Reminder: What should a basic "meets standards" blog post look like?

This post is for students who are struggling with how to structure a basic blog post or relying too much on retell.  Please remember that your blog is a place for you to RESPOND to your reading, not to retell the plot or to merely "review" it.  I want to know where your mind wanders while you are reading or after you put the book down.  If you don't naturally do this, the discipline of having to write a response weekly will help you practice.

Keiame and Mustafa both have great mentor posts that demonstrate this.


Paragraph One: Draw your reader in with an interesting lead.  Give the reader a few sentences of context (character, setting, conflict) so he or she has the basic idea of what is going on.

Paragraph Two: Introduce your THEORY, or your idea about what the book is actually about. Your theory can be about any macro idea or micro detail that is interesting to you. Then, UNPACK your theory...which means you can elaborate on why you believe it or how you came to it to begin with. You can use textual evidence to unpack your theory. 

Paragraph Three: CONNECT your theory to the world outside of the story.  What does the author want you to know, feel or think?  Can you relate to it at all? What does this story have to say about the world or people?

Once you have mastered this basic structure, please feel free to experiment and be creative in your responses. There are plenty of great examples/all star mentors of this, especially HERE.  

The Fifth Annual Scarlet and Gray Day! Class Pictures and Contest Winners!

First Quarter Reading Challenge Participants! Everyone read at least 1,200 pages and up to 5,000!

Harry Potter 7 Reread Book Clubs...

Before you start your epic (and FOCUSED) post about Harry Potter, please visit my blog to review all the different threads that were discussed. This might help you narrow down the options (or realize that there are endless threads to be discussed in Harry Potter, which is why we'll reread it forever).

So, 804 blew me out of the water.

There were too many great things to have a single all-star mentor this week.  Here are my highlights and what made reading blogs feel like leisure rather than work:

All Star Creative Writer of the Week: Annie Futterman

All Star Great Connections and References to Other Texts of the Week: Jesse Naranjo

Analyzing the Cover as Art: Susan Guaman

Digging deeper into the true issue: Kai Junn Lathrop

Seriously great post *and* thought provoking comment threads: Nathalie Pages and Molly Smith

Passionate and honest voice: Audrey Bachman, Nora Dellafera, Louis Bonnet (Nora's contains Harry Potter spoilers...be careful!)

Well written, poetic connections and multimedia: Pia Wahlston

 There were others, as well, but I am running out of time. Keep up the good work, 804! AND many of you need to start commenting!!