Month: April 2012

Hi everyone, we’re working on our research reports today. Here’s a link to a list of resources that may help you.

Here is a digital copy of the research report assignment.

Don’t forget: Your book trailers need to be posted on the Ning by the end of the day!

Today we’re going to start the research report which is one of the culminating tasks for this unit. We’ll also have some time to read.

Book club day! Make sure your questions are in your folder. I will be checking them before you can begin.

Thursday was our blog day, so make sure you’ve got your post published.

I want you to make sure you’ve revised your paragraph (from Wednesday) and submitted it with the corrections I outlined on Wednesday’s blog post.

Today we’re going to head back down to the library. The first thing I want you to do is make sure you’ve commented on at least two other blog posts. Then you’re going to move on to the Book Trailer assignment:

Book Trailer

You have been asked to create a trailer (just like a movie trailer) for your book. Your book trailer should attempt to capture the mood, tone, plot, and characters of the story and get someone excited to read it. Think about how you will use the 4Cs: constructions, codes, creeds, and commercials.

Your trailer should have the following for a level 4

• At least 10 pictures
• Music that suits the mood/tone of the book
• A mixture of symbolic and literal images
• Key words or a voice over that provides hints about the story to peak interest (don’t give away the ending)
• Appropriate for all audiences.

You will make your movie trailer on http://photopeach.com/ (which is online) or using movie maker (which you’ll only be able to use on school computers.

If you have a Mac you might want to try iMovie.

When you are done you will share your movie trailer on the Ning. You will have two library periods for this. Trailers must be posted by Friday.

It’s a book club day today!

But before we get started I want to talk about the articles we read yesterday. You’re going to be getting the paragraphs back today and I want most of you to make revisions and resubmit. Here are a couple things you need to fix:

1) Use of apostrophes. Apostrophes are not word jewelry. We don’t just randomly use them to decorate words with “s” at the end of them. Apostrophes are used for two reasons:

1. To show that you’ve taken out letters. For example “you are” can be shortened to “you’re” the apostrophe marks the missing “a”.
2. To indicate that something belongs to something else. For example, if I write “the book’s…” you should expect to see that I’m talking about something that belongs to the book, like “the book’s cover.” If I just mean I have more than one book, I’ll just write “the books”.

If you have some word jewelry in your paragraph, correct it and resubmit.

2) Sentence fragments. A sentence needs a subject and a verb.

No Subject

• Fragment: With the ultimate effect of all advertising is to sell the product.
  Possible Revisions:
  • Remove preposition: The ultimate effect of all advertising is to sell the product.
• Fragment: By paying too much attention to polls can make a political leader unwilling to propose innovative policies.
  Possible Revisions:
  • Remove preposition: Paying too much attention to polls can make a political leader unwilling to propose innovative policies.

No main verb

• Fragment: A story with deep thoughts and emotions.
  Possible Revisions:
  • Direct object: She told a story with deep thoughts and emotions.
  • Appositive: Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a story with deep thoughts and emotions, has impressed critics for decades.

If you have a sentence fragment, please correct it and resubmit.

Supporting ideas. You can support your opinion in a number of ways:

• personal experience/observations
• facts
• examples
• illustrations
• logic
• analogy

You must be careful, however to avoid generalizations, facts/statistics you can’t prove, or circular/dogmatic reasoning (It’s right because I say it’s right).

Check your supporting details and make sure you have at least three details, and no faulty logic.

Today we’re going to be looking at two articles that deal with violence in the media. For each article you are going to identify the author’s point of view and three supporting details.

Then you will write an opinion paragraph expressing your view on the subject. This will be due at the end of class. Please ensure your book mark questions and 3 discussion questions are in your orange duotang by the end of the period in preparation for tomorrow’s book club meeting.

Today we’ll be talking about the media connections you can make with your novel and then you will have time in class to read and work on your discussion questions for our next meeting.

When we are studying the media, we look at THE FOUR Cs: Constructions,  Codes, Creeds, and Commercials.

Constructions

Codes

Creeds

Commercials

 

A stereotype is a general mental image that is held of a group or class of people that is usually oversimplified. An advertiser may feature a stereotypical user of his product in order to encourage the audience to identify with the user. For example, housewives are often used in advertisements for cleaning products.

I’ve collected a bunch of clips from TV shows and movies. We will look at them together and after each clip you will list all the stereotypes you saw in that clip. If you are absent today, you can participate by commenting on this blog.

What stereotypes are present in your novel?

Book club day!

First we’re going to do a lesson on inferences and then you’ll get into your groups. Please remember, you must have your questions completed in order to participate.

Today we’re going to start off with some silent reading and then I thought we’d write a letter to Erica.

If you haven’t commented on at least two other blog posts from last Thursday, please do so for homework.

Today is our first book club meeting! Are you psyched? I am!

Before we start, I’m going to review the expectations for the book club meeting and then we’ll get started.