Nick Colaco 2/24/17

Today the class continued work on the outlines for our research papers. Mr. Rivers explained to us that we should be using at least two strong pieces of evidence for each of our body paragraphs, this includes one piece of evidence from our documentary and one piece of evidence from our outside research. We spent the majority of the class time working on our outlines and we finished with Mr. Rivers telling us that we should begin to write the next part even if we weren't going to finish it that day, he said that by starting off the next section it would allow us to jump back in easier when we came back to work on it.  Mr. Rivers also commented that the class should make more of an effort to keep up to date with the blog schedules in order to be sure not to miss our day to post.

Colin Higdon 2/24/17

Today in English class we continued working on our research paper outlines that are due on Monday night. We used various resources such as our note cards, example outlines, and class notes. These resources helped us construct a strong outline that we will be able to use when writing our actual research papers. Many people continued perfecting their thesis statements, some people crafted their body paragraph outlines, while others worked on integrating their note card quotes.

 

2-22-17 Connor Gormley

In today's class we talked about constructing beautiful thesis statements. If anybody is having difficultly starting their thesis statement it is helpful to start simple and then revise to get it more specific. To do this you should ask yourself questions like "who, what, when, where, why, and how". We then analyzed what makes a good thesis statement. First, a good thesis statement should establish an argument and layout a plan for your entire essay. Your argument should be clear and argue that your cause regards to being right, wrong, dangerous, necessary, should, or shouldn't. And your plan should be the "how?" of your essay. Before writing your thesis you should decide what kind of thesis that is best for your research. The old reliable thesis statement is the multi point where you state your argument and then the reasons why. This kind of thesis statement will probably not work for most research reports because most likely there will be more than three paragraphs. Instead it would be prudent to use a big picture which looks at the entire purpose of your report and go from there. Although, by doing that you should be weary of making your thesis statement to specific. When debating this is your head it is always better to stay on the side of being more specific. WE then proceeded to work on our outlines and thesis.

2/22/17 Elias Frieling

Today in class we further discussed our research paper. We talked about how to make a good thesis statement by using Who, What, Where, When and Why to make our thesis specific. In addition making a thesis statement is not a one step process, it is very helpful to make a simple one at first and then revise it to make it better afterwards. In a good thesis you should create a specific argument and then create a plan for the rest of your essay in how you support what your thesis argued. After we talked about thesis statements we began to use what we learned on Friday to start our outlines. We are going to be given tomorrow and Friday as well to work on our outlines which will be due on Monday. In our outline we must have our thesis statement, topic sentences, and evidence from our research cards, in a clean, clear format to base our final essay on. Overall today was not that eventful, but was a good starting step for writing our essay

2/22/17 annie monroe

Annie monroe

2/22/17

Hello class!!! Today we are going to be spending most of our time  going over and talking about our film review. This week we will be working with our video editing software. Also our senior paper final draft is due march the 22nd instead of next thursday. He warns us that although the deadline is 4 weeks from now, we must keep working on our essay bc this is not an assignment that we can do last second.  

Also our film review is going to be due march 19th, you will be graded on the following:

What You Say

#S02 (100)

Provide deliberate context for your review (5)

Maintain an objective tone (5)

Display sophisticated verbs and terminology (10)

Match text to the sounds and images on the screen (10)

Deliberately title text (5)

Credit relevant artists (10)

Provide context for the film (5)

Summarize plot (5)

Evaluate content (30)

Evaluate meaning or theme (10)

Conclude (5)

What We See

#F05 (50)

AUDIO - 20

Clarity of your voice over (V.O.)

Clarity from the film

Matches the visuals

Quiet background sound during V.O.

VIDEO - 20

3+ specific clips for close reading

1+ clip not from your main text

2+ text boxes

2+ transitions

FINISHING - 10

Properly shared by 11:59 p.m. March 19

Also in class today we watch the review harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban: why it’s the best. We all got a card with a specific thing to find within this review. My groups task is to evaluate content, while watching the clip we said that the content, He discusses the certain shot types and cut types and analyzes their significance. We said that Whenever there is anything that applies to what he’s saying, he includes it so that we have a visual representation of what he’s saying. Also, it shows that his analysis is objective because we don’t just hear what he thinks, we see how it actually plays out in the film”.

2/17/2017 Christina Bally

Today in class, we discussed the requirements and expectations of an outline. We then read a sample outline and discussed what the strengths and weaknesses were. The first outline we read was an example of a strong outline. The strengths of the first sample outline included consistent formatting, logical order of paragraphs and a clear connection between the analysis and topic sentence. The only weakness included was evidence not being clear. Afterwards, we discussed what the grade should be and what the person who made the outline could do to improve their theoretical grade. We then read another sample outline. The second sample outline was an example of a weak outline. This outline was structured a lot different than the first outline that was considered. This outline was color coordinated by film and scholarly quotes. After reading the sample outline we discussed with our groups what the grade of the outline should be. Afterwards, we discussed with the class what the strengths and weaknesses are. The weaknesses included the layout being too spread out, the thesis being too long with no clear claim, inconsistent font, poor grammar, and lack of synthesis. Also, there were too many pieces of evidence used under only one topic sentence. There were not many strengths present except for color coordination and the clear interest from the reader. We considered the given rubric and the person who made that particular outline would not have passed the assignment. We ended the class by reading a final outline example. The strengths included a clear thesis statement yet it was wordy. The evidence was not clear. Although, the indentation was very consistent throughout the outline. The grade that would be given would be an 88 to 94.

James Lynch switch with Connor Gormley 2/16/17 (Blog #2)

James Lynch

Mr. Rivers

2/16/17

American Lit.

3rd MP Blog #2

After a long, and stressful first half of the week of working on our note cards, our class was blessed to have a nice and easy class. We started off class by answering a question that was posted on the classroom page, why is important to read aloud to children? I answered the question saying that we read aloud to children because they get more information out of actually hearing the words, as opposed to reading and see them. After this, Mr. Rivers explained to us that it was national read aloud day. He then told us that he was going to read aloud to us for the class. Our class was very happy to hear the excellent news. He began to read a text from the book written by some guy from the office, called the Tortoise and the hare. It was about how a hare lost in a race against a tortoise. He was humiliated, and it ruined his career. A while after there were talks of a rematch, and then it became official. The hare began to train harder than ever before, while the tortoise did the same as he did before, which was minimal work. The day of the rematch came, and the heir smoked the tortoise, breaking his personal record and the world record. The moral of this story was that slow and steady wins the race, until truth and talent takes it’s place. This was a very relaxing class that I had enjoyed very much.