Monday 28 February 2011

DigLitCirc Discussion #4

Hello Oshawa and Ottawa friends,

Ms. Crosbie and I finally got to meet in person and we rocked the IDEAS conference, teaching many teachers from across Eastern Ontario about the challenges and huge successes of blogging. Several teachers who attended our workshops have started their own blogs now and we'll connect with their classes soon.

For now, we're still in the the Lit Circle mode. Ottawa students will be hosting the discussions for section #4 of your novels.

Please visit the following blogs and join in on the discussions as soon as you're done reading. The sooner you get involved in the discussion, the better, juicier and more interesting it will be!

Black and White - Claire
Branded - Jeffrey
We All Fall Down - Zuhair
Wounded - Mateen
Shaken - Tyler
Sketches - Haneen and Hannah
Wave - Iksha

I look forward to reading even more of you fantastic thoughts. Keep up the terrific work, darlings!

Friday 25 February 2011

You're About to be Educational Superstars!

Hello octopuses,

Be good for Ms. Wark today, as I am in Kingston, presenting about your awesome work.

If you would like to watch the slideshow I'll be sharing, you can take a few minutes and check it out!



DigLitCirc Discussion #4 hosts should be posting their questions today and commenting to let me know they're up.

Have a great Winter Fun Day tomorrow, good luck this weekend getting your boards and speeches all ready for Monday and have a fabulous weekend!

See you Monday,
Miss P

Friday 18 February 2011

DigLitCirc Section #3 Discussion begins!

Hello my friends,

I hope you are enjoying your long weekend!

A couple of reminders:
#1. DigLitCirc Discussion #2 ends today
#2. DigLitCirc Discussion #3 begins today.

To see your hosts, check out Ms. Crosbie's blog.

Any questions, leave me a comment!

Wednesday 16 February 2011

History Fair Expectations

Please take some time to check out the slideshow below. There is lots of information about expectations for the school History Fair.


Thursday 10 February 2011

DigLitCirc Section 2 Hosts

Hello all,

Discussions for section 1 of the novels went beautifully. Thank you all for your wonderful contributions. Please make sure you are keeping up with all the due dates and contact me right away if you are falling behind for any reason. There's not a lot of time to catch up, as we need everyone on the same page (literally!).

R8A is very happy to be hosting the DigLitCirc discussions this week. All should be done commenting on the section one discussion questions and reading section 2 of their novels. Get ready for the second section discussions!

The hosts are:

Black and White - Noah
Sketches - Melissa
We All Fall Down - Will
Wave - UPDATE - Connor is hosting
Shaken - Tara
Wounded - Reshad
Branded - Qavi

They will be posting their fantastic questions on their blogs by the end of the day Friday so that their group members can start discussing the topics they suggest.

Remember, hosts, here are your critera:
-welcome all your group members by name (hyperlink to their blogs)
-give info: book title, author, section read (chapter numbers)
-decide on the question you want to ask and consult with your teacher to make sure it is a great one (you can talk to Ms. Wark about this or email Miss Pollock)
-post your thought-provoking question
-put a comment on your own post, answering your question
-make sure to respond to each of your group members at least once (thank them for their contributions, seek clarification, agree/disagree respectfully, add more information...)

Group members, here are your criteria:
-read your assigned section
-add to your character web and vocab list (in the Readers' Response section of your binder)
-visit the Host's blog to find out your digital discussion question
-prepare your response carefully - 100-500 words EDITED and PROOFREAD!
-post your response to the comment section of the Host's blog post
-read the other postings and respond at least twice

All members of R8A:
-check out the questions on your teacher's blog page (the page tab at the top of this blog: DigLitCirc Reader's Response)
-follow instructions from there - Response A is due next Wednesday (see due dates on the right hand side of Miss P's blog)

Wednesday 2 February 2011

Find Your Hosts for DigLitCirc Section 1

Ms. Crosbie has posted about our first section of Digital Lit Circles discussions. Please check her blog to see which student (the Host) will be posting a question for you to discuss.

Her students will be posting questions by Friday and you will have up until next Friday to respond. In order to get the most interesting, engaging discussion going, make sure to return to the Host's blog often and read all comments and add your own.

In class on Thursday (tomorrow) we will go over your expectations for this in more detail.


Update: Discussions are off to a rip roaring start. If you have made your 100-500 word answer and two (or more) responses in the host's comments, you can also check out the other discussions going on. If you have already read some of Eric Walters other books, I recommend that you head over to the other blogs and see what those groups are talking about.

The Sketches group is being hosted on Andrianna's blog and has raised a lot of wonderful points, their discussion is well underway and deserves a read.















Tuesday 1 February 2011

Assignment #20 - Posting your SOLE videos

Good morning friends,

Assignment #20 is a quick and easy one. In fact, you have a class expert on this one, Melissa figured out how to do this and helped me out!

1. First, go to my account on photobucket.

2. Next, find your SOLE group's video (or videos).

3. When you run your mouse over the thumbnail (small) image of your video, a small menu will pop up.

4. Click on the "HTML" code window. This will automatically copy the code (which will copy the video to your blog) to your clipboard.

5. Come back to your blog and open a New Post.

6. Go into the Edit HTML tab on your New Post and paste down the code (right click and select "Paste").

7. Go back to the "Compose" tab on your New Post and write three things (in full sentences!) you want your viewers to notice about your video, create a title and post.

8. Now, comment on this post and let me know that Assignment #20 is done.

9. Tah-dah! Another assignment done and ready for your Oshawa buddy to watch and comment on! Congratulations.