We are so excited about getting the WHS Book Club started.  We have the first two books for the club.  Now I am looking for donations or sponsors to support future book purchases for the club.

Go Fund Wapahani Book Club

All Eng. 10 students are now collecting research that they will be using next week to write a 5 – 8 page research paper.  Students will only be able to use their Source and Note cards to write the paper.  That means that what you are doing now in class is going to determine how much information you have to work with when you begin writing. Please remember the following:

• Evaluate the relevance, reliability, and possible bias of the each source prior to taking your notes.
• Check the proper MLA format for each source from the blog postings here, the MLA manual, or Purdue OWL. Do NOT rely on the handout examples or an online citation generator.
• Use previous day’s blog posts to review the requirements.

 

Remember that all Sophomores and Juniors will be taking the PSAT tomorrow morning.

Report to the classroom you have been assigned with two #2 pencils and a calculator.

You will not be allowed to enter the test room with your iPad or Phone. No electronics in the room, so leave them in your locker.

Get a good night’s sleep and eat a healthy breakfast.

See you all tomorrow.

Please Note That The Lesson Plans for this week and the due dates for the research project assignments have been adjusted as of today Oct. 26th.

Everyone was given a handout on Friday explaining the Note Card system for research.  Use it as you do your research this week.  Remember that no work for the research project will be accepted as late work.  Everyone must turn each step in for grading on the due date to receive any credit for the work. 

Here are a few specific details to remember:

As soon as you scan a source and believe that it may be helpful to your research, stop and make a Bibliography or Source card. Then proceed to read that source and take all of the notes for that source prior to moving on to another source.

Check the proper MLA format for source information using the blog, the MLA manual, or Perdue OWL. – Do NOT simply copy the image on the handout.

Record only one important fact or detail on each Note card.

Label each Note card with a specific topic.

Use a number system to match each Note Card back to each Source Card.

 

You are required to have a minimum of 4 sources, of which at least two are primary sources.  That means that you will need to take notes on several more sources to make sure you have enough information to write a well-developed 5 – 8 page paper. Most passing research papers have typically used 5 – 12 sources.

You should be able to get through one or two sources each day this week in class. All research must be finish by Friday. You will turn your research cards in for grading as you leave the class room on Friday.

Next week you will be writing your research paper using only your cards.

 

A new assignment has been set up in Turnitin for anyone who received below a 70% on the October monthly paper. You have until Friday to revise your paper and resubmit it for a higher grade. Make sure you use the new assignment: Make-Up Oct Monthly Papers

Research Ready – Today we commit to our research topic and explore the important process of find sources and evaluating the reliability, credibility, and relevance of those sources.

It is important to know that the Web is an unregulated resource. Because many unreliable sources exist on the internet, anyone – even people who have no expertise at all in your subject – can post anything at anytime. Many sources on the web have proven to be unreliable, biased, and inaccurate. Today we are going to look at the first two factors, finding and evaluating sources on line. We will cover how to document the sources on Friday when I teach the note card system.

 

Just as there are countless questionable and unreliable sources on the web, there are a growing number of newspapers, journals, archives, historical societies, libraries, colleges, and universities that are making their holdings available to all. One invaluable source is the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov), which has made millions of sources – written and visual — accessible.

The following points are guidelines for evaluating specific resources you find on the Internet. If you ask these questions when looking at a Web site, you can avoid many errors and problems.

• Authority
  • Who is the author?
  • Is the author’s name given?
  • Are her qualifications specified?
  • Is there a link to information about her and her position?
  • Is there a way to contact her (an address or a “Mailto” link)?
  • Have you heard of her elsewhere (in class, or cited in your course text or in Library material)?
  • Has the author written elsewhere on this topic?
• Affiliation
  • Who is the sponsor of the Web site?
  • Is the author affiliated with a reputable institution or organization?
  • Does the information reflect the views of the organization, or only of the author? If the sponsoring institution or organization is not clearly identified on the site, check the URL. It may contain the name of a university (U of T Mississauga’s includes utoronto) or the extension .edu, which is used by many educational institutions. Government sites are identified by the extension .gov. URLs containing .org are trickier, and require research: these are sites sponsored by non-profit organizations, some of which are reliable sources and some of which are very biased. Sites with the .com extension should also be used with caution, because they have commercial or corporate sponsors who probably want to sell you something. The extension ~NAME often means a personal Web page with no institutional backing; use such sites only if you have checked on the author’s credibility in print sources.
• Audience Level
  • What audience is the Web site designed for? You want information at the college or research level. Don’t use sites intended for elementary students or sites that are too technical for your needs.
• Currency
  • Is the Web site current?
  • Is the site dated?
  • Is the date of the most recent update given? Generally speaking, Internet resources should be up-to-date; after all, getting the most current information is the main reason for using the Net for research in the first place.
  • Are all the links up-to-date and working? Broken links may mean the site is out-of-date; they’re certainly a sign that it’s not well-maintained.
• Content Reliability/Accuracy
  • Is the material on the Web site reliable and accurate?
  • Is the information factual, not opinion?
  • Can you verify the information in print sources?
  • Is the source of the information clearly stated, whether original research material or secondary material borrowed from elsewhere?
  • How valid is the research that is the source?
  • Does the material as presented have substance and depth?
  • Where arguments are given, are they based on strong evidence and good logic?
  • Is the author’s point of view impartial and objective?
  • Is the author’s language free of emotion and bias?
  • Is the site free of errors in spelling or grammar and other signs of carelessness in its presentation of the material?
  • Are additional electronic and print sources provided to complement or support the material on the Web site?
• • Understand and Use Boolean Logic or an advanced search
  • Boolean Logic is becoming less common as more search engines offer advanced search features. Boolean Logic uses the words “and”, “or” and “not” to create relationships among search terms and allow you to narrow your search.
  • The advanced search feature on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com and other popular search engines accomplish the same goal. Use these methods to filter your results and find the information you’re looking for. 
  • Use Synonyms, Alternate Spellings and Related Topics
  • As you conduct your research, take note of synonyms, alternate spellings and related keywords of your topic. For example, if you’re looking for information on dogs, you may also want to search “puppies”, “canines” and “pets”.
  • Use Different Search Engines
  • Different search engines function differently. Google and Ask.com are link–ranking engines, which mean they consider the relevance and importance of the links that link to a website and the sites the website links to. On the other hand, Yahoo and altavista rank by general content. They look at keywords in metatags and in the webpage’s content. Therefore, different search engines provide different results.

So Let’s review:

• Free Internet Research Resources
• For Academic journals, articles and other scholarly content:
• Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/
• MSN Live Academic http://academic.live.com/
• INFOMINE http://infomine.ucr.edu/
• Resource Discovery Network http://www.rdn.ac.uk/
• com http://www.searchedu.com/
• For Books:
• A9 http://a9.com/-/home.jsp?nc=1
• Google Books Search http://books.google.com/
• For a broad search of the Web:
• ixquick http://ixquick.com/
• For general information:
• msn Encarta http://encarta.msn.com/
• – See more at: http://internet-browser-review.toptenreviews.com/how-to-effectively-use-the-internet-for-research.html#sthash.64PBco49.dpuf

Determine that the website is a credible and reliable source. If you are gathering facts for your research, you will want to verify that the information is being provided by professionals or certified experts in that particular field or subject.

• Read the “About Us” section of a website to learn more about the authors or organization publishing the information.
• Review the extension of the website in the address bar to determine the source. If the website ends in “.edu,” “.gov,” or “.org,” the information on the website is overseen by a school, government entity, or non-profit organization, respectively, and in most cases, is accurate.

Library and Media Resources teachers are trained on how to research and use databases. Feel free to go to the school library and ask Mrs. Hammer to help you use the Inspire database and to get passwords for periodical accounts that we subscribe to as a school. 

Yesterday we reviewed the timeline and requirements of the Passion Project. Remember that your calendar in Canvas gives you all the due dates and that because of the scope of this project it is EXTREMELY important that everyone stays on track.  This will not be one of those papers that you can wait until the night prior to the due date to write.

Remember:

Topics must be selected by Wednesday so that Essential Research Questions can be developed by Friday.

Next week you will collect all of your research for writing the research paper.  We will use the note card method and you will write your paper from the note cards.

Today we will do the Oct. Monthly Paper Review

(Remember How I said that someday I might post something about getting just for reading the blog? Today is one of those days! The first five students to finish the blog and quietly come up to my desk, get something sweet,)

Welcome to the Second Grading Period

Essential Questions:

1. What are you passionate about?

2. What concerns exist in our school, community, country, world that you would like to see changed?

3. How can your passions help change the world?

4. How does persuasive writing and speaking influence world view and understanding?

What Can One Person Do? 

Telling the Story

Selling the Story

Engaging Others in the Story

Again, What Can One Person Do? 

Mon.

All Oct. Monthly Papers are due at the start of your class period today!

Report Cards go home Wednesday. I will call the parents of any student receiving an F for the first grading period.

Class Demonstration on the link between your passion and a cause worthy of your passion.

Mrs. Scales’ Nepal Trip / Project for Awesome Video Example

Vocabulary Lists for this week:

To Kill a Mockingbird Chap. 18

Wuthering Heights Chapters 20 – 26

Periods 3 & 7  First 20 Words on Burke’s List

Mid-Term

One of my favorite Five Lines of Fire

Reading: a Lost Art

By alex720 (United States)

Our society is losing many arts very quickly. Some have virtually disappeared over the last half a century. Reading is quickly approaching that same threshold. The classics of literature are gathering dust in the back shelves of the library. You’d think more people would read with printing affordable as  ever and the introduction of ultra-portable ebooks. But no one does.

Congratulations, today is the last day of the first quarter of this school year.  If you have been keeping up with your classmates, you have written two of the dreaded Eng. 10 monthly papers, and either completed or are near to completing your first literary circle novel.

In our second quarter we will really tackle what we have only flirted around with thus far. You will take the combination of something you have a passion for and a cause you can believe in to take your Eng. 10 course the real world.  The project will take the entire grading period and will be as real and relevant as you make it. The project as a whole will include:

• Researching a global or local issue that you believe is important.
• Examining how one person can truly make a difference in the world.
• Examining how you can put something that you have a passion for to work to make a difference.
• Develop a pitch to sell your idea to the class.
• Work on a team project developing a Project 4 Awesome video to raise money and/or awareness for your cause.

So have a great Fall Break and come back on the 19th ready to do more reading, writing, and thinking.