December 19th--Final Night Response

Final Night Reflection Questions

1. How do the people Wiesel interacts with strengthen or diminish his hope and desire to live?  You could consider his father, Madame Schacter, Juliek (the violinist), the French girl, Rabbi Eliahou and his son, the Nazis.

2. Why do you think Wiesel titled the novel, Night

3. As Night begins, Eliezer is so moved by faith that he weeps when he prays. He is also searching for a deeper understanding of the mystical teachings of the Kabbalah. How does Eliezer's relationship with his faith and with God change as the book progresses?

4. At the end of Night, Wiesel writes: "From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me" (p. 115). What parts of Eliezer died during his captivity? What was born in their place?

5. What scenes from Night do you remember most vividly? Have they made you look at the world or your family differently?

Tuesday, Dec 18th--Say something reflection

Week 3 Night Blog-Out (pages 52-90)

Night, Week 2 Blog Out Options

December 6th--Night Say Something Reflection

In-class assignment descriptions for make-up work

Because some of the assignments we competed in class were done on your own paper, there are not handouts that explain the assignments.  Listed below are those assignments given the first half of this second quarter. 

All other assignments have been posted to my lesson's blog.

Remember, any work that you decide to make-up must be turned in by Friday, December 7th.  Please email Mr. Fulton at steve.fulton@kcs.k12.nc.us if you have any further questions.

• FFA Feelings toward Charlie

• FFA PR 11 Study Guide (click here) You may print the study guide or answer questions on your own paper.

• FFA Charlie's Decline Tracking

• Tell Tale Heart Mood and Analyis

• Tell Tale Heart Text Based Response--Complete all questions found after the story that begins on p. 542 of the text book.  This isn't the exact same assignment as what we did in class (it was based around class discussion and group work), but completing this will take the place of that assignment.

Night Blog out Week 1 (chapters 1 and 2)

On your blog, write and publish a post responding to what we have read in Night this week. 

The post can:

• Expand on an idea from your freewriting (or a new idea you have been thinking about)
• or respond to one of the following questions:

-Time and again, the people of Sighet doubt the advance of the German army.  Why? When the Germans do arrive, and even once they have moved all the Jews into ghettos, the Jewish townspeople still seem to ignore or suppress their own fear… “Most people thought…” (page 21)  What might be the reasons for the townspeople’s widespread denial of the evidence in front of them?

-There are a few instances where we learn of Eliezer and his family missing out on opportunities to escape from the Germans (pg. 14, 20).  How do these missed chances influence your reading of this memoir?  How do these unfortunate events fit into your understanding of the Jewish experience of the Holocaust as a whole?

Your post should be thoughtful, text based, proofread carefully, 1/2 to 1 pg.  It needs to be published before Monday.

The Tell Tale Heart Final Project Options

The Tell-Tale Heart Final Project

Directions: Choose one of the following activities and complete this as a culminating project for the The Tell-Tale Heart.  This completed project must be thorough, done in a professional manner, and published to your blog.

Creative Writing

• Imagine that you are one of the police officers who come to investigate the shriek heard in the night.  Describe the situation from your point of view.  Make sure to include a description of the house during your search and the man’s appearance and behavior.  Do you notice anything strange about him? What are your thoughts during the chat before he confesses?  What happens after that? This should be at least one page long and consistent with the facts in the story

• Complete a one-page interior monologue for the victim: What is the victim thinking? Does he have any idea what is going to happen to him? Why did he take in the psychopath?

• Pretend you are a defense attorney trying to get an insanity plea for the narrator.  Write down your speech to the jury convincing them that the narrator was insane at the time of the murders.  Be sure to give solid evidence from your story to back up your argument.  Your argument should be about one page.

• Pretend that you are a reported for the local paper.  You have received exclusive rights to interview the murderer.  Set up an interview in newspaper style format with complete questions.  Then, answer your questions in the way that the murderer would.  You must stay in character for both people.  This should be approximately 1-1/2 pages in length

• Use the Tell Tale Heart as a mentor text for your own short story.  Copy Poe’s style and organization but make the events of the story your own. This should be approximately 1 page in length.

Visual Representation

• Choose a sentence or passage from the story and draw a picture of the image that it creates in your mind.  Your picture should be in color, detailed, and be neat.  Be sure to write the passage you chose from the story on your picture.Beneath your project, write a ½-1 page description of the scene you drew, explaining how your project is based on evidence from the text AND inferences you drew from the text.  beyond See Mr. Fulton for help uploading your project to your blog..  

• Choose a scene from the story and recreate it using an online comic strip creator, such as Toondoo or Pixton, and publish your project to your blog.  Beneath your project, write a ½-1 page description of the scene created, explaining how your project is based on evidence from the text AND inferences from the text.

• Retell the story through images using a video slideshow site, like Animoto. Images should all be Creative Commons. Beneath your project, write a ½-1 page description of the scene you drew, explaining how your project is based on evidence from the text AND inferences you drew from the text.

Extra Credit

Complete a project option from both the visual and written options.  Both projects should be published in the same blog post.

November 13th--Tell Tale Heart Active Reading Lesson

1. Go to this website

2. Click begin, enter 2-3 responses into the text of each page.  One must be a question on each.
3. After reading, click "yes I'm sure."
    Then, click "print" 
    Scroll to the bottom of the text to find your annotations.  Highlight and copy them.  Continue below.

Charly Video Backchannel

Click on your class

Block 1

Block 2

Block 5

Block 6

OCT 31 Today's Meet Say Something

Click ======>>>> http://todaysmeet.com/Progressreport13

All posts need to be thoughtful and respectful.

Abbreviations are okay as long as they are appropriate.

All comments should either:

Make a connection

Make a prediction

Ask a Question or answer one.

Oct 22 Tricider Discussion

 Click here to get to the Tricider forum. 

• Answer the following 5 questions by clicking Add Idea in the bottom left hand corner of each discussion box. 
• Type your answer and make sure to include your name. 
• To agree or disagree with someones answer click on Add Argument beneath the Pro/Con section.
• Click the plus sign for agree and the minus sign for disagree then begin typing your argument. 
• You can vote for the best idea by clicking on the vote button on the far right side of each "idea"
• Make sure to read the directions at the top of the Tricider forum.

Once you have answered all the questions and responded to at least one idea for each question follow the directions below:

• Click here to read this article.
• After reading the article, go back to the Tricider forum and continue answering questions and debating (if you have a new idea then add it). 
• Use the article to either support your answer or refute another. (must add at least 3 new posts based off the article)

Podcast Creation!

To create your podcast (audio recording, uploaded to the web), follow these directions:

1. Create an account on Audioboo.

2. Click the Make A Recording button

3. Record when you are ready.

4. Follow the directions to save your recording.

To post your podcast

1. On the screen with your finished recording, click the Embed button

2. Copy the code

3. In your blog, open a new post

4. Click on the tab at the top of your new post that says HTML

5. Paste and publish.

Oct 5-Analyzing Ads Post-Assessment

Wednesday, October 3rd--Self Image and Media Blog Post

On your blog, write a post that explains your opinion about a topic connected to self-image and the media, and draws upon the research our class collected in our Diigo Group

It's a big topic, so pick an area you would like to address....something that you have feelings about or think is important.

Your writing should either:Give an opinion, then discuss how some facts you came accross support it.
OR
Discuss some facts you found, and the opinion that you are forming in response to that information.

AND
Include hyperlinks to the web pages that contain the information you reference in your post.

Add hyperlinks in a blog post:
1. Copy the url of the page you want to link to in your writing
2. Highlight the word(s) in your writing that you want to make the link
3. Click on the Link button on your blog's text editor
4. Past the url you copied in step 1, click save.

October 2nd, Diigo Set-up part 2

Now that you have set up your email and created a Diigo account (click here if you didn't), we are going to finish that set-up process with a couple easy steps.

1. Confirm your Diigo account through the message that was emailed to you (if you didn't already do this yesterday)

2. Apply to join our school Diigo group.  (If you didn't already do this yesterday)

3. Install Diigolet.  Click here and follow the four easy steps.

Monday, October 1st--Email and Diigo Set-Up

Today we will be using a web tool, Diigo, to help us research and collaborate.  Signing up requires and email address, and we will all use our Gaggle emails.

To set up your email:

1. Go to www.gaggle.net, or just click here, and click "sign in"

2. On the log in screen, don't try to sign in!  Click on the link beside the email box that says "click here if your email ends in something different"

3. Enter your email as username@kcs.gaggle.net   ex: 17simpsr@gaggle.net
4. Enter your school log-in password and sign in
5. If you have an outside email you check regularly, enter that on the next screen.  Otherwise click skip.

6.  Minimize the window and go on to the next part.

To get started with Diigo

1. Click here and follow directions to make a Diigo account.
     *for your username, use your school login, but put the 17 at the end. ex simpsr17
     *use your Gaggle email address: username@kcs.gaggle.net

     The last step will ask you to open the email sent from Diigo and click on a link in it to confirm your account.  It may take a few minutes for you to recieve the email.  If you don't get it right away, don't freak out.
2. Click here to get to our group page, click the button that says "Apply to Join the Group"

September 21st - Pre-Assessment Quiz

Sept 20th Part 1 Classmate Characteristics and Interesting Info Entry Form

September 20th Part 2: Characteristics and Weird/Normal Sort

With your group, look at the list of characteristics from your classmates that people entered in. Click here to see the list.

Then, on your group's document, copy and paste the characteristics into either the "weird" column or the "normal" column, depending on where you think they fit best.

Block 1
 Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, Group 5

Block 2
 Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, Group 5

Block 5
  Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, Group 5

Block 6
  Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, Group 5

September 19th--Narrative Self Assessment

September 16th--Blog set-up

Blogs will play an important role in this class.  On your blog, you will create, publish, and share your work.  Follow the directions below to get your blog set up:

1. Go to Kidblog
2. Click on the red button that says "SECRET CODE?"
3. Enter the code for your Language Arts class period.  Copy and paste from below:
      Block 1: mnyz5
      Block 2: bfhx6
      Block 5: qrsz3
      Block 6: apu27

4. Enter your display name and password as follows:
      Display Name: First name and last initial (ex. SaraG)
      Password:   Your school log-in password

Glogster Poem Project Self Assessment

Welcome Back!

Welcome Back!

I hope that you have had an awesome summer and are feeling ready to begin this new school year as an 8th grader!

You got to this post because you clicked on a link from the Student page, under "Lessons."  This is my class blog that I use to post resources for lessons that we'll use in class. We won't have to go here everyday, just when a lesson will have parts that will need to be carried out digitally.

Course Evaluation

Reflective Final Project

A Year in the Life of an 8th grader--Digital Reflective Project options:

Choose one of the following project options:
1. Show the path of your journey as a writer/reader this year
2. Tell one of your writing pieces with images.
3. Explain lessons you learned about life as an 8th grader

and use one of these tools to do it:
  prezi
  animoto  use the school's premium account--log in: debby.smith@kcs.k12.nc.us password: eagles
  photostory --select from the student menu under the start menu
  glogster

You are free to combine project options,

May 21st Published Writing Self Assessment

May 15th, Digital Say-Something Reflection

May 8th LC Discussion Reflection

May 7th--Resources for today's work period

Since there are more directions for today's work period that I can post on one slide, listed below are resources that you may need to refer to:

Novel reading

Read the next 3 pages in your novel, be sure you have at least 3 good discussion questions on your week 5 chart (last week's).  Example question stems are on the board.

Mentor Text Writing

Complete one of the articals that you began writing last week, and post it to your blog.  It should:

  -Closely follow the style of the origional author. 
  -Be about the same length (a little longer or shorter is ok, but the overall organization/presentation of ideas should be about the same.
  -Make sense
  -Be free of careless mistakes.  Proofread each word before publishing.

Done?  Here's what you can do:

  -Add an image or two to your article.
  -Read a book that is NOT your literature circle novel
  -Work on this week's Student Blogging Challenge.

register for our discussion forum site

April 27th--Writing Workshop Self Assessment

April 26th--Literature Circle Discussion 3 Reflection

Student Blogging Challenge, Week 7

The activities this week in the Student Blogging Challenge are all about creativity.  Below are some of the possible tasks to choose from:

Activity 1 – Visit at least three different creativity sites  and write a post about what you did on the site or write a review of the site(s).  Remember to include a screen shot and/or link to your creative masterpiece (s).

Activity 2 – Find a website where you can collaborate with another student from a different country – you might be able to create a story together or something else more creative.

Activity 3 – Make sure you have lots of links to other students and classes on your blogroll. If on weebly,  maybe create a post with at least ten links of other students around the world. You are going to need this for a game next week.

Activity 4 – Write a post about creativity and how you are creative in your life. If possible display your creativity eg photography, video, music. Check out this blog by chillibasket in Ireland. He is showing his creativity each week with the photos he has taken.

If you still have time, visit lots of blogs of other students around the world. Leave comments on their posts and make sure you include a link to your blog so they can return the favour and visit your blog to leave a comment.

April 18th, Literature Circle Discussion 2 Reflection

Student Blogging Challenge--Week 5: Using images the RIGHT way

The activities this week for the Student Blogging challenge involve using images correctly in your blog. Listed below are possible tasks you can complete:

 1. Write a post about your plans for Spring break. Include at least one image that is creative commons.

 2. Visit ten blogs from students in the challenge of different ages. How many of these blogs had images with attribution? How many blogs did not have images at all? Which blogs did you prefer to read and why? Leave a comment on each of the blogs you visited or leave your answer as a comment to this post.

 3.Create a visual post using no more than eight images – where the images tell a story. Remember to give attribution for the images you used. No writing in this post other than the title and attribution.


4. Include an image (Creative Commons with attribution) in your last post that you wrote, where you responded to  the events of your novel. 

Literature Circle Discussion Reflection

Student Blogging Challenge--commenting and catch up

We'll use today to catch up on the Student Blogging Challenge and practice the rules of good commenting.

I. Connecting:

First, visit the list of student blogs and leave comments on at least five different blogs and follow at least three new blogs.  This can also be a good time for your to visit and leave comments on the blogs of anyone who left comments for you. Before you submit two of the comments, copy and paste them in the form below.

  
II. Blogging Challenge Update. 

Have you completed all parts of the Blogging Challenge that have been assigned?  Most importantly, be sure you have:
     1 Created/updated your About Me page (click here for directions)
     2. Created a blog roll (click here for directions)

Done?  Cool, use your time to either write, visit and comment on blogs outside of our class, or read and comment on the cool poetry that students in our classes have published.
  

Poetry Self Assessment

Week 3 Blogging Challenge--Add your blogroll!

This week will be about
Adding great blogs to your blog list

1. To make it easy for visitors to find the blogs of your classmates and friends you need to add their link on your blogroll.
2. To do this, from your dashboard, click on "layout," then on your sidebar, click "add gadget."  Scroll down the list to find the gadget called "blog list." Add it.
3. At at least 10 blogs that you like to your list.  You can add the blog from the url or from your reading list.  At least 5 blogs on your list should be written by students at different schools.  Click here to see the list of Student Challenge participants.  *Don't forget to leave quality comments as you browse!

Literature Circle Novel Evaluation and Selection

Below are the list of novel choices for Literature Circles.  Each is a link to that novel listed on Amazon.  Visit each site, read the desciption of the book and the user reviews. 

Rx

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Rash

I am the Messenger

Unwind

Define Normal

House of the Scorpion

Bang/Bottled up

On a separate sheet of paper, write your name, and rank the books in order of your interest in reading them.  #1 should be the book you would most like to read, #2 the second most, and so on....

Getting Ready for the Student Blogging Challenge

This week begins the Student Blogging Challenge.  It consists of completing different blog-related activities each week and interacting with other student bloggers from around the world.  This week, we'll just be sure that our blog is set up and ready to be viewed by a global audience.

To do for week 1:
Part 1: Change your blog comments settings (for Blogger only)

• *(old layout)In your dashboard, click on "settings," then "comments"
• *(new layout)In the dropdown menu on your dashboard, select "settings," then on the left sidebar select "posts and comments"
• Under "who can comment," select "anyone"
• Under "backlinks" select "show"
• Under "comment moderation" select "always"
• Click "save settings"

Part 2: Update (or create if you don't have one) your About Me page in your blog

•  (Old Blogger interface) Click on"settings" "posting," then "Edit Pages," then "Add New Page."  Title your page, "About Me" 
• (New Blogger interface) In the dropdown menu on your dashboard, select "settings," then on the left sidebar select "pages"
• Tell your readers your first name only, a bit about your interests but remember to be internet savvy and not give out any personal details.

Part 3:  Connect!

• Find your name on the student participant list, check that the link works, then visit at least ten blogs  and leave comments on one of their posts.

For week 2 *(for block 1)

Part 1:
Your place

• Write a post about tourist attractions in your state. Try to include at least five places that Miss W , Davo the Tasmanian Devil or Squirrel would like to visit
• Visit at least five other blogs from students or classes around the world and ask some questions about their town, school, country in your comments. We have participants from 24 countries taking part in the challenge.

Published Writing Self Assessment--March 2

Feb 23rd--ELA showcase prep

To prepare for the showcase night, look through your blog (all of your posts since the beginning of the school year), and complete the following chart in your daybook:

Then, write a new blog post, following these directions:

Want to see an example of what such a post would look like?  Check out Jose's post.

Feb 22--Blog Commenting and idea gathering

Published Writing Self Assessment--Feb 16

February 13th--FFA Say Something Activity and Reflection

Part 1: Say Something Online Discussion
                Click here to enter our chat discussion



Part 2: Discussion Reflection

February 2nd--Writing Workshop Piece Self-Assessment

Directions—Using Diigo, complete the following self assessment of the piece that you recently published to your blog.     To receive full credit, your response should be clear, specific, and completely explained.


To begin, go to your blog, click on the title of your post, then open up Diigolet.

1. Look over the piece your published to your blog, and find a part that shows you are a thinker.  Highlight it, click “highlight and stickynote”

•     On your stickynote, write “1″ and a clear and thoughtful explanation of how this part shows you are a thinker.

2.  Find part of your writing  that shows the most important revision you made to your piece.  Highlight it, click “highlight and stickynote”

•  On your stickynote, write “2″  and an explanation of how you revised that part AND the effect the revision had on your piece. 

 3. Find part of your piece that presented a challenge for you to write.  Highlight it, click “highlight and stickynote”

•  On your stickynote, write “3″  and explain why that part was so challenging for you. 

4. Find your favorite line from your writing.  Highlight it, click “highlight and stickynote”.

• On your stikynote, write “4″  and an explanation of why that part is your favorite

5. Place a floating stickynote on your blog, in it write "5" and explain one idea that you got from someone else's blog that you now have for a future piece of writing.
To finish, click the “bookmark” button, add some tags, and under “save to group” select “Fulton’s ELA”

January 26th--FFA Say Something

Part 1: Say Something Online Discussion
                Click here to enter our chat discussion



Part 2: Discussion Reflection

January 19th, Writing Quote Posters

For this assignment, you will create a poster that features a quote about writing that you can related to based on your own experiences with writing.

Here are the steps you need to take to complete the assignment:

1. Search the web for a site containing quotes from writers about writing. There is a lot of them out there.   Take time to find the right one....you'll know it when you do.

2. Create a quote poster either on the computer (using Open Office) or a blank sheet of paper that:
    -Features the quote, in big, bold, readable font
       *be sure to also include the author
    -Contains images/symbols/graphics/decorations that support or give meaning to the quote.  Make it awesome, we will use them to decorate the room!
    -Save it

3. Go to your email and compose a new message.
     -for the message, write a paragraph or two telling the story of your own writing experiences that caused you to select that particular quote.
     -attach the poster that you created to the email
     -send the email to me at  steve.fulton@kcs.k12.nc.us

January 11th--Narrative Writing Self Assessment

Directions—Using Diigo, complete the following self assessment of the narrative writing piece that you recently published to your blog.     To receive full credit, your response should be clear, specific, and completely explained.

To begin, go to your blog, click on the title of your post, then open up Diigolet.

1. Look over the piece your published to your blog, and find a part that helps your reader re-live an experience from your story .  Highlight it, click “highlight and stickynote”

•     On your stickynote, write “1″ and a clear and thoughtful explanation of how this part made your experience more real to the reader.

2.  Look over your blog post(s).  Find something you wrote that best shows something new you tried in your writing.  Highlight it, click “highlight and stickynote”

•      On your stickynote, write “2″  and a complete and thoughtful explanation of what you tried AND why.

3.  Find part of your writing  that shows the most important revision you made to your piece.  Highlight it, click “highlight and stickynote”

•  On your stickynote, write “3″  and an explanation of how you revised that part AND the effect the revision had on your piece. 

 4. Find your favorite line from your writing.  Highlight it, click “highlight and stickynote”.

• On your stikynote, write “4″  and an explanation of why that part is your favorite

To finish, click the “bookmark” button, add some tags, and under “save to group” select “Fulton’s ELA”

Jan 10th--Extra Credit--Writing Quote Poster

For this assignment, you will create a poster that features a quote about writing that you can related to based on the work your did with creating your most recent narrative writing assignment.

Here are the steps you need to take to complete the assignment:

1. Search the web for a site containing quotes from writers about writing. There is a lot of them out there.   Take time to find the right one....you'll know it when you do.

2. Create a quote poster either on the computer (using Open Office) or a blank sheet of paper that:
    -Features the quote, in big, bold, readable font
       *be sure to also include the author
    -Contains images/symbols/graphics/decorations that support or give meaning to the quote.  Make it awesome, we will use them to decorate the room!

3. Write a paragraph or two telling the story of your own writing experiences that caused you to select that particular quote. This writing should go on a separate page, not your poster.

4. Turn it in!  If you completed it by hand, simply place it in the assignment turn in box.  If you did it on the computer, email it to Mr. Fulton at: steve.fulton@kcs.k12.nc.us
     
To receive extra credit for this assignment, Mr. Fulton must receive it no later than Friday, January 13th.

Jan 3rd--Childhood Memory Mapmaking and Narrative Drafting

The following are the notes guiding the activity we did in class on January 3rd to begin our narrative drafts:

slide 1

slide 2

slide three

slide 4