The Contender - Book Review

As the final assessment for The Contender, you will write a book review that will be between one and two pages in length.

Before we continue, let's establish something:

Book Review vs. Book Report: What is the difference?

Here are two key websites that will help guide you through the process of writing a successful book review:

• The OWL at Purdue University: Writing a Book Review
• Scholastic: Write a Book Review with Rodman Philbrick

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Before you continue on to write your own book review, I ask that you spend some time looking at some reviews already posted online.

Your assignment: Find one review that you think is well written based on the guidelines we discussed in class. Then, find one review that you think is poorly written based on the guidelines we discussed in class. Bookmark the pages, and be prepared to share them with the rest of the class.

Amazon.com is a good site for finding book reviews written by everyday people. It should give you a good range of not-so-good to great reviews.

Now that you are ready to begin, take a look at the Tips page from the Scholastic website.

You may also use the OWL page as a guideline for your planning process.

I want you to again read over these pieces of advice. On a separate sheet of paper, start jotting down some ideas in a very informal outline of your book review.

Now, you may begin your writing. Below are the official guidelines for the assignment.

READ THEM CAREFULLY:

The Contender Book Review

The final book review is due Monday, April 20. It is worth 100 points in the Tests and Longer Essays category.

Late assignments will lose five percent per day. Assignments submitted after the holiday break will automatically lose fifty percent.

Guidelines:

• The review should be formatted following our standard class format. If you forget what this is, please see the instructions listed below..
• The final review should be between one and two pages in length, meaning that you must reach the second page. Not meeting this length requirement will result in an automatic fifteen point deduction.
• The review is to be written using formal writing skills.
• The final review should address many, if not all, of the standard elements of a book review that were discussed in the two links above. Some of these elements include, but are not limited to:
  • The author and title are in the first paragraph.
  • Your overall opinion of the book established early in the review, and then supported with your points throughout.
  • At least three points conveyed about the book that support your overall opinion.
  • Discuss what you believe to be one of the overall themes of the novel.
  • Discuss at least one character and what you thought of him/her as a character in the novel.
  • Use at least one short quote from the story while discussing the novel. (If you are having trouble with this, visit this page as a reminder of what we discussed in class.)
  • Address at least one counter argument (meaning, address what someone who disagrees with your opinion may say, and refute the point).
• The final copy must be printed and handed in hard copy.

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, BE SURE TO CLARIFY THEM IMMEDIATELY

How to Format your Paper

I want you to remember to follow five simple steps to properly format every paper that you hand in during this year.

1. FONT STYLE: The font that you use must be Times New Roman. It should also be set to size 12. This is the default font setting for Microsoft Word, so if you are using this program you will not have to change anything.

2. MARGINS: Each margin (top, bottom, left, right) needs to be changed to 1". To do this in Microsoft Word, click on FORMAT >> DOCUMENT. On the menu that appears, change the top, bottom, left, and right margin sizes to 1" each. (Do not change the gutter setting.)

3. SPACING: All documents must be double-spaced. To do this in Microsoft Word, click on FORMAT >> PARAGRAPH. On the menu that appears, change the "Line Spacing" option from single to double.

4. HEADING: The heading for each paper should be left-aligned in the upper corner of the paper. It should be double-spaced and contain the following information: your name, teacher's name, course title, and due date.

5. TITLE: The title should be one double-space below the heading. It should be center-aligned. It should be the same font style and size as the rest of the paper. It should NOT be bolded, underlined, or italicized. It should simply be capitalized following the rules of titles.

After the title, you can continue down one double-space and begin your paper.

Sample Paper

A Long Way From Chicago

Joey and his sister, Mary Alice visit their Grandma Dowdel every year during their summer vacation. They live in the big city of Chicago, while Grandma lives in a small Illinois town. We learn about small-town life during the Depression. There are seven short stories for the years 1929 through 1942. Grandma's life is different to say the least! Her town has many interesting characters. The story is told by Joe as an adult as he reminisces about those summer trips. Grandma's life makes for fun adventures.

As a small group, you will be exploring some of the topics that we read about in the book.  When you have explored these topics you will be creating a power point or prezi to present to our class

For Example:
  
Summer Vacation. See how people used to spend their vacations at "Wayback". Explore the "Road Trips" page to see how other people have spent their summer vacations. Write about something funny that happened on your summer vacation. Compare your experience with Joey's.

• Wayback: Summer Vacation from PBS's The American Experience 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex//kids/summer/trip01.html 

Biplanes. Joey got the chance to ride in a biplane. Choose a picture of a plane from the Internet. Write about the things you might see if you were flying over your town in this plane.

• Starduster Aircraft http://www.starduster.com/aircraft.html

Cities vs. Small Towns. Compare and contrast life in the city and country. Where do you live? Would you rather live in Chicago or a small town in Illinois. Why?

 

Grandma. The children spend summers with their grandmother. Read about Grandmothers. Write your own parent or grandparent poem. Read about Grandma Annie O'Neill. Write a story about an older person who is doing something great.

• Grandma (Poem) by D. Thibodeaux http://www.angelfire.com/home/barbin/poem.html
• "Grandma" (Article about a school volunteer) by A. O'Neill, Detroit News http://www.mppa.org/mppa/1994/feach-story2.html

Depression. The first few stories took place during the Depression. How did the Depression affect the small town?

• Main Causes of the Great Depression by P.A. Gusmorino 3rd http://www.gusmorino.com/pag3/greatdepression/
• Depression Years (Class project) from Point Grey Mini School, Vancouver, BC, Canada http://trinculo.educ.sfu.ca/pgm/depress/greatdepress.html
• America from the Great Depression to World War II from the Library of Congress's American Memory Project http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsowhome.html
• Images of the Great Depression: A Photographic Essay by R.L. Stevens & J.A. Fogel http://www.oah.org/pubs/magazine/depression/stevens-fogel-photos.html
• Photo Essay on the Great Depression http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/photoessay.htm
• Photographs of the Great Depression http://history1900s.about.com/library/photos/blyindexdepression.htm
• Great Depression from eduScapes 42eXplore http://42explore.com/depresn.htm

Simply pick a topic with your group and create a presentation to the class.  10 slides MINIMUM.

 

Here are the presentation guidelines:

 

1.   Keep the design simple: 

·         Use a simple, non-cluttered design template such as Orbits or Refined.  

·         Use easily read sans serif fonts such as APHont, Arial, or Verdana in minimum 24-point. 

·         Be mindful of color contrast issues. In general, use light text on a dark background (yellow on black, white on dark blue, or white on black). 

·         Do not convey information with color alone. 

·         Limit the number of bullet points and total quantity of text per slide. 

     (5 words per bullet, 5-7 bullets per slide)

     2. Verbally describe all graphics including tables, charts, and images during presentation.

3. Images and Graphics

• Place graphics on the left with text on the right
• With a heading, a graphic can be centered
• Select high-quality graphics and illustrations
• Ensure that every image being used serves a purpose
• Clip art is not desirable
• Animated graphics can be distracting to your audience, unless they illustrate your point
• Use bar graphs and pie charts instead of tables of data, when possible. If you are using tables of data, make sure that the figures are large enough to be read by your audience.
• Ensure that you attribute each graphic on the same slide on which it appears (The font can be a small font, but must be visible)
• Dazzle your audience with information, not with graphics 

First assignment

Please click on the link below:

First Assignment

This is your first assignment.  Please complete this assignment by the end of the class period.

When are there enough RULES?

Think about the story line from "The Giver".....Think carefully about our class discussions with regard to society and RULES.

Based on these discussions you will be responding to a video that we will be watching in class.  The link to the video is here.  You can watch it as many times as you like.

Video 

The following worksheet MUSt be completed in CLASS.  See link below:

Worksheet 

CONTEST

In his Fox News hour, War on the Little Guy, John Stossel takes a critical look at how regulations have unintended consequences. Stossel covers small regulations, like those that govern magicians' rabbits, and larger ones that restrict whether businesses are allowed to operate. Choose a regulation and, using evidence, build a compelling case as to whether the regulation is good or bad.

Please write a 500-1000 word essay on this topic. You must include at least one reference from Stossel's War on the Little Guy TV special 

Once you have completed this task, email your FINISHED essay to abugge@gboe.org

Good Luck !!!

The Giver

The Giver is a 1993 American children's novel (generally Young Adult or older) by Lois Lowry. It is set in a society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth and thirteenth years of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness," a plan that has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of Receiver of Memory, the person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. Jonas learns the truth about his dystopian society and struggles with its weight. The Community lacks any colour, memory, climate and terrainwhatsoever, all part of Sameness and this emphasizes the dystopian qualities of the Community.

The Giver won the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold more than 10 million copies.^[1] In Australia, Canada, and the United States, it is a part of many middle school reading lists, but it is also on many challenged book lists and appeared on the American Library Association's list of most challenged books of the 1990s.

The novel forms a loose quartet with three other books set in the same future era: Gathering Blue (2000), Messenger(2004), and Son (2012).

Full text of the Novel: The Giver, Lois Lowry

Assessment - Marking Period Two

Please click on this link to begin your assessment.

Please be sure to include MY email : abugge@gboe.org so that I can record your results and
use your full first and last name.

https://assessments.commonsensemedia.org/6-8/Unit1/loginpage.html

Good luck!!

Writing a Children's Book

Your next Project will be to write a story and create a picture book for a child 5-8 years old (Kindergarten -3^rd grade).

 1.        Read two children’s books and complete two analysis sheets. 

            You can access my google book shelf to find popular children's books here: 

           

              http://books.google.com/books?uid=106465208007255956365&as_coll=1002&source=gbs_lp_bookshelf_list

2.        Select a conflict.  This should be something to which a child this age can relate.  Relate this to a theme that is positive in nature.  Don’t blurt out the theme.  Let it emerge from the story.  Don’t be preachy.  If you must come out and say it, do so in dialogue, not in narration.

·         Problem/solution:  The basic sequence stages are arrival of the conflict, initial success of the main character, reversals, final victory, and outcome. 

·         Adventure:  The basic sequence stages are the situations that are encountered in a chronological order.

·         Learning something new:  The basic sequence stages will be the gaining of the knowledge and the outcome of that learning.

·         Environmental issue:  The basic sequence stages will depend on what the issue is.  Either of the above mentioned sequences will work.

·         Social issue:  The basic sequence stages will depend on what the issue is.    Either of the above mentioned sequences will work.

 3.        Plot and organize the story.  *This will be handed in!

4.        Develop characters for your story.  *This will be handed in!

o   Know your characters well, so they come alive in the story. 

o   Limit the number of characters.  Too many are confusing for a child. 

o   The main character(s) should be someone with whom the readers can identify and/or sympathize.

5.        Write a rough draft.  Keep the action in chronological order. *This will be handed in!

6.        Produce a mock-up.  Decide what words and what pictures will be on each page.    Decide where the pictures and the words will be placed.

            *This will be handed in!

 7.         Compose the final draft.

·         Minimum:  24 pages of story with text and pictures on each page.

·         Use dialogue whenever possible. 

o   Aim to make dialogue at least one-third of your story. 

o   Avoid big chunks of narration, especially description. 

o   Split the narration into smaller pieces.

·         Language

o   Don’t talk down to your readers

o   Use rich and interesting language that evokes strong images. 

o   You are creating a book that will be read to children of these ages, not read by them.  Therefore, you can use “bigger” words.

 8.        Create the illustrations.

·         Draw your own pictures but NOT stick people.

·         Use pictures from the internet.

·         Use pictures from the clip art file.

·         Use pictures from coloring books.

·         Use pictures from magazines.

·         Take your own photos

·         Other????

 9.        Design the other pages

·         Front of book includes:

o   Cover—title, author, picture

o   Inside cover

o   Dedication page—to (whomever you want to give credit) Place this on the upper third of the page.

o   Copyright page—Copyright @ (date) by (your name)  All rights reserved.  Place this on the lower third of the page.

·         Back of book includes:

o   Back cover--author page- biography and photo of the author

10.       All parts will be submitted and counted toward a final grade

Blogging

Our next project in class will be to create your own blog. 

A blog or web log is a personal web site made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically. The content and purposes of blogs varies greatly from links and commentary about other web sites to observations about news or politics, diaries, photos, poetry, essays, project updates, even fiction. Blogs are a fast growing segment of the web. An article in the August 26, 2002 Newsweek estimated the number of blogs at 500,000 with a new one coming online every forty seconds. 

We will be using "Blogger" for this exercise.

Step by step instructions:

https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/1623800?hl=en

1. Go to www.blogger.com
2. Enter your Google Email and password into the Sign In box on the right side of the screen.
3. Click Sign In
          Optional: If you do not want your name on your blog, click Switch to a limited Blogger Profile
4. Confirm Profile by clicking the Continue to Blogger button at the bottom of the screen.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Requirements for this assignment:                       Worth 100 pts

Your blog MUST have a title page and a defined THEME

You MUST have at least 3 posts (blog pages) which can fit into your theme

You MUST have graphics and background images 

You MUST email the link to your blog to me at abugge@gboe.org

Once posted, each student must "COMMENT" on at least 5 other blog articles.

The "comment" must be in complete sentences and be relevant to the information on the blog.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YdiUl0LLC2s