Friday, June 24, 2011

Persuasive Presentation

In your group, use Google Presentations tools to create a presentation to persuade Crosswinds students and staff to NOT buy bottled water and instead purchase our stainless steel bottles.

Resources:

Facts and videos from the film we watched in class:

More information about H2Oforlife, the organization we are donating profits to:

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Searching and Evaluating Internet Resources

1) Take this online technology survey- http://tinyurl.com/EMID6067survey


2) Read this article on the New York Times website and answer the multiple choice questions below:  http://nyti.ms/ee9z3Z








3) Look at this page about google searches: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861
Use what you learn to answer the questions below.  



Tuesday, February 8, 2011

7th Hour Theme Projects

Post a link to your project in the comments below.  Include your name and book title.

5th Hour Theme Projects

Post a link to your project in the comments below.  Include your name and the title of your book.

4th Hour Theme Projects

Post a link to your project in the comments below.  Include your name and the title of your book.

3rd Hour Theme Project

Leave a comment below with a link to your project.  Include your name and the title of your book.

1st Hour Theme Projects

Post a link to your project in the comments here.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Quarter 2 Grades

You Quarter 2 Grade will be based mostly on three summative assessments:

1) Compare Contrast Article (~30%)

2) This I Believe Essay (~30%)

3) Novel Theme Project (~30%)

If you are missing any of these three assignments, it will be very difficult to pass.  The remaining 10% (roughly) will be your reading responses, literature circle discussions, and your 6 books.  I will accept all assignments up until Wednesday night!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Lit Circles Theme Project

At the end of class today, send Ms. Schwalbe an e-mail with your project proposal and any links she will need to see your project!

Final Project DUE next Wednesday, February 9th!!

Your project must...

  1. State the theme of your book.
  2. Include three quotes from the book that support that theme. 
  3. Explain how each of those quotes develops the theme. 

Optional (to get a 6 or 7):
  • Connect the theme to your own beliefs and values
  • OR connect the theme to a similar theme in a piece of art (Art website), poetry (Poetry Archive), or song
  • OR create your own artwork to illustrate the theme
Some tools you can use:


  •  - If you can type, you can make movies. Text-to-Movie
  •  - Generates videos of your Google Searches to tell a story.
  •  - Free online audio recorder and audio publishing
  • - convert text to speech (spoken by a cartoon avatar)
  •  - Innovative online presentation program that nicely integrates multimedia from other sources.
  •  - Prezi.com - The zooming presentation editor

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

TIB final Lab Assignment - edit, share, reflect

1) Finish writing your This I Believe Essay
2) Edit
- Did you capitalize your "I"s?
- Did you capitalize the first word of every sentence?
- Do you have punctuation at the end of your sentences?
- Are any words spelled incorrectly? (red dots underlining words means they are spelled wrong.)
- Did you break up your ideas into paragraphs?

3) Share your essay with at least one person and read at least one person's essay.  Leave a comment to tell them what you think! 

4) Copy and Paste the questions below into your document, then fill out your reflections:
  • Is your topic focused, interesting, and meaningful?
  • Does your introduction get your reader’s attention? Is it clear?
  • Do your body paragraphs include specific, interesting details and images to support the topic?
  • Is your conclusion concise and meaningful?
  • Did you fix all errors in capitalization or spelling?
  • What was difficult about this assignment?  What was easy?
  • What do you need to work on in your next writing project?
5) Work on your Choice writing assignment.  Use the links to the right to check out Figment and Teen Ink. 



Sunday, January 23, 2011

TIB Lab Assignment #4: Powerful Conclusions

Your conclusion is what your readers will leave your essay thinking about.  It's important that it be concise and powerful.

Directions:  Complete the assignment below, then write the conclusion to your This I Believe Essay.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

TIB Lab Assignment #3: Juicy Details

The introduction and conclusion of your essay are what hold it together (kind of like book ends), but it is the juicy details you include in the middle that give it personality.

Directions: Read the following This I Believe Essay and answer the questions below.  When you are finished, open your Google Document and add juicy details to your own essay.

THIS I BELIEVE FINAL ESSAY DUE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26TH.

Remembering All the Boys
I believe that everyone deserves flowers on their grave.
When I go to the cemetery to visit my brother, it makes me sad to see graves — just the cold stones — and no flowers on them.
They look lonely, like nobody loves them. I believe this is the worst thing in the world — that loneliness. No one to visit you and brush off the dust from your name and cover you with color. A grave without any flowers looks like the person has been forgotten. And then what was the point of even living — to be forgotten?
Almost every day my brother’s grave has something new on it: Flowers from me, or candles from the Dollar Store or an image of the Virgin Maria or shot glasses. There’s even some little Homies, these little toys that look like gangsters.
Once my brother’s homies even put a bunch of marijuana on there for him — I think my mother took it away. I think she also took away the blue rag someone put there for him one day.
Sometimes, when I bring flowers, I fix the flowers on the graves around my brother’s grave. Some of the headstones have birthdates near my brother’s; they are young, too. But many of them, if they have any little toys or things on them, those are red.
All around my brother are boys who grew up to like red, making them the enemies of my brother. My brother was 16 when he was shot by someone who liked red, who killed him because he liked blue. And when I go to the cemetery I put flowers on the graves of the boys who liked red, too.
Sometimes I go to the cemetery with one of my best friends, who had a crush on a boy who liked red, who was killed at 18 by someone who liked blue. And we will go together and bring a big bunch of flowers, enough for both of these boys whose families are actually even from the same state in Mexico.
There is no one but me and a few of my friends who go to both graves. Some people think it’s a bad idea. Some people think it’s heroic.
I think they’re both being silly. I don’t go to try and disrespect some special rules or stop any kind of war. I go because I believe that no matter where you came from or what you believed in, when you die, you want flowers on your grave and people who visit you and remember you that way.
I’m not any kind of traitor or any kind of hero. I am the sister of Rogelio Bautista, and I say his name so you will hear it and be one more person that remembers him. I want everyone to remember all the boys, red and blue, in my cemetery. When we remember, we put flowers on their graves.
Elvia Bautista, 22, lives in Santa Rosa, California, where she works as a caregiver for the elderly and mentally handicapped. Bautista stayed after her brother’s murder even though the rest of her family moved away. A high school drop-out, Bautista now speaks to young people about the dangers of gang life.


Friday, January 7, 2011

This I Believe Lab Assignment #1

1) Create a new Google Document titled "Your Name TIB" and share it with Ms. Schwalbe

2) In the document, write a quick general summary of what you plan to write your This I Believe Essay about.  Include the following:
  • Value(s) I will write about:
  • I believe...
  • One life story or example I might use is...
3) Go to http://thisibelieve.org/themes/ and choose an essay that has a similar theme to yours.  Read or listen to the essay, then answer the questions below.



Friday, December 17, 2010

Compare Contrast Articles DUE Tuesday, Dec 21st

This week we:

*Looked at magazine layouts and features you can use to organize your article and make it look cool.
Here are 20 examples of magazine layouts to inspire you.

*Edited for capitalization in your article.
Here is a list of all the rules of capitalization if you need to review.

*Revised each others articles for supporting details.  Be sure to ask yourself this question-
Does this article contain all the details and information I would need to make an informed decision on this topic?

Next week:
Monday- Last day with computers in class!
Tuesday- Articles Due!  Write reflection in class.
Wednesday- Unit Test on compare and contrast.

Friday, December 10, 2010

In Conclusion.... Lab Assignment Dec 10th

1) Complete the *Spark* at the bottom of this post.

2) Take a look at Ms. Schwalbe's example compare contrast draft.

3) Finish writing your lead and 3 body paragraphs.  (You do not have to have all 3 kinds of leads, just one good one.)

4) Write a conclusion for you article.
A good conclusion should:
- Summarize your main points.
- Acknowledge other option or the complexity of the decision.
- Offer a "big picture" perspective on the decision.


Here's my example

Conclusion:
Of course Carleton and the University of Minnesota are not your only options.  There are many other good colleges in Minnesota and hundreds more if you are considering moving out of state.  But if you are just beginning to think about colleges, deciding if you would rather be at a large, urban, public university, or a small, rural, private college is a good place to start in narrowing down your choices.  Your college experience will be shaped by many things, including your attitude willingness to take on challenges and try new things.  No matter where you go to school, college will certainly be a mind-expanding time in your life!



Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Writing Body Paragraphs - Dec. 8 Lab Assignment

Hello Students,

1) Fill out the Dec 8 *Spark* at the bottom of this page.

2) Open your Compare Contrast document.

3) Type at least 3 body paragraphs under your table, one for each category.  Be sure to include AAAWWUBBIS sentences!

*If you need to see an example, here is Ms. Schwalbe's Compare Contrast Article so far.

4) If you finish...

  • Look online for pictures you can use and save them in your document
  • Try out Glogster to create an online poster for your topic.
  • Use the Book List tab at the top of this page to enter books you have read. 



Monday, December 6, 2010

Organization- Lab Assignment Dec. 6th

1) Do the *Spark* at the bottom of this post.

2) Open your Compare Contrast Google Document.

3) Finish brainstorming in your table.

4) Read over your ideas and think of 2-4 categories that you will organize them into.

5) Type the categories and begin writing paragraphs for each one.

6) If you are using online sources to get information, make a list of "Sources" links at the bottom of your article.

Here is an example of what this will look like:  Ms. Schwalbe's Compare Contrast Article.


Thursday, December 2, 2010

Lab Assignment for Dec. 2nd - Topic proposal

Welcome Students!  
Directions for today:


1) Fill out and 'submit' the *Spark* form at the bottom of this post. 


2) Create a new Google Document titled "Your Name Compare Contrast" and share it with Ms. Schwalbe.


3) In your document, fill out the following:

I will be comparing and contrasting ___________   and __________.


This will help people decide....


This is an important and relevant topic to a lot of people because....


Some example topics I think would be great-
  • Which high school to attend next year. 
  • Which after school activity to join.
  • Whether or not to take intercession classes.
  • Where to go over winter break.
  • Living in the city or living in the suburbs/country. 
  • Which sport/exercise to do. 


4) If you finish, share your document with someone else in class and give each other feedback/ideas on your topics. 

I will look at your topic proposals over the weekend and give you feedback.

<3
Ms. Schwalbe

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

New Features for Quarter 2!

Calendar:
Click the calendar tab to see important due dates, vacation days, and when we will be in the computer lab or the library.

Book List:
Click on Book List tab to go to a form where you can enter in the six books you read this quarter.

More coming soon!!!