Journalistic Feature Article

FINAL COPY of Journalistic Feature Article is due Wednesday, October 28th. All students who hand in their work on time will be viewing a movie. Parents of students who do not bring in their finished work, will be called and students will remain afterschool to complete the assignment.

LATE WORK

AM Homework Help is being held this Tuesday, October 27th at 8AM (period 1). See Ms. Russell for a pass.

Last day for handing in late work is this Wednesday, October 28th.

TEST PREP FOR THE NYC SPECIALIZED HIGH SCHOOL EXAM

Test Prep begins this Thursday, October 15th in room 317B during Period 1. We begin promptly at 7:55.

October 15, 2009 - Paragraph structure
October 22, 2009 - Reading Comprehension Strategies
October 29, 2009 - Reading Comprehension Strategies
November 5, 2009 - Logical Reasoning

EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT TAKING THE EXAM AND WOULD JUST LIKE TO BRUSH UP ON SOME SKILLS, YOU ARE INVITED TO COME BY.


SIGN UP WITH MS. RUSSELL THIS WEEK.

Remember that anyone who attends will be given extra points on their report card.

BOOK CLUB BEGINS OCTOBER 28TH

Check out the Book Club book for October/ November :
A year ago, Cal Thompson was a college freshman more interested in meeting girls and partying than in attending biology class. Now, after a fateful encounter with a mysterious woman named Morgan, biology has become, literally, Cal's life.
Cal was infected by a parasite that has a truly horrifying effect on its host. Cal himself is a carrier, unchanged by the parasite, but he's infected the girlfriends he's had since Morgan. All three have turned into the ravening ghouls Cal calls Peeps. The rest of us know them as vampires. It's Cal's job to hunt them down before they can create more of their kind. . . .
Bursting with the sharp intelligence and sly humor that are fast becoming his trademark, Scott Westerfeld's novel is an utterly original take on an archetype of horror.

MEMBERSHIP FOR THE BOOK CLUB IS OPEN NOW. SIGN UP WITH MS. RUSSELL THIS WEEK. Remember that every time you attend, you gain credit toward your report card grade.

Written Classwork & Homework ASSIGNMENTS

CLASSWORK
Tuesday 10/13 - Editing & Revising the "Magazine Proposal Letter"

Wednesday 10/14 - ACUITY Custom Test (critical thinking skills)

Thursday 10/15 - Feature Article:review construction of the article, research/evaluate primary & secondary sources of information, interviewing techniques

Friday 10/16 - Feature Article: angles, citing information using quotations from interviews and text sources

HOMEWORK
Friday 10/9 - IR, finish 1st draft of proposal letter (due Tues), last day to accept edited Annotated Bibliographies (due Tues), 2 assignments in mailbox on Achieve3000 (due Fri 10/16), choose a feature article topic & bring in 3 or more materials from Internet, magazine, and/or book sources to research your topic (due Wed)

Tuesday 10/13 - IR, 1st draft & FINAL COPY of the Magazine Proposal letter is due tomorrow (due Wed), and bring in 3 or more materials to use to research your feature article topic (any student without materials will be given their topic & materials tomorrow)

Wednesday 10/14 - IR, 2 Achieve3000 assignments due Fri

Thursday 10/15 - IR, 2 Achieve3000 assignments due Fri

Friday 10/16 - 2 assignments from Achieve3000 (due next Fri), interview someone for your feature article or bring in a "fictional" interview (due Tues) to insert into your feature article

Researching your Feature Article - Instead of Just "Googling" For Information...Try an Easier Way...Search a Database

To search the IS 145 Media Center Database:

http://library.nycenet.edu
Find: IS 145
Search: Databases listed

To search other Middle School friendly databases:

http://search.ebscohost.com
user name: jp145
password: jp145

Another kid-friendly database through Scholastic:

http://go.grolier.com
username: novel483
password: novel

EVENT CALENDAR: October 6 - October 9, 2009

Tuesday: Achieve3000
Wednesday: SAN: Student Assessment of Writing, "Table of Contents", List
of Possible Feature Article topics
Thursday: Reading Test
Friday: Feature Article project work

Achieve3000 Online Reading Program

Challenge yourself and work on improving or maintaining your reading level by completing some enrichment activities on Achieve3000. You can reach the website from any computer: www.kidbiz3000.com.

BOOK SUGGESTIONS

I'm going to be going to my local library's annual book fair in two weeks and would like your suggestions to what kind of books you'd like to see in the library. Let me know what -

• Genre


• Author


• Title

you'd like for me to look for while I'm there.