Thursday, January 30, 2014

Announcements and Reminders:  Your January Book Assignment are due today -- at the BEGINNING of class. Our next book genre is nonfiction:  biography, autobiography, literary nonfiction. Nonfiction Books Mrs. Jones Recommended http://cavemanenglish.pbworks.com/Nonfiction. See more recommendations and information below. Next week we will take the paragraph post-test.  It will count on your grade, so do your best.

Today’s Agenda: 1. Individual Reading:  Your Choice 2.  In class:  Receive handouts for computer lab work                     Complete RAFTS for Sample Writing Prompt for SAGE Test 2.  Computer Lab 211       a. View and fill out a chart for books your classmates shared that you would like to read.              Sign into Edmodo.  View the projects your classmates posted there for the January Book of the Month.              The document asks you to record the name of the student who posted about the book,  the title of the book, what the historical setting is for the book (and or real people from history who show up in the book),  your response of whether you have already read it or how much you think you would like to read it. Sample of how to fill out the chart: How much I want to read it myself: This project is by It is about this book (book title) It is about this part of history I’ve read it Lots! Pretty much Maybe Ms. Dorsey Ghost Hawk Plymouth pilgrims and native peoples x                          b.  More test practice for the SAGE test.                   This time you will be learning about and practicing the writing portion of the test.  http://sageportal.org/training-tests/                   https://utpt.tds.airast.org/Student/Pages/TestShellModern.aspx 3.  Exit slip: What do you still need to learn so you can do well on the test?

If you were absent:  See above. Viewing chart:   Do this at home or during cave time.  Download and print the document or pick up a copy from the handouts folders in the classroom. January BA Viewing.doc Test practice instructions:  Do this at home or during cave time.  Download and print the document or pick up a copy from the handouts folders in the classroom. Practicing 2 with Practice Tests.doc

Qualities of some types of nonfiction:

Report of Information
It focuses on a specific subject, or controlling idea.
It supports the controlling idea with plenty of facts.
It organizes facts in a way that helps the audience learn about the subject.
It uses examples, explanations, and descriptions to clarify ideas that may be new to the audience.

Autobiography
The main character is the writer of the book.
It recounts key incidents in the writer's life.
It describes major influences (people, events, places) on the writer.
It describes interactions between the writer and significant people in his or her life.
It reveals the writer's feelings, reactions, values, and goals.

Biography
It tells about a real person.
It shows that the writer knows a lot about this person.
It describes the person's environment.
It provides anecdotes or details that show the person in action.
It shows how the person affects other people.
It states or implies how the writer feels about the person.

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Some Possible Titles:

Chew on This by Charles Wilson and Eric Schlosser (YA version of Fast Food Nation)

Knots in My Yo-Yo String -- autobiography of Jerry Spinelli  (great fun!)

Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Hoose, Phillip M.  133 pages.With Their Eyes: September 11th--The View from a High School at Ground Zero  by Annie Thomas (editor)  

Black Potatoes: The Story of the Great Irish  Famine, 1845-1850 by Susan Campbell Baroletti 

 An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793 (Newbery Honor Book) by Jim Murphy  S
Shutting Out the Sky: Life in the Tenements of New York, 1880 - 1824 by Deborah Hopkinson Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman 

The Boys' War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War by Jim Murphy 

Now Is Your Time!  The African-American Struggle for Freedom by Walter Dean Myers 

Guinea Pig Scientists by Dendy and Boring  

Survive the Savage Sea by Robertson  

Left for Dead (the story of the U.S.S. Indianapolis)   

Homesick by Jean Fritz  

Brian's Song  by Blinn  (a screenplay about Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo)  
Marshfield Dreams: When I Was a Kid by Ralph Fletcher   Try it out at Google Books.

See more information and recommendations at http://cavemanenglish.pbworks.com/Nonfiction.

originally published January 22, 2014