sloanspace

This week in New Media we started putting together the print edition of our work to date. Last week you sketched pages; this week students used the Adobe Suite to put them together.

Also, by Monday, October 16, everybody needs to have contracted for an ad with a local business. If you have questions, see me.

Your task for homework on 9/28 was to find the greatness in the classics books we’re reading. At a bare minimum here’s what you should have done:
• Refer back to the course description about homework requirements
• And to the “do’s and don’ts of academic writing” (e.g. use paragraphs).
• Proofread (at least run a spell check)

Some of you did outstanding work on this assignment. Here’s what made some responses excellent:
• Explicitly addressed the assignment prompt (in this case, what makes the book a classic?)
• Went beyond an easy and obvious connection
• Made insightful connections to your experience, reading, and/or observation
• Went beyond summary
• Provided specific detail
• Backed up a claim with evidence and examples
• Discussed literary terms specifically, precisely (the 14 questions about style would be a good place to start)
• Backed up claims with evidence.
• Explanation of quote shed light on an important idea, character or theme in the book.
• An awareness of historical/biographical context.
• Struggled with difficult text, and was perceptive.
• No fluff

For homework Tuesday, October 10:

• Make the classics relevant. Find a significant quote from the beginning, middle, and end of the book. Make the classic relevant to today by citing evidence from your own experience, observation, and/or reading (approximately 300 words). An example would be Mary Pipher’s Reviving Ophelia. In the book the author uses Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a way to talk about a current issue with teenage girls. That’s how the author is making the classic relevant to us today.
• Write 200-300 words about biographical/historical info. This is important information about the author’s life and times that shed light on the book.
• Find an online essay that someone wrote about the book. Write a 3-5 sentence critique of that online essay. Print the essay and bring it to class with you October 10.

For homework, Monday, October 16
Bring in information about a writing contest for high school students, even if you yourself might not interested in entering that contest. Write deadlines on class calendar. Information about the contest is due October 16. Don’t bring in information about the same contest as your friends; find your own information.  Look in your favorite magazines, go online, check the counseling office, ask your teachers.

Today we began describing the 5 basic types of journalistic writing: news, opinion, feature, column, review. The question of the day is, what makes each type what they are. For instance, what’s the criteria of a news story? How is that different than the criteria for an opinion story? Here are some things to think about:

• what are the typical subjects?
• what’s their purpose? (inform, entertain, explain, persuade)
• what person are they written in? (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
• do writers state their own opinion in the story?
• do they directly quote people in their stories?
• how long are they?

For homework this weekend, finish the recommended reading book.

We’ll start reading 1984 by George Orwell next week. Bring the book to class on Monday. A group from Pioneer Memorial Theater Company might be coming to Judge on Tuesday during period 1. If so, we’ll attend their lecture.

Your only homework this weekend is to finish reading your book. Bring that book to class with you on Monday too.

Meeting Friday, October 6 at 7:15 a.m.

On Thursday you need to turn in a copy of your finished September story and what you have of your trend story so far.

Before we start using the youthvoices space, let’s see how the students in NYC are using it.

Click the “what people are saying right now” link on the main page and make some comments on the other students writing.

Go to the Community Write map.  Look at some points of interest from other places, and make comments.

Homework for Thursday: Write the comparison essay found on the back of the Austen/Dickens passages. Take approximately an hour to do this. Type it.

Remember: you CAN compare apples & oranges.

For tonight’s homework write two paragraphs comparing the style of the passage you were assigned with any of the other six passages.