Some of you have been asking if you can keep your blog once school is out. The answer is YES, but there are a few steps you need to follow to take control of your blog. If you do not take these steps by the end of June, I will delete your blog forever!
Step 1: Change your email address to your personal email: Follow the steps listed here to update your profile.
Fill out the form below so I can request that edublogs reset your email under settings:
Step 2: Remove me as a user from your blog. Click here to find directions on how to delete users. Scroll down to the subheading “To Remove a User from a Blog.”
Follow these directions to create your works cited page.
Center this title at the top of the page: Works Cited
If you used an article from the Inspire data base, copy the citation from the article. Paste it into your word processing document.
Use a citation maker (the link is on the right side under “Researching Authors)” to format the other websites you used. Click on “website” in the right column for the type of source. Fill in the blanks for all the information available. You must have Title of Work (the name of the article), title of overall website, Date of Access, URL (address). If you can find them, include the author of the article, date posted or published, publisher. Once you have filled in the blanks, click Create Citation (in green at the bottom left).
Copy your citation into your word processing document. Paste them in alphabetical order.
Create a hanging indent. Highight the entries. Right click and choose Paragraph. In the dialogue box, change the “Before Text” to 0.50″ and the “First Line” to -0.50″. Click Okay.
It is time to end your research report. You do not want to leave your reader hanging or suffering from whiplash by writing the words “THE END” or just stopping when you run out of facts to share. The bad news: endings are hard–at least they are for me. The good news: I’ve learned some tricks along the way to help you out!
Circle back to the beginning: Reread your hook and your thesis statement. Now that you have put the rest of your research into words, where else might your lead point? Don’t copy it exactly, but echoes from the beginning are a very effective way to end.
Give your opinion: You have read at least one book by this author and learned everything you could about the life behind the writer. You are now an expert on this writer. Why would you recommend this writer to your classmates?
Capture the main idea: Point out the highlights of your research. Restate — in a different way — the most important things to understand about your author.
Leave your reader with something to think about: Craft a strong statement that captures the essense of your author. Leave your reader with a question to ponder. Include a powerful quote from your writer about writing or reading or their books.
Try one of these suggestions to wrap it all up. Once you have finished the lead, body, and conclusion, get ready to print. Before you print, make sure
Your paper is double spaced.
You have included a heading (McGriff Period#, Your Name)
You have crafted a title. Review the notes on Good Titles in your Writing Handbook.
You should have created your lead and turned it in at the end of class. Underline or highlight the different parts of your lead in these colors: Blue for the hook (ooh fact), green for the citation (website where you found the fact), purple for the transition (to connect your hook and thesis statement), and red for your thesis statement (one sentence that sums up what you think is most important about your writer). It should look like my example:
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes does her best writing on the floor of her closet. If the closet is unavailable, she has also been known to write in the back seat of her car or sprawled across her bed (Teen Reads Past Interview). Even though she writes in some very strange places, Atwater-Rhodes creates popular young adult fantasy novels that will take you into a world of vampires and shape shifters.
Once you have written your lead, you are ready to write the rest of your paper. The good news–you did most of the hard work when you took your notes. Get out those notes. Each category will become a different paragraph in your paper. (If you did not take notes on the types of books and the types of awards, you will need to get that information.) Decide what order would be best for your paper. For each paragraph, write a topic sentence. The topic sentence should state what the paragraph is about and relate back to your thesis statement. Then tell the facts that you learned about your writer that support your topic sentence. Give a citation for each fact you include from your research.
Rhodes got an early start creating these fantastical worlds in her books. She loved the spooky stories her mom shared with her growing up.Atwater-Rhodes says, “She pretty much raised me on Stephen King and Dracula and aliens” (Contemporary Authors Online). Sharing those stories with her mom gave her the inspiration to write her own. She started writing a science fiction novel in the second grade(Contemporary Authors Online).When she was thirteeen, she began to dream of publication. She got her lucky break when a teacher turned out to be a literary agent as well. He offered to read and then represent her first book, In the Forests of the Night. He called on her fourteenth birthday to tell her her novel had been accepted for publication(Random House). That phone call would top all the other presents.
You had good ideas for what to include in the writing and poster for your author research project.
Here is the rubric for the poster. Enter this number (2035051) in the search box under “Go to Saved Rubric.” Then click the VIEW button. You may choose to do a traditional poster on posterboard or create an online poster using GlogsterEdu.
Here is the rubric for the research report. Enter this number (2035053) in the search box under “Go to Saved Rubric.” Then click the VIEW button.
The required information includes the author’s name, book information, awards and accomplishments, and at least five of the following topics: family, education, career (other jobs), hobbies, childhood, hometown, inspiration for writing, influences on writing, writing process, interesting facts/favorites.
What do you think needs to be added or clarified (explained more)? Leave me a comment to let me know.
Thank you, Miss Bowman, for teaching us all about citing sources for our research project. If you missed out, here is what you need to know. One reason for citing your sources is to prevent plagiarism. It also lets your readers know where they can check your facts or find out more on their own.
Don’t be like poor Wally. Make sure you have a Works Cited page.
Still not sure what plagiarism is? Check out the teacher I want to be here.
Now it’s time to put your knowledge to the test. Click here to play the Cite is Right!
When you write your paper and create your poster for your author research project, you will need to do two things.
Give an in-text citation. You should cite any information that is not common knowledge or that did not come straight out of your head. That means everything you took notes on should be cited whethe or not it is a direct quote or a paraphrase (in your own words). This citaiton is a shorthand code that leads your reader to your your Works Cited page. At the end of your sentence, put the author’s last name (if no author is given for your website, give the web site name or address) in parentheses. It looks like this (from the notes I took on Amelia Atwater-Rhodes yesterday): One place that Amelia Atwater gets ideas for her books is from people-watching (TeenReads).
Create a Works Cited page. This will be the last page of your paper. Center “Works Cited” at the top of your page. Use the Citation Maker from the Oregon School Library Information System to create the citation. List the entries in alphabetical order. I also added a link to the Citation Maker to the links on the right.
Here’s the slide show that explains how you can use participles (an -ing verb tagged on the beginning or end of a sentence (can also be -ed verb) to add action and detail to your writing.
Check out the pictures in the gallery below. Leave a comment sharing your best sentence that uses a participle to describe the action in the photo. Feel free to make up names (but not from your classmates).
Grinning from ear to ear, the fisherman held up his catch.
Strumming a few chords, Johnny wrote a new song.
Shivering with cold, the colt stood close to its mother.
Pictures used with permission from Image Grammar by Harry Noden (Heinemann, 1999)
First, choose an important passage (short) from your book. Choose one that points to what the book is all about. It might come at a point where the main character learns an important truth or makes an important decision. It might be a passage that gives a clue to the title or is beautifully written. Remember quotation marks and citation (author’s last name and page number). Here’s the passage I chose from Football Hero by Tim Green.
” ‘It’s not over until it’s over,’ Thane said, speaking slowly, the way he did when he wanted Ty to remember. ‘You want to be a champion, you have to think that way, in everything you do. You never stop. You let yourself start to think that way, then the one time you could pull out a win because of some freak luck, you’re not ready for it. Maybe it’s only once in a lifetime, but that’s one win you’d never have, and who knows what that one win could do.’ ‘ (Green 289)
Once you quote the passage, explain what it means to you. Tell me what you’re thinking and support it with examples from the rest of the story. Here’s what I think about the quote above:
Ty remembered this conversation with his brother in the middle of a football game. Ty was racing to catch the ball. He had already outrun three defenders but the fourth had just tipped the ball out of reach. Even though it seemed impossible, Ty kept going for the ball. But more than that, throughout the story Ty never gave up. Even when things seemed the most hopeless, he kept trying. Sometimes he kept trying on the football field–running barefoot when his cheap sneakers wouldn’t do the job. He also kept trying to stay in contact with his brother Thane. At first Uncle Gus tells Ty he can’t visit his brother then weekend of the NFL draft. Then when Lucy, the bar owner, sees a way to use the brotherly connection to his advantage, Ty asks him for permission to play in the football spring scrimmage, too. When the school bully won’t leave Ty alone, Ty stalks him on the football field, earning the respect of his teammates. When he realizes that Lucy is out to hurt Thane, he rushes to warn his brother and shoves Lucy down an escalator. One of the things I like best about Ty is that willingness to never say never. I think Tim Green wants his readers to come away with that message, too. Don’t ever give up, no matter how hard or impossible life seems, because you never know when that one time will pay off for you. Keep trying so you will be ready for it when it comes.
Go to FlickerCC to find an image that you can legally use on your blog. FlickerCC lets you search for images that have a Creative Commons license. That means you can use the picture on your blog if you follow the guideline given in the license.
Insert the picture into your post:
Right click on the image you want to use.
Choose “Save picture as” and save it to your folder. Make sure you save it as a JPEG file.
Go back to the post you want to insert the picture in. At the very top, click on the first button beside “Add media.” If you hold the mouse over it, it says “”Add an image.” This will bring up a dialogue box.
Click on the “Select Files” button. Change the location to your folder instead of My Pictures. Click on the image you saved.
Select the size and location of your picture. Then click “Insert into post.”
Below your picture, write a caption that uses your word.
You also need to give an attribution for the image like I did above. Tell the name of the picture, give a link to the URL where you found the picture, and tell what Creative License it has. Here is where you find this information on FlickerCC.
