9.1. Analyzing a Paragraph Using SEETH RI5.

While the hurricane caused me to do this a little less formally than I would have liked, I did want to give everybody the mastery list for this week's skill, which is to look at a paragraph and identify the job that each sentence is doing in it. So, I wrote up a mastery list for it and will design a quizlet set, in case you need to review it (or just feel like a nice game of Space Race).

Here's the mastery list.

RI2./RHST2. Mathematics-Language Arts Interdisciplinary Reading

So . . .
As you have probably noticed, we're trying hard to incorporate reading and writing exercises into all of our classes. Well, we've always done that, but we are trying to communicate and use technology to make those reading and writing experiences more rewarding and useful to the students.
Click here to get to the reading about the benefits of studying math.

2.1. Values, Rules, and Crime - Introductory Discussion

Here's the document for you to copy and have your discussion. Share it with your group members, me, and Mr. Sabol.
The Questions

1. What makes a good rule or law? How can you distinguish a good law from a bad one?

2. What is a “value”? What do we mean when we say a “person’s values”?

3. How does a person get their values? Where do values come from?

4. If someone has very different values from us, are we allowed to call them “wrong”? When are we allowed to? When are we not?

5. Should you be able to break a rule or law if you think that the rule or law is unfair or unjust? Is that morally okay?

6. Should the state be able to execute people? Is the death penalty okay?

7. Should parents be allowed to strike their children if it’s part of their disciplining style?

8. Are there times when it is okay to lie?

W1. Keyboarding-Language Arts Writing Prompt

Good morning, this post applies to my period 2/3b and 6b/7 students, both of whom have keyboarding right now. This week's essay, as I mentioned to you, will be conducted in your keyboarding class. I wanted to make sure that you had ammunition for your own ideas, so I've prepared a link to a reading that you can go over first to help you out. Click here to read "Benefits of Music Education," an article from Music Education Online.

Once you are in Keyboarding class, you will have the entire period to compose your response. Remember that this is a graded exercise for me, so if you need any writing checks for my gradebook, this is a good way to get them. I have given Mr. Carmona the writing prompt and lined paper.

I appreciate both your taking the time to do this for me, and Mr. Carmona taking the time to administer it. I want to construct situations where you write when I am not around, so you can make sure that you can do all of these tricks that we learn in lots of different contexts and classes.

W1. Foreign Language-Language Arts Interdisciplinary Writing Prompt

Good morning. This week's essay will be conducted in your Foreign Language class. I wanted to make sure that you had ammunition for your own ideas, so I've prepared a link to a reading that you can go over first to help you out. Make sure to click the link with the appropriate prompt for you, depending on what language you are studying.

I appreciate both your taking the time to do this for me, and Mr. Leister taking the time to administer it. I want to construct situations where you write when I am not around, so you can make sure that you can do all of these tricks that we learn in lots of different contexts and classes.

Once you are in Foreign Language class, you will have the entire period to compose your response. Remember that this is a graded exercise for me, so if you need any writing checks for my gradebook, this is a good way to get them.  Remember, you can't type on the original, so click "File," then "Make a Copy," so you can have your own personal copy. Do not share your file with anyone this time.

Latin Students
We wanted to give help with this, so here's Click here to read "The New Case for Latin," an article from Time magazine.
Here's the file with the prompt.
Again, do it in Google Drive, just like in Language Arts.
German/Italian Students
If you need help coming up with arguments, click here.
Here's the file with the prompt.
Again, if your class uses Google Drive, do it in Google Drive. If not, do it in Word.

Dollar Words #2: Cerulean

Our second Dollar Word is a little out of place in the curriculum, but one of my classes is writing about Latin in their weekly essay, so, if they're sharp (and notice this), they can find an argument for their essay. For everybody else, it's still a great word to know for writing.

cerulean - sky blue.

Usage Notes - "Cerulean" is a great word to use in your writing to help establish mood. It specifically refers to the blue of a sky-blue sky, and has connotations of peace and happiness. It helps a smart writer to establish a calm, pleasant mood in a sensory detail, either in an essay (to be convincing) or in a story (to indicate a happy point in the story). Cerulean is an adjective, which means that you should use it to modify an noun (the sky, blue eyes, the color of a dress)

Examples:

Suddenly, after days of rain, the clouds parted and a cerulean sky revealed itself - we could play the championship game after all.

I can close my eyes and visualize it now - the healthy, svelte youngsters playing under cerulean skies.

For such a gruff, irascible person, my football coach certainly drove an incongruous car - a cerulean two-seat convertible. (Here we're using it to create a contrast, "incongruous" means "not matching, unexpected, clashing")


Etymology:
"Cerulean" is derived directly from the Latin word for "sky" and "blue. It's been an English word for about 500 years.

RL2. Raymond's Run

This is the reading that you want to do if you decide to try and get the Five Fingers check, either at expert or proficient. It's a story, one I really like, by Toni Cade Bambara called "Raymond's Run," we'll be reading another by her later in the year, but I like this one best. I highly recommend it. (Click on the title of the story; the other link is just background information, IYI).

8.1. W1.b./W2.b. Creating Specific Proving Examples

This week's skill follows from last week's, where we were going over the three things that a logical paragraph usually does - states a main idea, explains why the idea is true, and give specific examples to show how the idea works. This last part is by far the hardest for writers, so we should spend more time working on it specifically. I have three kinds of examples to share that hopefully will allow you to create specific example more effectively and easily. Here's the mastery list for the week.

Let's learn this stuff at the knowledge/comprehension level - check quizlet.com for a flashcard set.

Dollar Words #1. Optimal

We started writing our logical essays this week - they went really well, I thought, the best first set of essays I've ever had. I introduced our scoring system yesterday, and taught it to everybody. So, we want to start maximizing our scores on this kinds of essays. One way to do that is to use sophisticated vocabulary to pick up the $1 reward for each Tier 2 word (that's the teacher-y term I use for "big words that all educated people know").

The first in this series, which I am calling "Dollar Words" is one that my students are already familiar with - "optimal." I use my favorite source for these definitions, which is the Dictionary that comes with the Apple OS - it's the most thorough and readable set of definitions I have seen on a computer - online or not.

So,

optimal - best or most favorable.

Usage Notes - "Optimal" should be used to describe solutions to problems or situations - the optimal choice, optional conditions, the optimal candidate - they all have to do with making choices, solving problems, or dealing with situations.

Examples:

The optimal decision here is to hire an extra person for the Christmas rush.
I don't know if the conditions are optimal right for camping - it looks like it might pour later.
The optimal choice here is to have four four-week vacations instead of one longer summer vacation.

Examples of Possible Misuse:
I chose the optimal French fries at lunch. ("Optimal" is off-key when used to mean "best" for specific things, you could say "I thought that the French fries were the optimal choice, because the baked beans looked gross."
My friend Martha is optimal. (Same reason - "optimal" might describe the best friend to help with a problem, but not the friend in general.)

Etymology:
"Optimal" is derived from the Latin word optimus, which means "best." It's actually a relatively young English word; it's only existed for a little more than a hundred years. In your regular life, you have probably seen Optimum Online (they want you to think that they're the best internet provider) and maybe seen a TV show or movie with the tractor-trailer/robot Optimus Prime (he's the best one on the show, the leader of the good guys).

Language Arts-Social Studies Activity

This week's current event is taking a quick break from the Presidential campaign to talk about a news story that we thought might be interesting to our middle schoolers.

We're going to write less this week that normally for a current event - instead of the Chain of Main Ideas, we're going to write two central ideas, aka WHO+WHAT+WHY sentences. If you don't know how to write one, there are directions to help you below.

1. Read the informational article here and write a WHO+WHAT+WHY sentence that expresses the central idea of the article.

2. Read this second nonfiction piece on the same topic - how is it different from the first one? How is the author's purpose different? How does that affect what's is in the article? Write a WHO+WHAT+WHY sentence for this one, too.

When you are done, you will have read two articles and have written two (longish) sentences.

Things to Think about/That We May Discuss
Think about these issues - you DON'T need to write or type answers to them.

- You know the difference between facts and opinions. Notice that one of these pieces contains the author's opinions and one does not. Why do you think that is?

- Notice that when writing the directions, I used two different terms to name the readings - one is called an "article" and one is not. What accounts for this?

- This article is about France - so what does it have to do with us? Why care about topics that are concerned with French schoolchildren? Why care?

- Notice that the second article adds something as a "Bonus" meaning that the author didn't think that she wanted to simply make it another paragraph. Why do you feel that she labeled this part "Bonus"?

Lather and Nothing Else

Here's the story for tonight . . . I think this is a good one.

If you aren't an expert at the Five Fingers, then write a Five Finger paragraph summary. If you have your expert point, write a Central Idea statement. This is due by midnight tonight.

W1.b. Writing SEE Body Paragraphs Application

Today, we're going to take the body of knowledge that we reviewed yesterday and apply it to the introductions that we wrote - choose three of the introductions that you wrote last week and for each of them, write TWO body paragraphs (not three, we're only going to finish the body of our essays later in the week. If you need help, watch the video embedded in yesterday's lesson.

2.1.1. Short Story "Gentleman of Rio en Medio"

Tonight's short story, "Gentleman of Rio en Medio," celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month and is the first new reading (The Giver will continue to be a core text for our discussion and thinking) in Unit 2: Values, Rules, Crime, the focus of our thematic discussions for the next six weeks.

After you have read the text, make sure to write a Five Finger summary of it. If you need review for this technique, search Five Fingers in the search box above, or check your own Google Drive for your own completed work.

Submit your work to me through Google Drive; it's due by midnight (not that I think that you should wait until 11:30 to get it done).

Giver Big Discussion 2: The Follow-up

Okay, I think that there was a lot of really good thinking in the first Discussion page, so let's go again with a bunch of new, very difficult questions.

I have emailed you an invitation to the document, so check your gmail account for the link - I tried to put one here, but it wouldn't let students type.


I think some ground rules emerged from you guys, this is what they seem to be:

1. Don't use the document to be annoying. One of the risks of democracy is that fools get votes, too. The way to remedy that is to educate fools. Please act like a person who deserves to be heard.

2. If you want to use color to mark off your posts, you may. Remember, though, that the interesting part of this document isn't who said it, but what was said. However, don't change the font - some of these are tough to read. Change the color and leave the font.

3. I don't need people to repeat things that were already said, so look at what was written. An agreement statement with more reasoning or proof is more valuable than repeated a answer, even if it's an insightful one. Don't be afraid to disagree respectfully; people fear of disagreement is what makes conversation so boring in real life.

4. Take chances - don't hesitate to write down something that you aren't sure is right. The people who aren't afraid to express themselves, aren't fearful about being labeled "dumb" or "a nerd," are the people who end up having the best time at school and at their job.

RI2./RSHT2. Science/Language Arts Article

Learning about science is more and more crucial to understand what's going on around you. I am continually amazed at how often I am reading the news and something comes up that would be really confusing to me without the science classes that I took as a student.

So, the science department and I thought it a good idea to plan some joint readings to show the important connections between our disciplines. This particular article, about a proposed rebuild of a bridge right over the New Jersey border in southern New York state, requires a basic knowledge of how sound waves travel in order to understand fully. Click on the link to read the article, and then practice the "chain of main ideas" technique in order to create a summary. Think about what you have learned in science about sound waves in order to understand the seriousness of the problem of protecting the fish underwater from the construction noise.

Important Note: Since this is a news article, and so keeps its paragraphs extremely short, which makes our "Chain of Main Ideas" too much work. So, you should simply group the sentences together and remake full paragraphs by summarizing once every five sentences or so. Never be afraid to alter your tools when your intelligence suggests this.

6.2. Giver Big Discussion RL8.

This week in Periods 1 and 2, we're having a big literary discussion about The Giver. Notice that they are a few levels at which you can talk about books and stories:

1. The NON-READER level - This level of talking about reading a book isn't even about the book - it deals with the sort of things, like, "This book was too hard/too easy to read," or "It's so long." This kind of talk about books is about the reader. I find it useful to listen to, but I never do it myself.

 2. The BOOK CLUB level - This level of talking is very natural and normal - it involves talking about the characters as though they were real people and what is happening is really going on. This is normal in a story, it's called "suspension of disbelief," meaning that a person will agree to act as though something is really going on, even if the know, deep down, that it isn't. Saying things like, "I was so mad when character X did this," or "I really wanted her to marry Jesse" are talking about books on the STORY level. This is a perfectly healthy way to use books as entertainment. People all over the world join real or virtual book clubs and talk about stories together this way, and English class up through the middle also often operates on this level.

 3. The LITERATURE level - While the BOOK CLUB level is always important, since understanding the story is a basic requirement, the LITERATURE level is the next deeper level that a person can talk about a book. At this level, it is less desirable to talk about the characters or plot as actually happening, because the LITERATURE level tries to read the book as something written by a person. It's much more concerned with artistic technique than the other one.

 To tell the difference between levels 2 and 3, I often think of a magic show. The BOOK CLUB level is the same as sitting in the audience at a magic show, watching all the tricks, and thinking about whether you enjoy them or not. The LITERATURE level is much more like standing behind the magic and watching how the tricks are done, in order to understand how the thing works. Both ways are fine ways to think about books, it's my job as your eighth grade teacher to try and start to show that level beneath, and to think about a books as something made by a person.

 I should mention that a lot of people might naturally assume that the BOOK CLUB level is more entertaining that the LITERATURE level - that that's the main difference. I totally disagree with that. I feel that trying to get a deep understanding of how something works in just as entertaining as using the thing itself. I enjoy using my coffee making to make coffee, but I also enjoy opening it up to see how it heats up and releases the water, and what happens if I run it without any coffee in it. Trying to figure out how things work, to me, is just another fun way to use them. Giver Big Discussion

6.1. RHST2./RHST6. Week of Respect Readings

We found all these readings for our assignments on this website, Teens Against Bullying, which has a good deal of other interesting information on it and looks pretty, too.

Tuesday (RHST2.)
"A Boy the Bullies Love to Beat Up, Repeatedly" This is a news article from The New York Times, which is considered by many to be the most important daily newspaper in America (even the world).

For this reading, we can practice the "Chain of Main Ideas" summary (click the link if you need directions) - remember that the main idea of each paragraph is the (WHO+WHAT) - "Who is the person or group that we're talking about and what is happening to them/with text?"

Wednesday (RHST1.)
"The Bully and the Bystander" This reading is from a website that is designed to teach parents, kids, and teachers important information.

For this reading, we are going to practice learning to read "textbook text." We're learning outlining in Social Studies, which is the best/easiest way to learn what you need from this kind of text, so make an outline of the argument.

Thursday (RHST2.)
"Telling Bullies to Think Pink" This is a more personal essay written by a news reporter - which is different from saying that it's news.

For this reading, we'll write a single sentence that determines the central idea (WHO+WHAT+WHY).

5.4. Should Schools Go Paperless?

What Are Learning About Today?

• We are reading a pair of short thesis-driven essays and practicing writing Text Citation Sentences. RI1.
• We are also reviewing both our RAFTS technique for analyzing a writing prompt to determine the role, audience, format, topic question, and size AND our ability to construct a prewrite.

What Do We Need to Know to Make Our Work Easier

1. Read over the directions for how to write a text citation sentence. Make sure to do it well, I don't give points for effort -- you're developing, proficient, or expert.
For Writing the Text Citation Sentence (Check 1)
2. Any statement that attempts to analyze a text can be designated as "explicitly stated" in the text, "should be concluded" by inferences in the text, "should not be concluded," by a lack of evidence in the text, and "explicitly contradicted" by evidence in the text.
3. The formula for a text citation sentence is, [CLAIM] + "explicitly stated/should be concluded/should not be concluded/explicitly contradicted" [QUOTED/PARAPHRASE EVIDENCE].
For Analyzing the Prompt (Check 2)
4. You should memorize RAFTS -- role, audience, format, topic, size -- these are the things that you have to ascertained when you are given a writing prompt.
5. This is a thinking exercise, so it doesn't matter how it appears on the page, you just have to get the answers right (don't forget that the T has to be expressed as a question).

The Text

My classroom runs in a different way from most of the ones in our district, which I think it's important that we talk about. Otherwise, people have such strong views about technology, that I thought that we should talk about my reasons and goals. I also want to say that I personally am only going paperless in one respect - photocopies. I would be the last person in the world to give up printed books; I fill my home and classroom with them. I also love notebooks, graph paper, Dixon-Ticonderoga pencils with that green foil, and old-school art supplies - I use them and love them. But, in the spirit of dialogue, I found two people that would argue these two sides for us - see which one you find more convincing.

   "Should Schools Go Paperless" Point/Counterpoint

Practice Exercise 1 - Complete During Class

Statements About This Text
RI1. Write a sentence or two for each statement below that follows the rules laid out in the "How to Write a Text Citation Sentence". Remember that there are two short essays here -- but sure to be clear about which one the statement is referring to.

1. The writer who favors getting rid of paper cares about the environment, but the writer who wants to keep paper doesn't care.
2. The writer of the second essay believes that having children learn to make letters with pencils is important for children's reading skills.
3. The writer of the first essay is advocating a total ban on all paper in schools.
4. The writers of the two essays agree that computers would cost a lot of money.
5. The writer of the first essay is younger than the writer of the second.

5.4. "The Country That Stopped Reading" RI9.

We are talking in this unit about how a society decides what should be learned in school and how it should be taught. I found this op-ed piece ("op-ed piece" is short for opinion or editorial, which is a section of the newspaper where the writer is allowed to express opinions and make arguments, an op-ed is a kind of essay) about how a writer wishes to alter the approach that his homeland takes towards school.

"The Country That Stopped Reading" from The New York Times

For an argument or persuasive essay, remember that when you are thinking about the whether you think the writer is right or not depends of a few things. First, you have to understand his position. Next, you have to understand his supporting reasons. Last, you need to check if those supporting reasons have good enough explanations and sufficient and valid enough evidence.

This is easier than you think if you know how to prewrite for a persuasive essay. When writing a persuasive essay, you think of a plan (the prewrite) and then execute the essay. When reading a persuasive essay, you instead take the finished essay and try and figure out the plan the writer used.

Assignment: Take the author's essay and identify the position, reasons, explanations, and examples that he uses. Copy and paste this organizer below into a document and then fill it in. I have only given room for two supporting reasons, but simply copy and paste the block to make more.

Writer's Position:

         Supporting Reason:
                        
                        Explanation:

                        Evidence:

                  Supporting Reason:

                         

                        Explanation:

                        Evidence:

5.3. Giver Nonfiction Topics: Introduction to the Amish People RI2.

Introduction: In The Giver, Jonas and his community have a very different way of life from what we think of as normal. Since "biography determines perspective," it makes perfect sense to them, but seems bizarre, laughable, interesting, or tragic to us. However, many people in our world choose to adopt or keep different ways of living in order to reinforce values that they hold as important. The idea that a person's behavior is determined by their perspective is one that I think is worth thinking a great deal about.

Today's nonfiction reading relates to The Giver as the previous two did - again we are trying to pick up a seriously meant entertainment like The Giver and see how the themes that Lowry explores DO have parallels with our world. In this way, we can use what we learn by living these alternate lives (the main characters) in our regular lives.

The Text: 

So, here's the Amish introductory reading for today, which explores a social group that has chosen to live in a way very different from what we think of as "normal."


Write a WHO+WHAT+WHY central idea sentence for this reading.

Current Events Article RI2./RHST2.

We're doing another Current Event Article about the 2012 Presidential Election, which the biggest news story in America during October.
However, the article will be easier to understand if we take a quick check of your understanding of American government. Take this short true/false quiz to check what you know about this topic. You get your credit when you get to the end of the quiz and the form asks for your name.


Once you are done with that, here's this week's article, "Struggling Young Adults Are a Question Mark for Campaigns," which deals with an crucial part of the electorate in the coming election.

Complete your "Chain of Main Ideas" summary according to our format. Remember that in some news articles, there are shorter paragraphs, and if you see a paragraph that is just a quotation, it probably is the proving evidence for the previous paragraph. You don't need to write a main idea sentence for that one, since you already did. For Mr. Holder's classes, complete your chain of main ideas in Google Docs. For Mr. Holder's classes and Ms. O'Mara's, after your summary, write a WHO+WHAT+WHY central idea sentence, because you get credit for that in our class.

5.2. Giver Nonfiction Topics: Geoengineering RI2.

Why We Should Read This Thing Right Now: One of the science fiction aspects of The Giver that is getting closer to science fact is the idea of controlling the weather. The vast majority of scientists are warning that the behavior of people on earth is altering the climate. Now, scientists are talking about a topic called "geoengineering," which is the practice ("-ing") of changing the earth ("geo") on purpose through technical means ("engineer"). So, as is happening more and more lately, science fiction is turning into science fact.

What You Need to Know: Remember, this week's skill is "Determining the Central Idea of a Short Reading" - so you only need to write a single sentence about this reading. We'll discuss all this in conversations throughout the next few months, in science and language arts, so I'd like you to have this reading. We've reviewed this twice, so you may already feel comfortable, otherwise click on the link to get a little help.

The Text: Today's article,  How Stuff Works "Cloud Seeding", is a look at one way that people have proposed to fight global warming - not by recycling (which does not do anything for global warming, but people tend to think recycling solves all environmental problems) or reusing stuff (which does help the environment) - but by actually doing something active to change the environment more.

5.2. Giver Nonfiction Topics: Reproduction and the Law RI2.

Objective: To determine the central idea of an informational article.

Things That You Should Know:

1. The WHO in a WHO+WHAT+WHY sentence can be a person (Tom), a group (Earthquake scientists, Americans), or even a thing (like the Titanic). The real world is subject, but WHO is easier to remember.
2. The WHAT is either "What is the main character doing?" or "What is happening TO the main character?"
3. The WHY for a nonfiction article is the answer to the question "Why did the author think that this was important for a smart English speaker like you to know?"
4. If you can't figure out the WHY, reread the end (these go in order).
5. The formula for the main idea of a paragraph is WHO+WHAT (remember from out Chain of Main Ideas). That's why many teachers use "main idea" to mean both "main idea of a paragraph" and "central idea of a reading." They're not wrong, but it can be confusing. I try to keep the two separate, so when I say "central idea," I mean "of the whole thing" and when I say "main idea," I mean of the paragraph.

The Text: Today's nonfiction reading gives us a chance to use the WHO+WHAT+WHY formula. The good news is that the product for this is a single sentence, so simply read the article and write a single sentence. Review the mastery list if you need help with this. Here's the link - Missing Women in Asia Article.

Independent Practice:
First, everyone write a sentence that expresses the central idea of the reading.
Next, determine what group you are in:

•  If you need the Chain of Main Ideas Proficient check, write a summary to try and get it (remember, I can't pass anybody who's not proficient in that by the end of the marking period). If you have the check, read the next bullet.
• If you need the Citing Text Evidence Proficient check, check with me to see if there is a set of seven sentences for this reading. If so, do that as your second exercise. If you have the proficient check, read the next bullet.
• If you have both proficient checks, you may choose to try and get either of the expert level checks. Pick one of the two, citing or Chain of Main Ideas.
• If you have both expert checks, read in your unit novel and take Active Reading Notes.

Assessment:

I'm going to quickly assess your Central Idea sentence, so make sure to show it to me as soon as it is finished.

Any second checks, I'll grade according to our contract. If you want to watch me grade it (that can be really helpful), let me know so that we can make an appointment.