DigLitCirc Discussion #6 - the FINAL one - begins!

Hello Ottawa and Oshawa readers,

  You are expected to be done reading your novel by the first week back at school after March Break.

   Friday, March 25th is the last date for posting answers to the questions from section 6. My students will be posting those questions by the end of the day today and I will link to them here.

Jatinder is hosting the discussion for We All Fall Down.
Aaisha and Amrita are hosting the Branded discussion.
Tara is hosting the discussion for Shaken.
Mateen will be hosting the discussion for Wounded.
Thanks to Claire "Nancy Drew", I know that Walid will be hosting the discussion for Black and White. Wave's final discussion will be hosted by Zak.
Sara is hosting the final discussion for Sketches.

DigLitCirc Section 5 Hosts

Hello R8A,

Please visit Ms. Crosbie's blog to find your hosts for discussion #5. All the hosts are from her class, except for the host for Branded. Shahad from R8A will be hosting that discussion. Discussion #5 questions are now up and ready for your contributions. You have until the Monday following March Break to answer. Remember, the faster you get involved, the more interesting, juicy and deep the discussion will be!

DigLitCirc Summary Expectations

Hello all,

Two weeks after you have hosted a question and all your group members from Oshawa and Ottawa have answered, the host must post a synthesis on his or her blog.

You must write a summary post on your own blog...

-read all the comments made by your group members, notice any interesting trends, over-arching themes and on-going questions

-create a graphic organizer on paper to summarize their thoughts (this is your rough draft)

-write a paragraph:

• intro: what your book is, what your question was, what the group members answered overall (big idea), three pieces of support written in a concise way
• support #1: the most powerful piece of support to prove what your group members though/you decided the consensus was
• support #2: another piece of support to prove your big idea
• support #3: another very powerful piece of support
• conclusion: summarize what you want the reader to understand about the big idea, leave them with something to think about (a connection, a question...)

-carefully edit your paragraph for clarity, spelling, punctuation and grammar
-post the paragraph on your blog in a new post
-link to all your group members in this post and thank them for their contributions

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!

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!

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)