The 100 Words - Story or Essay

The editors of the American Heritage Dictionary recently published a book entitled 100 Words Every  Middle Schooler Should Know.  Whether you're in middle school or high school, here's an extra credit assignment, worth 20 points, you can complete.

Here are 20 of the 100 words.  Use these in a short story or an essay (can be very short) using all of these words (please underline them).  In your story or essay, show how these words relate to middle schoolers or high schoolers.

adversary, attentive, commotion, debris, exasperation, exhilarate, furtive, grueling, illuminate, impending, malleable, monotonous, ominous, exhilarate, potential, specimen, translucent, vulnerable, waver, zeal

Local Veterinarian Heads Iditarod Vet Team

Iditarod Vet

Hi Everyone,

Here is a link to a video clip about one of our local veterinarians who volunteers at the Iditarod every year, Dr. Stu Nelson. He is the head veterinarian. It's 23 minutes long, and full of information about taking care of the dogs of the Iditarod! It's pretty interesting, especially if you're a dog lover, or are interested in veterinary science!

http://iditarod.com/race/?vid=46704

Check it out!

For 10 points extra credit, write me a summary (three paragraphs minimum).

Mrs. Baker 

Twenty Words to Live By

Take the challenge!

Write a 5-paragraph essay about the meaning and importance of at least three of these words (introduction, three body paragraphs, conclusion).  You can use more than three of these words, if you'd like to write a longer essay.   Include information explaining why it is important to "live by" these words. 20 points extra credit possible. 

Compassion

Cooperation

Courage

Courtesy

Forgiveness

Freedom

Generosity

Honesty

Justice

Loyalty

Moderation

Patience

Peace

Respect for the environment

Respect for others

Respect for self

Responsibility

Self-discipline

Sensitivity

Tolerance

1. Takes notes about  which words you’d like to write about and why.

2. Then decide about which words you'll write about.

3. Take notes about what that words mean to you; give details, examples, facts, opinions, and feelings.

5. Begin your rough draft.

6. Revise your first attempt.  Make your paragraphs blend and flow from one paragraph to the next using transitional words and phrases.

7. Finalize your document, and send it to me as an email attachment. Send to melissa.baker@idla.k12.id.us (for online students) or melissa.baker@lposd.org (for face-to-face students)

Owed Two Computers

OWED TWO COMPUTERS

BUY LORAINE REXFORD

  

THEE spell check on my computer

Tells WON if a word is an AIR,

I'm SEW glad TWO have this convenience

We FILL BETTOR because it is THEIR.

WEE RING ARE hands when we're worried

ARE spelling may KNOT BEE WRITE,

Webster WOOD TERN INN his grave

TOO NO WEE OUR KNOT SEW bright.

SEAMS the old-fashioned dictionary

Showed AWL the words clear and clean.

SEW what WOOD WEE DUE without it

           TWO SEA if words say what WEE mean?


(For extra credit, use your brain to correct the items the computer can't. Send your brain-inspired corrections to me as an email attachment.)

Use melissa.baker@lposd.org (if you're one of my face-to-face students).
Use melissa.baker@idla.k12.id.us (if you're one of my online students). 

Have fun! 

Live Office Link

Here's the link to get to my Live Office, every Thursday, 5 pm Mountain Time (which is 4 pm Pacific Time up north).  Link is below.  Sometimes doesn't show up until you put your cursor over it.

Baker's Live Office

Brian Jacques

Spooky story by Brian Jacques today in Live Office. 5PM Mountain Time, which is 4PM Pacific. 

Edgar Allen Poe at Lake City Playhouse

Anyone up for a road trip to Coeur d'Alene?  Great event this Saturday night, October 19, 7:30pm.  A dramatic evening with Edgar Allen Poe at Lake City Playhouse.

Lake City Playhouse

It costs $15.  Want to car pool?


Students, 20 points extra credit if you attend and write me a brief summary of the pieces presented and your impressions of the performances.  I know it's a long way to drive, but your parents will love it, too (if they drive you!).  I'm going!  Hope to see you there!

Writing Challenge: Write a long sentence!

 Write a long sentence! Make sure it makes sense.

Here are some techniques you can use to lengthen your sentences: add modifying phrases, connective phrases, adjectival phrases and clauses, adjectives and adverbs. 

For 10 points extra credit, write a really long sentence.  Type it up, and email it to me at melissa.baker@lposd.org

Here is an example by Robert Louis Stevenson, from his dedication at the beginning of Kidnapped, 1886.  He is discussing his novel.

“This is no furniture for the scholar’s library, but a book for the winter evening schoolroom when the tasks are over and the hour for bed draws near; and honest Alan, who was a grim old fire-eater in his day, has in this new avatar no more desperate purpose than to steal some young gentleman’s attention from his Ovid, carry him awhile into the Highlands and the last century, and pack him to bed with some engaging images to mingle with his dreams.”

I bet you thought “avatar” was a new word created with the digital generation; but no, Stevenson used in it in 1886!

Extra Credit - Book Talk

Here’s another extra credit opportunity. Do the following, and post here on my blog, or send me your comments as an email attention.  10 Point E.C.

Book Talk Outline:

1. Characters
   1. Who are the major characters in the story?
   2. What are their relationships to each other?
   3. List 3 character traits for each major character.  One can be a physical trait, but the other two must be personality traits.
2. Setting
   1. Time (future, modern day, a year in the past…?)
   2. Place (Describe the physical location in approximately 5 sentences.)
3. Mood and Tone
   1. What is the atmosphere or emotion in the story?  Does it change throughout the story, or is it usually the same?
   2. What is the writer’s attitude toward the subject?  (Familiar, ironic, playful, sarcastic, serious, sincere…?)
4. Point of View
   1. Is the story told in first-, second-, or third-person?  Is the narrator limited in knowledge or omniscient?
5. Conflict
   1. What is the major conflict in the story?  Is it internal or external?
6. Plot
   1. Plot is the events that happen in the story.  Since you don’t want to retell the whole story to us in this assignment, and you may not have finished reading yet…Write a 3-paragraph summary that could go on the back cover of the book.  DO NOT COPY THE ONE ALREADY ON THE BOOK YOU READ! 
   2. Your new summary should list the characters, setting, conflict, and then fill in some necessary details to tell me what the story is about.  Make me want to read it!  Leave me in suspense…

The Hunger Games -- Extra Credit

Have you read the novel The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins?

If so, answer these questions for 15 points extra credit!

The Hunger Games – Discussion Questions

1. How does Katniss feel about the country of Panem? Why does she need to make her face “an indifferent mask” and be careful what she says in public?

2. Describe Katniss’s relationships with Gale, with Prim, and with her mother. How do those relationships define her personality? Why does she say about Peeta, “I feel like I owe him something, and I hate owing people”? How does her early encounter with Peeta affect their relationship after they are chosen as tributes?

3. How does the fact that the tributes are always on camera affect their behavior from the time they are chosen? Does it make it easier or harder for them to accept their fate? How are the “career tributes” different from the others? 

4. Why are the “tributes” given stylists and dressed so elaborately for the opening ceremony? Does this ceremony remind you of events in our world, either past or present? Compare those ceremonies in real life to the one in the story. 

5. When Peeta declares his love for Katniss in the interview, does he really mean it or did Haymitch create the “star-crossed lovers” story? What does Haymitch mean when he says, “It’s all a big show?  It’s all how you’re perceived”? Why do they need to impress sponsors and what are those sponsors looking for when they are watching the Games?

6. Before the Games start, Peeta tells Katniss, “ … I want to die as myself … I don’t want them to change me in there.  Turn me into some kind of monster that I’m not. ” What does this tell you about Peeta?  What does he fear more than death?  Is he able to stay true to himself during the Games?

7. Why does Katniss ignore Haymitch’s advice to head directly away from the Cornucopia? Did she do the right thing to fight for equipment? What are the most important skills she has for staying alive? Her knowledge of nature? Her skill with a bow and arrow? Her trapping ability? What qualities of her personality keep her going? Her capacity for love? Her intelligence? Her self-control?

8. Why does Peeta join with the Career Tributes in the beginning of the Games? What does he hope to gain? Why do they accept him when they start hunting as a group? Why do groups form in the beginning when they know only one of them will be able to survive?

9. What makes Katniss and Rue trust each other to become partners? What does Katniss gain from this friendship besides companionship? Is Katniss and Rue’s partnership formed for different reasons than the other groups’?

10. Discuss the ways in which the Gamemakers control the environment and “entertainment” value of the Games. How does it affect the tributes to know they are being manipulated to make the Games more exciting for the gamblers and viewers? Does knowing that she is on live TV make Katniss behave differently than she would otherwise?

11. When does Katniss first realize that Peeta does care for her and is trying to keep her alive? When does she realize her own feelings for him? Did Haymitch think all along that he could keep them both alive by stressing the love story? Are they actually in love?

12.What do you think is the cruelest part of the Hunger Games? What kind of people would devise this spectacle for the entertainment of their populace? Can you see parallels between these Games and the society that condones them and other related events and cultures in the history of the world?

13. In 1848, Karl Marx wrote in The Communist Manifesto, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Discuss this statement as it applies to the society and government of Panem. Do you believe there is any chance to eradicate class struggles in the future?

14. Reality TV has been a part of the entertainment world since the early days of television (with shows such as Candid Camera and the Miss America Pageant), but in the 21st century there has been a tremendous growth of competitive shows and survival shows. Discuss this phenomenon with respect to The Hunger Games. What other aspects of our popular culture do you see reflected in this story?

Extra Credit: Discuss a Quote

Hi Awesome Students!

Please use this website to earn up to 15 points extra credit.

Brainy Quote

1. Click on an author’s name.
2. Choose a quote that seems interesting to you and meaty enough to write about.

3. Write three paragraphs about what the author meant with this quote, and why you find it interesting, and how you can apply this quote to your own life to benefit from this writer’s knowledge.

Baker's Life List

Greater White-fronted Goose (in the background)

Here's our "Life List" as of today, 10/8/13.  I'd love to push it over 300.  Maybe this fall during migration.

 We went up to British Columbia for a short trip this weekend, and went to the Creston Wildlife Management Area. The best bird we saw there was the Greater White Fronted Goose.  Actually, we saw hundreds of them!  Creston WMA has the greatest concentration of migrating Greater White Fronted Goose in all of Brittish Columbia.

Hairy Woodpecker

Even though it's only 100 miles away from here, the Greater White Fronted Goose does not stop here in North Idaho on it's migration south for the winter (or on it's migration north in the spring).  We didn't get close enough to get a good photo, but we did get close enough to see their orange feet and legs!
Another thing we noticed was the craxy way the flocks come in for a landing.  They glide in and then flip sideways and drop lower, then flip sideways again.  It was very cool!

Anyway, here's the list as of today.

Red-winged Blackbird

Students who want extra credit, choose one of these species to research and write an informative report about (min. five paragraphs), for 20 points extra credit.  Click on the link below to see the list.

Baker's Life List

Beaver Chews

Hairy Woodpecker

The Baker's Oven