Bailey's Big News

Thesis and Outlining

THESIS STATEMENTS are due Today! 

We re-organized our NOTE CARDS and used the laptops to get more information......(Many students still DO NOT have NOTE CARDS).....Please make sure your child is completing the required research AT HOME!

Students took more notes on writing a THESIS and today we worked on outlines.  Here is a list of what students NEED TO DO:
1.  Sort note cards by headings.
     (each heading is a sub-topic)
2.  Check cards for accuracy.
3.  Make a list of any missing information.
4.  Write a THESIS STATEMENT.
5.  Order the cards for your OUTLINE.
6.  Make an OUTLINE for the information on your TOPIC.
    See attached outline Download tree_map.doc

HOMEWORK:  Topic Outlines (Tree Map) due Thur., Feb. 2nd.

Review Source and Note Cards

Today we worked on grouping our note cards.  Students were given grades on their source and note cards and EVERYTHING was passed back so that they could continue their research.  Tomorrow, we will be going to the computer lab to get additional research.

Students took NOTES on a thesis statement.

HOMEWORK:  Write a thesis statement for your project.  It should be ONE SENTENCE that states the controlling idea of your project.

Source Card

Source cards are DUE TODAY!
Students need to have at least (4) source cards.
Yesterday we went to the Media Center and I spent more time modeling source cards and showing student MLA format for completing source cards.
See sample  http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/cite/works_cited.htm

Today....
We focused on Internet sites (many students have information that is not reliable);
We took notes on the types of websites and how to evaluate sites.
Our focus is to narrow our searches and evaluate reliability.

Note cards DUE TOMORROW, Friday, Jan. 27th!
For every source, students should be taking notes.  As they take notes, they need to organize their topic by heading and include similar information on each note card.  ALL note cards should have a source #, heading, and page. (see sample).
Download sample_note_card.doc

HOMEWORK: Note cards; continue researching

Monday, Jan 23rd

  Today we are Performance Series testing in the MAC Lab.  Students need to bring their RESEARCH material (note cards, source cards, and books checked out) DAILY. 

HOMEWORK FROM FRIDAY DUE TODAY:
Take notes, Grammar text 245

Class Assignment: After test completion
Copy notes on "Source Cards for Newspapers".
Start the activities "Reading a Newspaper" packet.
Use the newspaper information for homework.

Homework:
1.  Use a newspaper
2.  Make a source card for the newspaper.
3.  Read an article and make (5) note cards.
ALL newspaper CARDS are due on Wednesday, January 25th.

Researching

Students are still collecting information on their research topic.  They should be researching AT HOME and visiting their PUBLIC LIBRARY.

Students should be creating SOURCE CARDS on the books/internet sites used and NOTE CARDS on the information.

SOURCE CARDS due Thursday, Jan. 26
NOTE CARDS due Friday, Jan. 27

Performance Series Testing

Monday, January 23rd and Tuesday, January 24th we will be    Performance Series testing on the computers in Language Arts.

Last Week

I did not complete any BLOG notices for last week, but here is an overview of the week's lessons.

Tues., 1/10
New spelling words:
safety, loyalty, society, security, personality, university, authority, recognition, description, introduction, certainty, specialty, cruelty, publicity, electricity, reality, subscription, retention, intention, reduction.
We talked about the steps to doing RESEARCH and I introduced our writing focus: RESEARCH

Wed., 1/11
Vocabulary terms on research: bibliography, citation, research, inconsistent, irrelevant, outlining, topic, precise, denotative, connotative, MLA style
We worked on the terms and talked about source cards
Homework:  Bring in index cards (any size) and a pocket folder

Thurs., 1/12
We read about choosing and narrowing topics and library sources.
Students were given their general topics, but had the choice of specific topics:
We discussed NOTE and SOURCE cards (both are required for project).

Block 3 - People (excluding athletes, musicians)
Block 4 - Inventions
Block 5 - Historical/World events
Block 6 - Buildings/Structures/Landmarks

Fri., 1/13
Students chose their topics and we modeled how to complete SOURCE cards and NOTE cards.  Students are required to gather sources and check out books on their own - Public library.