Today we’re going to be writing our rough drafts of our letters to Ray Hughes (4th R developer). Once your rough draft is completed, you can work on your final set of questions for next week’s book club.
Also, in light of the royal wedding I would like you all to refer to me by my royal name for the day Duchess Danika Calthorpe Barkerberton of Londonbury.
I’m kidding.
Blog day! We’ve got the netbooks back as well as my iPod touch and iPad so hopefully we’ll have enough devices for everyone. It seemed to work out well last week.
You blog topic for this week is a pretty fun one. Imagine that your book is going to be turned into a movie. Who would you cast in the different roles? What kind of music would you include in the sound track? Would you modify or change any of the details from the original book? Explain your choices clearly and where possible, include images, video clips, and music in your blog post to make it more engaging.
Next week we’re going to make trailers for our books using either Movie Maker or an online program called Photopeach. If you have one of the netbooks or a laptop you can start now, but Photopeach won’t work on a smartphone or iPod.
I’m away at PD today as you know but you know the process for the book clubs by now, so I’m sure you’ll be fine.
Don’t forget to give someone new a chance to be discussion leader.
Your group task for this week is to make connections between the issues dealt with in your book and other places where you see this issue explored: ie/TV, movies, non-fiction sources like the news or documentaries, etc.
We’re going to start off today discussing the formal business letter. When would you be most likely to write a formal business letter? Who would you write it to? What is the structure?
After examining the business letter and discussing some general ettiquette, you are going to attempt to write the world’s worst business letter.
Then when we’re finished, you can read and work on your questions for tomorrow’s book club meeting.
Happy fake Friday!
Today we’re blogging in class with the netbooks.
Since I’m letting you come up with the topic today I’d like you to take a couple minutes and do some brainstorming and then as a class we’ll try to come up with a topic that would apply to all the books.
It’s Wednesday! That means it’s literature circle day. Please come and grab your folders and then ensure that your bookmark questions and discussion questions for this week are in your folder and are clearly labeled and dated.
Once I’ve checked your work, you can get into your literature circle groups and begin.
Today we’re going to do a lesson on visualizing. When you read, do you see words on a page? Or do you see images play out almost like a movie in your mind?
I’m going to read a section from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and as I do I want you to try to sketch what you think the ward looks like.
Then I’m going to have you get into groups of four and take turns exchanging your sketches and adding or correcting anything that you think should be changed.
Finally I will give you class time for finishing up your questions. Don’t forget to generate at least one good discussion questions. As you read, try to visualize a scene from your novel.
We’ll start off with some silent reading today. Remember your next book club meeting is this Wednesday. If you haven’t yet commented on at least two of your classmates’ blog posts, I have the netbooks here and you can do that now.
Then we are going to move on to examining two articles about violence in the media. You are going to use critical thinking skills to determine main ideas and supporting details and then draw a conclusion based on what you read.
Today we are doing our blogging that was postponed due to yesterday’s grad meeting. Please log in to our class ning for this week’s topic.
We have a grad meeting in the cafeteria at the start of the period and then we’ll be heading to the library to blog about our books. The blog topic will be posted on the ning for you.