Great Example of a 10 Facts Sheet!

Look how each fact has a source listed!

Body Paragraph

Great Example of a Skeleton

So organized!

What Goes in Your Skeleton

Requirements for Your Visuals

Have a Great Vacation!

Finding Reasons for Your Thesis

Hello folks! Today I started checking your 10, rock-solid facts that you were researching last week.  Now comes the hard part: you need to look at your facts, and then develop three reasons for believing the way you do. 

The first thing that you need to do is to develop a thesis that says what we should do, without using personal pronouns (you, me, we, or I). After your position is stated, you need three reasons to back you up!

If you don't come up with three solid reasons, your paper will be terrible...take your time with this.

The important thing to know is that you need to have at least one fact/quote match up with each one of your reasons.  You'd think that this would be easy, since you have ten facts, but it's not.

Match up as many of your facts that you can under your three reasons.

Check it out!

Come see the play 12 Angry Men (directed by Mr. Stowell)

For tickets, go to www.playersring.org.  You can also check out a ton of pictures at the Facebook page!

Today's class - researching!

Today, and all week, we are researching for our persuasive essays and speeches.  For homework, you are expected to continue researching at home.  To do this, save your bookmarks, write down your facts, and email bookmarks back and forth to yourself.

Below are the benchmarks that you must meet by the end of Friday's class.

Places to start:

www.nytimes.com

cnn.com

bbc.com

msnbc.com

bostonglobe.com

time.com

usatoday.com

npr.org

seacoastonline.com

and if you are really stuck...go to news.google.com That's a search engine for news sites. 

Interesting article

Sentence Diagramming: What To Do with Prep. Phrases and Linking Verbs

So today we did more diagramming.  Below you will find an example of how to diagram a sentence that has a linking verb, and a sentence that has a prepositional phrase.

Sentence Diagramming: I.O.'s, D.O.'s, and "and's" and "or's"

Over the last few days, we have been diagramming sentences.  Below are the screen shots for the homework from Wednesday:

 

There's a few cool things going on here:

• notice how "and" and "or" join things in a triangle.
• notice how a direct object is set apart from the action verb by a line ascending from the base line.
• notice how an indirect object dangles off of the action verb.

Giant List of Topics

Remember, you should have chosen your favorite topic, and two backups!

Persuasive Speech Topics

Choosing a topic:

       You need to choose a topic that you have a strong opinion about.  Look at the questions below:  is there one you can definitely say yes or no to, and feel strongly about?   

       I strongly recommend picking one of the topics from this list.  Some are harder to research than others.  If you propose a topic not on this list, it must:

·     Have been debated in the public recently (last 3 years)

·     Have been reported in the news (local or national) recently

·     Have been approved by Mr. Stowell (don’t ask him until you have found at least one article on it)

Two news sites that I recommend to get started:

www.nytimes.com                                      www.seacoastonline.com

If you print an article from anywhere else, that news site needs to be approved by me, FIRST! 

Other news organizations:

·       BBC.com

·       The Boston Globe

·       CNN.com

Topics

·      Should the town of Stratham pass the teachers’ contract?

·      Should the second floor of the school be completed?

·      Should we eliminate summer vacation?

·      Should we eliminate standardized testing? (NWEA, NECAP)

·      Should New Hampshire repeal the death penalty?

·      Should we be vegetarians?

·      Should the government have more gun restrictions?  31-bullet clip?

·      Should the government do more to prevent illegal downloading?

·      Should the government do more to prevent homelessness, or is it not that big of an issue?

·      Should the hacker groups Wikileaks and Anonymous be arrested?

·      Should the government do more to prevent illegal immigration, or is it too expensive?

·      Should the government have more restrictions on genetically modified food?

·      Are we doing enough to prevent childhood obesity in America?

·      Does homework our school gives cause more harm than good for students?

·      Should we close all nuclear power plants in the U.S.?

·      Should the U.S. have more trade restrictions with China?

·      Should the U.S. immediately withdraw troops from Afghanistan?

·      Is too much of our nation's budget spent on defense?

·      Should we have levels in the middle school?

·      Should the U.S.  modify or repeal N.C.L.B. legislation?

·      Should the U.S. drill in the Alaskan wildlife preserve for oil?

·      Do there need to be more restrictions on oil drilling in the U.S.?

·      Should the U.S. do more to prevent global warming?

·      Should economic sanctions be lifted from Cuba?

·      Should the president do more to close the Guantanomo Bay detention center?

·      Should major agriculture-producing countries stop producing crops for biofuel?

·      Is the Obama administration taking appropriate actions to reverse the recession?

·      Should the U.S. apply more pressure on China for human-rights issues?

·      Should the U.S. do more to coerce China to grant Tibet independence?

·      Should the U.S. put more pressure on Israel to have a peace agreement with Palestine?

·      Is the Obama administration doing enough to protect the environment?

·      Are our schools doing enough to prevent bullying?

·      Should our school start time be later?

·      Should N.H. keep the law allowing gay marriage?  (be careful to keep it fact-based, not opinion)

·      Should we keep the new health care legislation?  "Obama-care"?

·      Should American citizens boycott the sale of S.U.V.'s?

·      Should American citizens boycott Walmart?

·      Should plastic bags be banned in grocery stores?

·      Is the U.S. doing enough to reduce the stockpile of nuclear weapons worldwide?  (We just signed a new treaty with Russia)

·      Should people be allowed to own exotic/dangerous pets?

·      Are we, as a nation, doing well enough to educate our students?

·      Is the “Occupy Wall Street” movement a good thing?

·      Should we reelect President Obama?

Want to see what's going on in my play?

If you have Facebook, check out this link: 12 Angry Men at The Players' Ring

Today's agenda

Diagramming Simple Sentences

Today we are reviewing indirect and direct objects along with prepositional phrases (don't remember what those are? - Search your notes or this blog for them...search for the tag "grammar").

The next thing we are doing is learning how to diagram sentences!  Check out the Youtube video below:

12 Angry Men Poster

It's coming sooooon!!!!

Indirect and Direct Objects

So, we did a little review of verbs today, and introduced some new terms: indirect and direct objects.

Find the handout below:

Grammar Review Time!

Simple Subject  = The person, place, thing, or idea (main noun or a pronoun) that’s the main focus of the sentence.

In commands, the subject is usually an implied “you”.   (You) Do your math questions!

In questions, rephrase the question as a statement. 

                  Why is Ulrick chewing on that rubber chicken ->  Ulrick is chewing on that rubber chicken.

Sentences beginning with “Here”: Subject comes after the verb.

                  Here is a wicked wombat.

Sentences beginning with “There”: Take the “there” off. 

                  There are little green bumps on your face.

Verbs = There are three kinds: Action Verbs, Linking Verbs, and Helping Verbs.

Action Verbs – These are things that you do.   They can have Indirect Objects and Direct Objects.  Remember the almighty pattern: SVID

Direct Objects = ask “Who?” or “What?” after an action verb.  They are always after the action verb.  They are always nouns or pronouns.

Indirect Objects = ask “To whom?” “For whom?”  or “For what?” “To What?”  If you have an indirect object, there always needs to be an action verb and a direct object.  REMEMBER SVID!

Linking Verbs – These link the subject to a word that describes (Predicate Adjective, which is an adjective) or renames (Predicate Nominative, which is a noun) the subject.

Helping verbs – small verbs that help other verbs.         

will sing, is going, have died, have been…..

BIG THING TO REMEMBER: Subjects, Verbs, IO, DO, Predicate Nominatives, Predicate Adjectives are NEVER, EVER, EVER in prepositional phrases – SO CROSS OFF PREP PHRASES AS SOON AS YOU SEE THEM…IT CLEARS THINGS UP!

Homework:  Do exercise 5, plus write 10 sentences: 5 that have a direct object, 5 that have both a direct and indirect object.

Persuasive Essay and Speech

Today in class, we discussed some different possible topics and gave an overall view of the Persuasive Speech.

Some helpful facts about the Persuasive Essay:

• Everyone writes a 5-6+ paragraph essay (intro, 3 body paragraphs, rebuttal, and conclusion
• You need to have at least one supporting fact in each of your body paragraphs and rebuttal
• Every fact needs to be embedded, and PQE'd.
• Every fact you use must come from a source that's pre-approved by Mr. Stowell
• EBSCO sources are pre-approved.
• For every other source, you must print out the "About Us" page and be ready to defend to me that they are a legitimate news source.
• Three sources used minimum.
• Each source needs to have a proper works cited entry...use EasyBib!
• Everything needs to be in M.L.A. format...duh.
• You need to use transitions, and have topic sentences that match up with your thesis! 

...And about the speech:

• It needs to be partially memorized, but you may have flashcards, with anything on those flashcards.
• You may have visual aides to put on the projector, but they need to be put into a PowerPoint, have their link included, and you must make verbal references to them in the speech.
• Visual aides do not have to be included, but they do increase (if used properly) the persuasiveness of your speech.
• The speech evaluates your tone, volume, use of facial expressions and body language, as well as eye-contact and overall persuasiveness.
• The speech does not need to be word-for-word like your essay, but can be.
• The speech grade is separate from the essay grade.