Thursday, November 21

11/18

Today we discussed note taking expectations.  See today's slideshow screenshots below.
 

 

Words of the Day so far (definitions from Google-Oxford)

1. barrier (noun): something that blocks the way; an obstacle
2. claim (verb): state or assert that something is the case
3. cite (verb):  Identifying a part of a piece of writing as being derived from a source
4. source (noun): a place, person, or thing from which something comes or can be obtained
5. plagiarism (noun): taking credit for someone else's writing or ideas
6. grit (noun):passion and perseverance in the pursuit of long-term goals
7. paraphrase (verb): express the meaning of (the writer or speaker or something written or spoken) using different words, especially to achieve greater clarity.
8. perspective (noun): a point of view or general standpoint from which different things are viewed, physically or mentally; the appearance to the eye of various objects at a given time, place, or distance
9. context (noun): words, events, or circumstances that help determine meaning
10. impact (noun): an effect or result

Our Word of the Day test will be Tuesday, November 25, which means I will also collect the Word of the Day worksheets at this time. (We will spend some time reviewing on Monday, November 24.) Go to QUIZLET to study your words, but remember that you will be using them in context of a story.  Memorizing the definitions may not be adequate.

Now overdue:

Topic Exploration Sheet:  This was the sheet that Mrs. Watson gave to students when we were in the LMC.  Your task was to skim through the various nonfiction books we had provided and write down topics of interest to you.  For full credit, you were supposed to find at least 15 topics that were at  least remotely appealing to you.  (Topics like WWI, WWII, Vietnam War, Dark Ages needed to be narrowed down into smaller subtopics.)  On the back, you were supposed to write your top three choices in topics, as well as the name of any partner you were thinking about having.

Topic-Narrowing Strategies:  To help students narrow their "ginormous" topics down, two strategies were offered: the inverted triangle method and the concept map method.  Students were supposed to attempt one of these by the end of the hour on Tuesday, November 12.

Topic Proposal Sheet:  This sheet is due Thursday, November 14.  Students will need to delve into their desired topic to complete this sheet with success.  They are expected to converse with their parent/guardian about this as well and get a signature from their parent/guardian that shows approval of their topic.  At the bottom, backside of this sheet, there is a spot for a partner approval, as well as parent permission for this as well.

NHD Working Bibliography document: Students were instructed to open a Google Document, name it with their name, followed by NHD Working Bibliography.  They put the heading Annotated Bibliography centered at the top and then made two subtitles, flush left, one for Primary Sources and the other Secondary Sources. Then they were to add the two sources from their Topic Proposal Sheet to it, positioning the two sources in its correct category (either primary or secondary).

NHD Kick-Off

We have started the NHD process, talking about the importance of bibliographies and staying organized. Since then, we have been focused intensely on topic selection.  Here is a recap of some of the things we discussed.

DISCUSSION ON BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Source:  someone or something that supplies information (books, interviews, websites, databases, newspapers, journals, etc.)

Bibliography:  a list of sources you consulted during your research

Important things to note for your NHD Bibliography:

1. Alphabetized by author's last name
2. Separated into two separate lists, one for primary sources and one for secondary sources
3. It is annotated (You need to write 2-3 sentences about how you used each source and included this with the bibliographic information.) 

We will open ONE Google Document, on which we will copy and paste (from the source itself sometimes or from an "Easybib" type site) or type properly cited (MLA) sources.

DISCUSSION ON STAYING ORGANIZED
Keeping yourself organized is imperative to your success (and sanity) during this project!

Some tips on ways to do this:
Have a designated folder or binder for NHD materials
Save electronic sources to your Safari Reading List.
"If you write it, cite it." In other words, as soon as you start to take notes on a source, add it to your bibliography right away.  You can always go back and delete a source if you end up not using the information. It is far more difficult to go back and hunt for the source's information.

DISCUSSION ON TOPIC SELECTION
Choosing a topic to research is a critically important step in the process. Below are a few different items we used to focus on the idea of selecting an appropriate NHD topic.  Click on the name of each one, and you should be led to a copy of the assignment in the case that you have lost yours.

Topic Exploration Sheet:  This was the sheet that Mrs. Watson gave to students when we were in the LMC.  Your task was to skim through the various nonfiction books we had provided and write down topics of interest to you.  For full credit, you were supposed to find at least 15 topics that were at  least remotely appealing to you.  (Topics like WWI, WWII, Vietnam War, Dark Ages needed to be narrowed down into smaller subtopics.)  On the back, you were supposed to write your top three choices in topics, as well as the name of any partner you were thinking about having.

Topic-Narrowing Strategies:  To help students narrow their "ginormous" topics down, two strategies were offered: the inverted triangle method and the concept map method.  Students were supposed to attempt one of these by the end of the hour on Tuesday, November 12.

Topic Proposal Sheet:  This sheet is due Thursday, November 14.  Students will need to delve into their desired topic to complete this sheet with success.  They are expected to converse with their parent/guardian about this as well and get a signature from their parent/guardian that shows approval of their topic.  At the bottom, backside of this sheet, there is a spot for a partner approval, as well as parent permission for this as well.

Remember, your ultimate goal for your research project is to PERSUADE your audience that your topic is historically significant while focusing on historical barriers that were present at the time.  In order to do a high quality job, you need to focus your research on a topic that is both historical AND significant.  Slacking on this first step will cause your more struggle later.

DYTOPIAN UNIT

We have kicked off our dystopian unit! Thank you to Mrs. Watson for sharing important information about the dystopian genre yesterday.  Here is a list of the information from her slides.

Common elements of a dystopian society:

1. Propaganda used to control citizens of the society
2. Information, independent thought, and freedom is restricted
3. A figurehead or concept is worshiped by citizens of the society
4. Citizens are perceived to be under constant surveillance
5. Citizens have a fear of the outside world
6. Citizens live in a dehumanized state
7. The natural world is banished and distrusted
8. Citizens conform to uniform expectations. Individuality and dissent are bad.
9. The society is perceived as a perfect/utopian world.

A dystopian protagonist (main character):

• often feels trapped and is struggling to escape.
  questions the existing social and political systems.
• believes or feels that something is terribly wrong with the society in which he or she lives.
• helps the audience recognizes the negative aspects of the dystopian world through his or her perspective

If you were absent today (10/8):

• We read "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 
• Click here for a copy of the story.
• Click here for the YouTube audio recording we listened to today.
• Together as a class, we created plot lines to discuss the story.  Please get a copy of this plot line from someone in your class.

We will continue discussing "Harrison Bergeron" this week and continue with more dystopian short stories as the month goes on.  This will lead us into our dystopian novel unit.  

Former Assignments Listed Below
Are you missing assignments in Skyward? Wondering why your grade is what it is? Below is a list of what we have done so far. Click on the assignment for due dates, directions, and other details. Please email me if anything is missing.

• Single Story Exit Ticket

• Power Presentation

• Power Paragraph

• Peace Project

• Email Assignment 9/13

• Rhetorical Device Presentation

• Hmong New Year Assignment

• Quick Writes, Set 1

• Tic-Tac-Toe Story assignment, 9/30