Happy Holidays! - No Blog

There is no blog homework over the break.

Remember that writing is sometimes the best gift we can give another, especially if our words come from the heart. If you have time, write a few kind words to someone in your family, a friend, or a neighbor this holiday season. Enjoy your break.

Persuasive Writing Schema

You have been taught persuasive writing in several grades in elementary school. What do you remember about what you learned? How is persuasive writing structured? What do you need to include in a persuasive piece? When might you use persuasive writing? What are some strategies that persuasive writers use? What examples of persuasive writing have you read? What do you forget about persuasive writing?

Directions:

1. In 5-7 sentences, respond to what you learned about persuasive writing previously using the questions above as a guide.

2. In 1-2 sentences, respond to what you would like to learn about persuasive writing this year.

Persuasive Writing Ideas

This past week we began to explore persuasive writing. We spent Monday and Tuesday growing persuasive writing ideas through discussion. We learned that writers choose topics that mean a lot to them. We can expand on these topics using prompts.

“The surprising thing about this is…”

“This makes me realize…”

“To add on…”

“This makes me think…”

“In other words…”

Directions

1.     Identify your persuasive topic by sharing your “should” question.

2.     Share your thesis statement.

3.     Describe how you arrived at this idea in 3-4 sentences. Identify what your initial topic was, what you discussed in your conversation with your partner, what other topics you considered, and why you finally decided on this topic.

Descriptive Writing Unit Reflection

We just finished our descriptive writing unit. What do you think was the most important lesson you took away from this unit? How has your writing improved as a result of this lesson? To complete this blog, follow the directions below.

DIRECTIONS

1.     Identify the most important lesson you took away from the descriptive writing unit.

2.     In 1-2 additional sentences, explain why you thought this was the most important lesson you learned.

3.     In 1-2 additional sentences, explain how this lesson impacted your writing, providing SPECIFIC examples (emphasis on the “s,” which makes this word plural, meaning more than one) from your writing.

AQUA HYDRA

 This week, we are studying words with the roots hydra and aqua, meaning water. Follow the bolded directions below. It may be helpful to create a venn diagram to help you organize your thoughts. Use the prompts to help you organize your words as you compare and contrast.

 

1. Choose two of the words from the vocabulary list that are difficult for you.

The two words I choose were ________ and ________.

2. Identify 2 meaning-based similarities between these two words.

One similarity between these two words is that they both ____.

Another similarity between these two words is that they both ____.

3. Identify 2 meaning-based differences between these two words.

One difference between these two words is that (word) ____ while (word)____.

Another difference between these two words is that (word) ____ while (word)____.