November 13, 2015

We started class with 15 minutes to write in our Writer's Notebooks and read independently. Fridays are free write days; today's suggested topic was Friday the 13th and other superstitions.

We returned to the Bright Room to wrap up our retellings discovery activity. I gave students about 10 minutes to wrap up any loose ends in their presentations, and then they shared with the class.

Back in the classroom, we started our Argument and Persuasion unit. In groups, students discussed different kinds of persuasive messages they encounter on a daily basis, from billboards to ads on social media (textbook p 630). We took notes over some of the most common persuasive techniques that advertisers use and came up with examples for each (textbook p 634). We then evaluated a segment of a speech for those techniques (textbook p 635).

Homework for the weekend: Spend a total of 60 minutes reading! Don't forget your "Messages" essay is due Tuesday. Please don't use 1st or 2nd person in your essay. If you begin a sentence with "I think," just remove it and the sentence should still work.

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