. . . . . Mr Swist's Language Arts Blog

January Realistic Fiction BLOG

2012-01-31T11:53:00.000-05:00

Write your first name and last initial, then your LA class. List your book title and author, then summarize your entire book following the headings: someone, wanted, but, so, then and finally (the same format we've been using for the Romeo and Juliet summaries in class with "then" added).
Then, name the theme (the author's message, lesson or moral), and explain why you think it's the theme by using evidence from the text to support your answer.

A 4 on the rubric will have these attributes:

An extremely thoughtful and complete post (including your name and LA Class) that stays focused on answering all parts of the prompt.
Provides overwhelming evidence of having read book.
Examples are used appropriately and are clearly explained.
It is well written with no spelling or grammatical errors.

Again, do not forget to put your first name/last initial and LA class (1, 2, 3 or 4) in your post.

December Book BLOG

2012-01-03T06:54:00.002-05:00

Choose only ONE of the following questions to answer. Answer with a complete and thoughtful response with lots of evidence from the text to back up your answer. Remember, you are trying to prove to me that you read the book. BE SURE TO START WITH YOUR FIRST NAME AND LAST INITIAL, CLASS, AND THE BOOK TITLE AND AUTHOR, THEN NUMBER YOUR ANSWER, 1, 2, or 3.
YOU HAVE ONE CLASS PERIOD TO COMPLETE THIS, SO PLAN ACCORDINGLY.
1. Name the conflict, and describe how it was resolved. Then write about what you would have changed about the ending.
2. Pretend you are one of the characters in the book. Write a diary about the happenings in your life for last two days in the book as if you were them.
3. Interview a character from your book. Write at least ten questions that will give the character the opportunity to discuss his/her thoughts and feelings about his/her role in the story and how it lead to the resolution of the problem. Answer the questions as you believe the character would have answered them.
Criteria:
A 4 will provide enough evidence from the book to support your answer and convince the reader the that you read the book. It will exceed grade level in grammar, mechanics (very few errors), word choice and sentence structure. It will answer the prompt completely and follow all directions.

November's Historical Fiction Blog Post for Advanced LA

2011-12-01T07:01:00.000-05:00

Write your FIRST name and last initial and LA class 1.Tell us your book title and author, then introduce the historical event or time period that made this book historical fiction. How did this historical event or time period affect the character's life? Why do you think that the author chose this time period as the setting? What did you learn about this time period that you didn’t know before?
A 4 on the rubric will have these attributes:

•Post illustrates overwhelming evidence of having read the book.
•An extremely thoughtful and complete post (including your name and LA Class) that stays focused on answering all parts of the prompt (not just a summary).
•Examples are used appropriately and are clearly explained.
•Writing, spelling and grammar exceed grade level.

November's Historical Fiction Blog Post for LA 2, 3, &4

2011-12-01T06:59:00.002-05:00

Write your FIRST name and last initial and your LA class (2, 3 or 4).Tell us your book title and author, then introduce the historical event or time period that made this book historical fiction. How did this historical event or time period affect the character's life? What did you learn about this time period that you didn’t know before?
A 4 on the rubric will have these attributes:

•Post illustrates overwhelming evidence of having read the book.
•An extremely thoughtful and complete post (including your name and LA Class) that stays focused on answering all parts of the prompt (not just a summary).
•Examples are used appropriately and are clearly explained.
•Writing, spelling and grammar exceed grade level.

October Book BLOG (LA 2, 3, & 4)

2011-10-24T07:05:00.001-04:00

Write your FIRST NAME AND LAST INITIAL, LA class, book title and author. Then write a constructed response using TBEAR to answer question below.

Think about a choice that the main character in your October book made. Explain the choice, and then explain why you think s/he made the correct choice or not. Be sure to back up your answer with references to the text.

Rubric below:

· Expertly applies TBEAR

· States and maintains a clear focus (purpose), a firm judgment, or point of view when responding to prompt
· Effectively uses numerous specific details and references to text or relevant citations to support focus or judgment.

· Creatively and succinctly organizes ideas, using transitional words/phrases and drawing a conclusion by synthesizing information.

· Expertly applies rules of standard English usage and grammar.

· Expertly uses word choice and varied sentence length to convey meaning

October Book BLOG (Advanced LA)

2011-10-24T07:05:00.000-04:00

Write your FIRST NAME AND LAST INITIAL, LA class, book title and author. Then write a constructed response using TBEAR to answer question below.

Think about a choice that the main character in your October book made. Describe the choice, and then explain why you think he or she made the correct choice or not and how that illustrated the kind of character he/she/it was. Be sure to back up your answer with references to the text.

Rubric Below:

· Expertly applies TBEAR

· States and maintains a clear focus (purpose), a firm judgment, or point of view when responding to prompt

· Effectively uses numerous specific details and references to text or relevant citations to support focus or judgment.

· Creatively and succinctly organizes ideas, using transitional words/phrases and drawing a conclusion by synthesizing information.

· Expertly applies rules of standard English usage and grammar.

· Expertly uses word choice and varied sentence length to convey meaning

April Book Blog

2011-05-02T07:11:00.001-04:00

Okay, start by giving me:
your first name and last initial
your LA class
your book title and author
Then give me a brief summary of your book. BRIEF! I say! Include only the MOST IMPORTANT EVENTS, only the events I need to understand the story.
THEN:
Think of the part of the book that you connected with most, maybe it was a situation from the book that was similar to something you've been through or experienced or a character who you could really associate with. Then tell me how or why it connected with you.
So it's three parts:
summary
part you connected with
why you connected with it
I will use the same type of rubric that I've used for all this year's blog posts: a 4 will overwhelmingly illustrate that you read the book, it will show insightful thinking, and it will be very well written. Hit it!

Fantasy/Science Fiction Book Post

2011-03-31T09:05:00.000-04:00

Choose only ONE of the following questions to answer. Answer with a complete and thoughtful response with lots of evidence from the text to back up your answer. Remember, you are trying to prove to me that you read the book. BE SURE TO START WITH YOUR NAME, CLASS, AND THE BOOK TITLE AND AUTHOR, THEN NUMBER YOUR ANSWER, 1, 2, or 3.
YOU HAVE ONE CLASS PERIOD TO COMPLETE THIS, SO PLAN ACCORDINGLY.
1. The climax of any book or story is the exciting or interesting part where the reader finds out how the conflict will be solved. Tell what you think is the climax of the book and why.
2.If you could only save one character from the book in the event of a disaster, which one would it be and why?
3. Your book was either Science Fiction or Fantasy, choose three events, one from the beginning, one from the middle, and one from the end, that illustrates this book's genre, and explain why.
Criteria:
A 4 will provide enough evidence from the book to support your answer and convince the reader the that you read the book. It will exceed grade level in grammar, mechanics (very few errors), word choice and sentence structure. It will answer the prompt completely and follow all directions.

October Book Constructed Response (LA: 1, 3, & 4)

2010-11-01T07:06:00.006-04:00

Write your name, LA class, book title and author. Then write a constructed response using TBEAR to answer question below.

Rubric below:

· Expertly applies TBEAR

· Creatively and succinctly organizes ideas, using transitional words/phrases and drawing a conclusion by synthesizing information.

· Expertly applies rules of standard English usage and grammar.

· Expertly uses word choice and varied sentence length to convey meaning

October Book Constructed Response (Advanced LA)

2010-11-01T07:01:00.009-04:00

Write your name, LA class, book title and author. Then write a constructed response using TBEAR to answer question below.

Rubric Below:

· Expertly applies TBEAR

· States and maintains a clear focus (purpose), a firm judgment, or point of view when responding to prompt

· Effectively uses numerous specific details and references to text or relevant citations to support focus or judgment.

· Creatively and succinctly organizes ideas, using transitional words/phrases and drawing a conclusion by synthesizing information.

· Expertly applies rules of standard English usage and grammar.

· Expertly uses word choice and varied sentence length to convey meaning

Short Story Blog Post

2010-09-07T10:05:00.004-04:00

OH NO! I Deleted most of your posts by mistake! They were graded though, whew!
Choose one of the stories from your September short story book. Name the book, author and story. Then explain how one of the stories illustrates one of the following terms using the TBEAR format: subplot, foreshadowing, characterization, irony, internal/external conflict or flashback. Feel free to cover more than one. The rubric is below.

A 4 on the rubric will have these attributes:

An extremely thoughtful and complete post (including your name and LA Class) that stays focused on answering the question.
Examples are used appropriately and are clearly explained.
It is well written with no spelling or grammatical errors.
It is posted by end of day on September 30th.

Again, do not forget to put your name and LA class (1, 2, 3 or 4) in your post.

Biography Blog Bash 2010

2010-03-05T07:06:00.002-05:00

Read all three questions below, and then choose one of the three questions and answer if fully. Think about which question would best suit the biography you read. You have one class period to complete this.

First be sure to give:
your name
your LA class
the book title
The number of the question you will be answering (1, 2 or 3)

1) Describe the early life of your character. Tell about what kind of person he or she was. What was it about this character that helped him or her to succeed? Did your character know what he or she wanted to become in the future? How did your character prepare for his or her future?
2) Tell about the work your character did. Tell why his or her contribution was important; why the work was important. Did he or she invent something or teach others? How did he or she change the world? What lasting effects did your character have on the lives of others?
3) What should we all know about your character? How do we benefit today from him or her? What do you think was the most impressive thing about your character?
RUBRIC:
•An extremely thoughtful and complete post (including your name and LA Class) that stays focused on answering all parts of the prompt.

• Post shows obvious evidence of having read the book. Reader's post reflects an overwhelming knowledge of the subject.

•Examples are used appropriately and are clearly explained.

•It is well written with no spelling or grammatical errors.

Again, do not forget to put your name and LA class in your post.

January Book Blog

2010-01-22T10:00:00.000-05:00

List your book title and author, then summarize your entire book following the headings: someone, wanted, but, so and finally (the same format we've been using for the Romeo and Juliet summaries in class).
Then, name the theme (the author's message, lesson or moral), and explain why you think it's the theme by using evidence from the text to support your answer.

A 4 on the rubric will have these attributes:

•An extremely thoughtful and complete post (including your name and LA Class) that stays focused on answering all parts of the prompt.
•Examples are used appropriately and are clearly explained.
•It is well written with no spelling or grammatical errors.
•It is posted by end of day on January 31st (early credit for earlier posts).

Again, do not forget to put your name and LA class (1, 2, 3 or 4) in your post.

Response for November's Historical Fiction Book

2009-11-19T07:47:00.000-05:00

Tell us your book title and author, then introduce the historical event or time period that made this book historical fiction. How did the historical event or time period affect the character's life? What did you learn about this time period that you didn’t know before?
A 4 on the rubric will have these attributes:

•An extremely thoughtful and complete post (including your name and LA Class) that stays focused on answering all parts of the prompt.
•Examples are used appropriately and are clearly explained.
•It is well written with no spelling or grammatical errors.
•It is posted by end of day on November 30th (early credit for earlier posts).

Again, do not forget to put your name and LA class (1, 2, 3 or 4) in your post.

Short Story Response

2009-09-24T07:11:00.000-04:00

Choose one of the stories from your September short story book. Then explain how one of the stories illustrates one of the following terms that we've covered this year: subplot, foreshadowing, characterization, irony or flashback. Feel free to cover more than one. The rubric is below.

A 4 on the rubric will have these attributes:

An extremely thoughtful and complete post (including your name and LA Class) that stays focused on answering the question.
Examples are used appropriately and are clearly explained.
It is well written with no spelling or grammatical errors.
It is posted by end of day on September 30th.

Again, do not forget to put your name and LA class (1, 2, 3 or 4) in your post.

Conflict and Climax

2009-01-26T16:10:00.000-05:00

Nearly all stories have a conflict (the main problem in a story) and a climax (the part where the reader finds out how the conflict is solved [often the most exciting part]). Write about your favorite conflict and how it was solved in the climax of the story.
This will count as a test grade! Woo Hoo.
It's due by the end of February, but you get more points for posting early!
Here's the rubric.
4 ~ Very thoughtful and complete post
4 ~ For an original, first time posting (no one else has posted the same story)
4 ~ Well written with no errors in spelling/grammar
4 ~ posted before 2/6. 3 ~between 2/7 & 2/13. 2 ~btwn 2/14 & 2/20. 1 ~btwn 2/21 & 2/28.

Here we go!

2008-11-22T10:27:00.000-05:00

Okay, here's my first post! For starters, I'm just going to ask that students post comments on a question, but I'm really interested in seeing how many comments I get while giving students (and me) a chance to get familiar with this format. Okay, here's the question: What do you like most about Natalie Babbitt's writing? Try to be specific.