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?
    • 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

 

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