Grading your research papers was a very special experience.

Outlines

This weekend, start typing up your outlines.

I have shared with you a Google Document that gives you a better understanding of how you might want to break it down.  We will work on this heavily next week, but it would be a very good idea to get started typing it up.  It will be due soon, and doing all this work now will save you a lot of time and energy later!  (I promise.)

Enjoy your weekend!

Caine's Arcade

This is so sweet and inspiring!  Yay for creative folks!

Call Me Maybe

This video craaaaaaaaaacked me up.  It's the Harvard Baseball team on a road trip.

It's worth watching through to the end.

Notice the guy who somehow stays asleep the entire time.

Research DUE NEXT WEEK!

You've been working and working on your research papers, and now it is time to submit what you have found.

Due WEDNESDAY, May 9, by 11.59pm:

The shared document of your research, which includes:
- Your topic
- 8 questions about your topic
- 10 tags for searching (use the actual terms you would enter into Google or other search bars)
- 10-15 sources of reliable research (fully documented with title, author, URL, summary, and quotations)
- 3 potential thesis statements


Next week you will choose one of your thesis statements and begin drafting your paper!

I can sense your excitement :)

Happy weekend!

P.S.  for your listening pleasure

Springtime Mix

Well kiddos, I made you an energetic mix for springtime.  It was inspired by one of your very own, student GV.  I hope you like it!

The Sun Came Out from msaboulhosn on 8tracks.

Google Scholar

Did you know about Google Scholar?  It's a search engine within Google that sorts out scholarly articles in your search.  If your tags are strong and your search is smart, you will be able to let Google sort out the reliable sources from the unreliable ones for you!

Give it a shot!

Nice work!

I was really impressed by the way student ZR organized her research.  Look at this beautiful document!

It's such a great example!

In addition to the author, title, and URL, 

she writes the entire "Works Cited" entry in MLA format.

This saves her a lot of time, because she doesn't have to do it later!

She also pulls out the quotes she wants to use right away,

so that she doesn't have to go back and re-read every article 

every time she wants to reference it.

Way to go, Z!

Spring Break: Research Post

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you your spring break assignment!

<applause>

Be sure to write your Works Cited using proper MLA format.

Oh, and be sure to USE QUOTATIONS PROPERLY!

Duh. 

Have a great break, kiddos!

Finding Reliable Sources

My children!

You are discovering, I believe, that doing good research actually takes a lot of work!

Here is a list of guidelines I've provided for you.  Be sure to consider these criteria before choosing the sources you want to work with.

I'm not sure how we started talking about The Jungle Book in class today,

but it reminded me of what an amazing film it is.

This is my favorite song.  

So underrated.

This weekend!

Okay, friends.  It's the weekend.  And you know what that means:

MORE OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEARNING!

Be sure to:

1.)  Finish making flashcards for the words in Unit 6.  These are in your orange vocabulary books.

2.)  Finish writing two comments to post on Youth Voices.

Feeling stuck?  Uninspired?  Downright sad?

Check out Rica's post about being NORMAL.

Or Natalie's post about STEP PARENTS.

Or Ibrahima's post about WHY TELEVISION IS RUINING YOUR BRAIN.

Or Akella's and Niya's posts about emotional ABUSE in relationships?

Or Mariama's thoughts on MARRIAGE?

So much great writing happened recently!  

You can read that one before or after you watch some TV.  It won't matter :)

For your reference:

By Sunday, 3.25.12

At the end of this week, you should have:

- 13 total comments

+

- 3 total posts

on Youth Voices.

This week's post must be a Personal Inquiry post, which comes from your original 20 questions and follows this guide. 

Some of you are getting frustrated/annoyed/bored with the Comments Guide on the site, and have asked to deviate from it.  That is totally cool, as long as you make sure you:

a.)  write at least ten sentences for each comment,

b.)  use at least two direct quotations from the original post, and 

c.)  make a personal connection to the post ("This reminds me of ..." or "Others should read this because ...")

HAPPY POSTING!

Oh, and for those of you who didn't write down the Grammar Homework, which is due next class:

Read Section 28.4 in the purple Grammar book (pp. 504-518), and complete exercises 34-41 in your notebooks.

Posts and Comments and Things

Each week, your homework is to write three comments to posts on Youth Voices.  You can respond to any user's writing!

Also, each week you will be responsible for writing your own post.

If you need any of the formatting guides I gave you, you can find them on the website.

Go to www.youthvoices.net/guide/archives.

Use the General Discussion Response for your comments.

Use this guide for the Personal Inquiry posts.

Use this guide for your Personal Connections to literature (including films).

Use this guide for a Response to a Wikipedia article (on a topic of your choice).

All of these formats are available on the website, so you can refer back to them any time!

Isn't it so exciting ...

 ... when everyone is writing and learning and writing and learning?

I love it.

We have a webpage!

Sophomores! 

We have a webpage!  CLICK HERE!

You can see all of your classmates here, with links to everyone's pages on Youth Voices.

Exciting, isn't it?

Youth Voices update

Children!

Nice job to those of you who have successfully finished your first writing assignments to post on Youth Voices!  Those of you with access to your accounts have already started posting your profile pieces and your first comments!

YOU'RE ON THE INTERNET!

It's exciting.

In case you've lost the beautiful handwritten handout I made for you, here is a picture of the white board, full of information that you forgot to write down:

Hope you have a great break!

Kiddos!  Are you prepared?

TEST/QUIZ THING

Vocabulary Unit #4

Thursday, February 9 & Friday, February 10

Show those words some love!

Writing Comments

We're almost ready to be full users on Youth Voices!

First, we're learning how to write comments according to the proper format.

Remember to always write your comment as a GoogleDoc first
so you can PROOFREAD!


Here is the format we are using:

Remember to share your GoogleDoc with me as your homework for this week!