Think about what you saw during the Temple Grandin movie, and reflect with an in-class writing assignment.
Choose one of the following selections.
Brainstorm/outline
What is your thesis statement?
Write. Use elaborated communication. Give evidence to support your claim/thesis.
Check over your work.
Do you have a conclusion?
Did you make any noticeable comma errors?
Hand in.
Temple Grandin is not a quitter. How did this personality trait help her in her life? How can it help you? What other personality traits do you have that can help you succeed?
Everyone needs a support system. Who made up Temple Grandin's support system, and how did they help her? Who supports you?
Everyone learns in different ways. How did Temple Grandin's way of learning and seeing the world both help her and challenge her? How do your ways of learning both help and challenge you?
Temple Grandin had to advocate for herself to be successful. How and when did she do this, and what were the outcomes? How can advocating for yourself help you to be successful?
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.
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.
