1st Trimester Grades

1st Trimester Grades

The first trimester ends this week and grades are due in on Thursday. Here is a brief explanation of how the grades are broken down...
Teacherease is just a record of the work that you have done. It lets you know what you have turned in and how you have done on it.

I look at the grade of 1-4 that you have received.
4=A (exceeds the standards of the trimester)
3=B (meets the standards of the trimester)
2=C (approaches the standards of the trimester)
1=NC (still needs to be improved because you are still not getting something)

0=F (not enough work to make a judgement of where you are at)

Some standards addressed this trimester can be viewed at this website:
http://www.nylearns.org/standards/standard_tree.asp?StandardID=18654&lev=gradelevel

as you are considering your portfolio work for the first trimester, try to pay close attention to specific standards we've addressed

Make up work deadlines

All Make up work must be in no later than December 1st as the trimester ends Friday, December 5th and that is when my grades are due.

Due tomorrow in Ms. Sackstein's class

Just a reminder that the News packet as well as Assignment #1 of the feature packets are due on Friday - (Tomorrow in class)

Please post what you have learned about feature writing so far when you get a chance...

Feature is more creative than news, but no less objective. It still needs to be journalistically written with a lead, but may be about a generel topic more closely explored.

In class we talked about 7 kinds of feature stories:

1. News feature
2. Interpretive feature
3. Straight feature
4. Personality feature
5. Interview feature
6. Human Interest
7. Brite

You should have notes about each of these kinds of features in your sourcebook.

Make-up Work

All make-up assignments are due no later than Monday, December 1st.

Tuesday in class is portfolio day

Make sure you have all work that you have collected in class so far for the year either in your work in progress folder or in your notes when you come to class on Tuesday for Ms. Sackstein

HW due Mon 11/17

Homework due Monday 11/17:

- If you didn't finish the classwork, please finish that. You should have signed up for google docs, created a document with the email address you used to sign up for google docs inside, shared that document with me (laiernie(at)gmail.com) and changed your display name in the settings control panel to Lastname, Firstname.

- Read the link in the document I shared with you.

- Type or upload one of your news briefs or articles into Google Docs.

- Share the document with the members of your table group, along with Mr. Lai and Ms. Sackstein.

- Make a comment on at least one document that was shared with you by someone in your table group.

- If no one in your table group shared any documents with you, make a comment on your own document stating that.

Portfolio

Portfolios are the place where you show what you know. Being a portfoli school, we try to assess students based on the work that they do against the standards of the school. Test grades and numbers are not nearly enough. A learner must truly understand their strengths and weaknesses and work to learn techniques to improve on both to meet standards.

Portfolio is a 4 part process:

1. Collection: when you put all of your work (even work in progress) in your work in progress (WIP) folders to keep track of everything that you are doing. Examples of this can be homework, class work, labs, drafts, writing assignments and tests and quizzes
2. Selection: when we complete a trimester and you want to show your exemplary work (your best work) so show evidence of your learning. It actually demonstrates the standards you've mastered in the class.
3. Reflection: after you've completed a piece in any class, you must reflect on that assignment. What standards are you meeting or exceeding or still approaching? How can you improve or continue to excell at these standards? How can you adjust your learning to better meet the standards? How were you able to show what you know?
4. Connection: Our classes don't happen in isolation and therefore our learning can't be. We must start to make better connections between what goes on in each of our classes. How does what you learn in once class help you with what you are doing in another class? How do the skills you are learning help contribute to making you more ready for life after school? How does your learning prepare you for more than just good grades?

Moving on

We will be finishing up our discussion of News writing in class today with a final lesson classification.

You will all need to continue to work on lead and headline conventions as we move into our study of feature writing.

In Mr. Lai's class you will be starting to work on your technology piece of your work.

I enjoyed your photojournalism projects. I hope you enjoyed doing them. A new project/ assignment will be on its way soon for feature.

Proper Citation

If you got your photojournalism project back because you didn't make a works cited page, please make sure you do it correctly.

Websites are NOT enough.

You need a full citation. author (last, first.) title of the page. who publishes the website (can find it under the contact us section on the bottom). the full url and the date the page was last published.

Your works cited should be alphabetized by author's last name.

see earlier posts for how to cite other kinds of sources.

Upcoming

Today, photojournalism projects are due.

Your 9 week periodic assessments have been posted to Teacherease under your second draft of the town hall meeting.

Final drafts of town hall meeting articles due on Friday, 11/14
Election articles are due on Monday, 11/10

We are losing another class period next week on Tuesday as there is no school

Find a nearby polling place

Go to this link and enter your address to find your designated polling place. Spending some time there on your day off from school getting quotes from voters would be a great resource for your election article. Get your parents' permission first, or go along with them when they vote.

http://gis.nyc.gov/vote/ps/index.htm