Letters About Literature

As you craft your letters, you might need some examples of previous letters.

Click here for past national winners. 

Click here for contest rules, etc.

Deep Thinking Friday 9/14

Commas in Compound Sentences and Those Crazy FANBOYS!

Our Own Ways of Learning

Take the following personality/learning tests.  Record your results for each activity in one new blog post.

Jung Typology Test (Analyze your results here)
Multiple Intelligences Test
The VARK Questionnaire:  How Do I Learn Best?

Then, in your blog post, reflect on your results.  Answer the following:

• What do these tests tell you about yourself?
• How can this information help you in class?
• How can this information help you outside of class?
• How can this information help you advocate for your own learning?

After writing your own blog post, read the blog posts of others.  See all the different ways your classmates learn!  Comment on at least 3 posts.  When done, you may read and/or go to any site on the Idleness Prevention Society section of this blog.



Mrs. Edlin's results:
Jung: ENFP (Extroverted, Intuition, Feeling, Perceiving)
Top 3 Intelligence: Language, Musical, Social
VARK Questionnaire: Visual: 1, Aural: 2, Read/Write: 11, Kinesthetic: 2

These tests tell me that I am a reader and a writer.  I need to read the directions to understand something best.  I communicate through words.  I'm an idea person, but I'm a procrastinator too, especially if I get bored.  Knowing this can help me in school by making sure there are written directions to follow.  I also need to keep a calendar for long-term assignments so I don't wait until the last minute.  Outside of class, I think this information confirms my favorite hobbies: reading and musical theatre.  I can advocate for my own learning by knowing how I learn because I can create situations that go best with how I learn: I can work in groups, I can focus on reading & writing, and I can ask teachers to help me break long-term assignments into manageable smaller goals and deadlines.

Welcome Back!

It's going to be a great year in room 201... here's your first assignment:

1. Reading Survey:  Please complete the reading survey found at this link.

2.  Blogs:  Make sure you can get into your blog, and write your first post!  If you don't have a blog, we'll get one set up for you first thing.  Call your first post "New School Year: 2018-2019." Your first post for the year should include the following:

• What you're looking forward to this school year
• What skills you have that will make you successful this school year
• What challenges you have that might hinder your success this school year
• What your goals are for this school year... How do you want to improve yourself and change for the better?

3.  Check the right-hand margin of Mrs. Edlin's blog.  If you don't see yours there, please e-mail the url (web address) of your blog to her at tena.edlin@fairfieldsfuture.org.

4.  Goodreads Accounts:

If you DO NOT have a Goodreads account yet, we'll get you set up with one.

If you DO have a Goodreads account, you need to edit your bookshelves.

• You will need the following shelves to keep track of your books for this year:
• Science Fiction
• Realistic Fiction
• Poetry/Novels in Verse
• Mystery
• Historical Fiction
• Graphic Novels
• Fantasy
• Classics
• Action/Adventure
• Biography/Autobiography/Memoir
• Informational Nonfiction
• Add a shelf for "2018-2019 School Year."
• Make sure you're a part of the FMS GOAL group, and if you're not, request to join.
• Add friends from the FMS GOAL group, if you'd like to (the more friends you have, the more informative/helpful/interesting your news feed will be).
• Accept all friend requests from GOAL students in any grade.
• Adjust your notification preferences to whatever works best for you.
• Read through your updates, looking for books you might want to add to your "Want to read" shelf.

5.  UNIT INTRODUCTION

When your Goodreads account is ready to go and you've finished your blog post watch the following film to give you an introduction to our new unit to start the year.  This unit will be on Differences in Learning.  This unit is to give you an awareness of all the ways people learn.  You will develop understanding for people who learn differently from you, and you will better understand your own ways of learning.  When you know how you learn best, you can begin to advocate for yourself and take charge of your own learning and academic success.

Start by watching this video: Temple Grandin TED Talk: The World Needs All Kinds of Minds

Then, write a blog post describing what you saw, what you learned, and what it made you think about and/or wonder about.

6.  TIME TO COMMENT!

Read and respond to the blog posts of others.  But first, you need to know HOW to write good comments.  Yes, this seems obvious.  But with student blogging, it's the area which always disappoints me the most.  Even first graders seem to know how to do this better than middle school students.  Case in point: Watch the first grade video on commenting, and PAY ATTENTION to what these kids are talking about.  I know this is geared for elementary kids, but have fun with the Panda and learn from the younger generation about how to write a good blog post.

YES, I KNOW THIS MOVIE IS LAME, BUT THERE ARE NO BETTER ONES.  REALLY!  Let's MAKE a better one.  Comment to this post with at least one suggestion about how we can update this in a way that's useful and more relevant to middle schoolers than a 2-dimensional panda!

7.  Now actually read and respond to other blog posts.  Look at the righthand margin of this blog to find all the GOAL student blogs.  Read and respond to at least 3 posts about goals for the new year and at least 3 posts about the Temple Grandin video.  Try to find blogs that don't have any comments yet.  Read and edit before you post to avoid silly errors.  You may comment on GOAL blogs from any grade.

8.  Go back to your blog and see what others have said.  Respond to their comments if/when necessary.

9.  Think you're done with everything?  Make sure by submitting the checklist found here.

10.  If there are any design modifications you'd like to make to your blog (background colors, margin widths, etc.), you may do it now.

11.  When you're done with everything, you may check out books from my library and read and/or go to any of the sites on my blog along the lefthand margin under the category: Idleness Prevention Society.

The Ultimate Vacation

6th grade GOAL students:

Now that your Ultimate Vacation planning is done, write a new blog post.

Embed your YouTube video in the post, and answer the following questions:

1.  Which locations did you choose, and why did you choose them?

2.  What are a couple of interesting facts about the locations you chose?

3.  What challenges did you encounter during this project, and how did you overcome them?

4.  By doing this assignment, what did you learn about planning a trip?

5.  What part of your assignment makes you the most proud, and why?

6.  If you could improve your final product, how would you do it?

After you publish your blog post, copy its link and paste it along with the link to your itinerary into Canvas.  GOOD WORK!!!

End of the Year Evaluation!

Please go to the following link and answer the questions as thoroughly as possible.  You can look through Canvas or your assignment journal or your own blog first to remind you of some of the things we've done this year.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4SXU_gQquDr6fsYdOoI_Oh4GCoUNIP2Y10aMahXZ63s83WA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Parts of Speech Quiz

You will need a sheet of paper and a pencil.  Click this link to find your parts of speech quiz, and please write all the answers down on your paper.  Turn into the sub when finished and work on Writer's Workshop.

Images of Greatness Reflection, 2018

This quarter has been all about Images of Greatness.  Using elaborated communication, reflect and respond on a new blog post to the following:

1. Upload an image of you with your display board.  You can find the images here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mImmb61Uc2_dguN3WGRc5BX0Fo8oz-m6?usp=sharing.  Feel free to include any group pictures, as well.
2. Who was your Image of Greatness?  Why are they great, and what about them do you admire?
3. What part of your work on this unit makes you most proud?
4. What part of the unit was the most challenging?
5. How did you grow as a student/learner/person because of this unit?
6. How could you improve your work on this unit?  What would you do differently?
7. What was the best part of the actual Images of Greatness Celebration

Publish, and then comment on the posts of others in GOAL when you're finished.

Hannibal Reflection

Please write a blog post to respond to the following questions:

1.  Give a summary of the field trip for anyone who might not know about our Mark Twain unit or might not have ever been to Hannibal, Missouri. 

2.  How did your Mark Twain class work help prepare you for your trip to Hannibal?  Explain.

3.  Write 2 things you learned from the Captain of the Mark Twain Riverboat.

4.  Write 2 things you learned from the exhibits at Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum.

5.  Write 2 things you learned from Nathan, our guide at Mark Twain Cave.

6.  What was your favorite part of the trip and why?

7.  What was the most fun part of the trip and why?

8.  What part of the trip would you improve for next year's class if you could?  Explain.