your attention-grabber yet; you can just write "attention-grabber." Same with the conclusion.
• Everything else should be written out.

• For the info, details, and evidence, you can make up evidence as a place-holder for evidence you intend to find once we move onto the research portion of this assignment (next week). 
• For example, if my R1 is:
• Cats are better than dogs because cats are safer than dogs.
• Cats have injured 0 people in the last year, whereas dogs have injured 246.
• Dr. John Doe says, "I see dog bites come in all the time. They're pretty frequent and bad. But I've never seen someone come in from a cat attack."
•  A little boy in the news had a cat save him from a dog attack
• The details above were all things I made up, to save time, but I beileve I'll be able to find research that is at least similar to the above facts when I start my research, so at least now I have ideas of where I want to go with this.
• If you would like to get started on research now, feel free to do so!

• For the details/evidence section, consider the three types of evidence:
• Logos: Logical
• Statistics
• Facts
• Pathos: Personal
• Emotional stories
• Ethos: Expert opinion
• Quotes from experts

So the checklist for the homework is:

• Does it have a well-thought out thesis?
• Each Reason should be able to support a paragraph.
• Does each body paragraph correlate to one of the three Reasons from the thesis?
• Does each body paragraph have at least 3-5 pieces of evidence that I intend to find online?
• Is it typed and posted to Google Drive?

**Normally there will be more homework--but this is a key foundational part and I don't want to rush through it. 

02 Article Proposal // Due the week of September 16, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week, your homework is to write an article proposal of about 1/2 to 1 page!

An article proposal is 1-2 large pargraphs in which you describe an article (essay) you would like to write for the next assignment. We write proposals before we write the actual article so that your group can check to make sure your article will apply to both the blog topic and the assignment criteria--before you actually spend all of the time writing it!

In your proposal, you will want to include information like:

• What information will go into your proposal?
• Why is this information important?
• Why will your readers enjoy reading your article?
• What research will you have to do to write your article?
• Where will you find this research?
• How long will your article probably be? (At least 2 typed, double-spaced pages for our class)
• Etc

This week, write a proposal for some sort of persuasive essay (that will have research to support it). Remember: a persuasive essay picks an opinion and supports it. A persuasive essay is not a "How to make a sandwich" or an "All about cats" type of essay. If you need more clarification, email me on Engrade! 

When coming up with a topic, be sure to consider your blog subjects. For example: (Feel free to pick the opposing side of these--or your own topic)

• Science blog article opinion might be:
• The US should try to make a colony on Mars
• Everyone should invest in making electric cars
• Smoking is bad for your health
• History blog article opinion might be:
• The US should have gone to war with Germany sooner in WWII
• The Renaissance was the most influential time period in all of history
• Abraham Lincoln was the best president of the United states
• Life of a Middle School opinions could be:
• Everyone should go to our school!
• Middle schoolers should not have smart phones
• Field trips are just as important in middle school as they are in elementary school

Be sure to put your proposals on Google Drive for next week, and email me on Engrade if you have any questions!

01 Pre-Test Essay Writing! // Due the week of Sept. 7, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week, the homework is to write an essay, but don't let that stress you out too much :)

An essay, for now, is simply a written response to a question. Try to organize it into paragraphs and use the skills you have learned in Writing 1 (wherever that may have been taken). I just want to see what you do or don't know so I can know where to begin with my teaching.

So, in response to one of the three prompts/questions below, spend around 1.5-3 hours writing or write until you feel like you have a finished product about which you feel like you worked your hardest (whichever comes first).

IMPORTANT: You are completely free to make up information for this essay! If you want to say that 92% of kids would drop out of school without art class, go for it!

Be sure to write your essay on Google Drive** and put it into your class folder:

Writing 2 >> Projects: Wednesday/Thursday/Friday >> 01 Pre-Test Essay

and title it with your last name, first name, and writing assignment name (Pre-Test Essay).

If you prefer to write your essay on paper first and then type it up, that is quite alright; just try not to let the extra copying time eat into your 1-2 hours of writing :)

Only pick ONE of the following prompts:

• Pick your favorite subject in school (Math? Art? Lunch? Recess?) and argue why you think this class deserves to be offered in schools—or maybe even why it is the most important subject in school.

• Should schools have more field trips throughout the year to places like museums/zoos/farms/offices/etc? Pick a yes or no answer and explain why or why not?

• Some argue that playing sports in middle school and high school gets in the way of academics (class work) and therefore should not be allowed. Do you believe this is true or not true? Defend your answer in writing.