Monday, February 22, 2016

Persuasive Writing

How do you learn to write persuasively?

You start by reading examples of persuasive writing to see how it is done!

Read these two articles:

Students Who Lose Recess are the Ones Who Need it Most

School Suspensions Don't Work

As you read them, pay attention to what the author is doing as a writer to convince you of the argument he or she is making.

Take notes, if you find that helpful.

Be prepared for a group discussion on what we can learn from these two articles to improve our persuasive writing.


Monday, February 1, 2016

Today's Writing Assignment

Hello Authors!

Your challenge for today is to write the section of your informational text that deals with the southern colonies. Use your writer's checklist, and all of the lessons and discussions we've had about informational writing to guide you.

Your draft should include:
-name, number, and date
-word count
-at least one powerful sentence type
-at least two of the following vocabulary terms:
plantation, legislature, debtor, refuge, indigo, overseer, spiritual, tidewater, backcountry

In your notes, we did not include a section on slavery. Do you think this is an important aspect of the southern colonies? If so, what do you think is the best way to present the information to your readers?

When you finish, print one copy of your draft and turn it in to the Writing bin.

If there is still time, you may choose to write anything you like or work on writing for our Gillispie News project: Write a commercial or improve the writing of any piece you have already written. This is still writing time, not rehearsal time.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Exchange City

Over the break, one of our classmates visited Ciudad de los Ninos in Mexico City. It is a reenactment of a life-sized city, where kids can have jobs, drive cars, and earn money. It sounds amazing!

I did some research and found out that the company that runs this place is called KidZania, and they have other locations in many places around the world, including Asia and Europe. You can read about the company here. Unfortunately, they don't have any locations in the United States.

Mr. Bluestein did some research, too. He found a place called Exchange City that is the same type of place. There is one in Missouri and another one in Rhode Island.

You can watch a video of Exchange City below.


Leave a comment if you'd like to visit Exchange City! What would you most want to do there?

If we were to run a city like this at Gillispie, how might we do that? And what would ours be called?

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Thankfulness Project

Before you begin this assignment, please read all of the directions below.

1. In your Google Drive, make a new document.

2. Copy and paste the list of your classmates names into this document.

3. For each person, write a sentence or two saying something you appreciate about that person. Be kind, be sincere, and be specific. You must use the person's name in your sentence.

4. When you finish, re-read everything you wrote. Make corrections, as needed.

5. Name your document. Then, share your document with me: hlong@gillispie.org.

Here is the list of your classmates:

Amelia
Celeste
Colin
Cyrus
Deanne Paola
Gabrielle
Jack
Justin
Max
Maxwell
Natalia
Nicola
Raj
Rex

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Adding Mixed Numbers with Khan Academy

Check out this video from Khan Academy on how to add mixed numbers.

Then, complete pages 109-112 in your workbook. You may work on your own or with a partner. When you finish, try one of the practice activities for this skill in Khan Academy.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Prime Factorization with Khan Academy

Check out this video from Khan Academy on how to write ANY number as the product of primes! Bonus: Refresher on prime vs. not prime and introduction to exponents.