29 Final Exam and Final Novel Homework // Due the week of May 15, 2015

Hi Everyone!

You have 3 parts to your homework this week:

1. Comment on the next two pages of your partner's paper
2. Write the next two-three pages of your novel and post them on Google Drive
3. Study for the final exam! We have gone over the study guide in class this week, but here in another copy below. If you need clarification on any of them, just email me and I can help you!

Final Study Guide

Understand and provide examples for the following:

Strong verbs

Strong nouns

Strong adjectives

Strong adverbs

Because clause

Write out the basics/definitions for:

The outline of a paragraph

The IEW way to skim an article

The Persuasive Essay Outline

Thesis Statement Formula

Ethos, Pathos, Logos

The major difference between a persuasive essay and research paper

Criteria for good research sources

What it means to "cite your sources"

Provide a website to help create your works cited page

Draw and label the plot diagram

Define the following terms:

Imagery

Dialogue

Objective point of view

Limited point of view

Omniscient point of view

First, second, third person point of view

Round vs flat characters

Dynamic vs static characters 

28 Novel Part 2 // Due the week of May 5, 2015

Hi Everyone!

At least 2 more pages and 4 more comments this week!

Try to keep developing your characters as round and dynamic as we discussed in class!

Remember, comments should be specific, helpful, and kind :)

Email me if you have questions!

27 Novella // Due the week of April 28, 2015

Hi Everyone!

You have two parts to your homework this week:

1. Read through the first 2 pages of your partner's novella and leave at least 4 comments. Remember, comments should be:
1. Specific
2. Kind
3. Either positive or constructive:
1. Your dialogue here is really believable!
2. What if you add more description of your character here?
2. Write 2+ more pages of your novella! Remember, you can write as much over 2 pages as you like—I've had students write 80 pages so feel free to go above and beyond!

As we discussed this week, keep in mind your:

1. Theme: Message, moral
2. Mood: Emotion that each passage gives the reader; can be created especially well through the setting

Email me if you have questions!

26 Planning the Novella // Due the week of April 23, 2015

Hi Everyone!

We are now beginning our end-of-year project—the novella!

For this week's homework, you will plan out the plot of your novel and break it down, scene by scene, and then get started!

1. Part 1:
1. Draw a plot diagram on a piece of white paper
1. Plot Diagram
   
2. Fill in the diagram with brief explanations of what will happen in your story, including:

1. Exposition: Main characters and setting
2. Inciting Event: What gets the story going by changing everything?
3. Rising Action: About 4-6 events that build on each other leading toward the climax.
4. Climax: The big exciting moment that brings everything together. For example, the big battle in The Lord of the Rings. You can choose to end the novel here, with a bang, or finish off with closure at the Resolution.
5. Resolution: The wrapping up of everything—can be good or bad—it's ok!
1. Part 2:
1. Break your plot diagram into a list of scenes that go more in depth—about 15-20 scenes.
2. Each scene can have about a sentence or a little more explaining what happens in that scene.
3. Post this on Google Drive.
2. Part 3:
1. Start by writing the first 1-3+ pages of your novella!
2. Because you have your scenes list laid out, you can start by writing wherever you want—even the climax! (However, sometimes it's just easiest to start with the beginning :D)
3. Remember, if you find a scene boring, change it up—have fun with it! No need to bore yourself :)

25 Ending with a bang // Due the week of April 13, 2015

Hi Everyone!

Getting this up early this week! The homework for next week is:

• Write a 1.5-3 page story that builds up and that ends with a twist or a surprise at the end! 
• Short stories often don't follow the usual plot diagrams that novels often follow, but good ones do usually have a build-up of suspense and then a big bang in the end. Try to create this surprise at the end of your story!
• For inspiration, try the following ideas:
• —Find a random line from a random fiction book and use it as the first sentence of your story
• —Look up sci-fi pictures online for inspiration
• —Look through your own favorite books and movies for topics you enjoy

24 Dialogue // Due the week of March 31, 2015

Hi Everyone!

In class we talked about the importance of using dialogue to show what characters are thinking and to bring life to a story!

Therefore, I'd like you to challenge yourself to write a 3-4 page story in which you use mostly dialogue!

Dialogue is the talking amongst multiple characters and needs to be surrounded by quotation marks ("").

Email me if you have questions!

23 Objective Point of View // Due the week of March 19, 2015

Hi Everyone!

The homework for this week is to write a 1-3 page story in 3rd person objective point of view.

3rd person objective point of view means:

• The narrator is talking about the main characters using "he, she, they, their, etc"
• The narrator does not have insight into the inner thoughts of any of the characters and therefore the characters' inner feelings must be described via their body language and facial expression and noises
• Instead of: "Ben felt angry," you must write: "Ben stomped his foot and his jaw was clasped tightly shut while he breathed loudly." 
• Instead of: "Lucy loved to read," you must write: "As Lucy read her book, her mouth was curled in a smile and she tapped her foot merrily."
• Really focus on pretending you are observing the character and simply describing them as you see them.

Email me if you have questions!

22 Imagery // Due the week of March 10, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week, I would like you to write a short fictional story that is around 1.5-2.5 pages long that has at least one instance of each type of imagery (one for each type of sense)! Be sure to underline the part with the imagery. We will be peer reviewing them next week, so be sure to bring an actual paper copy to class that is typed, double spaced, and printed out.

If you'd like some optional inspiration:

Imagery: Description that involves the 5 senses:

• Smell
• Touch
• Sight
• Hearing
• Taste

Imagery that doesn't count:

• "…smelled wonderful"
• "…tasted awful"
• "…looked cool"

Imagery that does count:

• "…smelled like roasted marshmallows"
• "…tasted sour and spicy at the same time"
• "…looked slimy, like a worm"

Email me if you have questions!

21 Short Story // Due the week of March 4, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week, I would like you to write a short fictional story that is around 1.5-2.5 pages long about anything you would like! We will be peer reviewing them next week, so be sure to bring an actual paper copy to class that is typed, double spaced, and printed out.

If you'd like some optional inspiration:

• A story about mints and an old photograph
• A story that starts with the sentence: "Beth tiptoed through the giant iron doorway…"

Email me if you have questions!

20 Rough Draft // Due the week of Feb. 16, 2015

Hi Everyone!

Next week, the rough draft of your research paper is due! It doesn't have to be perfect, but I'd like to see a genuine effort at each of the five paragraphs of the essay.

Please follow the following general outline (but use complete sentences and essay paragraph format)

1. Introduction
1. Attention Grabber: Gets the audience interested; choose one of the following:
1. Ask a question
2. State a shocking fact
3. Quote an interesting quotation
4. Make a joke
5. Feel free to try something not on the list, as long as it's attention grabbing!
2. Thesis: Opinion because reason1, reason2, and reason3.
2. Paragraph about Reason1
1. Evidence from your notecards
2. Possible Evidence types:
1. Logos: Facts, Statistics, Reasonings
2. Pathos: Emotional stories, personal accounts
3. Ethos: Expert opinions by doctors, teachers, professors, scientists, etc
3. Paragraph about Reason2
1. Evidence (See above)
4. Paragraph about Reason3
1. Evidence (See above)
5. Conclusion

Make sure it's all on Google Drive in the Rough Drafts folder. We will be doing peer review, so make sure you like your work enough to share it :)

Email me if you have questions!

Notecards // Due the week of Feb. 10, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week, we went back to the sources you collected last week and started looking for information that would be useful to your research papers!

Materials you'll need:

• 12 notecards of 3 different colors (4 of each color)
• If you don't have colored notecards, you can distinguish them in other ways like shapes in the corners, or you can cut colored paper into notecards.
• I gave you notecards in class, so if you have lost those, you'll need to find your own.

Assign one color of notecard to each reason from your thesis. For example, if your thesis is:

• Cats are the best animal because they are clean, cheap, and cute.
• Then all evidence about their cleanliness will be blue, all evidence about their cheapness will be pink, and all evidence about the cuteness will be yellow.

Write one piece of information on each notecard, until you have 12 notecards of information.

Be sure you label the notecards in their corners with which source the information came from—you can write the number of the source (from your works cited page) or the last name of the author—or whatever you want, as long as you remember where you got the information.

Consider the following types of evidence to write down:

• Logos: Facts, Statistics, Numbers, Reasonings
• Pathos: Personal stories, emotional stories
• Ethos: Expert opinion: Doctors, Scientists, Politicians, people who've experienced it before

Email me if you have questions!

18 Works Cited Page // Due the week of Feb. 2, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week we talked about two main things:

1. 5 Rules for finding good research online
1. Do not use Wikipedia as a source**
1. **You can sometimes use facts from Wikipedia if you cite the place where the facts came from—instead of just Wikipedia. You can find the citation information if you click on the little blue number that can be seen right after the good fact. 
2. Do not use websites that get their information from the public—such as Answers.com, or any other comment-sourced pages.
3. Be wary of ".com" websites. The most trustworthy are ".edu," ".gov," and ".org."
4. If a website is not well-designed or well-written, it's probably not very legitimate.
5. Websites associated with well-known news sources or programs tend to be trustworthy on their facts (although not always unbiased in their opinions)—i.e.: Time Magazine, BBC News, etc
2. Using EasyBib.com to create a works cited page for your paper.
1. Every research paper needs a "works cited" page in order to show readers where information was gathered.
2. Each citation on this page must have a particular formatting (in this case, MLA)
3. Easybib.com asks for specific necessary citation information, and then takes it all and puts it into the format for you—yay!
4. Make sure to tell it to display the URL (or copy and paste it at the bottom of each citation yourself) so you can easily visit the website later on.
5. Copy and paste each finished citation into a document (saved with your name at the top) in Google Drive in the folder marked: "Works Cited Pages."
6. Title it: Works Cited 

So that said, your homework is:

1. Find at least 6 websites that look like they have good information.
1. Scan through the information.
2. You don't need to write down any facts yet—just make sure it looks like a helpful website for your topic.
2. Using Easybib.com, create citations for each of your 6+ sources.
3. Create a works cited page in Google Drive in the folder "Works Cited Pages."

Email me if you have questions or still are having trouble getting onto Google Drive!!!

17 Thesis Statements // Due the week of Jan. 28, 2015

Hi Everyone!

This week, we started working with Google Drive! I am emailing you the login info tonight, so email me if you don't get that email :)

You will go into Google Drive (google.com/drive), research and think about several of the topics in the "Research Paper Topics" page, and then claim one by writing your name and your created thesis next to it!

Keep in mind, it is not claimed until you have your name and your thesis next to it. If someone else picks your topic and your chosen opinion on that topic and claims it before you get to it, you'll have to pick another.

Email me if you have any questions!

16 Introduction and Conclusion // Due the week of Jan. 15, 2015

Hi Everyone!

Last week, you should have completed three body paragraphs on a particular topic/thesis.

This week, we learned what makes a good introduction and conclusion!

For homework, write an introduction and conclusion that go with your three body paragraphs from last week, put them all together into a document, and bring them next week! (You can take out all of the underlining and highlighting).

1. Introduction
1. Start off with ONE attention grabber to engage your reader
1. Question: Are you looking to get a pet sometime soon? If so, you should be educated on what the best pet truly is.
2. Joke: Do you want to get a dragon as a pet? Well, too bad—you can't. But you can get the next best thing: a cat!
3. Quotation: Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you're going to get a pet, the only pet to get is a cat!"
4. Interesting Fact/Statistic: People with cats are 98% happier than people with any other animal.
5. Noise: Bang! Wham! Crash! If you don't want to hear those noises in the middle of the night, don't get a dog. Instead—get a cat!
2. Your attention-grabber can then lead into your thesis which ALWAYS comes after the attention grabber.
1. Cats are the best pet to get because they are friendly, clean, and inexpensive.
2. Body Paragraph 1 (R1)
3. Body Paragraph 2 (R2)
4. Body Paragraph 3 (R3)
5. Conclusion
1. Do not bring in any new reasons or evidence. 
2. Sum up your paper.
3. Potentially do a "call to action"
1. Therefore, if you want to experience the joys of pet ownership, go out and get yourself a cat!