For your alternate assessment people!
Mood:  celebratory

For the alternate assessment people:

 

You MUST do at least the following for your presentation:

            Introductory Paragraph

I.                   1^st point (Topic Sentence)

a.       Evidence used (1 student +)

b.      How evidence supports your point

II.                2^nd point (Topic Sentence #2)

a.       Evidence used (1 student +)

b.      How evidence supports your point

III.             Counterargument

a.       Why the counterargument is weaker than main argument

 

This should all be about a page in length.

Presentation Notes
Mood:  celebratory

 

What you need to do for your 2 – 3 minute presentation:

 

-          Share your issue, your argument on the issue and the points you use to develop your argument

-          Share compelling evidence they use to support ONE of your points

-          Read your opening or closing

-          Answer questions your 7^th grade peers have about the issue or argument

 

 

The Rest of the class will be doing the following:

-          Listening for the

o   Issue

o   Argument on the issue

o   The Points used

 

 

Potential Question Ideas

-          What other evidence the speaker used to prove his point?

-          What was the counterargument?

-          How the counterargument was rebutted?

-          What is the Call to Action?

-          What other information did the speaker find on the issue?

 

 

Mr. Diaz’s presentation Notes:

 

            The issue I am focusing on is 1 hour 45 minute block periods versus 50 minute traditional periods.  Students can’t focus their attention for such a long time and students’ academic performance is negatively affected by the length of the period.

            Middle school students struggle to finish 1 hour and 45 minutes of a block period lesson, so why make them try?  In a study done by the Los Angeles Board of Education, it was reported that students in the 50 minute period system did better on tests based on the lesson material studied over their friends who had classes that were 1 hour and 45 minutes long.  The difference was a 15% better score on average.  15 percent!  Even an adult attention span has trouble staying focused for a class nearly two hours long, and with material like PSPs, other video games, and TV shows that change very quickly, an average student should not be expected to stay on task for more than 40 – 50 minutes in a lesson at school.

Block periods should be removed and then 50 minute traditional periods should take their place.  I mean, if a system isn’t broken, why try to fix it?  I recommend you as students and even some teachers from ISLC get together and sign some petitions so you can change your school system.  Many students take an active role in their education, and you can do the same thing if you get up and start trying to help yourself be a better achiever by making your class periods shorter and more beneficial to you.

 

Research Information
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Research from Project

How to Cite the Citation and Quote the Quotation

 

When you take information from places besides your own brain, you HAVE to give credit for the information you borrowed.  This is called parenthetical citation, a fancy phrase for writing the information from the source in YOUR essay.  Here’s a list to figure out the most common types of citation:

Books:

References to an entire book should include the following elements:

• author(s) or editor(s)
• the complete title
• edition, if indicated
• place of publication
• the shortened name of the publisher
• date of publication

One author:

Nabokov, Vladimir. Lolita. New York: Putnam, 1955.

Two authors:

Cross, Susan, and Christine Hoffman. Bruce Nauman: Theaters of Experience. New York: Guggenheim Museum; London: Thames & Hudson, 2004.

For Magazines, it’s a little different:

 

References to periodical articles must include the following elements:

• author(s)
• article title
• title of the journal or magazine you used(journal, magazine, etc.)
• volume number
• publication date (abbreviate months, if used)
• the page numbers from the article you used

Issue numbers should be stated as decimals to a given volume number. In the example below, the number 25.4 reads as Volume 25, issue 4. When citing newspapers, it is important to specify the edition used (e.g. late ed.) because different editions of a newspaper may contain different material.

Magazine article:

Pirisi, Angela. "Eye-catching advertisements." Psychology Today Jan.-Feb. 1997: 14.

And the Internet Citations are even more different:

Article in a full-text journal accessed from a database to which the library subscribes :
For works from a subscription service, like ProQuest Direct or Academic Universe, use the URL of the service's main page (if known). Also, if a library is the subscriber to the service, the name of the service and the name and city of the library should be included in the citation. When only the starting page number is provided, include this number, followed by a hyphen, space, and a period. See example, below.

Professional site:

Research strategy: a tutorial. Cornell University Library. 18 Sept. 1999 <http://campusgw.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/manntom2.cgi section=help&URL=newhelp/newhelp.html>.

Liu, Alan. The Voice of the Shuttle: Minority Studies Page. 30 Oct. 1999. English Department, U of California, Santa Barbara. 11 Nov. 1999 <http://vos.ucsb.edu/shuttle/minority.html>.

Personal site:

Rule, Greg. Home page. 16 Nov. 1999 <http://www.student.cornell.edu/~greg/>.

For talking to someone and getting information directly from them:

Include the person you interviewed name and the date you conducted the interview.  See the example below:

Personal Interview:

King, John. Personal interview. 12 February 1999.

Final Persuasive Project
Mood:  a-ok
Topic: Final Project Notice
Okay, everyone, the final due date for the Persuasive Final Project is June 12th for Block 3 & 5 and June 13th for Block 4 English classes.  If you want to do an alternate assessment, the due date is June 6th, 3:05 pm.  Late proposals will not be accepted!