Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Nutrition and Research Papers

Here is an update on what we are doing in Health class (below you will find the update for Language Arts):

NUTRITION, NUTRITION, NUTRITION!!!
  We just completed a diet analysis where students looked at everything they ate in a given day and identified areas of needed improvement in their diets.  We are currently watching parts of a food documentary called, "Hungry For Change."  The video can be found on Netflix.  It talks about what is in our food and what foods our bodies need to maintain optimal health.  We will be analyzing food labels this week and the next big project will be a "School Lunch Redesign" for the final project in our nutrition unit.

**We will be starting our Human Sexuality Unit the second week in February, so if you are concerned or have questions with the content, please contact me!!


Language Arts:
WRITING, WRITING, WRITING!!!
  We have just finished TWO big writing assignments.  The first big writing assignment was a research paper (that was done in MLA format) based on the debates done in December.  This paper has been graded and handed back to each student.  This was our first big writing assignment for the trimester and we (Mrs. Fife and I) don't expect all kids to be at a level four (highly proficient).  Based on the feedback we gained from grading these papers, we are now working on CITING specific EVIDENCE within the body of the paper.  Students started revision today (January 27th) and will finish tomorrow.  There is no limit on how many submissions a student can have to fix this research paper.  The first score for this paper is updated on their grade.
The second writing assignment was based on the following question: "Can Money Buy Happiness?"  This essay was written in class and submitted on Utah Compose.  

Reminder for students:  FORMAT FOR ARGUMENT WRITING
I-Introduction (claim and 3 reasons)
CC- Counterclaim (3 reasons with cited evidence--refute statement)
R1-Reason 1 (with 3 cited evidences)
R2-Reason 2 (with 3 cited evidences)
R3-Reason 3 (with 3 cited evidences)
C-Conclusion (wrap it up and acknowledge the counter--refute it!)

We are starting ARGUMENT WRITING BOOT CAMP with the next writing prompt.  We want all students to reach the level of a "sergeant" (or level 3=proficient).  Details to come!