Looking forward to the upcoming year, I looked back at some of the first pieces students did at the beginning of last year when I was trying to launch them on blogging.
Prompt: Compose a post for your group's blog. The topic may explore any element of the book you are reading (such as character, plot, images, tone), your thoughts about a theme of a book you are reading, or your reflections on the act of reading itself. Your post should be descriptive, and it should invite the audience to respond with personal reflections and also in a way that will extend the conversation, possibly exploring a wider range of topics and ideas.
Sample 1:
From reading "The Lovely Bones" its shown that many themes based off of the feelings from the affected families evolve over time in the novel. From denial and anger, to loss and hopelessness, to acceptance and the ability to move forward; the loss of a child effects each family member in very unique ways. For example, Susie's dad wants answers to who the killer is, almost out for a vengeance, while her mom in is a deep state of depression and her younger sister hardens up, not wanting to show how hurt she really is about her sisters death. The book reflects themes from all aspects of Susie's family, while throughout the chapters she switches her views between family members, giving a real life perspective of the struggle real families go through in similar situations, and how each person grieves in the only way that they are capable of.
Sample 2:
Recently I finished the second book in The Maze Runner Trilogy, The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. In the novel, a boy named Thomas finds himself in a place he has never been before with a large gathering of boys his age and no memories of anything else in his life. He learns that he and the other boys are trapped in a place called The Glade, a small area of land composed mostly of a farm. The kicker is, The Glade is surrounded by a thing called The Maze, a horrible labyrinth filled with creatures that will kill the boys on sight, and they have no way out. Just a day after, a girl arrives, with the same condition as Thomas, and something is different about her. She was sent there to start the destruction of The Glade.
Throughout the book Thomas learns that there is only one way the boys are going to make it out of The Maze before The Glade is destroyed. Teamwork. The boys form together and come up with a plan. Will it work? Well, I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out.
Sample 3:
The book EVE, written by Tony Gonzales, takes a unique perspective on the morals of human nature when they’re put into extremes. In this distant world, and an even more distant future, we’ve developed the technology to escape death. However it this concept brings about the debate of its cost; immortality for morality. This story explores how human nature expands along side both the continuity of human civilization and the advancement of technology. The reason, though, why this book is set apart from others is its boldness, its inability to hold back. This story is unafraid to explore the root causes of evil and its extents in a world where death is no consequence. Overall I highly recommend this book as source of both entertainment and philosophy.
I wonder how last year's students would compare these pieces to the work they were doing in the second semester on the class blog pages.
One goal for the coming year is to foster more independence and decision making with digital text. I want to learn more about distinctive qualities and elements of digital text, and I want to teach students how to craft effective online texts with an awareness of these qualities and elements.
I might also close this site down and start the year with something new. Haven't decided about that yet.
Prompt: Compose a post for your group's blog. The topic may explore any element of the book you are reading (such as character, plot, images, tone), your thoughts about a theme of a book you are reading, or your reflections on the act of reading itself. Your post should be descriptive, and it should invite the audience to respond with personal reflections and also in a way that will extend the conversation, possibly exploring a wider range of topics and ideas.
Sample 1:
From reading "The Lovely Bones" its shown that many themes based off of the feelings from the affected families evolve over time in the novel. From denial and anger, to loss and hopelessness, to acceptance and the ability to move forward; the loss of a child effects each family member in very unique ways. For example, Susie's dad wants answers to who the killer is, almost out for a vengeance, while her mom in is a deep state of depression and her younger sister hardens up, not wanting to show how hurt she really is about her sisters death. The book reflects themes from all aspects of Susie's family, while throughout the chapters she switches her views between family members, giving a real life perspective of the struggle real families go through in similar situations, and how each person grieves in the only way that they are capable of.
Sample 2:
Recently I finished the second book in The Maze Runner Trilogy, The Scorch Trials by James Dashner. In the novel, a boy named Thomas finds himself in a place he has never been before with a large gathering of boys his age and no memories of anything else in his life. He learns that he and the other boys are trapped in a place called The Glade, a small area of land composed mostly of a farm. The kicker is, The Glade is surrounded by a thing called The Maze, a horrible labyrinth filled with creatures that will kill the boys on sight, and they have no way out. Just a day after, a girl arrives, with the same condition as Thomas, and something is different about her. She was sent there to start the destruction of The Glade.
Throughout the book Thomas learns that there is only one way the boys are going to make it out of The Maze before The Glade is destroyed. Teamwork. The boys form together and come up with a plan. Will it work? Well, I guess you’ll have to read the book to find out.
Sample 3:
The book EVE, written by Tony Gonzales, takes a unique perspective on the morals of human nature when they’re put into extremes. In this distant world, and an even more distant future, we’ve developed the technology to escape death. However it this concept brings about the debate of its cost; immortality for morality. This story explores how human nature expands along side both the continuity of human civilization and the advancement of technology. The reason, though, why this book is set apart from others is its boldness, its inability to hold back. This story is unafraid to explore the root causes of evil and its extents in a world where death is no consequence. Overall I highly recommend this book as source of both entertainment and philosophy.
I wonder how last year's students would compare these pieces to the work they were doing in the second semester on the class blog pages.
One goal for the coming year is to foster more independence and decision making with digital text. I want to learn more about distinctive qualities and elements of digital text, and I want to teach students how to craft effective online texts with an awareness of these qualities and elements.
I might also close this site down and start the year with something new. Haven't decided about that yet.