Reading B/log

We have been doing a great job learning the art of blogging and keeping up conversation. There are three more offical weeks in the competition before we reflect on how our writing has improved. Please remember to keep up with your weekly enteries about what you are reading. Reference your book properly.

This website is using the month of November to give a tip-a-day encouraging you to become a better blogger. Why not sign up for the RSS feed and implement some of the suggestions to improve your blogging experience?

NEW THIS WEEK:

11.This week’s blog competition encourages you to extend the range of blogs that you are reading. To do this, you must follow the steps listed here.

12. The Colllaboration Nation Middle School Blog has some great ideas to help you discover a variety of blogs. Go to the page that lists all the stubc08 participants and find one blogger who is older, one younger, one from another country, and one of your choice to leave a comment on. In a post on your own blog write about about the most interesting post you read and put a link to the blog so the person gets a “ping back.”

13. Please visit the following class blogs who have all had a chance to check out ours. Don’t forget to leave comments using the criteria for constructive comments that we brainstormed in class:

6&7 students in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Grade 6 in Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Grade 7&8s from Ontario Canada

Portuguese Students

Mrs. Durff’s Grade 7s

Mrs Cunningham’s Reading For Pleasure Blog in England

Thanks to finding Miss W’s class blog we are now involved in the the competition to help us meet fellow bloggers from around the world and improve our communication skills.

Miss W reminds us that:

• you will need to keep track of the comments you make – use a word document or something similar and cut and paste all your comments
• whenever you write a post or comment include stubc08 somewhere in the writing
• you will need to visit her class blog at least once a week to find out the activities to try

But most importantly, have fun and remember blogging is about:

This is your to do list for setting up your blog. All these steps need to be completed by Friday October 31st.

1. Your first blog entry can be your interview or a post of your choice. Be sure to delete or edit the default edublog page.

2. Manage your links on your blog by adding other classmates blogs or other blogs or websites that have to do with reading, writing, and media and communication. You can remove the default edublogs link if you wish.

3. Create an appropriate new blog name and tagline. Think about what your blog is about and how you can sum that up and catch your readers’ interest. Remember this does not change your blog web address!

4. Create categorgies for your blog enteries and make tags for your enteries. Category examples could be: Book Report Assignments (for all the assignments I ask you to do), Weekly Diary (for all your own ideas), Reading, Writing, Critiques, Reccomendations, Lists, Dreams…whatever categories you decide will fit what you write. Tags are words that will help you and your readers easily find what you have written so you can tag enteries with key words, like the name of the author you are writing about for example.

5. Make sure you know the difference between a post and a page. Most of your enteries should be posts, but perhaps you can make each assignment a different page, and then have your weekly journal enteries as posts…it is up to you, but make sure you know what you are doing and why.

NEW THIS WEEK!

6. Think about why you choose the theme for your blog.  Have you looked at some others?  What were some good or bad points?  Check out this post about the themes used with Edublogs. You  might want to write a post about your choice of theme.

7. Create your “ABOUT” page. Ms. Wyatt explains why and how you can introduce yourself here.

8. Create an “AVATAR”. Thanks to Ms. Wyatt for her excellent post on this.

As you know from reading the posts below each month you will be reading at least one book. At the end of each month I will be posting a book report assignment here for you to complete. In additon, each week you are to write about your reading experiences. Here are some writing prompts to help you think about what to write:

* Description and Detail: Could you “see” the action as it was happening? Feel it? Hear it?

* Action: Was there enough happening to hold your interest? Was there too much action and not enough character development?

* Realism: Was the plot believable? The characters? Did it matter?

* Meaning/Theme: What was the author showing about the life and living  through the story?

* Mood: Did you laugh, cry? Why? Were you angry? WHY?

* Conclusion: How did the author leave the readers? Was the ending satisfying? Why or why not?

* What do you think now that you have finished the book that you didn’t think before?

* What connections are there between your own life and the characters, events, and issues the author is writing about?

* Evaluate: What did you like or dislike about this selection? Why or why not?

Re-read the first post for more ideas of what you can write on your own.

As you have read in the post below, once a week in class you will be reading English fiction. Each week you are expected to create a blog entry about your experiences with what you are reading. Once a month you will be given a specific assignment to respond to. This month’s assignment is as follows:

. Interview one of the main characters in the story.

. Please note that you do not only write down your questions, but also the answers the character gives to them.
For instance,
Reporter: When did you first suspect George Smilie was the Killer?
Police inspector: We first began to suspect him when we found the murder weapon, a gun, with his finger prints on it.

. Ask 20 questions.

. Yes/No answers are not allowed.

. The answers given should be complete sentences.

. The answers to your questions should show your character’s personality. You as the interviewer should take the time and place setting of your book into account as well.

In other words: reading your interview, the reader should have a complete overview of what the book is about and the type of person the character is.

This is the main portal to your Reading Log, turned into a Blog! As you know, each Thursday (Is1a) or Friday (Is1b) you will have a chance to read your “novels of the month”. After each novel you will complete an assignment which will be posted here. You complete the assignment by posting your work to your blog. In addition, each week you will be writing responses to what you have read that week on your own blog.

Your reading blog is a place for you to develop ideas, express feelings and opinions about reading, authors and writing. Your blog should become a place where writing is used to help you make sense of all you are reading. You should write in your blog using the assignment questions that I will post here as inspiration. You are encouraged to write out all your thoughts in as much detail as possible–any individual reading your blog should be able to “see” what you are trying to express.

Please write about the effect your reading had on you. You might write down some of the memories that a selection brings to mind. You might choose to records whatever thoughts, feelings, and questions occur to you while you are reading. Finally, you may choose to record points with which you are in agreement/disagreement with the author. Keep in mind that the purpose of this blog is to write as freely as you can and to “talk” about what you notice in the works you are reading.

I will write back to you in the comment section and you are encouraged to read your peers’ blog enteries and comment on them, creating a discussion. These blogs are your personal reading journals to design and write about what interests you in regards to what you are reading. You are expected to complete one entry a week and encouraged to comment on as many peers’ blogs as interest you.