The BIG Reading Project

Each marking period you will be responsible for presenting a project for one of the (many) books you read. Your Independent Reading Project will show your reading skills and habits, as well as your critical thinking in response to reading. The entire project has three dimensions: Daily Grind pieces, Thinking Reader Responses, & a Final Presentation.

(Total Project: 200 points – Yowzah!)

Project Timeline

• Book Commitment DUE Wed. Feb. 24
• Project Commitment DUE Fri. Feb. 26
• Reading Log #1 DUE Mon. Mar. 1
• Say What? Response #1 DUE Mon. Mar. 1
• Thinking Reader Response #1 DUE Fri. Mar. 5
• Reading Log #2 DUE Mon. Mar. 8
• Say What? Response #2 DUE Mon. Mar. 8
• Final Project DUE Fri. Mar. 12

All sheets are located in the Independent Reading Bucket in the classroom.

Homework for February Break

Over break you will read about the Ancient Egyptian religion and the stories of their gods and goddesses. This will be imperative to your final project on Ancient Egyptian Afterlife! Take careful notes. First you need the following items:

• a pen
• paper or your Humanities notebook
• your brain

THREE ASSIGNMENTS
1. Visit The British Museum's webiste devoted to Egyptian gods and goddesses. Click on the story and read it. http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/gods/home.html


2. On The British Museum's Egypt gods & goddesses website, click on "Explore" on the left menu. Choose three gods or goddesses that interest you. Write a small paragraph bio of your three dieties. That means you will have three paragraphs. REMEMBER: A paragraph includes the following:

• A topic sentence
• A description of the supporting evidence & details
• An explanation of how and why the evidence supports the topic sentence
• A concluding sentence

3. Finish writing your paragraph on Egyptian afterlife based on the movie. (See February 8.) If you did not see the movie, you may look for it in the library or Netflix. You may also check out the following internet resources:

• http://egypt.mrdonn.org/afterlife.html
• http://www.egyptologyonline.com/the_afterlife.htm
• http://egyptian-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/egyptian_afterlife_and_the_feather_of_truth
  

Egyptian Social Class Presenations

Groups must present their Egyptian Social Class creative project by Friday, February 12, 2010.

The purpose of these projects is to teach others as much as possible about what this person’s life would have been like in a creative, interesting way.

You can present through a skit, a talk show interview, a song, or an illustrated poem. After you present you must hand in the following items for credit:

*All Summary Sheets (pyramid on the top)

*All Social Class Presentation Notes

*The final written skit or poem/song

*Props or visuals used in presentation

Egyptian Secrets of the Afterlife

Today we watched a National Geographic movie on Ancient Egyptian Secrets of the Afterlife. If you missed it, the public library or Netflix may have it.

There was also a packet of critical questions to answer and a paragraph to write. The paragraph answers the question:

In your own words, write a paragraph that answers the following question: What was the Ancient Egyptian view of death and the afterlife? Why?

REMEMBER: A paragraph includes the following:

• A topic sentence
• A description of the supporting evidence & details
• An explanation of how and why the evidence supports the topic sentence
• A concluding sentence

Paragraph due on Monday, February 22, 2010.

Grab a book!

Reading is back! Well, it never left . . .
This semester you will be responsible for completing three independent projects in response to your reading.

FIRST, you need a book. Make sure you have a book with you at all times. You can find books at our Adams Street Campus Library, the Brooklyn Public Library, the New York Public Library, Heather's room, Barnes & Noble, and many other places. Please find a book that you WANT to read!! Here are some places to go for suggestions:

My favorite place for recommendations, Reading Rants! from a high school librarian in NYC.
http://www.readingrants.org/

If you want to focus your reading on African-American writers, check out these amazing reading women in Washington, D.C.
http://www.goongirl.org/index.asp

Lots of phenomenal, award winning young adult books are listed on the YALSA site. They have lists for all genres: graphic novels, science fiction, etc.
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklistsbook.cfm

My Reflection

What is it about the reflection that grabs us so? For sure a reflection is another perspective on ourselves . . .

Not only can we contemplate our physical reflections, we an also consider our intellectual reflection.

Today we looked at our reflection in the test taking mirror. Looking at your Mesoamerica Final Exams, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is this question really asking me?
• What key words are clues to the BEST answer?
• What strategies can I use to discover the best answer?

We follow this practice of reflection with our major projects for the fall semester.

Make sure you get a Fall Semester Reflection sheet in the Orange Peel or from Heather!

How does your reflection look? Is it what you want to see?