"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson

You can listen to the short story, "The Lottery"

 we read in class on Tuesday by clicking here!

Creating a Heart Map Wordle

Yesterday you made a Heart Map filled with the important people, places, memories and things in your life.  Today you are going to use that map to create a Wordle that represents what's important to you and who you are.  Your Wordle should contain at least 20 words.  You can play around with the layout.  Click here to create a Wordle.

Some tips:

1.  How do I make one word bigger than another?

The size of a word in the visualization is proportional to the number of times the word appears in the input text. So, for example, if you type

apple banana banana grape grape grape

into the create page's text field, you'll see that banana's font size is twice apple's, and grape's font size is 3/2 that of banana's.

2.  Can I keep some words together? Can I visualize two-word phrases?

Yes! You can use either the Unicode "non-breaking space" character or the tilde character ~ between words that go together. The tilde will be converted to a space when drawing the words, and the words will be treated as a single word.

Done with your Wordle?  Print out 2 copies:  one for your binder and one for me.  Then, post your Wordle onto your blog page.  Click here for directions.

The Monkey's Paw

You are going to create a plot diagram for "The Monkey's Paw" using Inspiration  Fill in each part of the plot diagram.  Be sure to answer the questions in each box.  Save and print a copy of your plot diagram when you are done.   Click on this link to get to the model.

The Fall of the Hindenburg--video footage

What is a Blog?

You will be creating a blog this year, but what is a blog anyway?  Watch this BrainPOP video to learn more about blogs.

Brain Pop Blogs

This In Plain English video offers a good overview of Blogs as well.  Click here to watch!

You can watch this tutorial on how to create a blog for more information.

Digital Etiquette

Today we are going to discuss Digital Etiquette--how we act when we are line.  It is important when you are on the internet and blogging to understand and follow the rules of digital etiquette.  We're going to watch a BrainPOP video to learn more about Digital Etiquette

Brain Pop--Digital Etiquette

Take the quiz! You may take the review quiz first.  When you think you really know your stuff, take the graded quiz.    Click here to go to the BrainPOP quiz on Digital Etiquette.  Please email me the results of your quiz at scasassa@barnardschool.org

Welcome to LA Tech!

     Welcome to Tech Class!  You will have Tech class throughout the year.  Sometimes we will use a writing period for tech, other times, when we are working on a Tech project, we may reserve the lab for several days in a row.  You will be using technology a lot in Language Arts class as a way to communicate with other people , record your reading, share your work and show what you know. 
     Today 7th graders will begin to design their own blogs and 8th graders will decide what they want their blogs to look like this year.  We will learn how to sign in and work on choosing a template--or design--for the blogs.  The 8th graders are pros at this and will have a 7th grade buddy to help during tech class this year.  Here is a list of your tech buddies.  You will be sitting near them in the computer lab and this person should be the first person you go to for help. 

Tech Buddies

Cloud-Leah
   Angel-Jordan
    Zach-Maddie
         Brian-Connor S
     Ethan-Jessica
          Kyle-Connor W
    Tyler-Emma
   Caleb-Alex

     You will also be getting a Tech password handout.  It is your responsibility to keep track of your log in information and passwords.  Please keep this paper in the Tech section of your binders and record any user names and passwords that you have.  It can be very frustrating if you can't log into a site or your blog!

     I am looking forward to an exciting year of Language Arts and technology!  Remember to be respectful and responsible online. Happy Blogging!

Ms. Casassa