Unit: Awareness
Writing Piece: Persuasive Essay
Essential Questions:
-WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BE SELF-AWARE?
-WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO BE AWARE OF GLOBAL ISSUES?
-HOW DOES EXPERIENCE INFLUENCE ONE'S AWARENESS OF THE WORLD?
-HOW CAN WRITING BE CRAFTED SO IT MOTIVATES A REACTION FROM ITS AUDIENCE?
Today on May 6, 2015, Felicia and Tracy presented their mini-lesson. The topic of the lesson was run-on sentences. Run-on sentences are two sentences that are not combined or separated correctly. Run-on sentences can be fixed with a F.A.N.B.O.Y.S and a comma, or it can be separated with a period. To see if you understood the lesson, you were given questions to answer. I learned that run-on sentences can also be fixed with a semi-colon. The purpose of the lesson was to inform the audience about run-on sentences and how to fix them properly . I enjoyed that the students were rewarded when they got an answer correct. This showed that you will be rewarded when you work. This lesson can help me remember how to fix run-on sentences. I knew what run-on sentences were I just did not know extra ways to fix them. Once I identify and fix them my writing could become a lot better.
-Miles R.
Monday, April 13
Today’s class was powered by electricity. Our class buzzed with an uncontainable energy at the mention of a metaphor poem. Ms. Laregina began the class by instructing us to annotate a song by Katy Perry, “Fire Works.” We then answered the questions that came along with it, paying close attention to the metaphors the song contains. After that, we uploaded a poem entitled, “Caged Bird,” by Maya Angelou on to our Google Doc. Following that, we watched a video to supply us with a bit more knowledge on the hardships African-Americans faced during segregation. Once that was completed, with a partner selected using the wonderful process of choosing popsicle sticks, we began to answer questions on the bottom of the page, mainly how the metaphor related to the discrimination of African Americans. The purpose of this period was to help us analyze metaphors, and this was achieved through, reading multiple poems. The most enjoyable portion of the class was probably seeing the informational video, which was interesting. In conclusion, this lesson will greatly help us in the future with our metaphor poems that we will be writing!
-Dani J. and Rohan S.
Tuesday, March 31
In class today, we worked on finishing and handing in our poems. Afterward, we could start updating our Weebly accounts. Once we had posted our literary Analysis’, Research Analysis, and our Nature Poems, we worked on our free write. However, before we worked on the free write, we needed to work on our free write 20-point rubrics. We also are working on learning about personification. We had to use lots of personification in our poems. We had to personify something in nature; we could do a Haiku, Free Verse, Acrostic, and Limerick. We needed to have at least 10 – 12 lines and it had to have WWW, vivid verbs, sentence variation, and describing adverbs.
Tuesday, March 24
On Tuesday, our whole class reviewed the poem, "Two Sunflowers" by William Blake. The two questions our class answered was what was being personified in the poem (which were the sunflowers), and the picture the author portrayed in our head (which was the sunflowers talking to the poet). Next, we took apart the poem and revised the parts of it that confused us. This was a strategy that can strengthen our reading comprehension of poems. Subsequently, we started to brainstorm our ideas for our personification poems about the topic, nature. We provided a long list of many interesting topics that I could never think of myself (i.e rocks, leafs, mushrooms, floods etc.). In conclusion, Tuesday's class enhanced our knowledge of poetry.
-Julian R.
Thursday, March 19 and Friday, March 20
On Thursday and Friday, we used poems around the room to find
answers to a poetry scavenger hunt. Students had to use their packets of poetry
information to find poems such as limericks and Haikus. From this activity, we
learned about different types of poems, and figurative language in poems that we
will use in our personification poems about nature. I enjoyed the activity because it
was active and was really fun to try to find the right poem. I would have rather done
this then a long lecture, even though Ms. L would never make us sit through that,
right? This fun-filled activity could help us in the future by making it easier to
identify figurative language and types of poems as we read.
-Ryann W.
Wednesday, February 25
On Tuesday, we planned out our own peer editing organizer. Some kids did a paper handout, but others planned out their editing system by having students switch computers. We did not try out any of these methods, but we eventually will. I learned that there are many ways to peer edit. I used to just think you just write something down on a paper and you could show it to the person you are critiquing. I did not know how inventive you can get. The purpose of the lesson was to get creative and realize how many ways to peer edit so you could choose the one that is the most comfortable for you. I enjoyed how we were in groups because everybody had so many ideas so the challenge was to blend everything together and make a great peer editing idea. This will help me in the future because I am going to write a lot of essays or just simple writing pieces in my life so, if I come up with a good peer editing system now that works for me, I can show it to one of my peers, then they will fill it out, and I will have better writing.
-Julia B.
Thursday, January 30
Today, we continued working at our stations to revise our literary analysis essay. There were six review stations and each had a different concept to work on, such as font and word choice. We had to visit each station to revise and edit parts of our essay. I learned that these parts of your writing are really important in order to keep your writing extraordinary. If most of these concepts are not acquired, your writing piece could be a disaster. The purpose of the lesson was just to revise and edit based on the concepts on the posters. The stations had a nice and easy set up and that is what I liked about this. You could freely move on to any station you wanted to and if you finished all of them, there was a challenge. In the future, you could look back to these stations and remember some of the key concepts of writing which will help you improve.
-Ryan J.
Tuesday, January 20
Today in class for our do-now we went to Ms. LaRegina’s website (writingworkshoptms1.weebly.com) and we had to write a sentence about Robbie the dinosaur that ended with a dependent clause. After that we continued working on our Literary Essays that are due very soon. I personally learned about dependent clauses and how to use them better. The purpose of the lesson was to give us a better understanding of dependent clauses, something necessary in our Literary Essays. I enjoyed writing my own sentence about Robbie and reading my classmates’ sentences too. This lesson will help me write more interesting stories. Also, since we are switching from L’RACES to Literary Essays, dependent clauses will be more essential. Just another one of our many important lessons.
-Blog by Leo.
Friday, January 16
Hello fellow classmates! Today’s date is Friday, January 16th. In class today, we continued working on our Literary Analysis Essay. We started body paragraph 2. To figure out which author you should write about for body paragraph 2, go back to your intro and it should say the order. For example, it could say through literature, Anne Frank taught readers to _____, Langston Hughes taught readers to ______, and Rudyard Kipling taught readers to _______. Your first body paragraph would be about Anne, and your second would be about Langston Hughes. Make sure your use the same format you used for you first paragraph, and by this I mean you should be doing the same highlighting (ex. red for transition words, blue for evidence, purple for explanation, and black for closing sentence). I hoped this helped to clear things up!
-Sincerely,
Tracy Bagdonas Period 9
Thursday, January 15
In class, we did a Do Now about dependent clauses and had to make a sentence
about a picture and continued our literary essay that is an essay that is about
ethics. I learned about the correct dependent clause sentence. Dependent clauses
are a part of a sentence that can’t stand by themselves. The purpose was a review
on dependent clauses. I did enjoy the lesson because it refreshed my brain on
clauses. It can help me by using it in writing pieces in the future.
-Max O.
Friday, January 9
On Friday, January 9th, we worked on our literary analysis. "Big Joe," the chair in the Author's Cafe, was very comfortable. In our literary analysis introduction, we had to have everything completed before it was due today! Lastly, we worked on our body paragraphs in class, and we had to follow the rules for the literary analysis on Ms. LaRegina's website.
-James M.
Wednesday, January 7 and Thursday January 8
Wednesday during class, we learned what a meaningful lead is and how to construct a proper thesis statement. Knowing all this, we started to write our introductions to our Literary Analysis Essay. We incorporated our exemplary thesis statements and detailed leads to our writing piece. The essay is about the ethical decisions made by all the characters in the three texts, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Diary of Anne Frank and I,Too, Sing America.
On Thursday, January 8, we continued to write our introductions as well as learn how to write a bridge in between our introduction and thesis statement. While the internet was down, the classes had to power through and be flexible to still be able to complete the introductions. After the introductions were done, we continued to work on our free write rubrics and our stories. Remember, the introductions are due tomorrow!!!
By, Kayla Hsu and Arden MacNeil
Tuesday, January 6
Today, in class, we worked on our literary analysis brainstorming. We are going to be writing about three pieces, and their ethical lessons. The three pieces are, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank, I, Too, Sing America, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. We used the pieces themselves, and our venn diagrams that we made, to help us complete the organizer. We learned to take out lots of quotes from the text, so when we start writing, we will have enough material to write about. The purpose of this lesson was to teach us about the essay, and help us prepare for it. Something I enjoyed about the lesson was that we got to work with a partner, so we could bounce ideas off of each other. This lesson can help us in the very near future, when we need to start writing our actual piece, because then we will already have our ideas organized, and we will also have evidence to support our essay. We will finish our brainstorming for homework.<330.gif>
-Manasvini Anjaria
Wednesday, December 17
In class, we wrote as a Do Now what ethical lessons we learned from Anne Frank and Langston Hughes, I Too Sing America. We also wrote how writing can change society and the world. After that, we began reading Rikki-Tikki Tavi, a story about a mongoose, while listening to an audio recording. I personally learned that persuasive writing can change society by convincing people to do something. The purpose of the lesson today was to learn an ethical lesson from a fictional piece (Rikki-Tikki Tavi). I liked the Do Now because they were good questions to review what we learned. This lesson was helpful and will help us in the future because we will have ethical situations in our lives and hopefully we will choose the ethical decision.
-Julia B.
Tuesday, December 16
Today in class, we read Langston Hughes’ poem and analyzed what his metaphors meant. For example, one sentence in his poem was “but tomorrow, I’ll be sitting at the table, and no one will dare to tell me to eat in the kitchen.” Our class noticed that it meant In the future, no one will tell him what to do. After, we chose a partner and answered three questions about the poem. To wrap it all up, I learned so much in class today. I learned more about metaphors and given additional info on Langston Hughes.
~Zach Jachera~
Wednesday, December 10
To off class, we went on Google Docs. We went to the Do Now section and wrote about a time and a decision that we had to make. We then said if it was a good or bad decision. Next, we talked about this with the class. Then, Mrs. LaRegina told us deciding if things were correct and incorrect decisions were called ethics. We then went over a few more examples of ethics.
JOSH F.
Friday, December 5
During class today, we took part in completing the comma station activities. These stations tell us all about commas, where they go and what they do. The homework we talked about was due Tuesday, December 9. This homework assignment included writing a sentence about a picture using a word wall unit 3 word and a type of sentence variation. We liked how this activity was fun and active and helped us analyze where commas are placed. The purpose was to give us some more knowledge about commas and what they can do in writing. Doing this activity can help us in the future when we start to write on our own and help the readers understand.
-Ryann Wall And Kayla Hsu
Tuesday, December 2
Today in class, we continued to fill out our nomination cards for Author's Cafe. By reading other's pieces, we are getting great inspiration right from our own classroom! After all of the nominations are in, Ms. LaRegina will pick the two most voted who will become the new residents of the Author's Cafe.
-Dani Jayinski and Abby Hanvey
Thursday, November 21
Today in class, we learned about how to write headlines. We watched a video that told us the basics. The first thing we learned was to summarize the article in 4-6 words. Secondly, we learned that the headlines have to be creative and grab the reader's attention. Then, we finished our articles by adding creative headlines and submitting them to Ms. LaRegina's website. Lastly, we completed our tidbits and started the final newspapers by airdropping our articles to one computer per group. The group leaders started the newspapers by putting the articles onto a document and formatting it to look like a newspaper.
Foxy and The Dazz
Wednesday, November 20
Today, we peer edited our news articles. We passed around our computers within our news paper groups. As we were peer editing we were adding comments on the article about what we liked, and what they can improve on. All of us thought that this really helped us improve on our pieces. The things that we were looking to improve on, were not only grammar and spelling, but also word choice, sentence variation and all of the other important requirements. When we were peer editing, we noticed some things that we liked, and we added to our own news article. After this activity, we concluded that this format of peer editing was a great success!
Mike DePaola and Ellie Pickel
Tuesday, November 19
Today we watched a PowerPoint about sentence variation, independent clauses, dependent clauses, and FANBOYS. We learned the correct way to write and use these different types of sentence variations in our writing. We did this so that when we write pieces in the future, there are a variety of sentences. This relates to our articles because we have to have 4 types of sentence variation.
Hailey K. and Remi V.
Monday, November 3
Today we learned about indirect quotes and direct quotes. We learned this by highlighting them in a news article Ms. LaRegina gave us.
A direct quote is a quote that a person actually said and an indirect quote is a paraphrase of a quote some one actually said.. The point of this activity was to help us understand that every news article should include quotes, both indirect and direct.
-Julia B. and Clare
Friday, October 31
TODAY WAS HALLOWEEN!!!! We started out with a halloween dance party. Then, we finished our inverted pyramid organizers if we weren't finished already, since our research was due today. The group leaders learned how to manage the group and use the color coded progress board. (Remember to check in with your group leader often!) Since everybody was working at their own pace, we all were working on different parts of the writing process. Some people were still researching, but you should be done by now. If you finished researching, you can start typing your first draft. By the end of next class, everyone should have at least two paragraphs. Then by Monday or Tuesday, we should all be caught up. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kaleigh Einhorn and_Jonah Leibowitz :)
TODAY WE LEARNED HOW TO USE AN INVERTED PYRAMID ORGANIZER THINGY. WE CREATED ONE FOR AN ARTICLE THAT WE ARE GOING TO WRITE VERY SOON. IT IS SOME THING THAT YOU CAN USE TO ORGANIZE AN ARTICLE BY INCORPORATING YOUR FACTS/RESEARCH (THAT WE DID IN CLASS AND AT HOME FOR THE PAST WEEK) IN THE ORGANIZER. THIS TRIANGLE THAT IS UPSIDE-DOWN WILL HELP US WRITE OUR NEWS ARTICLE BY SHOWING US THE ORDER WE NEED TO PUT THE FACTS IN--FROM MOST IMPORTANT TO LEAST IMPORTANT.
~LEO SHEAR AND DEVON BOTNEY
Wednesday, October 29
Today we observed and learned about the inverted format for a news article. For the do now we identified news articles structures and recognized how to use an inverted triangle format. We worked with our news groups to read an article and make an inverted triangle to organize the most important to least important information and details. After this, we started our own triangles using the research we found for our main article. At the end of class, we got awesome stickers that were SCENTED!!!
By- Manasvini and Ryann
Monday, October 27 and Tuesday, October 28
For the past two days, we have ben researching our topics for our newspaper articles. On many different news websites, including the New York Times, we have site searched local, world wide, and science and technology stories. I personally am writing about enterovirus 68. I have learned so much more about the topic and feel as though I have stretched my knowledge to a further extent just because newspaper reporters can give you numerous point of views. We am looking forward to writing our own newspapers with the research we've done over the last couple days so we can inform others on these riveting topics.
-----------Maura Farrell------------ :) :) :)
Monday, October 20
A few days ago, Ms. LaRegina had us bring in different newspapers and in class, we've worked with our classmates to start doing a genre immersion. A genre immersion is when you look and analyze a piece of writing to learn more about it. In our genre immersion, we are working in groups, and we picked an article from a newspaper to analyze and answer questions about. While answering the questions, we obtained a deeper understanding of the format of a newspaper. I, for example, learned that the heading of an article should catch the reader's interest and summarize the article. We just started making posters with our partners, which will explain different parts of the newspaper, such as the heading, picture and captions. As a result of these activities, we will be able to write our own newspapers based on the information we have gathered during our genre immersion.
-Felicia Su
Wednesday, October 8 - Friday, 10: WEEBLY DAYS!
For the past few days, we've been creating our own Weebly sites. Weebly is a creative website design where you can design your own website. We are creating websites, so we can share our writing with others. On Thursday, October 7th, we brainstormed ideas for our About Me page on our site. On Friday, October 8th we started to type up the About Me page on our websites. On the About Me page, we can talk or share anything about ourselves. We can put up pictures and design the website any way we want to! But, we are being careful and safe about what information we are putting on our sites. We are doing the All About Me page to give our readers an idea of who we are and our personalities!
-Maya Waldman, Clare McGuinnness, and William Barnett!!!!
Tuesday, October 7
In class today we all did different things at our own pace. First we had to put the finishing touches on our vignettes. Then we had to upload our vignettes to Ms. LaRegina's website. After this, we worked on our word wall organizer. If we finished doing that, we would free write using the ideas on her website. We were all very excited to finish up the writing pieces we had been working on for a month, and everybody was relieved to hand it in. We learned some new skills in writing like poetic devices including similes, compound sentences, and vivid description, and we practiced old skills like description, sensory details, and show-not-tell. Everyone is excited to learn more skills and start our next master-piece!
-Julia Blaschak, Ellie Pickel, and Jonah Leibowitz :)
Monday, October 6
In class today, we thought about how we could make our pieces better. In addition to that, we looked at the feedback from our fellow peers in other classes. We also briefly edited and revised our classmates' writing pieces. We did this so that we could get other opinions on our writing. We used the rubric as a guide to make sure our writing was the best it could be, and that we included everything we needed.
REMI VENTURA, HAILEY KINARD, AND AMANDA SABA :)
Thursday, October 2 and Friday, October 3
Today in class we worked on peer editing, and we helped our classmates with their writing. This is helpful to us and the students we're editing for because they can see what needs to be edited and so can we. We looked specifically for sensory details, similes, compound sentences, word wall words and things that flow well. We looked at about two pieces of writing per group of two. This activity was very fun and helpful to us as writers!
~MAE MERKLE, SERENA SIRCHIO AND CHRISTIAN COLLINS :)
Wednesday, October 1
Today in class, we worked on finishing our rough drafts. Even though finishing a piece of writing may seem to be the kind of thing that would make you want to rip your hair out from stress, if you try to have fun it can be extremely amusing. Finishing a writing piece is always exciting for me because you get to read your piece and see how it turned out. We made sure we had all of the requirements to have excellent writing, and then printed our pieces to prepare for peer-conferencing.
-Maura Farrell :)
Tuesday, September 30
Today we learned about similes. A simile is when you compare two things using the words like or as. After, we continued our vignettes. A vignette is a piece that represents your background and history. We added three word wall words and three compound sentences to our writing. While doing that, Ms.LaRegina conferenced with our classmates.
---------------------
BY JULIAN AND ZACH
---------------------
Monday, September 29
Today, we added three Word Wall words into our vignettes. A Word Wall word is a word that better word to replace boring words. It helps our writing become more interesting and helps us have better word choice. It also adds more description. We also added three compound sentences to our vignettes. The class continued writing their vignettes, while the teacher conferenced with students.
-Jordan Katz, Meagan Lavin, Megan Lozito, Haley Tavares.
Monday, September 22
Today we worked with sensory details and the 5 senses. Every kid brought in 3 artifacts that had to do with their vignettes that we have been working with for the past couple of days. During class we worked with our artifacts to add details about taste, smell, sight, touch and sound to make our vignettes stand out. This taught us to describe objects more specifically and descriptively. For example,22 if someone was writing about a dog bone he/she would talk about the bone. Instead the student can describe what it feels like, smells like and maybe what it looks like by using the lesson we learned today.
by Ryann Wall
Friday, September 1
Today in class,we got to complete our first ever blog post! We went on to Miss. LaRegina's website and completed a do now. The Do Now was to create a compound sentence that included a vivid verb and a descriptive adjective, but most of us forgot to use FANBOYS, so she had to help us out. Afterwards, we worked on our vignettes for 10 minutes or so and received our homework assignment to bring in 3 artifacts that remind us of our vignette topic. Then lastly, to top the day off, we were given conferencing sheets for Monday when we would help better our draft and compound sentences with Miss LaRegina's help. Overall, this period was a success and everyone enjoyed it tremendously!
by Jamie Frank
Thursday, September 18
Today in class we finished our spectacular Vignette brainstorming.. All the ideas were wonderful, like our first names, our stuffed animals, siblings and much more. We also learned a lot, Our wonderful teacher, Ms. LaRegina, taught us how to convert our brainstorming into a amazing detailed Vignettes. You take your ideas and thoughts and stuff them into a writing piece. We also learned that it isn't that hard to take short little phrases and turn them into jam-packed delight! We also went over the class routines when we needed help. So, if you need help with a computer grab a red cup and go back to your seat
and wait for them to help you. Also, if you need Ms. LaRegina, put a sticky note with your name and question on the help board.
-=+=-
Chris & Owen
-=+=-
Wednesday, September 17
Today in class, we completed half of our brainstorming. We started by reading the directions for Macs. We logged on, created a new folder, and plugged in our flash drives. After that, we closed our computers and finished our brainstorming.. Next, we typed up our brainstorming into a rough draft. Then, we saved to our flash drives and then logged off our computers and put them away by number, so they will be ready for the next period. We put our binders away and flash drives. Tomorrow we will be finishing up our rough drafts.
-Abby Hanvey and Abbey Colao
Tuesday, September 16
Today in class, we started the period by going over what a vignette is. This specific writing piece is a short description of one's life/experiences that affected them in some way. This writing does not directly describe the author. Next, we were handed a brainstorming sheet, and Ms. LaRegina displayed her example. On this brainstorming sheet, we included images, history, memories, and feelings for a topic we strongly believe in to write our own vignette. We had ten minutes to silently work on this sheet which was splendid practice for things that will appear further in the year. At the end of class, we left brain-stuffed with ideas about our first project. Are you ready to write a poem-like, expressive portrait of a special moment in your life?
-Daniela Jayinski and Kayla Hsu
Monday, September 15
Today, we. got into groups and did a genre immersion. A genre immersion is when you look at a certain type of writing piece and answer deep-thinking questions to better your understanding of that genre. Each group recieved a few different vignettes to analyze and pick apart. We learned what a vignette is. A vignette is a writing piece that reflects on the character's past, goes over the present, and gives you a glimpse of the character's thoughts about the future. A vignette is usually written in first person perspective and the narrator is often the main focus. Lastly, a vignette is filled with an abundance of vivid verbs, descriptive adjectives, personification, alliterations, and metaphors.
-Jordan Choi and Manasvini Anjaria
-Miles R.
Monday, April 13
Today’s class was powered by electricity. Our class buzzed with an uncontainable energy at the mention of a metaphor poem. Ms. Laregina began the class by instructing us to annotate a song by Katy Perry, “Fire Works.” We then answered the questions that came along with it, paying close attention to the metaphors the song contains. After that, we uploaded a poem entitled, “Caged Bird,” by Maya Angelou on to our Google Doc. Following that, we watched a video to supply us with a bit more knowledge on the hardships African-Americans faced during segregation. Once that was completed, with a partner selected using the wonderful process of choosing popsicle sticks, we began to answer questions on the bottom of the page, mainly how the metaphor related to the discrimination of African Americans. The purpose of this period was to help us analyze metaphors, and this was achieved through, reading multiple poems. The most enjoyable portion of the class was probably seeing the informational video, which was interesting. In conclusion, this lesson will greatly help us in the future with our metaphor poems that we will be writing!
-Dani J. and Rohan S.
Tuesday, March 31
In class today, we worked on finishing and handing in our poems. Afterward, we could start updating our Weebly accounts. Once we had posted our literary Analysis’, Research Analysis, and our Nature Poems, we worked on our free write. However, before we worked on the free write, we needed to work on our free write 20-point rubrics. We also are working on learning about personification. We had to use lots of personification in our poems. We had to personify something in nature; we could do a Haiku, Free Verse, Acrostic, and Limerick. We needed to have at least 10 – 12 lines and it had to have WWW, vivid verbs, sentence variation, and describing adverbs.
Tuesday, March 24
On Tuesday, our whole class reviewed the poem, "Two Sunflowers" by William Blake. The two questions our class answered was what was being personified in the poem (which were the sunflowers), and the picture the author portrayed in our head (which was the sunflowers talking to the poet). Next, we took apart the poem and revised the parts of it that confused us. This was a strategy that can strengthen our reading comprehension of poems. Subsequently, we started to brainstorm our ideas for our personification poems about the topic, nature. We provided a long list of many interesting topics that I could never think of myself (i.e rocks, leafs, mushrooms, floods etc.). In conclusion, Tuesday's class enhanced our knowledge of poetry.
-Julian R.
Thursday, March 19 and Friday, March 20
On Thursday and Friday, we used poems around the room to find
answers to a poetry scavenger hunt. Students had to use their packets of poetry
information to find poems such as limericks and Haikus. From this activity, we
learned about different types of poems, and figurative language in poems that we
will use in our personification poems about nature. I enjoyed the activity because it
was active and was really fun to try to find the right poem. I would have rather done
this then a long lecture, even though Ms. L would never make us sit through that,
right? This fun-filled activity could help us in the future by making it easier to
identify figurative language and types of poems as we read.
-Ryann W.
Wednesday, February 25
On Tuesday, we planned out our own peer editing organizer. Some kids did a paper handout, but others planned out their editing system by having students switch computers. We did not try out any of these methods, but we eventually will. I learned that there are many ways to peer edit. I used to just think you just write something down on a paper and you could show it to the person you are critiquing. I did not know how inventive you can get. The purpose of the lesson was to get creative and realize how many ways to peer edit so you could choose the one that is the most comfortable for you. I enjoyed how we were in groups because everybody had so many ideas so the challenge was to blend everything together and make a great peer editing idea. This will help me in the future because I am going to write a lot of essays or just simple writing pieces in my life so, if I come up with a good peer editing system now that works for me, I can show it to one of my peers, then they will fill it out, and I will have better writing.
-Julia B.
Thursday, January 30
Today, we continued working at our stations to revise our literary analysis essay. There were six review stations and each had a different concept to work on, such as font and word choice. We had to visit each station to revise and edit parts of our essay. I learned that these parts of your writing are really important in order to keep your writing extraordinary. If most of these concepts are not acquired, your writing piece could be a disaster. The purpose of the lesson was just to revise and edit based on the concepts on the posters. The stations had a nice and easy set up and that is what I liked about this. You could freely move on to any station you wanted to and if you finished all of them, there was a challenge. In the future, you could look back to these stations and remember some of the key concepts of writing which will help you improve.
-Ryan J.
Tuesday, January 20
Today in class for our do-now we went to Ms. LaRegina’s website (writingworkshoptms1.weebly.com) and we had to write a sentence about Robbie the dinosaur that ended with a dependent clause. After that we continued working on our Literary Essays that are due very soon. I personally learned about dependent clauses and how to use them better. The purpose of the lesson was to give us a better understanding of dependent clauses, something necessary in our Literary Essays. I enjoyed writing my own sentence about Robbie and reading my classmates’ sentences too. This lesson will help me write more interesting stories. Also, since we are switching from L’RACES to Literary Essays, dependent clauses will be more essential. Just another one of our many important lessons.
-Blog by Leo.
Friday, January 16
Hello fellow classmates! Today’s date is Friday, January 16th. In class today, we continued working on our Literary Analysis Essay. We started body paragraph 2. To figure out which author you should write about for body paragraph 2, go back to your intro and it should say the order. For example, it could say through literature, Anne Frank taught readers to _____, Langston Hughes taught readers to ______, and Rudyard Kipling taught readers to _______. Your first body paragraph would be about Anne, and your second would be about Langston Hughes. Make sure your use the same format you used for you first paragraph, and by this I mean you should be doing the same highlighting (ex. red for transition words, blue for evidence, purple for explanation, and black for closing sentence). I hoped this helped to clear things up!
-Sincerely,
Tracy Bagdonas Period 9
Thursday, January 15
In class, we did a Do Now about dependent clauses and had to make a sentence
about a picture and continued our literary essay that is an essay that is about
ethics. I learned about the correct dependent clause sentence. Dependent clauses
are a part of a sentence that can’t stand by themselves. The purpose was a review
on dependent clauses. I did enjoy the lesson because it refreshed my brain on
clauses. It can help me by using it in writing pieces in the future.
-Max O.
Friday, January 9
On Friday, January 9th, we worked on our literary analysis. "Big Joe," the chair in the Author's Cafe, was very comfortable. In our literary analysis introduction, we had to have everything completed before it was due today! Lastly, we worked on our body paragraphs in class, and we had to follow the rules for the literary analysis on Ms. LaRegina's website.
-James M.
Wednesday, January 7 and Thursday January 8
Wednesday during class, we learned what a meaningful lead is and how to construct a proper thesis statement. Knowing all this, we started to write our introductions to our Literary Analysis Essay. We incorporated our exemplary thesis statements and detailed leads to our writing piece. The essay is about the ethical decisions made by all the characters in the three texts, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Diary of Anne Frank and I,Too, Sing America.
On Thursday, January 8, we continued to write our introductions as well as learn how to write a bridge in between our introduction and thesis statement. While the internet was down, the classes had to power through and be flexible to still be able to complete the introductions. After the introductions were done, we continued to work on our free write rubrics and our stories. Remember, the introductions are due tomorrow!!!
By, Kayla Hsu and Arden MacNeil
Tuesday, January 6
Today, in class, we worked on our literary analysis brainstorming. We are going to be writing about three pieces, and their ethical lessons. The three pieces are, an excerpt from The Diary of Anne Frank, I, Too, Sing America, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi. We used the pieces themselves, and our venn diagrams that we made, to help us complete the organizer. We learned to take out lots of quotes from the text, so when we start writing, we will have enough material to write about. The purpose of this lesson was to teach us about the essay, and help us prepare for it. Something I enjoyed about the lesson was that we got to work with a partner, so we could bounce ideas off of each other. This lesson can help us in the very near future, when we need to start writing our actual piece, because then we will already have our ideas organized, and we will also have evidence to support our essay. We will finish our brainstorming for homework.<330.gif>
-Manasvini Anjaria
Wednesday, December 17
In class, we wrote as a Do Now what ethical lessons we learned from Anne Frank and Langston Hughes, I Too Sing America. We also wrote how writing can change society and the world. After that, we began reading Rikki-Tikki Tavi, a story about a mongoose, while listening to an audio recording. I personally learned that persuasive writing can change society by convincing people to do something. The purpose of the lesson today was to learn an ethical lesson from a fictional piece (Rikki-Tikki Tavi). I liked the Do Now because they were good questions to review what we learned. This lesson was helpful and will help us in the future because we will have ethical situations in our lives and hopefully we will choose the ethical decision.
-Julia B.
Tuesday, December 16
Today in class, we read Langston Hughes’ poem and analyzed what his metaphors meant. For example, one sentence in his poem was “but tomorrow, I’ll be sitting at the table, and no one will dare to tell me to eat in the kitchen.” Our class noticed that it meant In the future, no one will tell him what to do. After, we chose a partner and answered three questions about the poem. To wrap it all up, I learned so much in class today. I learned more about metaphors and given additional info on Langston Hughes.
~Zach Jachera~
Wednesday, December 10
To off class, we went on Google Docs. We went to the Do Now section and wrote about a time and a decision that we had to make. We then said if it was a good or bad decision. Next, we talked about this with the class. Then, Mrs. LaRegina told us deciding if things were correct and incorrect decisions were called ethics. We then went over a few more examples of ethics.
JOSH F.
Friday, December 5
During class today, we took part in completing the comma station activities. These stations tell us all about commas, where they go and what they do. The homework we talked about was due Tuesday, December 9. This homework assignment included writing a sentence about a picture using a word wall unit 3 word and a type of sentence variation. We liked how this activity was fun and active and helped us analyze where commas are placed. The purpose was to give us some more knowledge about commas and what they can do in writing. Doing this activity can help us in the future when we start to write on our own and help the readers understand.
-Ryann Wall And Kayla Hsu
Tuesday, December 2
Today in class, we continued to fill out our nomination cards for Author's Cafe. By reading other's pieces, we are getting great inspiration right from our own classroom! After all of the nominations are in, Ms. LaRegina will pick the two most voted who will become the new residents of the Author's Cafe.
-Dani Jayinski and Abby Hanvey
Thursday, November 21
Today in class, we learned about how to write headlines. We watched a video that told us the basics. The first thing we learned was to summarize the article in 4-6 words. Secondly, we learned that the headlines have to be creative and grab the reader's attention. Then, we finished our articles by adding creative headlines and submitting them to Ms. LaRegina's website. Lastly, we completed our tidbits and started the final newspapers by airdropping our articles to one computer per group. The group leaders started the newspapers by putting the articles onto a document and formatting it to look like a newspaper.
Foxy and The Dazz
Wednesday, November 20
Today, we peer edited our news articles. We passed around our computers within our news paper groups. As we were peer editing we were adding comments on the article about what we liked, and what they can improve on. All of us thought that this really helped us improve on our pieces. The things that we were looking to improve on, were not only grammar and spelling, but also word choice, sentence variation and all of the other important requirements. When we were peer editing, we noticed some things that we liked, and we added to our own news article. After this activity, we concluded that this format of peer editing was a great success!
Mike DePaola and Ellie Pickel
Tuesday, November 19
Today we watched a PowerPoint about sentence variation, independent clauses, dependent clauses, and FANBOYS. We learned the correct way to write and use these different types of sentence variations in our writing. We did this so that when we write pieces in the future, there are a variety of sentences. This relates to our articles because we have to have 4 types of sentence variation.
Hailey K. and Remi V.
Monday, November 3
Today we learned about indirect quotes and direct quotes. We learned this by highlighting them in a news article Ms. LaRegina gave us.
A direct quote is a quote that a person actually said and an indirect quote is a paraphrase of a quote some one actually said.. The point of this activity was to help us understand that every news article should include quotes, both indirect and direct.
-Julia B. and Clare
Friday, October 31
TODAY WAS HALLOWEEN!!!! We started out with a halloween dance party. Then, we finished our inverted pyramid organizers if we weren't finished already, since our research was due today. The group leaders learned how to manage the group and use the color coded progress board. (Remember to check in with your group leader often!) Since everybody was working at their own pace, we all were working on different parts of the writing process. Some people were still researching, but you should be done by now. If you finished researching, you can start typing your first draft. By the end of next class, everyone should have at least two paragraphs. Then by Monday or Tuesday, we should all be caught up. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kaleigh Einhorn and_Jonah Leibowitz :)
TODAY WE LEARNED HOW TO USE AN INVERTED PYRAMID ORGANIZER THINGY. WE CREATED ONE FOR AN ARTICLE THAT WE ARE GOING TO WRITE VERY SOON. IT IS SOME THING THAT YOU CAN USE TO ORGANIZE AN ARTICLE BY INCORPORATING YOUR FACTS/RESEARCH (THAT WE DID IN CLASS AND AT HOME FOR THE PAST WEEK) IN THE ORGANIZER. THIS TRIANGLE THAT IS UPSIDE-DOWN WILL HELP US WRITE OUR NEWS ARTICLE BY SHOWING US THE ORDER WE NEED TO PUT THE FACTS IN--FROM MOST IMPORTANT TO LEAST IMPORTANT.
~LEO SHEAR AND DEVON BOTNEY
Wednesday, October 29
Today we observed and learned about the inverted format for a news article. For the do now we identified news articles structures and recognized how to use an inverted triangle format. We worked with our news groups to read an article and make an inverted triangle to organize the most important to least important information and details. After this, we started our own triangles using the research we found for our main article. At the end of class, we got awesome stickers that were SCENTED!!!
By- Manasvini and Ryann
Monday, October 27 and Tuesday, October 28
For the past two days, we have ben researching our topics for our newspaper articles. On many different news websites, including the New York Times, we have site searched local, world wide, and science and technology stories. I personally am writing about enterovirus 68. I have learned so much more about the topic and feel as though I have stretched my knowledge to a further extent just because newspaper reporters can give you numerous point of views. We am looking forward to writing our own newspapers with the research we've done over the last couple days so we can inform others on these riveting topics.
-----------Maura Farrell------------ :) :) :)
Monday, October 20
A few days ago, Ms. LaRegina had us bring in different newspapers and in class, we've worked with our classmates to start doing a genre immersion. A genre immersion is when you look and analyze a piece of writing to learn more about it. In our genre immersion, we are working in groups, and we picked an article from a newspaper to analyze and answer questions about. While answering the questions, we obtained a deeper understanding of the format of a newspaper. I, for example, learned that the heading of an article should catch the reader's interest and summarize the article. We just started making posters with our partners, which will explain different parts of the newspaper, such as the heading, picture and captions. As a result of these activities, we will be able to write our own newspapers based on the information we have gathered during our genre immersion.
-Felicia Su
Wednesday, October 8 - Friday, 10: WEEBLY DAYS!
For the past few days, we've been creating our own Weebly sites. Weebly is a creative website design where you can design your own website. We are creating websites, so we can share our writing with others. On Thursday, October 7th, we brainstormed ideas for our About Me page on our site. On Friday, October 8th we started to type up the About Me page on our websites. On the About Me page, we can talk or share anything about ourselves. We can put up pictures and design the website any way we want to! But, we are being careful and safe about what information we are putting on our sites. We are doing the All About Me page to give our readers an idea of who we are and our personalities!
-Maya Waldman, Clare McGuinnness, and William Barnett!!!!
Tuesday, October 7
In class today we all did different things at our own pace. First we had to put the finishing touches on our vignettes. Then we had to upload our vignettes to Ms. LaRegina's website. After this, we worked on our word wall organizer. If we finished doing that, we would free write using the ideas on her website. We were all very excited to finish up the writing pieces we had been working on for a month, and everybody was relieved to hand it in. We learned some new skills in writing like poetic devices including similes, compound sentences, and vivid description, and we practiced old skills like description, sensory details, and show-not-tell. Everyone is excited to learn more skills and start our next master-piece!
-Julia Blaschak, Ellie Pickel, and Jonah Leibowitz :)
Monday, October 6
In class today, we thought about how we could make our pieces better. In addition to that, we looked at the feedback from our fellow peers in other classes. We also briefly edited and revised our classmates' writing pieces. We did this so that we could get other opinions on our writing. We used the rubric as a guide to make sure our writing was the best it could be, and that we included everything we needed.
REMI VENTURA, HAILEY KINARD, AND AMANDA SABA :)
Thursday, October 2 and Friday, October 3
Today in class we worked on peer editing, and we helped our classmates with their writing. This is helpful to us and the students we're editing for because they can see what needs to be edited and so can we. We looked specifically for sensory details, similes, compound sentences, word wall words and things that flow well. We looked at about two pieces of writing per group of two. This activity was very fun and helpful to us as writers!
~MAE MERKLE, SERENA SIRCHIO AND CHRISTIAN COLLINS :)
Wednesday, October 1
Today in class, we worked on finishing our rough drafts. Even though finishing a piece of writing may seem to be the kind of thing that would make you want to rip your hair out from stress, if you try to have fun it can be extremely amusing. Finishing a writing piece is always exciting for me because you get to read your piece and see how it turned out. We made sure we had all of the requirements to have excellent writing, and then printed our pieces to prepare for peer-conferencing.
-Maura Farrell :)
Tuesday, September 30
Today we learned about similes. A simile is when you compare two things using the words like or as. After, we continued our vignettes. A vignette is a piece that represents your background and history. We added three word wall words and three compound sentences to our writing. While doing that, Ms.LaRegina conferenced with our classmates.
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BY JULIAN AND ZACH
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Monday, September 29
Today, we added three Word Wall words into our vignettes. A Word Wall word is a word that better word to replace boring words. It helps our writing become more interesting and helps us have better word choice. It also adds more description. We also added three compound sentences to our vignettes. The class continued writing their vignettes, while the teacher conferenced with students.
-Jordan Katz, Meagan Lavin, Megan Lozito, Haley Tavares.
Monday, September 22
Today we worked with sensory details and the 5 senses. Every kid brought in 3 artifacts that had to do with their vignettes that we have been working with for the past couple of days. During class we worked with our artifacts to add details about taste, smell, sight, touch and sound to make our vignettes stand out. This taught us to describe objects more specifically and descriptively. For example,22 if someone was writing about a dog bone he/she would talk about the bone. Instead the student can describe what it feels like, smells like and maybe what it looks like by using the lesson we learned today.
by Ryann Wall
Friday, September 1
Today in class,we got to complete our first ever blog post! We went on to Miss. LaRegina's website and completed a do now. The Do Now was to create a compound sentence that included a vivid verb and a descriptive adjective, but most of us forgot to use FANBOYS, so she had to help us out. Afterwards, we worked on our vignettes for 10 minutes or so and received our homework assignment to bring in 3 artifacts that remind us of our vignette topic. Then lastly, to top the day off, we were given conferencing sheets for Monday when we would help better our draft and compound sentences with Miss LaRegina's help. Overall, this period was a success and everyone enjoyed it tremendously!
by Jamie Frank
Thursday, September 18
Today in class we finished our spectacular Vignette brainstorming.. All the ideas were wonderful, like our first names, our stuffed animals, siblings and much more. We also learned a lot, Our wonderful teacher, Ms. LaRegina, taught us how to convert our brainstorming into a amazing detailed Vignettes. You take your ideas and thoughts and stuff them into a writing piece. We also learned that it isn't that hard to take short little phrases and turn them into jam-packed delight! We also went over the class routines when we needed help. So, if you need help with a computer grab a red cup and go back to your seat
and wait for them to help you. Also, if you need Ms. LaRegina, put a sticky note with your name and question on the help board.
-=+=-
Chris & Owen
-=+=-
Wednesday, September 17
Today in class, we completed half of our brainstorming. We started by reading the directions for Macs. We logged on, created a new folder, and plugged in our flash drives. After that, we closed our computers and finished our brainstorming.. Next, we typed up our brainstorming into a rough draft. Then, we saved to our flash drives and then logged off our computers and put them away by number, so they will be ready for the next period. We put our binders away and flash drives. Tomorrow we will be finishing up our rough drafts.
-Abby Hanvey and Abbey Colao
Tuesday, September 16
Today in class, we started the period by going over what a vignette is. This specific writing piece is a short description of one's life/experiences that affected them in some way. This writing does not directly describe the author. Next, we were handed a brainstorming sheet, and Ms. LaRegina displayed her example. On this brainstorming sheet, we included images, history, memories, and feelings for a topic we strongly believe in to write our own vignette. We had ten minutes to silently work on this sheet which was splendid practice for things that will appear further in the year. At the end of class, we left brain-stuffed with ideas about our first project. Are you ready to write a poem-like, expressive portrait of a special moment in your life?
-Daniela Jayinski and Kayla Hsu
Monday, September 15
Today, we. got into groups and did a genre immersion. A genre immersion is when you look at a certain type of writing piece and answer deep-thinking questions to better your understanding of that genre. Each group recieved a few different vignettes to analyze and pick apart. We learned what a vignette is. A vignette is a writing piece that reflects on the character's past, goes over the present, and gives you a glimpse of the character's thoughts about the future. A vignette is usually written in first person perspective and the narrator is often the main focus. Lastly, a vignette is filled with an abundance of vivid verbs, descriptive adjectives, personification, alliterations, and metaphors.
-Jordan Choi and Manasvini Anjaria