Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Persuasive Paper Topic on Padlet

http://goo.gl/DFI0sA

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Poetry Day 1 - Writing a short story with a moral.

Poetry, like Fables and folktales, can have a hidden meaning. Look at the link below to view some fables and the moral of the story. http://www.aesopfables.com/aesopsel.html Today, write a short story (at least 2 paragraphs) about a moral or life lesson of your choosing. Try create a story line that captures the essence of your moral without directly stating it. The story you create today will be molded and shaped over the next five class periods, so make sure you have it complete by tomorrow's class.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Evaluate Your Informational Report

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Tips for Writing Numbers

Click on the link form GrammarBook.com to learn more about how to writer using the rule of numbers.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Writing a Conclusion

A conclusion should

stress the importance of your reason for informing
give the paper a sense of completeness
leave a final impression on the reader

Techniques for Closing:

Summary: Summarize the content, presenting the information through a new angle rather than repeating everything directly.
Reaction or feeling: Tell how you feel about the content.
Image description: Describe a visual or sensory image related to the content.
Image: Include a visual image (photo, drawing, clipart) related to the overall message.
Quotation: Present an interesting quotation or fact related to what you have written. You might need to write something before or after the quotation/fact so that it makes sense to the reader.
Encouragement to reflect: End with a statement that encourages readers to keep thinking about the concept.
Encouragement to act: End with a statement that encourages the taking of some action(such as using less fossil fuel or continuing to look for real-life uses of math).
Question: End with a question that encourages readers to keep thinking about the concept.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Writing a Great Introduction

After weeding through several mentor texts, our class came up with the following features that make a great intro.

Be at least one paragraph
First Sentence should "hook" you. Click here for strategies.
Tell the reader what they are going to learn about in this paper.
Only use important facts.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

Exploring How Authors Use Topic Sentences in Expository (Informational) Text

Our findings:

Table of Contents- lets you know how the paragraphs are related
Bold letters- important words
Different lengths of sentences in a paragraph
Opinions based on facts
More than one paragraph on a page
Include true facts
Makes the reader feel like they are living in your writing
Draw in readers/ audience
Pictures help you better visualize the paragraphs
Show then tell using pictures/ captions/ references to figures
Important facts
Long paragraphs can be divided into smaller paragraphs
Sometimes paragraphs look different like written in a comic form
Diagrams, pictures, tables, charts, graphs, etc help show what you're trying to tell in the paragraphs by adding information.
Headings can have more than one paragraph on different pages.
Topic/Main idea sentence

A paragraph has two jobs.

To tell you what you'll be reading about
Add details that help you tell it

Watch this video to learn more about how topic paragraphs are constructed.

Monday, February 2, 2015

Organizing our Informational Articles

Let's think about the structure of an informational article. In all our mentor texts, we noticed that the structure falls into these categories:

Let's look at your research and begin organizing your article by completing a flowchart. In google docs, open your draft then create a table and type the flowchart.

Review the research on your index cards. Jot notes/ideas in the flow chart. It is not necessary to cite anything or write complete sentences at this point. Our purpose is to organize our thoughts.

Let's organize!

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Researching and Taking Notes

After you've selected your topic and headings, it's time to research the answers to your questions. Some things to keep in mind.

Document what you've found. Be sure to tell the location of the source (book, website-National Geographic, video) and then then the source (author, website address, video address). Below is an example of a note card.

Make sure your source is reliable. Stick to a .org, .edu, or .net. If you use a .com, make sure it's reliable. Can you find the information in at least 3 other sources? Is the date current? Does the author have quality experience?

Take lots of notes. Use "quotation marks" if you are quoting an author word for word. Do you need to do this? Why are you quoting? Paraphrase short pieces of information and summarize long pieces. Click here to learn the difference. Try to have all your research COMPLETE by Friday.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Informational Research - Possible Headings

Animals

What do they eat?
Where do they live? (habitat)
How do they defend themselves?
What do they look like? (Physical characteristics)
How many are there? Are they endangered?

Famous Person

Their life when they were younger? Where were they born/grew up?

Why are they important?

What did they do that affected their country/the world?

Decisions/ consequences they've made

Country

Characteristics of the land (mountains/ lakes/ rivers/jungle/coastal etc.)

Government

Economy

Native People

Natural Resources

Conflicts

Religion

Tourism/Fun

Native Animals

Global Connections (how do they interact with the world?)

How do they travel/communicate?

Challenges they face

Diseases

What is it?
How does it affect you?
How does it spread?
Major Outbreaks
Is in undercontrol or out of control currently?
How is it treated?

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Informational Report Planning

Think of a topic you'd like to research and write an informational report about. We'd like to stay in the theme of Africa so ideas may stem from one of the categories:

Country
Animals
Endangered Animals
Tribes and Traditions
Diseases
Famous People

Be ready to choose a topic by tomorrow.

Informational Text Features

Monday, January 12, 2015

Close-Ended Questions

If you can answer a question with only a "yes" or "no" response, then you are answering a close-ended type of question.

Examples of close-ended questions are:

Are you feeling better today?
May I use the bathroom?
Will you please do me a favor?
Have you already completed your homework?
Is that your final answer?

Open-Ended Questions

Open-ended questions are ones that require more than one word answers. The answers could come in the form of a list, a few sentences or something longer such as a speech, paragraph or essay.

Here are some examples of open-ended questions:

What were the most important wars fought in the history of the United States?
What are you planning to buy today at the supermarket?
What is your favorite memory from childhood?
What types of decorations do you plan to have for your friend's birthday party?
How did you and your best friend meet?
What sites do you expect to see on your vacation?

Open-ended Questions

Open-ended questions require a response with more depth and a lengthier response. Open-ended questions are also helpful in finding out more about a person or a situation, whether it's during an interview, or when getting to know a new friend.