Creating Better Community Through the Comment

Part of the reason why I love posting reading responses online rather than just having them live in your notebooks is because it enables us to easily share about our reading lives.  I believe that by reading one another's work, great things will happen.  For instance: 

• You can get book recommendations
• You can get into conversations about books you have read, too, or topics that are interesting to you
• You will become a better writer because not only are you reading work, but you will begin to care more when you know that people are reading your work

So, in order to create a tighter knit reading and writing community, you are now required to create a "blog roll" (or "link list")  if you haven't already of the blogs that you want to keep up with regularly.  You are required to comment on at least 2 blog posts from your class weekly.  My hope is that you will get to know each other better as readers (and nonfiction writers) and that you will learn from one another. I will be checking these responses.

A good, thoughtful blog comment might:

• praise interesting ideas in the original post, specifically (don't just say "nice job")
• ask for clarification of any unclear parts of the original post
• add the responder's own thoughts to original ideas to build strength
• contradict or challenge (respectfully!) by explaining another aspect or asking a question to further dialogue
• contain connections (to the self, the world, another text, or another part of the same text) to deepen thinking about the post

Sample starters: 

• When you said __________ I thought________
• I love the line ____________ because___________
• When you said ____________ it got me thinking about________

***  AND good, thoughtful blog responses  always

• are respectful
• use standard vocab, spelling, and grammar (so that everyone can understand)
• show consideration of the original blogger's work and thought

Here are some examples of some interesting conversations that got started last year: 


On girls reading boy characters
A poem based on Banksy's street art
A poem about death based on a painting by Gustav Klimt



(Sidenote: As I already see the eyes rolling, please remember that we are about to hit the half way point of 8th grade.  It makes sense that work would get more involved.  Also, please remember my advice to carry a positive attitude!)

Read more non fiction and be inspired at the same time.

One of my favorite magazines and online journals is Good.

They run a regular series called People Are Awesome and it's one of my favorites.  Feel free to read any of these stories and respond to them on your blog.

You're welcome.

Working hard on picture books...

Social Action Wrap Up/Nonfiction worth checking out

I have read and been inspired by a number of social action stories this week.  Here are links to read and discover on your own.  If you are moved by one, please write your next blog post in response.

Anonymous Donors Pay Off Kmart Layaways

Time Magazine names "The Protester" their Person of the Year.  Click HERE for a photo essay of 35 different protesters.  Click HERE to read the stories behind this choice.

Google just donated millions of dollars to help fight human trafficking. Read the story HERE.

Google's marketing campaign to raise awareness also includes a Slavery Footprint interactive tool for individuals to become educated on how people are contributing to modern day slavery.  Visit Slavery Footprint and check it out for yourself. 

A Letter to 811

Dear 811,

Overall, I am impressed with the close-reading work you are doing--that means that you are looking at micro details and responding to them!

As you move forward, I want you to focus on trying to string some of those micro details together to come up with an overall theory.  Your theory can be your focus for the post and the micro details become the support for your theory.  This will also cause your writing to be a bit more formally organized.

Also remember to consider the "extension" aspect of reading: what is the author trying to say to you as a person? What is the story truly about (beyond the plot)?

Here are some All Star Mentors to visit this week for inspiration:

Eleni writes about big, interesting ideas in a super organized, focused way.  You should definitely read her posts if you need an example on how to have a theory and how to elaborate on it using both mico and macro details!

Delia's most recent post on Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld is a great example of writing around a theory or big idea.  Her title helps introduce what she is focused on.  (That is one way you can tell if you have ONE theory...does a clear title come to mind to introduce your work?)

I'm looking forward to reading your work in the coming weeks! Remember that as you challenge yourself with more sophisticated books, chances are you will have more interesting things to discuss.  This is a point in the year when some of you will want to consider weaning yourself off of Young Adult Literature and moving into some "bridge" or adult fiction!  We'll talk more about that in January.

Sincerely,
Ms. Robbins

A Letter to 806

Dear 806,

I feel like I need to write this letter to different halves of the class: the half who is actively writing thought provoking posts on their blogs and the half who has missed either one or both of the last two posts (or more).  You are such a smart class and it is disappointing to see students blowing off not only homework credit, but an opportunity to really think through your independent reading book.

Overall, for the people who *are* updating their blogs regularly, I am noticing readers picking out micro details and making inferences about them, which is great.  The next step is either writing LONG about those micro details or stringing a few together to come up with a theory.

Beyond writing long, I want you to focus on EXTENSION.  Remember our the "Process of Critical Thinking in Literature" display in our room.  This is the last part of the critical reading process. Ask questions like: Does this relate to me? people my age? What is the author trying to tell me about this? I will be looking for smart extension work for your next post.

Here are some All Star Mentors to inspire you to write.  I encourage you to read these posts and see what they are doing not only as writers, but what does it seem they are doing as active readers while in their books?

Nathan is reading Linchpin by Seth Godin,  a nonfiction book about creativity and wrote some seriously thought-provoking posts about it.  It inspired me to want to pick up the book!

Talyah wrote about the book Something Like Fate and had some really interesting thoughts about friendship.

Adam came up with some great theories about the character Jack in The Lord of the Flies. I would love to now hear a bit of extension...what do his thoughts and these characters teach us about people? Life? Leave him a comment with your opinion when you visit.

I'm looking forward to being inspired by your next round of posts!
Ms. Robbins

A Letter to 804

Dear 804,

As I've been reviewing your blogs, I've noticed some improvements.  Most of you are trying to write in paragraph form, many are including interesting titles and I noticed some interesting comments.  I want you to continue to grow as writers, though, so here are some updates for you  and some examples of All-Star-Mentors...people in your class who are doing their reading response/blog work really well.  

• Most importantly, your blog needs to be about a theory you have about your book.  This is designed to build on what we covered in our very first unit.  I would now like for you to check back at this post every week and choose one of the 9 options to try out for you post.  Include the option you are trying out as a label to your post.  
• Remember, retell should only be used to give context for your ideas.  I do actually read your posts:) I can tell if you just wrote three paragraphs of retell!  
• Please, please write with an academic tone.  It can still be personal, but the work you post should represent your best self: capitalization, underlining or italicizing titles, etc.  

All Star Mentors from 804: 

Anouk did a great job about writing a post about Tina Fey's Bossypants that encourages conversation! She pulled out something that made her think deeply and wrote about it in an engaging way. 

I challenged Mark to write a blog post explaining why so many 8th graders still love the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, even though it's below your reading level.  He did a great job explaining and if you read all of his posts you can tell that he takes time to think of a thought-provoking topic.  

I am looking forward to reading posts that challenge me to look at the world in a different way or open my eyes to new insight! 

Sincerely, 

Ms. Robbins

Blog Reflection Week!

This week is dedicated to looking back on your first four posts and reflecting as a writer.  How can you improve your writing about reading?  This post goes hand in hand with the paper that you will fill out and return to me about what you learned from this experience.

Good blogging habits:

•          Are you crafting interesting titles that make someone want to read your post?

•          Do you mention “spoiler alert” if you are going to give away the ending?

•          Are you remembering to use good grammar: spelling, capitalization, underline or italicize titles, etc.

•          Are you commenting on other people’s blogs? It is now a part of your weekly blogging responsibility to comment at least once a week.  Have a blog roll of people who you want to read on the side of your blog.  Make sure your display name is your first name and last initial so you can get credit.

Good writerly habits:

•          Do you include context so that the reader doesn’t feel like he/she is jumping into something half way through? (context should be 2-3 sentences in the first paragraph and include the title, author, character, setting and conflict)

•          Are you including too much retell? Your blog posts aren’t a review of a book or a blurb on the back cover.  Your post should be focused an interesting idea that you want to unpack and share. 

•         Are your blog posts focused? Concentrate on one idea (a character, a theme, a line, etc.)

•          Are you using paragraphs? At minimum, you should have an “introduction” paragraph, an “observe/infer/interpret” paragraph and an “extension” paragraph.  These show me that you can write for an audience, that you are doing deep thinking work in your book, and that you are seeing how literature relates to life. 

Good examples: Check out these mentors to see what you can learn from them. You will be choosing one to focus on for your next blog post. 

Ana did a great job making her book relateable to her reader, whether they read the book or not.  Notice how she "bookended" her post to get the reader interested and to leave them thinking.

Layla did a great job structuring her post, making me think and now I want to read Fight Club!

Tori shows how to write a post on unpacking a line and does a great job making the reader think!

Gabi's posts are great examples of the Introduction/Observe+Infer+Interpret/Extension structure!

Sophie's posts are passionate and thought provoking.

Finding Quality Research for Your Social Action Picture Book

Your job in the lab today is to find and print out research on your social action topic so that you can be an informed, educated author who children and trust and believe.  You should have your completed K/W chart and directions in front of you.  This blog post is meant to be an online guide.

1. Revisit the blog post we used for our general social action webquest. Many of those websites will lead you to organizations whose own website has an "overview" that can serve as an article, specific case studies you may want to print and read or even additional websites to check out.

2. Visit M.S. 51's Library Homepage. "Worldbook" may have a great overview for you, "Proquest" may guide you toward interesting articles and "Opposing Viewpoints" might be an interesting read if your topic is controversial (it will show you both sides).  I will have the passwords on the board in the lab.

3. Finally, try a search engine like "google" or "ask." (Remember that these ARE NOT WEBSITES.  You cannot cite "google" on a bibliography.) Use key words about your topic to help you  narrow down all that is on the world wide web: words like "organization," or "nonprofit" alongside your topic may help you get to a website that has solid overviews. 

REMINDERS:

• Make sure your research in CURRENT (the article is from the past few years).  

• Print only what you will READ--it is ok to copy and paste the parts that are relevant to you onto a Word document.  

• As a back up, save your documents in googledocs OR send yourself an email of the websites you are using (have an open email to yourself and just copy and paste the link in the body of the email), just in case!

• Staple all articles to your K/W paper.  We will begin our reading in class together.  

• You will be creating a bibliography for your picture book, so you MUST write down the source of the information.

Social Action Immersion Lesson: What social issues are people fighting for?

Today's experience is designed so that you can see a wide variety social issues that people care about.  The links below combined with your handout will guide you.  These sites may even send you to additional links and organizations. It is important to go into this search with a serious attitude.  None of these subjects are to be taken lightly. The goal is for you to not only be exposed to a number of issues, but also to begin to narrow down topics that  you care about and want to pursue during our social action unit.  This post will also be a resource to you later down the road when you are researching.

General Searching for Issues and Topics
The Free Child Project chronicles ways that kids are trying to change the world.  This link will lead you to a list of social issues that kids have shown interest in.  Click through some of those issues to find basic information as well as further links to organizations doing something about the issue.  Remember that ultimately your audience will be a child, so keep that in mind as you are searching.

Environmental
At Our Earth, you can search for various environmental protection groups and find ones making a difference in New York City.

Animal Rights
ASPCA works for the rights of animals. Know ahead of time that some animal rights issues are hard to see. Click only on what you are comfortable with.

Local Poverty
The Robinhood Foundation works to fight poverty in New York City. Click on the link to see who they are helping and about their core mission.

 International Povery
 Scroll down to the bottom of this wikipedia entry on "World on Fire" to find links to all of the charities that were mentioned in the video.

Human Rights
Amnesty International fights for human rights. 


Human Trafficking:
If you are interested in this topic, please see Ms. Robbins for websites to direct you towards both international and local organizations.

At home (or if you have time) if you are interested in the arts and how they connect to social action, check out these links:

Art and Social Action: This link is actually to a lesson plan for an art class, but you can scroll down to the "resources" list and beyond to find links toartists who made social action statements

Great Protest Songs: This blog has a collection of songs and videos that show the history of what people have been fighting for and against by studying music. You will have to watch the video portion at home. A google search will also lead you to other websites that showcase protest songs.

Extra Credit Blog Post Assignment!

Write a response to either the lyrics or video of World On Fire as a way of continuing our discussion from class.  Must be posted by Tuesday, October 25th! Here is the video: 

What do I write about?

Here are some of the notes you took in our first unit that will help you find a topic to write about: 

1.   In life, conflict (and how it is dealt with) causes change in a person (for better or worse). Reading and studying characters helps us tap into the pulse of humanity.  

2. Protagonist-the main character in a literary work (not necessarily good or bad, which means you have to be a careful reader!)

3. Antagonist-the person or forces who oppose or contend with the protagonist (sometimes the antagonist can be like an inner voice or an unseen force…be a careful reader!)

.     4. Unpacking a “loaded sentence”

5. Noticing your protagonist’s journey: task, quest, loss of innocenceinterpret your protagonist’s emotional journey: 

• what positive people/events impacted him/her most?

• what negative people/events impacted him/her most?

• how is your character different now? What did he/she learn? What did the journey accomplish?

• extend your ideas to LIFE and humanity: what does this journey teach you about living

6. Noticing character patterns-archetypes

• The hero-displays courage, self sacrifice and is not perfect
•  The mentor-assists/guides the protagonist, symbolizing wisdom, knowledge, experience  
• The shadow-creates tension in story and represents the darker side of human nature  
• The shapeshifter-a character who keeps changing sides; can’t make up mind; represents uncertainty.

7. Theme: the statement about life that an author wants to share with the reader

8.  Cross-book inquiry: Make connections between your book and another you’ve read

    9. Setting-what aspects of the setting are significant and symbolic?

     10. Approach the book like an appreciation: what did you appreciate (or not appreciate) in your book? 

An introduction.

Welcome to the world of blogging!  There are a few basic guidelines to make sure that this experience is one that helps you grow as a reader, writer and thinker:

1. A blog post is due every Wednesday.  That means I'll be checking Wednesday morning to see who posted in time.  This counts as a homework grade. 

2. Each month (except October), you are required to write three posts about your independent reading book and one post in response to a non-fiction article that you have read.  


3. Generally, your posts on your independent reading book should be focused on micro details (observation+inference) if you are in the middle of it, and macro details (whole book interpretation+extension) if you have finished. You should be using vocabulary that we have covered in class, helping those concepts sink more deeply into your brain (see next post for ideas).


4. Your post should be FOCUSED and ORGANIZED.  Have one main idea that you are exploring.  Use purposeful paragraphs to elaborate on that idea.  


5. Your post should be TEXT BASED and specific. 


6. Even though you should be using CORRECT GRAMMAR (capitalize! no texting abbreviations!) your post can/should SOUND LIKE YOU. This is not a formal essay, but an informal way of conveying to your peers what you've been thinking about in your reading life. 

7. Use the labels on the side of this blog to find MENTORS if you need them. Refer back to this blog if you need help or direction.

Calling all Harry Potter Nerds. And I mean that in the best of ways.

Ms. Santarpia shared this with me--it's called the Harry Potter Companion--and goes through each chapter of every book with commentary, original art, etc. Don't procrastinate too much here, kiddos.

Decorate Ms. Robbins' Room for Next Year

I found this via blackeiffel.blogspot.com and thought it was worth sharing...and inspiration for potential extra-credit poster ideas for decorating my room for next year's students...

This campaign, "Become Someone Else" by the Lithuanian Agency called Love for Mint Vinetu is a clever concept, well executed. Here is what they said about it,

"When one reads books, he/she starts living it and identifies (or not) with main hero. These print ads for the Mint Vinetu bookstore, which sells lots of classics, focuses on the idea of becoming someone else. And provokes people to try on different personas."

What do you think?