The End of the Year...

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This is it, everyone! Your last blog post of the YEAR! As excited as we all probably are about that, I'd like for you to think seriously about the questions below and give some good, thoughtful answers.

You can do this any way you like- write it, videotape yourself or make a podcast answering the questions.

Reflection:

What were some of your goals at the beginning of this school year, both for school as well as for your personal life?


How many of these goals do you think that you have met? Can you please explain your answers?


For the goals that you've met, what helped you to meet those goals? Were there any people who helped you meet them, as well?


For the goals that you did not meet, what stopped you from meeting those goals?


What will be some of your goals for next year, both for school as well as for your personal life?


What have you learned about yourself this year, both as a student and as a person?


Do you think your English has improved this year? Why has it or hasn't it?

Have a fantastic summer, everyone, and I will see you next year!

Final Task: Analysis!

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OK, everyone, THIS IS IT! This is your final task for our Unit of Inquiry projects, the Analysis part. This task MUST cover Criterion C and should cover Criterion D, as well.

This part of your project will be a three-paragraph writing assignment. Each paragraph must have one topic sentence and at least three supporting details. You will have the whole period to finish this post, and all posts must be finished by the end of the period in order to be scored on time.

Blog Post Title: Final Task: Analysis
Blog Post Labels: ESL, UOI, Analysis, Criterion C, (and Criterion D, if you are meeting it), Topic

Your three-paragraphs must include:

1.) A description of the Unit of Inquiry that includes the topic that you chose, as well as your essential question. Then explain why you chose the topic and essential question.

2.) A paragraph that describes the three levels of Bloom's Taxonomy that we covered (Knowledge, Comprehension, Application), and the tasks that you did for each level, including a link to each blog post on which you posted the tasks.

3.) An ending paragraph that gives your essential question, as well as answers the essential question. This will be the most important paragraph of this assignment!

Remember: Focus on writing good topic sentences and supporting details!

Practicing Topic Sentences and Supporting Details

We are going to be writing reflections on projects for the Analysis section of our unit, which will be scored according to content (WHAT you say), as well as HOW it is said. That means that you will be required to have correct topic sentences and supporting details in your paragraphs. Today, we are going to start a review of these writing skills. Here is a short form about topic sentences and supporting details that I would like you to complete, so I will know where we need to focus our attention for the review next class.

Good luck, and read everything CAREFULLY!

It's Interview Time!

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Next week, in an effort to help every student achieve a score for Criterion A,  as well as to get some important information about your project, I will be interviewing you. Sounds like fun, right?

You will receive the interview questions a day or two in advance and have some time to prepare your answers. However, you cannot read anything during the interview, you must SPEAK only. Also, I may ask you other questions if I feel that you are not giving enough information in your answers, so be prepared to answer them.

The interviews will be recorded and posted on both your blog, as well as mine.

Below is a list of ten questions. You will choose THREE questions to answer and let me know what they are. Then, you will write a blog post explaining your choice.

Questions to choose from:

1.) If you could choose your topic again, would you choose the same one, or a different one? Explain why.

2.) If you could re-do any part of your project so far, what would you change and why?

3.)  Can you describe some things that you did well, and some things that you could have done better during the project?

4.) Can you describe some problems that you had when completing your tasks for this project? What did you do to try to solve them?

5.) Was this topic easier or harder than you expected it to be when you chose it? Explain why.

6.) What challenges or difficulties did you face during the Knowledge, Comprehension and Application parts of the unit? (This needs three separate answers for each part)

7.) How well did you work on your own, meeting deadlines and getting your work done independently? Explain why you did well,  or why you needed to improve.

8.) What have to you learned about yourself as a learner, and about the WAY that you learn through this unit?

9.) Do you think that you have successfully shown your learning through the tasks that you've completed during this unit so far? Explain your answer.

10.) If you were to give a lesson to other students about the best way to learn and to show learning, what would you tell them? Be specific and give details.

Your Blog Post:

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Title: UOI Interview With Mrs. Raisdana
Labels: ESL, UOI, Interview, Criterion A

Post:

In this post, you will:

* Describe the three questions that you chose for the interview.
* You will then EXPLAIN why you chose EACH of those three questions (so there should be three   explanations in this part)
* Describe what you will do to prepare your answers, STEP BY STEP.
*  Predict how you think you will do when giving your interview, and why.

This post should be about two short paragraphs long, and should have good explanations and details for every part.

PLEASE ASK ME if you have any questions at all about this interview.

Your Interview:

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Once you have recorded our interview, put it into iMovie and share it to iTunes. UPLOAD IT  into your blog post, under the heading "My Interview:" 

Under your interview video, please write a reflection that answers the following questions:

1.) How much did you prepare for your interview?

2.) What did you do to prepare for your interview?

3.) How do you think you did during the interview? First talk about what you think you did well, and then say at least one thing that you could have done differently.

This reflection should answer these questions in a PARAGRAPH. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Procrastinate? Us? Never!

Procrastinate:(verb) To put off doing something until later.

As in: Even though my homework was due this morning, I procrastinated and did not start it until 9:00 last night.

The noun form of this word? Procrastination.

Procrastination is a BIT of a problem for many middle school students (and some teachers!). There are many ways that people can procrastinate: by watching just ONE MORE show on television, by suddenly becoming VERY hungry and needing to eat something right now, by telling yourself that you will spend just 10 more minutes on the internet (which will usually turn into 45-60 more minutes!), etc...

Here is a visual example of the many, many ways that people can procrastinate:

The Procrastination Flow Chart!

Does this look familiar to any of you? If it does, then good for you for being aware and honest enough to admit it!

So, why am I showing this to you and talking about procrastination? What does this have to do with our Unit of Inquiry? Well, I am glad that you asked that question!

I just want you to be aware of the meaning and idea of procrastination, so that you will be able to recognize it when (or should I say "if"?) you do it. This unit will require you to do a lot of work, activities and learning on your own, so if you are someone who like to procrastinate, then you may need to sit down with yourself (or with me, if you like) and try to come up with ways that you will be able to meet your deadlines.

Oh, and do that soon- don't procrastinate!

Unit Of Inquiry Topic- Some Questions To Ask Yourself

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I hope that you are all starting to think about some topics that interest you for our Unit of Inquiry. We will not actually be choosing topics until next week, but here are some questions that I want you to ask yourselves when you are brainstorming ideas:

Question #1:  Will this hold my attention and interest for 8-10 weeks?

Please remember that this topic will be the basis for all of your work and research until the end of the term, and you will be doing much of the research and work on your own. Therefore, it is very important that you choose a topic that really interests you, and that you will keep wanting to learn more about If you think that you are only "kind of" interested in your topic, you may want to continue brainstorming!

Question #2:  Is my topic something that will require me to do a lot of work outside of class/school? If it is, am I organized enough to handle that?

Please be honest with yourself about this, as it is very important to your project. If you want to learn about different ways to make pizza, you will not be able to make pizza during class time.  You would be able to do the research and gather ideas during class, but much of your practice and learning would take place at home. If you are not a student who usually handles doing things on your own and meeting deadlines, you may want to choose another topic that will be more manageable during school hours.

Question #3:  Is this something that I will be able to learn in 8-10 weeks?

This is HUGELY important when you are choosing your topic! If you decide that you want to learn everything there is to know about the history of Indonesia, or how to play your favorite song on the guitar (and before starting the unit, you have NO IDEA how to play the guitar), this will most likely not be done in the short amount of time that we have, at least not without spending a lot of time outside of class on it.  Now, 8-10 weeks may seem like a looooooong time to a student, but considering that classes only meet 3 times a week for one hour, it is actually not much time.  Please keep this in mind.

Question #4:  Do you have what you will need in order to learn about your topic?

 I don't think that I need to tell you that if you decide that you want to learn how to play a basic song on the piano, but you don't HAVE a piano, or know anyone who has a piano that you can use, this may not be the best topic for you. Please make sure that you have REGULAR access to the things that you will need in order to complete your unit project.

Question #5: Is this topic something that I will be able to understand?

 I may decide that I am very interested in learning about Quantum Physics, but unless I have a strong science background and know a lot of scientific vocabulary, this would probably be extremely difficult for me to do. You will want to make sure that you have the following things in order to be able to successfully learn about your topic: the language skills to understand it, some background knowledge (if necessary), and the skills to be able to learn it.

                                  Good luck and have fun! 

Welcome To Our Unit Of Inquiry!

Welcome back, everyone! I hope that you all had restful holidays, and that you are all refreshed and ready for our FINAL UNIT OF THE YEAR! I know that we are all excited to start this one...right?

Well, our next (and final) unit is going to be different than the other units that we've done this year. In this unit, YOU will decide what you are going to learn about! Yes, that's right- YOU! Are you excited yet?

The question that we are going to work on during this unit is: How do I express my learning?

UOI

Before we get started, though, here is a survey that I want all of you to take:

Take your time answering these questions, and many of your answers will help to guide you through the unit.

Good luck and have fun!

Teach Us About Sentences!

Want to know what to do for your final project about sentence structure? Watch this and find out:

                                
 Post your final project on your blog with the same title and labels as this post.
                             
                                            Work hard, good luck, and have fun!

Final Project- What I've Learned About Grammar

OK, guys, it is time to show me what you've learned! To do this portion of the final project, you will need to go back to the writing sample that you all did at the start of the unit. You will then edit it, film the editing process, and explain the changes that you made and why.

In order to complete this project, you will need to do the following things:

1.) Look at your original writing sample and take a screen shot (apple + shift + 4) of it.

2.) COPY AND PASTE your writing into a new document ( DO NOT edit your writing in your blog post!) and edit it for the following things:

* Sentence Structure = Make sure all sentences have a subject, predicate, and complete thought. Fix   any sentence fragments and run-on sentences.

* Parts of speech = Make sure that all verb tenses are correct, that all subjects and verbs agree, and edit or add adjectives and adverbs to make your writing more interesting.

   *Important: You MUST make at least 10 changes to your writing!*

ALSO: As you make each change, you will use Sequence to record yourself making your changes. You can choose to do this with or without sound, as it can often be difficult to type and talk at the same time.

3.) Take a screen shot of your new, edited piece.

4.) Import your Sequence movie clips into iMovie and start a new project called "Editing For Grammar".

              Include:  An introduction scene
                             Your completed movie of editing your writing piece
                              An ending scene
* Important: If you did not record yourself talking to explain your changes in your Sequence movie, you MUST now record yourself on iMovie explaining your changes as you watch it. You must explain the changes you made, as well as WHY you made them.*

5.) Create a new blog post called, "What I've Learned About Grammar". Your post MUST include the following three things:

          1.) The screen shot of your original writing piece in your blog post.
          2.) The screen shot of your new, edited writing piece.
          3.) The iMovie that you made showing you editing your writing.

                                                          For a visual of this, look below:


Here is my original writing piece:

Here is my edited writing sample:

Here is my iMovie explaining my editing process:

Good luck, and PLEASE come and see me for help if you get stuck or are unsure of what to do.

New Unit Plan- Grammar: The Basics!

Grammar OverView

Grade 7- Adding Vocabulary To Your Storybird

Boy Overboard Vocab.


We have been working on the program Storybird to create a storyboard. You will use this storyboard to write an original story. Then, you will record yourself reading this story, using the storytelling elements that we talked about in class.

This part of the assignment mixes the Language B class with the Language A class. In your grade 7 Langauge A class, you are reading the book "Boy Overboard". Above is a visual list of the new vocabulary that you have studied during the unit (well, except for the word "suppose"- it is VERY hard to find a picture of that!). The Grade 7 Language B classes put together this visual table to help students understand the words better.

I would like you to look over the vocabulary list and choose 7 words that you think you will be able to include in your story. Once you have chosen the 7 words, go back into your storyboard and put them in.

Please make sure that you are using the words correctly and appropriately. You may need to change your story a little bit in order for some of the words to make sense.

Again, please look at my Storybird story as an example. To my story, I have added the following vocabulary words:

Dazzle, Mutter, Realize, Argue, Inherit, Suppose, and Scramble

The Magic Flowers by mrsraisdana on Storybird


Good luck and be creative!

Grade 8- Documentary Blurb Project

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We have discussed what a blurb is- it is a short summary that gives important information about a book, movie, story, etc. When we are talking about books and movies, the blurb is usually found on the back, or on a website that provides the book or movie.

In your Language A class, your task is to make a documentary about an environmental issue, and using emotive language to try and make the audience feel the same way about the issue that you do. Remember, emotive language is a type of language that makes people feel emotions!

In our ESL class, we are going to be creating a blurb for your documentary that uses emotive language. In order to start this assignment, you must complete the following tasks:

1.)  Go to the shared class Google Doc and fill in the necessary information about your documentary. Please pay special attention to the part where it asks who your audience is, what emotions you want them to feel, and what kind of language you will use to make them feel that way. I have provided the model that we did in class on the Google Doc, as well.

2.) Create your own Google Doc and share it with me (no need to share it with others in the class). Copy and paste the checklist from the class Google Doc, as well as the part that asks you to talk about what you will write in the introduction, body and conclusion.

3.) Start to fill in the information on the checklist and about the introduction, body and conclusion.

When we have finished these tasks, we will be ready to begin writing and editing our documentary blurb!