Last Honors Blog

How has your thinking changed regarding American history or literature? 

The magazine reflection!

In a highly informative, deep, and profound reflection, explain to us what you learned during the magazine (book) project.

In this reflection, you can cover (but are not required to do all of):

* Writing

* Editing

* Drafting & Revision

* Layout & Design

* Photography

* Creativity & Originality

* The printing & publishing process & industry

* Your own thoughts about your path beyond 11th grade (and beyond HTHMA... that's what internship is about, right?)

* American society

* The American economy

* History & social studies

* And much much more!!!!

What did you learn?

How did you learn it?

Why is this important?

This should be posted as a blog entry by the end of the school day on Monday 6/1

Not a Blog Entry Take 2!

In this "blog entry" you are writing an email to me! 

In this email, you should:

1. Reflect on the qualities in your writing that you developed and displayed in the magazine project.

2. Specifically explain your understanding of yourself as a developing writer. 

3. Propose a score out of 50 points for this specific article. When doing so, consider:

* Structuring writing (the loop; into, through & beyond)

* Intros

* Conclusions (or outro's)

* Incorporating evidence

* Sentence structure

* How to use nouns and verbs effectively (where in the sentence, what types, -ing's, etc.)

* Making your writing a concert, not a pancakes.

* Avoiding sledgehammer words

* Writing about more than the specific topic at hand (how to get deep)

* Using various types of evidence

* Originality & Creativity

* Sleek prose, clean prose... and colorful prose employed to communicate meaning

* Copyediting

* I think there's more--what did I forget???

This email is DUE by 11:59:59 AM on Sunday 5/31

Good luck!

Magazine Reflection Take Two!

Look through your drafts of your article. Look at the revisions and edits that you and your editing group made. Look at the various PDF's of your layout. Look how your writing changed over time.

Think about the following things that we worked on in this project:

* Structuring writing (the loop; into, through & beyond)

* Intros

* Conclusions (or outro's)

* Incorporating evidence

* Sentence structure

* How to use nouns and verbs effectively (where in the sentence, what types, -ing's, etc.)

* Making your writing a concert, not a pancakes.

* Avoiding sledgehammer words

* Writing about more than the specific topic at hand (how to get deep)

* Using various types of evidence

* Copyediting

* I think there's more--what did I forget???

1. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what improved? How did it get better? Why?

2. Overall, when you think about the big picture of your writing, what still needs work? What do you think will help you improve? Why?

3. Specifically, show us something that improved and describe the path it took to get better. You can quote your article, your drafts, link to evidence, etc.

4. Describe something specific (or a few things!) that you learned about writing.

This is due at the end of the day on Wednesday 5/27!

Not a Blog Entry

Hey kids! It's time to.... update our DP's! (insert cheering sounds here)

Please make a page for Ampersand, the student journal of school & work, on your digital portfolio. this page should link to your humanities page and your internship page.

Your DP page needs to have: 

1. A detailed project description that fits in a few sentences.

2. Your pages from the magazine embedded into the webpage. 

3. Your pages view-able and print-able at full size (i.e., a link to a pdf).

4. All pages that are spreads should view as spreads

5. A quick but detailed description of what you did.

6. Room for a detailed (and probably somewhat lengthy) reflection to come.

When is all of this due?

At the end of the day on Friday May 22!

Magazine Reflection: the beginning

The reflection is due by the end of the day on Thursday. Please take your time and look through your own work as well as others classmates'.

Think of the process, which began weeks (or months ago)--you started with an idea or maybe an earlier draft of piece of work. That was edited and revised many times for content, substance and style. You created or re-used artwork or photography. This was editied and resized for our magazine. Finally, all of this was compiled into a layout that was critiqued and revised until you could do the final steps of "file > package."

1. What went well for you during the process of creating this magazine?

2. What challenges did you face as you moved from an early draft or idea to a final product?

3. What other examples of work—student and professional—stood out as exemplary and served as a good model for your own work?

Obama & Socialism

Google the phrase "Obama Socialism". What do you get? Try google news... what did you find?

Do you feel that the label "socialism" is applied appropriately or correctly to Obama, his proposals or his policies?

Do Obama's proposals or policies have historic precedents in America? If so, what happened in the past?

This blog is due at 3:30 on Wednesday 4/22