We had a good and productive class this week. This is a hard-working group of students!
We've been working hard on ACT/SAT writing test questions, so we took a break for something more light-hearted. For our Quick Write this week, we used cards from a game entitled "Man Bites Dog." Each student got 6 cards; a noun, adjective, adverb, or verb was on each card. They object of the game is to develop a headline using those words. For our writing exercise, they not only created headlines, but wrote a news story to go with it. Once again, we had some creative endeavors. I love those first minutes of class when their heads are bent down towards their papers, and their pens or pencils are working quickly.
We discussed how the students are progressing on their research papers. I think it's helpful to do this as a group. Many times one student asks a question that others are wondering about, too. Most of them are needing to do more research and increase the quantity of material which they are presenting in their papers. As I read through the rough drafts last week, I gave some ideas for expansion of their topic.
Re-organizing is also a common task at this point. Thanks to computers and word processing software, editing and reformatting does not mean having to re-type the entire paper. Many parents remember the days of typewriters, carbon paper, and "white out." Do you think we can convince our children that they have it so much easier?
As a class we brainstormed a bit about what the presentation portion of their work could look like. Some topics may lend themselves more easily to this than others. Their presentation needs to have two components: an oral presentation and a visual aspect. For the oral presentation, we discussed that they can either give the primary points of their paper or choose one section that is representative of the whole. For the visual part, they can bring in charts, maps, poster, pictures, etc. They can also put together a PowerPoint presentation.
We also looked at some examples of MLA formating. On the newest version of Microsoft Word, the reference dropdown menu gives you boxes to fill in and then formats it according to the MLA styling for you. (Again, kids these days have it so much easier than we had it.) If you're working with another word processing software, a handbook will give the exact formatting. Another help is the Son of Citation website. Web pages can be confusing to cite; this site is especially helpful for that. Some college professors like this website and encourage their students to use it. Others consider it "cheating." Since my goal is to have students learn this format, they can use it .... but there may be a test to see if they really know it!
Next week we'll discuss some specifics regarding writing styles and editing paragraphs and sentences.
Assignments for next week:
-- Presentation plan --- something to hand in!
-- Continue working on the rough draft
Keep up the good work!
Mrs. Prichard
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