Summer Reading List Discussion

MEETING! MEETING! MEETING!

THURSDAY, MARCH 6TH!
7:40 AM IN THE LIBRARY!

Today we started to discuss the summer reading list. Use the comments section to toss some ideas around. What can we do to make our students more successful? (By the way, I have no idea why the second two sheets are screwed up. Sorry.

gaggle

OK, everything seems to be working well for me!!! Here is the gaggle website that I was talking about. I know that Buffalo has not blocked this site yet. It is my impression that it is owned by google. Either way it is made for students and teachers to communicate.

http://www.gaggle.net/

Task II Observations

Meets or Exceeds Expectations

• Great work using both graph and passage
• good work avoiding plagiarism
• good work citing text and chart in essay
  
• overall, good job in development
• established purpose very well
• good voice and appropriate tone
• Good attention to your task...most answered both parts of the question completely
  

In Need of Improvement

• Thesis not fully established or unclear
• quotations misused, cited incorrectly, or information awkwardly integrated into the sentence structure
• quotations not being used to support ideas (usually found in topic sentences)...random facts and tidbits arranged with no apparent purpose...these become lists of facts, which are not connected to any sort of commentary or analysis
• conclusions need some work
• Topic sentence, topic sentence, topic sentence needed. Connect your paragraphs to your thesis
• Transitions needed
  
• make sure to separate big ideas into paragraphs
• avoid using I
• more of a hook/lead/attention grabber to start introduction (Do not use the task as an intro)

Newsweek March 3rd

We've been receiving Newsweek since the beginning of the year. I haven't been able to use them as much as I'd have liked to. The frequency with which they've appeared on my door has become a wee bit overwhelming. Also, issues have become very election centric. Therefore, I'm going to do my best not to be blogbad. I'm going to do my best to share the table of contents from every issue via this blog and our school email. That'll be the best way to make sure they do not end up in my recycling bing.

Writing Contest

The National Bar Association is holding an essay contest. The deadline is April 1st. I've attached the documents I've received. Click to enlarge and print.