October 15th-19th, 2012

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?
    • http://www.usdebtclock.org/
  • 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