Thursday, March 26, 2015

Homework 3/26/15

Hello, beautiful students, and Happy Thursday!  We're almost to the weekend, and to Camp Mason!

The homework assignment you're completing for Monday is a bibliography for your argumentative essays (the ones for which you just received your topics and information packets).  The bibliography must be in MLA format.  

For some assistance with the process of creating a bibliography in Google Docs using the EasyBib add-on, here is a helpful video... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1bROq7UKL4

And here is a sample bibliography in MLA format, with the important features labeled.

Have an awesome weekend!  Do great things!
Miss Whitman

Monday, March 23, 2015

HOMEWORK UPDATE!

It has come to my attention that the website assigned for homework tonight is not accurate.  The correct website can be found HERE.  Once you get to the website, please go to the menu on the righthand side of the screen titled "Sites to Use for Demonstrating Critical Evaluation," and choose a link from that list to evaluate.  If you need another evaluation sheet, here it is, with the updated website.

Please complete the assignment and spread the word to your classmates that they can find the correct link here on the class website.  I'll send out a Remind message as well.

Sorry for the inconvenience!
Have a great Monday!
Miss Whitman

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Competitive Sports Essays - Rules for Revision


If you're going to be submitting a revision for your competitive sports essay, here are the rules for the process. Have a great day!!! Love, Miss Whitman

Whitman - Writing Workshop
Revising your essays...the lowdown

  1. If you received a grade of less than 65%, you MUST revise.  If you received any other grade, you MAY (and many of you probably SHOULD) revise, but you do not HAVE to.
  2. In order for your paper to receive an improved grade for your revisions, you MUST have a one-on-one conference with Miss Whitman about your paper and your plan for improving it.  This can happen after school or on an organizational day (if you have Advisory B), or in the morning if scheduled in advance.
  3. You must also submit your ORIGINAL, GRADED ASSIGNMENT with your revised version so that I can see the changes that you’ve made.
  4. Revisions must be submitted in HARD COPY (printed out--NOT shared with me on Google)--on or before Wednesday, March 25th.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Carefully Taught - Links and HW

Hi there!

What a great lesson and great conversation we had about prejudice and racism today.  I'm so proud to teach such an insightful and honest group of young people.

Today, we watched a clip from the musical "South Pacific."  We watched as an American soldier sang angrily about prejudice and where it comes from.  The song is full of IRONY, which--not so ironically--was our Word of the Day yesterday!  Here is the link to the clip.

We also watched a more modern interpretation of the same song, but we only watched the first half of that clip.  Here's the whole thing--definitely worth watching!

For homework tonight, you are to rewrite the missing lyrics to the song so that it's no longer ironic, but inspirational.  What do we really, truly, actually need to be "taught" about prejudice?  If you've lost or forgotten the assignment paper, here it is.

I'm looking forward to receiving your responses tomorrow!

Much love and wishes for a great week of PARCC testing!
Miss Whitman

Friday, March 6, 2015

Etymology Extra Credit!

Students,

I've set up a document where you can see who has signed up for an Etymology Extra Credit project and when each person signed up.  Remember, you have 24 hours from when you sign up to submit your assignment (or you get the whole weekend if you sign up on a Friday).

If you are missing a large number of regular credit assignments, you will not be permitted to complete any extra credit work.  There's no sense in doing extra if you haven't done what's required.  Also, if you don't abide by the 24-hour-submission rule, you'll have to wait a little while before I'll allow you to sign up for a new word.

Here's the link to the sheet.  Let me know if you have questions!
Miss Whitman


Monday, March 2, 2015

Upcoming Due Dates

Hi all!  Happy Monday!

A couple of important announcements relating to current assignments...

1. The third SRC of the marking period is due THIS FRIDAY, 3/6/15.  Please be sure to turn it in on or before that date to be eligible for full credit.  Remember, early submissions receive extra points!

2. Your competitive sports argumentative essays are due THIS FRIDAY, 3/6/15.  They should be typed and will be graded using the argumentative writing checklist here, which students have had ample time to review and utilize.  If you can truly answer YES to all of the questions on the checklist, there's no reason you shouldn't get an excellent score on your essay.  At this point, students should have five paragraphs composed, and they should be ready to type them up in the library on Wednesday of this week.

3. We'll be beginning to type your Civil Rights Movement essays this week, but a due date for them is still to be determined.  I expect that they will be due AFTER the PARCC testing is complete, but stay tuned for further updates.

4. For anyone who is behind on their chapter reflections for our class read, they can be found below through Chapter Nine.  Please submit them ASAP if you have not already.



Have a wonderful Monday, and see you all tomorrow!
Miss Whitman