Beginning Genre Pieces

Posted on May 10, 2012 | Leave a comment

Today you will begin answering your inquiry question for a wider audience. You will use the research you’ve done and translate that information, your own opinions, and ideas for the future into genre pieces. The genre pieces are the heart of your project. They are the content of your website. They are what demonstrate that you not only own the information in this project but that you are a master at making rhetorical choices in visual, digital, and written texts, which is what CyberEnglish is all about. Be about it!

To start: Go to the Genre Pieces page of the unit website. Read the page. (Remember that each person in your group is responsible for creating two genre pieces. If you are in a group of three, that means a total of six for your group.)

Discuss the four categories with your group and establish some responses BEFORE you consider genres. It is important to have a common vision for your site, and these categories will make sure you do.

Start generating ideas for genres. Look for examples online. Use your group members’ strengths to determine who will create which genre pieces. Begin creating the genre pieces.

Don’t forget to check out the calendar on the board.

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Beginning Research

Posted on April 30, 2012 | Leave a comment

In class on Monday, you formed groups and made a commitment to an inquiry question that will guide their research in this unit. Remember that your inquiry question must be a question that you do not already know the answer to, a question that will result in an answer that you care about, a question that has more than one possible answer, and a question that has a specific focus.

Today, you will be using your question to become familiar with the tools you’ll need for research in this unit:

  1. Complete the “Forks Over Knives” section of your in-class worksheet from Monday.
  2. Read directions on the Annotated Bibliography page of the unit website.
  3. Follow the directions for setting up your your annotated bibliography using EasyBib. Make your first entry for the text “Forks Over Knives.”
  4. Explore the Student Research Page of the district website and begin looking for information/evidence that will help you answer your inquiry question. If you find something, read it and save the link so you can go back to it another time.

*There should be absolutely no game-playing or wandering around the lab today. Focus in on your question and begin the investigation!

 
 

 

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Forks Over Knives II

Posted on April 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

As we continue Forks Over Knives , you will consider the filmmaker’s use of appeals. An appeal is a device used in nonfiction to persuade the audience to feel and react in a specific way. There are three different types of appeals.

Logos (appeal to logic): this is when the filmmaker (or writer) uses facts, evidence, statistics, graphs, basically any type of reason to make the audience believe their audience.

Pathos (appeal to emotion): this is when the filmmaker attempts to make the audience feel a certain way, emotionally, in order to make the argument more believable.

Ethos (appeal to character): this is when the filmmaker attempts to present an authoritative or credible self-image to convince the audience of the argument.

Open the document called “Forks Over Knives Appeals” on the G drive and participate in a short discussion about the appeals to prepare for your note-taking.

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Forks Over Knives

Posted on April 23, 2012 | Leave a comment

 

Today we will begin the documentary Forks Over Knives. Each day we watch the documentary, you will be given a specific set of notes to maintain throughout the viewing process. These notes will later serve as a source for your multigenre research project and appear in  your annotated bibliography.

These notes will be created in a Word document, so you will have your computer on during the documentary; however, you are not allowed to have any other documents or Internet sites open during this time. If you are caught with some open, your computer privileges will be revoked for the remainder of the documentary and you will need to maintain handwritten notes.

Our first set of notes will focus on the evidence the documentary produces in support of the argument: eating a primarily plant-based diet can prevent and reverse many health diseases prominent in the United States (cancer, heart disease, diabetes). 

Any type of argument, whether it takes the form of an essay or a documentary cannot simply ask its audience to believe the argument. It must convince the audience. To do so, evidence is used to express that the argument is valid. Forks Over Knives Evidence is the Word doc from the G drive that you will maintain during today’s viewing. When taking notes, please be as specific as possible, you may need this information when creating your multigenre research project.

At the end of class, be sure to save your notes using the Save As tab under File. You will lose your work if you merely click the save disk button.

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Exploring Food Movements

Posted on April 18, 2012 | Leave a comment

Today you will complete The New York Times: The Learning Network’s food communities research project. To do so, we will divide the class into five groups. Each group will be assigned a different food community to research during class today.

Group 1: Slow Food, Fair Trade and Locavore

Resources:

Group 2: Vegetarians and Vegans

Resources:

Group 3: Kosher and Halal

Resources:

Group 4: Community-Supported Agriculture, Urban Agriculture, Co-Ops

Resources:

Group 5: Natural and Organic

Resources:

 [The resources associated with your food community have been compiled by the New York Times Learning Network in "Organic, Slow or Local: Exploring Food-Based Communities and Movements"]

Each group will  maintain a T-Chart in order to keep notes on each of the studied sources. On the left side of your T-Chart record quotes of importance. On the right side of your T-Chart describe in your own words why the quote is important and what it teaches you about the food community.

As a group, you will present your findings to the class tomorrow. To properly inform your audience of your studied food community, you must offer them the following:

  1. Provide the name and definition of the food community you studied.
  2. Provide details about the distinguishing characteristics of the food community.
  3. Recognize both the pros and cons of this type of food community.
  4. State how the studied food community differs from the food community your group generally associates itself with.

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April 17

Posted on April 17, 2012 | Leave a comment
  • Finish the Anticipation Post that we started last Friday for the new unit.
  • Explore these Living Histories Multigenre Research Projects that students made a couple of years ago.
    1. Vietnam Riots
    2. September 11 Disaster
    3. Life in the Great Depression 
  • Answer the following questions to discuss in class tomorrow:
    1. What do you know about research papers? What is the point of research papers?
    2. How are these projects different than what you expected out of research papers?
    3. What types of things did you specifically notice about the type of writing that exists within these projects?

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Posted in Assignment, Course Information, CyberJournal

Something(s) New

Posted on April 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

Happy Monday!

Start class with 20 minutes of independent reading.
(New quarter. New book. New adventure.)

Read and follow directions for our new unit’s Anticipation Post.
(We will use this new Google site for our new unit.)

Have a great day. I look forward to reading about your food identity in the next couple of days. See you Tuesday!

Ms. Johnson

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Short Fiction: CyberJournal Post

Posted on April 11, 2012 | Leave a comment

Create a new cyberjournal post in which your reflect upon your learning during the short fiction unit. This reflection should be published as a post. The category is cyberjournal, sub-category is Creative Short Fiction, title is original. Don’t forget tags.

Things to reflect upon:
(Use paragraphs. Do not respond to the questions directly.)

  1. Collaboration:What was it like creating many aspects of your story in a group? What type of group member were you? What did your participation in the group look like? Looking back, what would you change about your participation and why?
  2. Assignment requirements:Does your short story meet all of the requirements? Did you complete your work prior to all of the deadlines? What are your thoughts on the peer review process? Was it help or not and why? Looking back, what would you change in your peer review letter?
  3. Creation: In class, we studied specific literary aspects of creative short fiction. We read, discussed and analyzed characterization, setting, dialogue, conflict, tone and theme. Select specific passages from your short story that demonstrate your knowledge of these literary devices and your ability to use them in your writing.
  4. Relationship: Discuss the relationship your story has with the stories of your group members. How do the stories, characters or conflicts connect? Was it difficult to connect your writing with the other stories? Why or why not?
  5. Pride: What is your favorite part of your short story? What are you most proud of in your short story?

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Short Fiction: Publication and Reflection

Posted on April 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

Objectives:

  • Students will review and apply elements of high quality blog posts and pages, including title, tag, category, sub-category, hyperlinks, and paragraph format.
  • Students will publish a piece of short fiction and author an introduction that helps readers understand the collaborative nature of the piece.
  • Students will reflect on their study and application of the elements of short fiction in this unit.

What to do:

Part One

  1. Read your piece of short fiction. (This is your last chance to elminate typing errors or content inconsistencies.)
  2. In a Word document, write an introduction to your story that includes the following elements WITHOUT giving away the conclusion of your story:
    1. a brief introduction of yourself as a writer of short fiction
    2. the process through which you developed the plot of the story
    3. your group members’ first names hyperlinked to their blog home pages.
  3. Create a PAGE on your blog called Creative Short Fiction. 
    1. Copy and paste your introduction from Word. Make the entire introduction italic. Check hyperlinks to ensure they are to the correct blog and that they open in a new window.
    2. Centered and in bold type the title of your personal piece of short fiction below the introduction.
    3. Copy and paste your entire story from your google document below the title. The text of the story should be left aligned, in block paragraph format, and in regular font.
    4. Proofread. Preview. Publish.

Part Two

  1. Find the “Short Fiction Self Evaluation” on the G Drive.
  2. Complete the Evaluation

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Short Fiction: Revisit and Revise

Posted on March 9, 2012 | Leave a comment

Objectives:

  • Students will identify and address common errors in fiction.
  • Students will enhance characterization, plot, and setting in an original piece of fiction.
  • Students will prepare a segment of text to be read aloud in class tomorrow.

What to do:

  • Complete your Independent Reading blog post on language and dialogue.
  • Read about the Common Errors in fiction and make improvements to your story.
  • Choose a 1/2 page double spaced portion of your story to read aloud to class tomorrow. Choose it because you would like to improve it or because you want to celebrate it; be prepared to gather feedback from your peers.

 

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