Wordy Wednesday

I hope you all have been checking the blog even if you have not been contributing.  The last Fictional Friday had to do with The Giver, as I am sure you have figured out by now.  Please go back and look at the pictures again to see if you can make a connection to the text yet.  Some will still be a mystery until we reach that section in the text.  Now that you have more information, though, you can make educated guesses and/or predictions for the novel. Have fun trying to figure them out.

Now, let's get to the task at hand---Vocabulary. There are many interesting vocabulary words that you will encounter as we read The Giver.  You have already worked with a few.  I am going to post some pictures that may help you define some of the new words on our list.  This will be a challenge to get just the right picture to show the meaning, since I don't have the capability of sketching exactly what I want.  Let's give it a try.

Exuberant or Excruciating









Anguish  or  Conspicuous

Meticulous or Transgression

 Buoyancy or Crescendo

  Interdependent or Independent

Easy, right?  Let me know what you think of the exercise.  Please create a post using some of the words in context too.  I'd be interested in seeing how they fit together in a paragraph.  Feel free to find some pictures on the Internet for the words that were not represented in illustration above.  Print and bring in for extra points.  Have fun with words. 

Factual Friday

Let's stick to the facts.  We talked about changes that need to be made in school, in Barnegat, in New Jersey, and in our nation or the world.  It's important to strengthen your writing style when dealing with persuasive essays.  Be creative but be logical too.  Let's get down to business and iron out some issues right here on the blog.  I will post some of the most common complaints expressed about our school. Try to think logically and present your best reason to support or refute the given issue.  If I remember correctly, some of the popular complaints involved gym class,  cafeteria food and eating locations,  a lack of electives, the dress code, gum chewing, a need for recess....the list goes on and on. 

Let's start with cafeteria food.....

Here's what the school lunch is like in Korea.  Better?


Many of you expressed complaints about the food not being healthy.  Will the Korean menu work here to solve that problem?
How about this image?


The caption on this picture below mentioned mystery meat?  Is that fair?

The caption on the picture above reads....

Kids who ate school lunches like this one regularly were 29 percent more likely to be obese than those who brought their lunch from home.

The caption  for the picture above reads....

Health researchers typically focus on improving the quality of foods served in school cafeterias. But what about improving a child’s whole dining experience. Turning the school lunch into a real sit-down meal, rather than a minutes-long eating frenzy, is just one way to begin improving the health and eating habits of the nation’s children, says Dr. Arthur Agatston.

What do you think about time?  Do you feel rushed at lunch?  Does the time issue cause you to eat all the wrong foods?  Let's just think a minute.  Do we have a minute?

Let's talk about the improvements you would like to see on the menu or during lunch and why they are necessary. Be logical and prove your point.  We will take on another issue next week so check back often.

Fictional Friday

Fictional Friday is back.  I hope you are all ready to once again be creative.  As you work on your memoir project, I want you to consider some other possibilities for expressing your imagination.  I realize that for your free reading you will be concentrating on nonfiction and planning your "talk show" interviews for the end of the marking period.  That does not mean you should completely forget about fiction and creativity. We will be starting a very bizarre novel shortly and I want to ease you into it.

Our new novel will have a touch of science fiction so be ready for anything and everything, as they say. To get you started and thinking along the lines of the weird and the seemingly impossible, I am posting some pictures that may or may not have something to do with our new novel. I would like you to preview the pictures and see if you can develop your own story line fitting each picture somewhere into the plot.  You have my permission to be as weird as you like. Remember, this book will be science fiction.

Spoiler alert>>>  Anyone who has already read our new book or has been told anything about the plot from an older sister/brother (Allan) make sure you do not ruin the surprise or shock value of the novel for the rest of the classes.  Thanks

Okay, enjoy the pictures and let your imaginations fly.....