Snowmagination

This week I want you to get more creative! Next week is vacation. Flash forward to and it and let's pretend there is a huge snow storm! What are you going to do? Who are you going to be with? What is the best and worst part about a snowstorm? Fill me in on your blizzard adventure! Be sure to have your writing come alive and include great detail. Do not forget to proofread!

Your post is due no later than Friday, December 21, 2012 at 5pm.

It must be at least 8 sentences long!

Changing Completely

After both viewing the play at the North Shore Music Theater and finishing up Act 2, we see a huge character change in Scrooge. Describe his character change. Do you believe that people can change completely, as Scrooge does? Explain your response and feel free to include any examples from your life.

Your response must be AT LEAST 8 sentences. Your post is due no later than Friday at 5pm.

Letter to Scrooge

With Act 1 complete, we have a pretty good idea of who Scrooge is. This week let's see how creative you can get! 
Write a letter to Scrooge. 

Your letter should be roughly 4 paragraphs. 

1. State your main point: Scrooge is missing out in life by being cranky and negative with the people around him.
2. State a specific thing that Scrooge is missing out on. To support your point, include a detail from the play or from your experience.
3. State another specific thing that Scrooge is missing out on. To support your point, include a detail from the play or from your experience.
4. Conclude with a summary or a request that Scrooge change his behavior.

DO NOT FORGET YOUR SALUTATION AND CLOSING SIGNATURE.

POST YOUR LETTER AS A COMMENT TO THIS POST. 

Be sure to proofread!

Your letter is due no later than Friday at 5pm!

The Power We Have

"This is a lesson to us all. A reminder that it doesn’t matter who you are – the way we interact with each other every day is important. We affect each other. In big ways and in small.
Whether it’s a cashier at the local shop or the new boss from regional head office, we are all people first. We all have the power to fill others with joy or ruin their day."


Reflect upon the above quotation. Do you agree with it? Why or why not? Support your response. Think of the many people you have come across in your life and describe how some have affected you.

TYPE YOUR RESPONSE AS A COMMENT TO THIS POST. REMEMBER TO ONLY USE YOUR FIRST NAME AND INITIAL OF YOUR LAST NAME.


(Respond in atleast 8 sentences. Be sure to include proper punctuation and capitalization. PROOFREAD.)

Taking on Term Two... But First

Congratulations, you have survived your first term as a 7th grader! Let's talk about it! In your next blog post I would you to reflect upon this past term. (8 or more sentences)
Some questions to think about/answer in your post might be:


Did you enjoy the term overall? What did or didn't you like about it? Why?(Be appropriate. Utilize constructive criticism!)

What is/was your favorite part about 7th grade so far? A particular class? Meeting new friends? The Day of Service? A certain lesson in one of your classes? A project?

Do you feel older or more mature? How have you changed?

What are you looking forward to as the year progresses? New specialist class? The Christmas Carol field trip? Other field trips? The winter season?

Post your responses on your Kidblog.

www.kidblog.org/coolblock

 Be sure to include at least one photo that reflects a certain aspect of your post! Proofread!

Feel free to comment on your classmates' posts as well!

Stretchin' Sentences

This week will be fun. We will do stuff. I am happy. I can't wait. Learning is cool. 

---- How annoying/boring was that?!

SPICE UP YOUR SENTENCES BY STRETCHING THEM! That is what we will be working on throughout this week. It is time to focus more on our descriptive writing. You will begin to understand how including imagery in your writing allows you to SHOW rather than simply tell.

Your task this week is to choose three of the following sentences
and   s  t  r  e  t  c  h    t  h  e  m  !

1. The dog ran.
2. The weekend was fun.
3. My mom is happy.
4. The boy laughed.
5. I ate fast.
6. She got a lot of candy.



FOR EXAMPLE:
 "These chips are good."

Opening the bag, a crinkling sound filled the air as my mouth began to water in anticipation of the sweet barbeque taste of the perfectly crisp potato chips.


Please post your sentences as comments and feel free to praise your classmates' responses!

New Blog

This week we are trying out the new blog. Most of you started your posts during class and some of you may have even finished. You are responsible for two posts.
1. The first is your "I Am" poem. 
2. The second is your recap/response to Hurricane Sandy detailing your experience of seeing it all unfold and what you may have done on your day off from school (at least 8 sentences).

You must include a picture in each post.

You can access the blog by clicking on this link:

 http://kidblog.org/CoolBlock/

Your posts are due no later than Saturday at 5pm.

Happy Blogging! :-)

Symbolically Speaking...

This week we will spend sometime discussing symbolism and talking about our summer reading, Tangerine. First, it is important to understand symbolism and why it is used in literature.

Symbolism is the practice or art of using an object or a word to represent an abstract idea. An action, person, place, word, or object can all have a symbolic meaning. When an author wants to suggest a certain mood or emotion, he can also use symbolism to hint at it, rather than just blatantly saying it.

Symbolism is often used by writers to enhance their writing. Symbolism can give a literary work more richness and color and can make the meaning of the work deeper. 
In literature, symbolism can take many forms including:

• A figure of speech where an object, person, or situation has another meaning other than its literal meaning. 
• The actions of a character, word, action, or event that have a deeper meaning in the context of the whole story. 
  
  
  

"Symbols are everywhere in our lives. Traffic signs, advertising logos and religious images all provide visual information that transcends the physical world. Think of the Apple logo--It's really very simple, silhouette of an apple with a single leaf at the stem and a small bite taken out of the top. Show that logo to nearly anyone in the world, and they will immediately recognize it. The Apple logo represents a whole network of products, images and emotions. Amazing doesn't begin to describe what our mind is capable of doing in terms of converting a simple image into something utterly profound. "

As you are going about your everyday life this week, take time to observe all the symbolism around you. Take note of sounds, images, or the written word. For your blog post, choose two symbols that one may come across in everyday life. Briefly describe each symbol and what it represents (2-3 sentences for each).

Becoming the Teacher

This week I want you to put yourself in the shoes of a teacher! You are going to evaluate a student's written response to the following MCAS question:

Based on the excerpt, explain why it took many years for hamburgers to become popular in the United States. Support your answer with important and specific information from the excerpt.

(The excerpt was handed out on Monday: "The Pioneers" by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson.)

Think about what we have discussed in class, and utilize the rubric below to help evaluate the student's response. You must state whether the student should receive a 1, 2, 3, or 4 and explain why. Your evaluation must be at least 5 sentences long. You may respond to another classmate's post and tell whether or not you agree with their scoring and why or why not. 
Your post is due no later than Friday at 5 pm.

The Student's Response

Scoring Guide and Sample

Score	Description
(4)	The response is a clear, complete, and accurate explanation of why it took many years for hamburgers to become popular in the United States. The response includes important and specific information from the excerpt
(3)	The response is a mostly clear, complete, and accurate explanation of why it took many years for hamburgers to become popular in the United States. The response includes important but often general information from the excerpt.
(2)	The response is a partial explanation of why it took many years for hamburgers to become popular in the United States. The response includes limited information from the excerpt and may include misinterpretations.
(1)	The response is a minimal explanation of why it took many years for hamburgers to become popular in the United States. The response includes little or no information from the excerpt and may include misinterpretations. OR The response relates minimally to the task.
(0)	The response is totally incorrect or irrelevant, or contains insufficient evidence to demonstrate comprehension.

The Hook

During class this week, a majority of our time will be spent focusing on writing and understanding how important it is to captivate our audience. People are rarely going to want to read something if they find it boring! 

We will discuss hooks and how they are designed to grasp and pull something--- and in this case it is the reader's attention. Hooks are so vital to writing because they arouse curiosity and interest in readers and give them that I can't put it down feeling. 

This week I want you to read the following writing prompt and draft a catchy introductory paragraph. Think of all the various hooks we have discussed and choose one to best grasp the attention of your reader (quotation, anecdote, startling fact, analogy, question). Your paragraph must be at least 8 sentences long and contain a thesis statement or claim, which is the main idea that the rest of your essay will explain in more detail. Feel free to comment on each others' and advise or encourage your classmates!

BE ADVISED: YOU ARE NOT WRITING A WHOLE ESSAY. You are just responsible for 8 sentences that will HOOK the reader and state your thesis/claim.

WRITING PROMPT

Imagine that for one day you could trade places with anyone you choose. The person could be real or imaginary, from the past or from the present.

In a well-developed composition, identify the person you would want to trade places with, explain why you would like to trade places with this person, and describe how your day would be different as this person.

YOUR POST IS DUE NO LATER THAN SATURDAY OCTOBER 13, 2012 at 5pm.

For the Purpose of Persuading...

Flashing back to last week, we discussed Anna Quindlen’s “Melting Pot.” We talked a lot about prejudice and cultural differences. I raised the question, “What is more important, our similarities or our differences?” This is the question I want you to think about for this week’s blog post!

But first, consider this:

It seems that much of what we do in life has a purpose. Think about it! You go to school to learn, you brush your teeth to prevent cavities, and you eat to fulfill hunger…  Well authors also WRITE with a purpose too!

In fact, you have a PURPOSE for writing this week’s blogpost; and the purpose isn’t just to get your homework assignment done!  (HA) Your purpose for writing this blogpost is to PERSUADE your audience.

With a blog post of at least 8 sentences or more, I want you to PERSUADE or convince readers that our similarities are more important than our differences OR our differences are more important than our similarities (whichever you choose to argue).

Support your argument. Why do YOU think similarities more important? Or why do YOU think differences are more important? Why should readers agree with YOU? Give an example or two. Write so that others will understand your point of view and be persuaded by it! 

Your post is due no later than Friday, October 5th at 5pm!

Nonfiction!

"The Fall of the Hindenburg" is a nonfiction piece that we will be reading this week. Nonfiction (NOT FAKE!) deals with only real people, events or ideas and is narrated from the point of view, or perspective, of the author, who is a real person. It may reflect the historical context of the time period, including references to major social and cultural information. However, not all nonfiction accounts or stories are in written form. Some are recounted in discussions or on news programs.

Talk to any adult in your life (grandparent, mother, father, aunt, uncle, guardian, teacher, cousin... etc) and  ask them about a major historical event they can recall in their life. Maybe they will give you insight into 9/11 or the JFK assassination.... or the first trip to the moon....or the Cuban Missile Crisis... or stories about the Vietnam War or Martin Luther King!  Ask them about the historical context of the time period in which their event takes place. What was going on in the world or the United States at the time?

After your chat with the adult in your life, summarize the conversation and what you learned from their nonfiction account! 

Your summary must at least be 8 sentences long. Read it over with the adult whom you had the discussion with in order to check your work for spelling, grammar, punctuation, run-on sentences etc.


If you'd like, you can research more about the event and include a link to an informative website on your post!

Your post is due no later than Friday at 5pm.

The Power of Believing

In the video below, we witness 5th grader Dalton Sherman address a group of educators. In a well-constructed paragraph, please respond to the following two questions:

1. What do you think Dalton means when he asks, "Do you believe in me?"

2. In your opinion, what makes Dalton's speech so powerful?

REMEMBER TO DRAFT YOUR COMMENT IN A GOOGLE DOC OR WORD PROCESSOR BEFORE POSTING.

Check your post for spelling, grammar or punctuation errors.

(REFER TO < HOW TO POST COMMENTS > if you need help on posting)

YOUR POST IS DUE BY FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 21st at 5pm.