7th and 8th Grade LA- Monday, Nov. 15

7th and 8th Grade- Extended Writing

Revising, (Improving), and Editing

- Goals Today:

- Finish work from Friday; you may have to re-read those directions.

- Share your Google doc with a few classmates; receive feedback from others, give feedback.

- Do a word count on your document. Less than 600 is probably too short, more than 1,200 is probably too long. Talk to Ms. Collopy for clarification.

- Print at least one copy to have your parents read/ use for LA tomorrow.

When asking for and giving feedback to others:

- Read the entire essay/story/letter.

- Give the author ideas about paragraphs that need more details, elaboration, examples, etc.

- When giving feedback about the personal narrative and the creative short story, give ideas on places for more dialogue and imagery.

- Give feedback on sentence fluency and variety.

- Offer ideas for improving the writing.

- Give all feedback on the Google doc, not by yelling across the room.

Homework - Monday, November 15, 2010-

- *Print a copy of your writing. It might be easier to copy and paste your document into Word; save it in Word; print to MSLABHP4200.

- Ask a parent or another adult (older siblings are fine) to read your essay/story/letter. Ask them to read it at least once and give you feedback on your ideas, sentence fluency, word choice, creativity, etc. Have them help you find CUPS errors too.

Language Arts- 7th and 8th Grade

Language Arts- Friday, November 12

*Please read this entire blog post before you start your work today.

8th Grade Students

- Publish your Lois Lowry paragraph on your blog. Then, read all of the directions and proceed with today's work.

Do you have all four of your rough drafts?

Re-read all four (or however many you have with you today). Which one do you like the most? Which one is the best?

Objective:

- To revise, edit, and publish one full extended writing piece by the end of class on Monday. (*If you don't finish by Monday, November 15, you will have to arrange access to technology to turn your essay in by Wednesday).

Step 1- REVISE

- You've re-read your rough draft.

- Do you understand the topic, the mode of writing, and the audience for whom you are writing?

- Type your piece into a Google Doc (school account).

- Just TYPE! Don't worry about any formatting or editing issues.

- Let Ms. Collopy know when you have it typed into your Google Doc.

*REVISION STRATEGY #1- Go through your rough draft. Do you have enough IDEAS? Have you elaborated, given examples, provided evidence throughout the piece?

- If you have chosen the black and white picture short story....

- Is it creative?

- Does it tell a story?

- Does the story follow the plot principles of Freytag's Pyramid?

- Is there a conflict?

- Is there dialogue?

- Does it make sense?

- If you have chosen the hero essay...

- Is it on topic? Do you have enough ideas, examples, elaboration, evidence, and examples?

-Write a well-developed essay (4-6 paragraphs) about the following topic. Make sure to plan your writing first.

Imagine you could be a hero for a day. Write a well-developed essay describing what you would do and why. Be sure to include a description/definition of what a hero is. Would you be a super-hero or more ordinary? Who would you help? How? What might an ordinary day in the life of a hero look like? Explain why the world needs heroes.

- If you have chosen the Letters About Literature...

- Is it on topic? Remember, it's a letter connecting to the author, the characters, the conflict, the resolution. It's not a book report. Perhaps you've shared how the book has changed you or affected you. Do you have examples that connect to the experiences or parts of the book that have affected you?

- If you have chosen your personal memory/memoir...

- Does the story or memory itself relay its importance? In other words, do you have to state, "This is why this memory is important to me." Instead, the story speaks for itself. Have you used dialogue, imagery (descriptive writing), similes, or metaphors?

REVISION STRATEGY #2:

- Sentence Variety.

- List the first word in every sentence of your writing piece. Look for repetition. Change the beginning of at least five sentences. Use your topic sentence packet for inspiration on how to start sentences in a variety of ways.

- Do any of your sentences begin with SO, AND, BUT, or OR? Change them.

- Does the length of your sentences vary?

*Check your grade on PowerSchool. Feel free to print a grade report if you want. I will not give you print-outs today.

Students: Come up to Ms. Collopy and quietly whisper your favorite movie to her for five extra credit points! Good job reading all the directions! Shhhhh, don't tell your neighbor...