Thursday/Friday 16/17 February

Our Rockstar Librarian Ms. Battle came, and showed writers some great places to do research. First she highlighted these websites accessible through the Multnomah County Library:

Go to http://www.multcolib.org/ and sign in.
Then choose the following menu items:
Research
Databases
Electric Library

Then type in various search terms; see what comes up.
When you have found one, then you have the ability to automatically make citations.

Also
Research
AP Images (A good place to find photos and illustrations, but this database does not automatically create your citations.)

And Noodle Tools:
www.noodletools.com

Then the class was assigned two different assignments. Juniors are are working foremost on completing their OAKS Writing Assessment. After they finish they will have some time to work on the task that the Seniors are focusing on.

Ms. Brandy will be / was guest teacher on Friday. She will also guest teach next Wednesday through Friday.

Tuesday/Wednesday 14/15 February

While occasionally serenaded by Val-o-grams, writers wrote to the prompts:

What is curiosity like? or What is it like to learn something new?

After sharing responses writers began examining feature magazine articles from a variety of magazines in order to identify their characteristics. After the writers made their analysis, Mr. Zartler shared the following lecture notes explaining the characteristics: http://www.slideshare.net/john1306/feature-writing

Next writers were asked to consider questions: some are relatively simple: Who? Where? When? What? Others are slightly more complex: How? And big questions are often associated with: Why?

Writers are to have twenty-five questions about heir thesis topic for next class.

Next week, writers will be taking their OAKS and researching their thesis topics.