Ms. Brezek's Page

Please go read your classmates blogs and find some new titles you’d like to read. Update your old “Books I want to read” blog. Update it by putting a line through any books you’ve already read and adding at least one more title to the list of books you want to read. For all the books you add, change their color to blue.

You can cross out books by highlight them and then using the strikethrough option. This is the button next to the Bold and Italics buttons.

Hello 7A! I hope you enjoyed the Rachel’s Challenge assembly today! Please log into echalk and go to the discussion board. There you will find a topic for discussion! Follow the directions when you get there!

Tomorrow we will be having an assembly called Rachel’s Challenge.  Yesterday in Excel you saw a video about the assembly.  For today’s DO NOW, use your headphones to watch each of the videos below to build background for the assembly. In your reader’s notebooks, write down any questions you have about what you see. After status, we will have a community discussion about this.

CBS News

Rachel\’s Challenge

Welcome back! We missed you!

Today is your day to read! First go ahead and check your grades and blog comments. Then, get your notebook set up with the following directions:

Monday 11/28: A Prediction and an A-Z Response
Tuesday 11/29: A question and a Clunk Word
Wednesday 11/30: A mini-summary and a Literary Analysis (So if you’re on book 2, it’s rising action; Book 3 = Conflict and what type; Book 4 = Story Ending (Conflict/Climax, Falling Action, Resolution); Book 5 = Point of View)
Thursday 12/1: A Prediction and an A-Z Response
Friday 12/2: A mini-summary and a Question

If you finish all this early, go ahead and begin reading your JR book!

Choose one or two – If you do two, you have to do the blog and then either a Letter About Literature or the Book Trailer.

 Love That Dog Blog – 5 points

Write a blog about Love That Dog. Please include the following:

• Paragraph 1 – Give a summary of the book, but make sure you do not give away the ending
• Paragraph 2 – Write your response to the book using the A-Z Response Questions. Pick at least three and write at least two sentences for each.
• Paragraph 3 – Write a paragraph that explains what you learned about poetry by reading Love That Dog

Letters About Literature (LAL) – 10 points – and entry into the contest!

Books have wings. You can’t see them, but they are there just the same. On books’ wings, readers can soar to new places where they meet intriguing characters and experience exciting adventures. But a book’s wings can also help readers rise above difficult situations so that they see the world – or themselves – with new understanding. Has a book touched your life in a personal way? If so, you are invited to enter this year’s LAL competition. Have you ever felt the power and lift of literature?

Select a fiction or nonfiction book, a short story, poem, essay or speech (sorry, no song lyrics) you have read and about which you have strong feelings. Explore those feelings and why you reacted the way you did during or after reading the author’s work. Consider one or more of these questions when writing your letter:

• Did the characters, conflict or setting mirror your life in some way? If so, how? If not, why not?
• What strengths or flaws do you share with a character or characters in the book?
• What did the book show you about your world that you never noticed before?
• What surprised you about yourself while you were reading this book? Why was this work meaningful to you?

(Your letter need not answer all these questions, of course. These are just starting points to spark ideas.)

Write a personal, reflective letter (not a fan letter or a book report!) Express yourself! A letter is less formal than an essay or research paper. Write honestly and in your own voice, as if you were having a conversation with the author. Those are the best letters to read and the most fun to write! Keep in mind these two tips:

1. Correspond, don’t compliment! Your letter should inform rather than flatter the author.
2. Do not summarize the book’s plot! The author wrote the book and knows what happened. What the author doesn’t know is how the book affected you.
3. Your letter should be between 300 and 600 words.

iMovie Book Trailer to be displayed at Family Literacy Night – 10 points

A book trailer gives the reader a preview of what the book will be about. Book trailers introduce the reader to the characters, setting, and conflict, as well as a few events. A book trailer MUST NOT give away the ending. Your book trailer should catch the reader’s attention and persuade them to read the book.

Your book trailer must include the following:

• Title and author
• Characters – their names and a description of them
• Setting(s) – include the location and time, and a complete description
• Conflict – describe the main conflict
• Rising Action – Include three points of tension
• Your personal response – Use the A-Z Response questions
• The trailer should be between one and three minutes long.
• Use pictures, transitions, and sound
• Persuade your audience to read the book!

Good Morning!

Great work to all of those students who currently have an A, B, or C in Lit Studies. To the rest of you getting a D or F, I’m less than thrilled by your lack of effort. The work that is assigned isn’t anything you can’t handle! Everything I ask of you are things that we have done in class. We really need to step up the effort.

Please check your grades and blog comments. I will be passing back all the papers that I have shortly. When you finish checking your grades, set up your reader’s notebook for this week. Please use two new sheets that are side by side, even if you have space left over from last week.

You will need to read five days this week, even though we are off for three. Blog #3 is due on Monday next week. If you haven’t submitted it on Monday, I will be entering another 0. I highly recommend getting a book and blog done over your break.

Notebook assignments from November 21st – November 25th:

Monday: an A-Z response and a prediction
Tuesday: Literary analysis (depending on the blog you’re on) and a question
Wednesday: A clunk word and a mini-summary
Thursday: A prediction and an A-Z response
Friday: A clunk word and a mini-summary

Go read blogs of your classmates. Find three books you are interested in reading. Create a new post in your edublogs titled “Books I Want To Read.” Then, list the books you want to read in the future on your post. Publish it!