Did you really want to be in the
POMS Spelling Bee,
but you didn’t make it?
Come to the
Wild Card Spelling Bee
on
Wednesday, December 2nd
4pm ~ sharp!
Five Students Will Win
Any Grade, Any House
I am working on adding more technology and mentor texts to my classroom. If you know a person or organization looking to sponsor an educator, please send them to the sites below.
http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/view_profile?id=6064302552136917
http://www.iloveschools.com/teacher/cgeraci
http://www.donorschoose.org/?return=true&return=true For this site, please put my last name in the search box and press the arrow.
Please take a moment to see some of the other wonderful projects listed on these websites. Thank you for your consideration!
Because I have been out, the students and I have not had a chance to really work on revision and editing. Instead of having the Multimedia Memoir Project due November 30/December 1, I am moving the date to Friday, December 4.
Along with that change, I am offering another option on the project. Students may complete an online project where they post their text with pictures and/or video. One possible site for this is http://www.tabblo.com/studio/ . Another good site is https://www.blogger.com/start . For either of these, you will need to send me a link and/or make me a friend. If I am not signed up, and I may not be for the site you choose, please let me know where I need to sign up.
Please remember, with all options I need to have a copy of the text only. You may turn it in as a Word document or hand written.
Please enjoy your holiday!
Multimedia Memoir Project
You are going to tell us a story about one small piece of your life. This story should communicate the importance of or reasons for actions and/or consequences. For instance, you might want to tell a story where you learned a valuable lesson.
When you tell this story, you will present it to the class using one of the listed forms below. Because this project will require so much time, your homework for the next few weeks will be to work on your project. You will be required to write about what you did and to have your parent sign saying they know you worked on your project.
Possible project ideas
Poster board with pictures of a particular event. You must have a paragraph caption for each picture. The pictures and photos must work together to tell us the story.
Photographic memoir. You have seen an example of this in class. For this type of memoir, you will tell us about your life by examining that photo and adding details about the time period in which it was taken.
Podcast. Your podcast is a sound file that will play on Windows Media player. You must also turn in a written text of your podcast. Each podcast should last about five minutes.
Power point. Your presentation must include fifteen to twenty slides with at least ten photos and ten paragraphs. The pictures and photos must work together to tell us the story.
Video. Please save to a CD in a format that will play on Windows Media player. Turn in your script with the video.
Projects are due November 30 and December 1st. It will be graded on completion, complexity, all writing traits, and those GUM skills we have already covered as well as those we will cover this six weeks.
For this test, you are to use four of your history fair sources to create an annotated bibliography. For help in created the MLA style citations please go here:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
You will need to scroll down to the bottom for help with individual entries.
For help in writing the annotations, you may use the same website, or go here:
http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/AnnotatedBibliography.htm
Remember everything I have taught you: alphabetical order by author or title, indent the second and subsequent lines, and use 12 point typeface if you are word processing your bibliography.
Your test is due Monday, October 26 for odd periods and Tuesday, October 27 for even periods.
Parents, here is a great .pdf that explains how to help your child write better:
http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Positions/tips-parents.pdf
It comes from this NCTE website that encourages all of us to write:
http://www.ncte.org/dayonwriting/tips
Here are two places to go when your child needs help at home with an English question. The third site is a game that helps build vocabulary.
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Guide to Grammar and Writing
This site has explanations and quizzes.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Very comprehensive site! This is a great site for help with MLA citations for research.
Free Rice
Why is Mrs. Geraci directing us to a site for rice? Well, there is a great vocabulary game here, and every time you get an answer correct ten grains of rice will be donated to the UN World Food Program. There are also math, Spanish, and chemistry questions.
Here is a great opportunity for anyone in the Pin Oak community to get heard. In conjunction with the National Council of Teachers of English and in celebration of the National Day of Writing, Pin Oak has its own gallery on the National Gallery website.
If you have an essay, a short story, or a poem to submit, or if you just want to read what others are saying, please go to http://galleryofwriting.org/galleries/141329 and contribute to our page. Anyone in the Pin Oak community may submit their writing: faculty, staff, students, parents.
Please note, because of the time involved in formatting each submission correctly, it takes a couple of days for your submission to be posted. This means that currently our website looks empty, although we have had a couple of submissions already. Please submit your work soon.
Thank you!
C. Geraci
This year I am trying to make homework more interactive and fun for the students. To that end, we will at some point be using the Renzulli website for homework in my class. Until that time, here is a simple exercise to help your child remember some basic capitalization skills:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/par_numberless_quiz.pl/caps_quiz.htm
Students should folow the directions on the website, click submit application, then print their answers. If they are unhappy with their results, students may try again.
I have handouts for anyone who does not have access to the internet. or who cannot rpint their results. Homework is due Friday, but I will accept early work.
