Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Monday, August 30, 2010

Standard Writing Rubric

Name:_____________________________






Standard Writing Rubric



Needs

Focus Excellent=5 Proficient=4 Adequate=3 Improvement

• Writing has a clear, appropriate focus. ____ ____ ____ ____



• Focus is maintained throughout piece. ____ ____ ____ ____



• The piece accomplishes its purpose. ____ ____ ____ ____



Organization



• Beginning establishes focus of composition and. ____ ____ ____ ____

engages readers in the topic.



• The piece has a clear organizational structure. ____ ____ ____ ____



• Ideas and details are logically connected to ____ ____ ____ ____

each other using transition words and sentences.



• Ideas progress to a logical conclusion. ____ ____ ____ ____



Support and Elaboration



• Topic is developed with specific, relevant details. ____ ____ ____ ____



• Writing has sufficient elaboration to be convincing. ____ ____ ____ ____



• All details are important and relevant to main idea. ____ ____ ____ ____



• All details move the writing toward desired end. ____ ____ ____ ____



Style



• Piece addresses specified audience appropriately. ____ ____ ____ ____



• Writer uses words that are precise, engaging and

well suited to the purpose, audience, and context. ____ ____ ____ ____



• Writer uses a variety of well-crafted sentences that

establish relationships between and among ideas. ____ ____ ____ ____



Conventions



• Sentence structure is appropriate and correct. ____ ____ ____ ____



• Writer demonstrates standard and appropriate

usage of verbs, pronouns, and other words. ____ ____ ____ ____



• Writer uses correct punctuation, capitalization,

and spelling. ____ ____ ____ ____



Comments:









Final Grade _____

NC Regions Travel Brochure Project

You are a travel agent who organizes business retreats for North Carolina industries. You collect information about the three major geographical regions of North Carolina and identify cultural and recreational activities, major landforms, and accommodations available in each region in order to design travel brochures. These brochures will be reviewed by a local travel agency.

You brainstorm lists of cultural and recreational activities and landforms found in their assigned regions.


You will use a map to list at least 5 major cities found in their regions.


You will request information from Chambers of Commerce within their regions. Additional resources can include atlases, almanacs, encyclopedias (print or electronic), full text periodical databases (SIRS Discoverer), and student textbooks. (The majority of these resources should be available in the school media center or the local public library.)


You will select appropriate information to include in their travel brochures as outlined in their project guidelines. (See Standard Writing Rubric).


You will organize and design their brochures to include the required components using either a desktop publishing program, a word processing program, or “paper and pencil.”





After viewing the other brochures, the students can plan their own vacations outside of their assigned regions or write a response to the following prompt:






If you could travel to any of North Carolina’s three regions, which would you travel to and why?

Friday, August 27, 2010

Chapter 1 Vocab Words

physical feature- the natural landforms and characterstics of a place

barrier islands- the outlying islands on NC's coast

fall line-  an imaginary line made where the piedmont meets the coastal plain

secondary source- something made or written by someone who studied the event

piedmont- an area of rolling hills lying between the coast and the mountains

human feature- changes made by people to the land

primary source- something made or written by someone who was there

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Asheville

What clues in this picture let you know this picture was taken 100 years ago?
This is a picture of Asheville in 1910.

8-27-2010 Essential Question

What are some ways to think critically and analyze our past?

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Welcome back to school!

I hope this year is an enjoyable year for you.  I look forward to being your Social Studies teacher and possibly one of your coaches.  Throughout the year I will be posting various items and topics from our class on this site.  This blog site will facilitate critical thinking, problem solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation.  Lets have a great year.