Just had to share this great post from Ms. Robbins's classes!

I don't know how Ms. Robbins and her students compiled this list of writing prompts, but I'm stealing them!  When you're stuck for a focus for your weekly blog post, I bet some of these will unstick you!

All-Star Posts on "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh"

Check out the strength and sophistication of these all-star blog posts!!!

Elinor's post!

Sasha's post!

Sylvie's post!

Nicole's post!

A Few Notable Blog Posts from Last Year

http://luvmeliv.blogspot.com/2012/05/making-splash-robyn.html

http://rottinghyacinths.blogspot.com/2012/04/response-by-paul-volponi.html

http://rayreads.blogspot.com/2012/05/way-war-separates-people.html

http://alexstutt5.blogspot.com/2012/03/important-relationships-in-mother.html

How to Get Your Blog Started!! 2012 - 2013

How To Set Up A Blog

URL/permission slip due on: Monday, September 10

You will be setting up your blog and submitting your URL.  Then you will write your first post, which will be a reading response based on a summer reading book that will be due on Friday, September 14.

How do I start a web log?
1. Go to www.blogger.com and click on the “Create a Blog” button.
2. Blogger is a part of Gmail and you will need a Gmail account if you don’t already have one. If you already have a Gmail email address, simply type it in. If you don’t, you can create one. Don’t forget your password! You can now also use this account for email, or use it just for your blogger account.
3. Follow the directions to name your blog and create its URL. The name and URL do not necessarily have to match. (For example, Ms. Robbins's blog is called “Books Upon Books,” but that URL was already taken, so her URL is http://www.room116ela.blogspot.com/.  Mine happens to match - my blog is The Starry Void, an allusion to one of my favorite Pablo Neruda poems, and my blog is http://www.thestarryvoid.blogspot.com/.) Don't choose a URL name that's too wacky to remember!
4. Follow the directions to pick a template, and your blog is ready to go!

Privacy Settings and Options

1. It is important to first adjust the privacy settings.  Click on the blogger icon and then your blog’s name or just go to the “Design” link at the top right hand corner of your blog’s page. You will see a list come up on the side.  Click on “basic” to get to the privacy settings and click on “edit.” Answer “no” to both questions so that it won’t come up in a search.  Click on the “save changes” button.

2. Please leave the "blog readers" setting on "everybody", so that your classmates and I can access your blog.

3. Click on “posts and comments.” Change it to “user with google account.”

 

Adding Gadgets

Click on “design” at the top right hand corner again.  Click on “layout” on the left hand side.  Click on “add gadget”.  When you find one you want, click on the “+” sign.  Be sure to save changes! As you customize your blogs, feel free to utilize all the tools available to you on blogger. The following are required:  

1. Labels: Label each post according to your focus (for example, “character change” or “theme”).  You can also label posts according to topic (“friendship” or “sports”) or title (“Hunger Games”).  

2. Blogroll: you can create a list of blogs you are reading on the sidebar. Everyone will be responsible for commenting on a handful of other blogs, so this is a great place to put the blogs you plan on keeping up with.  Each time an author posts something new, it automatically moves that blog to the top of your list. You can add in the blogs once I add them to our home base blog, thestarryvoid.blogspot.com. 

3. List: Please make an online list and call it  “Finished Book List.” As you finish a book, add it here. 

Additional Guidelines
1. This blog is a part of a school project. Therefore, all content on your blog must be related to your reading and writing life in some way. Please do not use this blog as an online journal.
2. My expectation is that we are a community of readers and writers. I will be monitoring all blogs and trusting that your words that appear online will come from a place of respect for your fellow classmates as well with a tone that is appropriate for school.
3. For my own sanity, do not add any kind of sound gadgets to your blog.  Also, please type in readable colors (no pink or yellow) and fonts (avoid ones that are cursive or all caps, especially). 

Thanks!  Let's get this blogging started!
 
-Ms. Rear

Last Post!!! Due Monday, June 18!

For your past post of the year, I want you to think and write about your experience blogging about reading this year and about what it means to have an 'online identity'.


Answer some or all of the following questions. . .


* What did you learn about yourself as a reader from creating and keeping up with your blog?
* In what ways did you benefit from the experience?
* Is writing online different than in a notebook?  In what ways?
* In what ways can writing online be liberating?  Limiting?
* Do you think that people are more real online or do we create online personalities that project the best of ourselves? Or something else?
* Do you think that teenagers abuse the freedom that being online gives you on sites like facebook? Do people type things they would never say to a person's face? Do you think this is a good or bad thing? Why?
* Can you imagine yourself keeping up this blog or creating another one?  What would it be about?  What's your opinion of blogs in general and why?  

Thanks for all your hard work this year, and thanks for helping me learn about the world of blogging with students, too! 

Deep Thinkers!!!

Here are some really thought-provoking philosophical posts from the last week:

Daniel starts to think about choices in the context of war:
http://arcofthenoid.blogspot.com/2012/05/philosophy-and-war.html

Life, love, and happiness according to Francesca:
http://rottinghyacinths.blogspot.com/2012/05/value-of-life-in-if-i-stay.html

Start with these, and navigate through some more to find some mentors!

Culminating Questions for Ms. Bates's Ethical Dilemma Study

Directions:  After you have completed your PSA, Public Service Announcement for your Voki character, think and write about three things:

            1^st Why is your issue a moral/ethical dilemma?

            2^nd Which approach did you take to your solution?  Explain why you classify your approach that way.

                        i.e. - Is it a Virtue Approach to Solving your dilemma?

                              - Is it a Common Good Approach to Solving your dilemma?

            3^rd: (Might require some research!!!)  What actions has society (the public, the government, organizations, etc.) taken to solve this dilemma?  Have these actions been “right or wrong”?  Why?  Have the consequences of these actions been “good or bad”?  Why?

Ms. Bates’ Example:

Topic: Prohibit America from Smoking

1^st: Why is your issue a moral/ethical dilemma?

1 in 5 deaths are due to smoking each year.  Americans are dying at rates higher than HIV, motor vehicle accidents, alcohol use, illegal drug use suicides and murders combined; yet the government still permits Americans to purchase them.  But, many would argue that American adults have the mental capacity to decide how they want to relieve stress and subsequently die.   Isn’t the government supposed to look out for the common good of its people?  This is a moral/ethical dilemma because the government wants to help its people by not infringing upon their rights, but it also realizes the need to intervene its smoking habits due to the alarming death rates.

2^nd: Which approach did you take to your solution?  Explain why you classify your approach that way.

            By getting people to write to their congressman to ban smoking, I would classify my approach to solving this solution as the Common Good Approach because through the outlawing of smoking, I would be getting our government to do what’s best for the greater whole. 

3^rd (Might require some research!!!)  What actions has society (the public, the government, organizations, etc.) taken to solve this dilemma?  Have these actions been “right or wrong”?  Why?  Have the consequences of these actions been “good or bad”?  Why?

Some actions that society has taken in the prevention of smoking are the increased awareness of smoking’s harmful effects through the creation of billboards, televised commercials, and health warnings on the sides of cigarette packages.  I think that this is a right action because the government is utilizing pictorial ads to prevent smoking; but it yields bad consequences, because only 15% of the world’s population meets the best practices for pictorial warnings (World Health Organization.) Additionally, unless urgent action is taken, the annual death toll could rise to more than eight million, globally, by 2030 (World Health Organization.) 

 DUE FRIDAY, MAY 4!!!!

** BE READY TO PRESENT YOUR WORK!!!! ***

How I Will Assess Your Blogs

Your blog will be worth ten percent of your quarter grade.  The categories in which I will assess your blog are:

1) Completion of assignments - Both posts and comments are completed by each Friday on which we have school.
2) Effort - Writing and creative and thought-provoking; writer put a lot of effort into the assignments.
3) Organization - Writing is organized; ideas are fully developed with a variety of details
4) Mechanics - Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation are used.  Vocabulary is sophisticated.

Email me with any questions!

What should I write about???

We've spent some time warming up our blogs by posting about our rereading books, and now it's time to take the next step and start writing about independent reading.

Always make sure your blog post has a clear focus as well as supporting ideas.  Try to include evidence and examples from the text itself, as well as your own ideas about the book.

We've already discussed a lot of things you could write about if you aren't sure.  Here are some ideas:


1.   In life, conflict (and how it is dealt with) causes change in a person (for better or worse). Reading and studying characters and their conflicts helps us understand humanity on the whole.  

2. Protagonist-the main character in a literary work (not necessarily good or bad, which means you have to be a careful reader!)

3. Antagonist-the person or forces who oppose or contend with the protagonist (sometimes the antagonist can be like an inner voice or an unseen force…be a careful reader!)

.     4. Unpacking a “loaded sentence” - such as an "author's intrusion".

5. Noticing your protagonist’s archetypal journey: (task, quest, loss of innocence) interpret your protagonist’s emotional journey: 

• what positive people/events impacted him/her most?

• what negative people/events impacted him/her most?

• how is your character different now? What did he/she learn? What did the journey accomplish?

• extend your ideas to LIFE and humanity: what does this journey teach you about living in the world?

6. Noticing character patterns-archetypes

• The hero-displays courage, self sacrifice and is not perfect
•  The mentor-assists/guides the protagonist, symbolizing wisdom, knowledge, experience  
• The shadow-creates tension in story , represents the darker side of human nature  
• The shapeshifter-a character who keeps changing sides; can’t make up mind; represents uncertainty.

7. Theme: the statement about life that an author wants to share with the reader.  What does the author want us to think, feel, or know?

8.  Cross-book inquiry: Make connections between your book and another you’ve read

      9. Setting-what aspects of the setting are significant and symbolic?

      10. At the end of a book, you could approach your blog post like an appreciation: what did you appreciate in your book? What ideas are rolling around your mind now that you have finished the book?

What makes a good, thoughtful blog comment?

So now that we've all started posting about our reading, it's time to begin interacting with each other by responding to each other's blog posts.

By going through The Starry Void, you can read your classmates' (as well as my other two classes') blogs listed in the blogrolls on the right.  Start perusing their blog posts, and find some that are interesting to you.  (You can even start 'following' your favorites on your own blog!)

You are required to comment on the blog posts of 803, 808, or 812.  I will be checking these responses.

A good, thoughtful blog comment might:
* praise interesting ideas in the original post
* ask for clarification of any unclear parts of the original post
* add the responder's own thoughts to original ideas to build strength
* contradict or challenge (respectfully!) by explaining another aspect or asking a question to further dialogue
* contain connections (to the self, the world, another text, or another part of the same text) to deepen thinking about the post

***  AND good, thoughtful blog responses always
* are respectful and coherent
* use standard vocab, spelling, and grammar (so that everyone can understand)
* show consideration of the original blogger's work and thought

When someone comments on your blog post, it's a great opportunity for a dialogue.  Answer their questions or respond to their ideas.  Turn it into a really deep "conversation"!  

Here are a few links to comments from last week that pushes the bloggers to think more deeply about their original posts:

Alex's response to Elsa's post  is thoughtful and elaborated.  Elsa should definitely write back!
I really like how Hou In responds to Jackie's post, too!  Jackie should also write back!