May 6

Our focus on writing a precis filled the beginning of class today with some brief comparisons with a summary. Afterwards we moved on to do a journal write. The class was finished with some time for groups to get together and start organizing their efforts for the investigative report.

Journal Write 13 Quote:
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
-George Orwell

May 5

The first half of the class was spent going over various items that appeared in the pressure writes from last week. Afterwards, we began looking at writing a precis. Tomorrow we will continue with the precis.

Pressure Write Prompt:

This semester we have touched on influences: those that affect generations, society, and ourselves. Within the last decade there has been increased attention and discussion on the subject of violence in music, film, and television that children enjoy. Some experts argue that the media is one major reason crime rates are on the rise. They believe the violence that youths hear and see through TV, film, and music leads them to behave in violent ways. On the other side of the issue, people say kids can make their own decisions concerning such influences and filmmakers and musicians must be free to create their art.

In a well organized essay, explain your ideas on the subject and be sure to support your thoughts.

May 4

After a brief account of our weekends we looked at summaries. There was an example of a summary written about the swine flu article we examined as a class. The rest of the time was spent organizing the articles within the various groups and writing summaries.

Tomorrow: Bring opinion articles that relate to the topics. We will be looking at writing a precis. Summaries due as well.

April 24

To cap the week off we had our first pressure comp of the year. Make-ups will be Wednesday during lunck in room 218 (Mr. Henshaw's room).

Enjoy the weekend!

April 23

We completed our second discussion, this one focusing on the international drug trade. There were some interesting statistics but I fear that the majority of the class thought that a class discussion was an excuse to sit back and do nothing... hopefully the idea of supporting opinion was drilled enough so that it will influence the "Local Issues" paper we will delve into next week.

Tomorrow- a timed writing!

April 22

The majority of today's class was spent reflecting upon the class discussion on tax tea parties. The questions focused on two aspects: the actual information on the issue and the discussion format. Tomorrow we will be delving into the issues involved with international drug trade. Hopefully everyone will have their notes and questions prepared.

Tomorrow I will be collecting notes!

April 21

Tax tea party discussion

For the most part today's discussion went well. There were some interesting comments and discussion threads brought up. Tomorrow we will recap some of the major ideas and debrief.