Last week we focused upon the development of ideas since it is the most heavily-weighted domain in the Georgia 8th Grade Writing Assessment (you will also see me refer to this as the GMWA or Georgia Middle Grades Writing Assessment).
Monday, October 15th, 2012
- Socratic Seminar Day!
- Since most teens LOVE to discuss and debate topics, we worked on the enhancement (and justification) of one’s ideas through a Socratic Seminar. The students were given the opportunity to respond to the topics below but they had to support their responses with specific details:
- Should school lunches be reformed?
- Is debt ever okay?
- The U.S.A. is currently over $16 trillion in debt. What do you think we should do as a nation to get rid of this debt?
- People can now print in 3D. Do you think there is anything people should not be allowed to print?
- What about guns (firearms)?
- What is the difference between art and craft
- PowerPoint: 10-15-12 Socratic Seminar
Tuesday, October 16th, 2012
- On Tuesday, the students practiced researching topics related to our extended text The Project by Brian Falkner
- These topics included:
- DaVinci
- Cyphers
- Time Travel
- EMA (Emergency Mgmt. Agency) protocol for disasters
- Propaganda
- The Most Boring Book in the World
- PowerPoint: 10-16-12 Everything We Do is Research
Wednesday, October 17th, 2012
- Like Emeril Lagasse adding a little “BAM” to his cooking, on Wednesday, the students learned about how DRAPES could enhance their writing ideas.
- DRAPES is an acronym which means:
- D= Dialogue
- R= Rhetorical Questions
- A= Analogies
- P= Personal Example or Experience
- E= Examples or Facts
- S= Statistics
- Through including these elements into one’s writing, the students will expand upon their ideas more successfully.
- PowerPoint: 10-17-12 Beef Up Your Ideas
Thursday, October 18th, 2012
- On Thursday, the students were able to work as a think tank where they brainstormed on three topics of their choosing. There are too many topics to list here but they are included in the PowerPoint below.
- PowerPoint: 10-18-12 Inside the Think Tank
- The students also had to complete a pop quiz identifying what each of the letters in DRAPES stood for.
Friday, October 19th, 2012
- Assessment Day!
- The students completed a quiz on DRAPES where they had to identify what each letter stood for, identify examples, create a BCR on a topic of their choosing (out of three options), and finally create examples of DRAPES related to that topic.
- 10-19-12 Quiz & Timed Writing Day