The Future....

We began today's class with a discussion of the items we would include in a time capsule, to represent 2013.  We listed music, movies, clothes, electronics, photographs, election results, and fashion items, that we felt best represent our life and society today. 

We then read a short story called "The Choice" about a man who travels into the future.  We discussed the evidence presented to us in the story that he has traveled through time, and we had just began to talk about why the man would have chosen to not remember anything about the future.  We will continue this conversation next class.

Paragraph on Internet Safety Rules

We spent the last couple of classes reading and discussing an article on internet safety.  Students were asked to determine the three most important rules of internet safety, according to the article, and to share these with a few peers.

Then, we took a look at the importance of transition words and phrases when writing a paragraph, and to illustrate the importance of these words, we followed step by step instructions on how to build a paper airplane.  We noticed that words such as "first," "next," "after that" and "finally" really help clue us in to which step would come next.  After building the planes we had to test them out, so we had a little competition on the grass outside, to see whose plane could fly the farthest.

Finally, we began planning our paragraph, using an outline.  The outline forces us to think about the importance of providing support details for each support point.  So, it's not enough to present the three rules you think are most important... you must also say WHY they are important.  This evidence/explanation will make your paragraph stronger.

We will finish these paragraphs next class.