Monday's Commenting Homework

Today you need to read through four of your peers' stories.  You can pick who you read, but if you could, try to make it so everyone has at least one person comment on their story.

For each story that you read, you should leave a short comment.  You should tell them one thing that you liked and one thing that you think they could continue to work on as they head toward the final draft.

Tomorrow we will get a more in depth commenting assignment, so make sure this gets done before then.

Sample Link to Video Posting

http://www.reuters.com/video/2013/10/21/lessons-for-syrian-refugees?videoId=274233563

Refugees from Syria in school in Turkey.

Shakespeare Intro Quiz

This is a quick open notes quiz on the basic background of Shakespeare.  *******When you are done, please copy and paste the entire quiz (your answers as well as your score) into a document and share it with me.*********

http://www.dukeofdefinition.com/shakeback_beg.htm 

Shakespeare Preview

Shakespeare and Romeo and Juliet

Use the following sites and videos to help you answer the five questions below.  You can watch the videos as many times as needed.  Make sure your answers are complete, many answers will come from more than just one of these sources.

Websites and YouTube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_0hdTa92HM&list=PL0E6A588915AE953A 

http://absoluteshakespeare.com/william_shakespeare.htm:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhZeaSH_IaA: folger video stop at 3:10ish: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMkuUADWW2A: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMr3sqWLqxM not working at the moment...

replacement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4URqr6x4UIk

1. Who is Shakespeare?

2. Why are his works read and performed so many years after they were written?

3. How did he influence the English Language?

4. Why does he write the way he does (images, words)?

5. How could things written hundreds of years ago connect to today?

***You received these questions on a sheet in class, please write your answers on that sheet, but use this post as a way to easily access the sites and videos.

Creating a blog

While we are working on our perspective stories, we will also be creating and posting on a blog.  This is where you will explain what your story is going to be about and you will also post additional information to help people get a better picture of what you are researching/writing about.  We will also be using it throughout the semester on other topics.

Here are the directions:
1. Go to Google
2. Click on the squares in the upper right corner, then click on more
3. You should see an icon for Blogger, click on that.
4. Using your school Google account, create a blog.  Your URL (address) needs to be your first name, last initial and English 9.  Give your blog a title that is something creative along with your name
5. Email your URL (blog address) to me at tiffany.johnson@gk12.net.
6. Tomorrow we will be creating a list of blogs with all of your classmates' blogs

Your first post needs to be this: explain your perspective that your story will be in and then give a short explanation of what will be happening in your story.  This needs to be done before you begin writing in class.

Website Reliability

Here are the three sites for Monday:

}http://www.dhmo.org/

}http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/

}http://www.polarisproject.org/

}http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3943187&page=1#.UW6gR6I3uSo

When evaluating the sites, check for the following information:

•    Author

•  –Publisher or affiliated group

•  –commercial site (business, selling something, etc)

•  –Bias

•  –Last updated (more recent=best)

•    Advertisements

•    Address

Romeo and Juliet Link

If you are in need of the Romeo and Juliet text, go to this site:

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/Texts/Rom/M/default/

From there you can navigate to all acts and scenes to read what you missed if you weren't in class. You can also use it for completing your outline that is due TOMORROW!

In-Depth Commenting Directions

Step One: Pick a story to comment on in depth (it could be one of the ones that you read yesterday).

Step Two: Check the previous post on my blog for the assigned story you will be commenting on.

Step Three: Begin with the one you are assigned and answer these prompts for their story:

1. Overall, what is the best quality/characteristic of this story? It could be its characters, the conflict, the resolution, the description of the setting, the story arc, use of dialogue, etc. Use specific details and references to the story (quotes from the story/textual evidence) to fully explain yourself.

2. What is the story's theme? What details does the author include throughout that leads to the fully expressed theme in the end? (Give examples of how you see the theme in the beginning, middle and end of the story; if you don't, comment that you don't see examples in a section)

3. What is your personal reaction to the story? How do you feel after reading it? What do you remember? What images do you see? What did you learn about the situation/place/conflict? (You don't have to answer all of these, just write a paragraph of reflection/reaction to the story)

4. What was your favorite part of the story? Pick a line that you liked, put it into the comment box, put quotes around it, and explain what it was about it that stood out to you.

5. If the author were to make this better, they could... (finish this statement with as much specific detail as possible)

Each of your answers should be a short paragraph or so in length (this means you will be writing five answers/ five paragraphs).  You need to use proper spelling and grammar when writing your answers/critiques of your classmates' writing.  You will be picking one story to comment on and you will be randomly assigned another (this means you will write full comments on two different people's stories).  Make sure your comments, even if they are more critical, are phrased in a positive manner.  Be as specific as possible in your comments, both for your commenting grade and for the benefit of the author.

You should, to be safe, write your responses in a document (word or google doc) and then paste them into a comment on their blog.  This way, if Blogger thinks you are a robot, all of your work won't be lost.

Step Four: Do the same thing for the story you chose.

Step Five: Make sure this is done by Tuesday when you walk in to class.

You need to have your comments done by Tuesday, before class begins.

content adapted from http://bgexemplar.blogspot.com

In-Depth Commenting

Here are the pairings for commenting:

Third Block

Jake and Whitney

Carolina and Liza

Shayna and Maria

Tymber and Cassidy

Dylan and Casey

Kaylea and Tessah

Avery and Britta

Camilo and Erica

Jacob and Nick

Cody and Noah

Sam reads Breanna's

Breanna reads Genna's

Genna reads Sam's

Fourth Block

Claire and Kathryn

Katie and Mat

Paul reads Danielle's
Danielle reads Austin N's 
Austin N reads Paul's

Lilian and Mark

Jordyn P reads Kat's

Kat reads Bri's

Bri reads Jordyn P's

Alyssa reads Hallie's

Hallie reads Jordyn M's

Jordyn M reads Dakota's

Dakota reads Jared's

Jared reads Ploy's

Ploy reads Cohl's

Cohl reads Walker's

Walker reads Richard's

Richard reads Alyssa's

Gathering Perspectives

Today during class and tonight if necessary, you need to read your classmates' stories to gain more of an understanding of global perspectives.

You need to read through at least four and offer comments on them to prove that you read each one. Make it a nice comment that refers to something specific in their story.  A comment that would accomplish this would be: "I like that you made the main character a kid to show how crazy war seems to kids that young."

Tomorrow I will give you a specific story to read and specific guidelines for more in-depth comments.