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Summer Holiday independent Learning Project

I would love to see you start blogging over the holidays.  If you have not already done so, post your blog address under the post just under this one.  If you have your blog here, I will follow the blog over the holiday and happily comment on your stories, poetry and reports.

Have a look at the design you have chosen, customise it if you want to. Georgia has fish she can feed on hers and everything!there is loads you can do.  Have a go at adding images, redesigning the layout or adding apps.

Check out some other blogs on blogger and follow them.  There are loads of amazing blogs out there.  Some are on very specific topics or hobbies.  Others are just daily rambling, sharing of thoughts, feeling and events in life.

How about some poetry, a short story or a report on an a activity you have done?  Happy blogging!

REMINDER - be mindful of what you put out there, it is public so be safe and sensible online.

Presepolis - Diary Entry

TASK:

-  Presepolis books are in the cupboard near the door if you would like to look at what we read but the page is also featured above.

-  Review the opening to the story that we read last lesson.

- Log onto the computers and open word.

-  Plan and draft a diary entry for the main character that we met in the opening exploring how she felt about what she was going through in word.  Look here for tips on how to write your diary well http://www.slideshare.net/mssami/how-to-write-a-diary-entry

-  Log onto computers and review your PPT on the Iranian Revolution that had taken place at this time (this is also outlined in the introduction we read last lesson in the reading book) and add in more to your draft of the diary entry to reflect the events she would have possibly witnessed or known about at the time.  

- Ask a fellow student to review your diary entry and help you make corrections.

- Post this diary entry on you own blogs.  A guide on how to do this is here if you cannot remember or get stuck. https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/41378?hl=en

- post the link to your blog onto our class blog.

EXTENSION - Complete your Iran Research PPT and email me the document sarah.findlater@riddlesdown.org

NOTE - you have any problems posting the diary entry to your own blog then please just post it in the 

Comments session below this post.

Half Term Homework - Your Turn to Blog

Hello lovely Year 9. Happy half term!

Here are your tasks this holiday.

 1.     Set up a blog for reflective writing.  Using blogger as a platform. http://www.blogger.com Follow the instructions here is you are stuck. http://youtu.be/tSOeIKKUMB4

2.  Email me the link to your blog once you have completed the set up. sarah.findlater@riddlesdown.org

You do not have to write a post yet but feel free to write a small summary of your activities over the half term.  Remember that I will be looking at this regularly and the general public have access too so only ever post up material you are happy with anyone viewing. 

WARNING - What you put out there can stay out there, even when you delete it. Think before you post.

      

Prezi -Reading Assessment Revision

Afternoon Y9,

I would like you all to create prezis outlining how to improve your essay skills.  Look over the Prezi guide below and create your own account first.  Then move on to creating your top tips Prezi for your reading assessment.

 

Happy revising!

Topics you could include are:

1. Analysing Texts
http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/mainguides/fiction.htm

2. PEE Paragraphing
http://butwhy.edublogs.org/2010/01/24/paragraphs-learning-to-pee-point-evidence-explanation/

3. Using Quotes
http://www.s-cool.co.uk/gcse/english/reading-non-fiction/revise-it/using-quotes-and-key-information

4.  How to Write Excellent Essays:
http://www.englishbiz.co.uk/mainguides/analysis.htm

 

Prezi -Writing Top Tips

Your task now is to creata Prezi on how to do the best you can in your writing. You can include some of the your tube clips you have seen if you with but get the basics in there first. Good luck.

http://prezi.com/

How to Use Prezi - Help Tutorial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp1iqZQH5vI

Example Writing Prezi:

http://prezi.com/uxu6ctiykv6l/essay-writing-tips/

http://prezi.com/cymo9fpqykog/controlling-paragraphs/

http://prezi.com/ztdkzvzjq4pt/control-freakery/

Post the link to your Prezi under this post in the comments box please.

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Shakirah

Little Green Riding Hood:

One day there was a little girl called little Green Riding Hood. She was only ten years old and had dark black soft hair like snow - there was something different about her. She was a really bad girl and never listened to anyone.

One day mother had asked Little Green  Riding Hood to go to her dads house and bring him some soup that mum had made as he was very ill.  So she walk down the deepest, darkest part of the woods called the Never Seen Again . What’s down their?   Who knows what going to happen?

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Rina S.

Holes:

The light from the sun shines through the gap in my curtain, I get out of bed. Another day of digging holes I say to myself. I get ready and go to the canteen for breakfast. The food smells revolting. I gulp it down trying hard not to puke it up. Making my way towards the shed to get a shovel, I find a lizard sitting on the handle. I don’t want to look like a wimp in front of everyone so I go to grab it.

 

The lizard sits there staring at me with its huge evil black eyes.

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Georgia

Holes:

As zero and I headed up the mountain the sun landed on us like a tonne of bricks. We kept going, we were half way there and we weren’t stopping now. All of a sudden zero fell to the ground. We hadn’t eaten in 3 days and we had run out of water. Zero couldn’t get up. I knew there would be water at the top of the mountain I told him. I knew we could get there before the sun went down.

I picked up zero and we headed off to the top of the mountain were we found… Water. 

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Alison O.

Millions:

Damien and Antony moved to the country with their dad, who was trying to start a new life because they had recently lost a member of their family to an illness.  This situation made the youngest brother Damien turn to his faith more. Damien believed that his mother was a saint, he thought about his mother a lot.

One morning when Damien walked where he had walked a hundred times before,  BOOM,  a sports bag crashed to the ground smashing his den. As he went to go to investigate he saw a £20 note flying in the wind towards him.

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Lloyd C.

The Crucible:

In the courtroom, Mary Warren was being accused of being a witch. If she was guilty she would have been sentenced to execution. Inside the courtroom lay Reverend John Hale, Elizabeth Procter, Judge Hathorne, And Reverend Parris, their final moments inside the courtroom.

The judge banged his Mallet on the table, Mary was accused of Witchcraft and sentenced to execution. She was dragged into a cell crying,

The Lock of the cell gate and the Jailers walking off, still crying Mary couldn’t believe what was happening. Her life was about to end, She lay on the bed waiting.

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Ashley S.

The Hunger Games

Katniss looks around franticly as the crowd roars and the contestants are lowered into the arena.  She realises that there’s no more messing around as this is it… it was her who chose to go in at the reaping instead of her sister.  Would I rather it be  Prim who went in or me? Would I rather she was killed by kids who could handle a knife like a serial killer?

 

No.

 

She wasn’t going to let this happen. Her heart beats out of her chest as the sweat drips down her head… 3….2….1.
The hunger games commence…

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Megan P.

Holes:

Zero had run away from Camp Green Lake:

Stanley trekking through the hot dessert, desperate to just feel fresh water run down his dry painful throat.  He moves slowly across the dry crumbled waste land…  He looks back to the camp thinking, “should I go back”??

He looks round and there he sees a blue blob miles away from him, through the steaming fog. He walks faster and faster even though it hurts, “it could be Zero” he thinks!  It looks like a boat with writing on it?? Saying Mary Lo… Stanley bends down to see a small crack big enough for him to go through, There zero was lying peacefully!!

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Josh S.

Holes Stanley was marching down the road with no swag. Suddenly a pair of shoes fell from the sky and hit him on the head.
“OWCH” screamed Stanley as he stumbles to his feet. He picked up the shoes and put them on his feet. Now Stanley has so much swag and he looks sick! Suddenly out of nowhere, he heard the police sirens so he decided to run. The shoe laces came undone and he fell to the groupd with a thump.

 

The police circled round him.

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Matt Ha.

Mark Zuckerburg: making Facebook
I was in my apartment when the idea for Facebook came around.  My mate said “why don’t you make a social network site for Harvard students and I was like “Yeah let’s do that”. So as I was studying in class, I would go on the computers and draw up the plans for it. Then I had finally got the website going and had my first friend.

The word got out that I had made a social network site and people started to make accounts. People started telling others about the Harvard confidential site.  I had to think up a name.

 

Facebook.      

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Hannah P.

The Crucible

My favourite scene is where the girls are in the court room and Abigail is being accused. She can’t take being there so she pretends that Mary has sent spirits to come and get her. She starts pretending she’s having a fit and vanishes into thin air. The Court room in suspense…

Where did she go?

The girls kept quiet, mouths were closed and no one said a word... everyone was blissfully unaware of what happened. As soon as they looked at Mary thinking she really is a witch, everyone glares at her; suddenly she shouted "she’s in the woods!"

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Dan C

The Crucible Court Scene:

The judge entered the court and sat down in his chair.

“In this court, you must swear to tell the truth, and nothing but the truth. This is the trial for Elizabeth Proctor, who is accused of practising witchcraft." The judge looked at his papers. “According to Abigail, you were dancing in the woods. Is this true?”

"No your honour” replied Elizabeth. “We also found a poppet in your house; you say it belongs to Mary Warren. Is this true Mary?”

“Yes your honour, it is, I made it in the court the other week, Abigail watched me make it.”

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Danny J

 

Holes:

 

It was a hot summers day in the middle of a desert.  I and my associates are sweating like pigs, and our clothes are completely drenched where we tried to dry ourselves with water.

We realised that was a bad idea because we are in the middle of the desert and we can’t go in until we’ve dug a hole. Everyone just sat down in fatigue, a strange hissing noise came from a distance. With a loud crunch everyone jumped in fright! Only I of the group went and checked it out for the group’s safe being.

 

I feel an agonizing pain...

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Ryan G.

IRON MAN:

 

As Tony Stark is showing off his new weapons, Tony and the army get ambushed by the ‘’the bad guy.’’ They get taken into a cave to make bombs. As Tony lies to them saying he will make them, he is actually making a suit to kill all the bad guy.

 

The bad guys have seen what he was up to.  He gets in his suit and he brakes the door down and he kills all the bad guys in they cave.  Then he fly’s off but crash lands in the sand 

100 Word Challenge - Scenes From Books - Matt Hi.

The Crucible

As they were in the court, Proctor was arguing to save his wife. Abigail was trying to get his wife taken away so she can have him to herself.  She wants something dones with Elizabeth so she can have Proctor who disliked her anyway.  They had a relationship previously but loved his wife and not her.  Paris disapproved of Proctor so was helping Abigail to get Proctors wife (Elizabeth) put in jail if he could, Proctor to.  Abigail was in a forest with Mary and his slave and would deny seeing them.

100 Word Challenge - Scenes from Books

TASK - As this is World Book Week this 100 word challenge is all about books.  Use 100 words to re-write your favourite scene from a book you have read or the play we are reading in class.  Copy your final draft from the word document you have created and post it in a the comments box below.  I will then move it this evening to your very own blog post and enter your for the weekly competition.  Exciting!

 

TIPS - Don't forget to think about the top tips you have gathered from my wonderful Year 10 students.  Reaaly show off in this one!

 

RESULT - Will be be featured in this weeks official 100 word challenge winners page?  Check back mid week next week to see.

Writing Tips

 

Good morning Year 9.

 

Today you will be writing your 100 Word Challenge.  In order to prepare for that I want you to gather some writing tips.  My Year 10 class have created some Writing Advice presentations and I want you to get a top tiop from them. 

 

1.  Visit this blog post:

http://msfindlatersyear10.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/writing-revision-and-prezi.html

 

2.  Read and comment on 5 of the presentations if you can.  Positive comments under their Prezi thanking them for somethign you have taken away from their Prezi.

 

3.  Post one top tip in the comments sectino below that you gained from the Year 10 Prezis.

Homework - The Criciuble - Diary Entry

Your homework task this week was to create a diary entry for any of the characters we have met in The Crucible so far.  You were asked to post it inthe comments section below this post once you had finished it, or submit it to me in person if you were unable to do this. 

Click here to a list of the key characters.

Click here for pointers on how to write a good diary entry.

Happy writing.

Research Task - The Crucible

Today's task is to research different elements that will help with your understanding of the play we are studying this term 'The Crucible'.

Under this post I would like you to write any interesting facts you find out about the topics listed. These comments must be in your own words not copied and pasted in! Use a new comment for each topic you have a fact on please. Remember, your comments may not appear strait away as I have to approve the,. Only post them once please. I will be rewarding Dojo points for excellent research comments from here as I see them.

Task 1 - Arthur Miller

• Key events in his life.
• Other works (especially Death of a Salesman)
• His beliefs/political outlook including communist connections.
• Arraignment by the House Un-American Activities

Sites:

• Arthur Miller (1915-2005)
• Arthur Miller

Task 2 - Witchcraft: Background

• What was witchcraft? Who practiced it?
• Describe the social response to withcraft in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.
• What social and religious factors are given to account for the harsh response to witchcraft?
• What can you find out about modern witchcraft or wicca.

Sites:

• The Witching Hours
• What About Witches
• Witchcraft: A Brief History

Task 3 - New England in the 1690's

• What type of people settled Massachusetts?
• How did they survive?
• What were their main fears and anxieties?
• What can you find out about their social structures/hierarchies?

Sites:

• The Massachusetts Enquirer
• Puritanism in New England
• Puritanism
• New England Background

Task 4 - The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690's

• What events led to these trials?
• Who was involved - as prosecutors? As victims?
• What were the outcomes of the trials?
• How do historians interpret these events?

Sites:

• The Salem Witchcraft Trials
• Salem Witchcraft Hysteria
• Salem Witch Trials
• A Chronology of Events
• Salem Witch Trials Memorial
• The Carey Document: On The Trial of a Salem Death Warrant
• Arthur Miller's The Crucible: Fact & Fiction

Task 5 - McCarthyism and the crack-down on communists in the 1950's

• What was the Cold War?
• What was McCarthyism? Who was Joe McCarthy? What were his aims? methods? Who were his victims?
• What lead to his eventual downfall?

Sites:

• Joseph McCarthy - Wikipedia
• Senator Joe McCarthy
• "The State Steps In: Setting the Anti-Communist Agenda"
• Communism and National Security: The Menace Emerges by Ellen Schrecker
• "The Growth of the Anti-Communist Network"

The Magazine Project

Year 9 have been busy beavering away in press gang groups creating their very own magazines from planning to productions and on to distibution. Well done you lot. These mags are amazing!

Once we had worked so hard on these and completed them, we had the opportunity to read all the magazines the class had been putting together and review them for the tema to see. A great project and brillian tmagazines produced all round. Some of our best work.

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Alison

Out of the blue -
what does this phrase mean to you?
One hundred answers for one simple question.
Out of the big blue ocean,
where lots of great plans are set in motion.
As we set out to sea,
the big blue question scares me.
Alone in the blue.
Out of the blue never failed,
as my ship slowly sets sail.
Bang. Crash!
What to do in the deep, deep blue?

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Jordan

Winters warning

It was a cold winter’s day all was silent but the rattle of the branches of the pine tree against the window making it impossible to sleep, the constant howl of foxes hunting for food. The silent forest was enticing me, I couldn’t resist I had to explore. I hobble down the stairs stumbling at the bottom step, I reach the door the handle is cold I get my gloves and unlock the door, take a step outside and hear a voice saying “I’m over here Aaron follow my voice” I shouted “who are you and how do you know me”...

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Rina

I was alone on the beach in Hawaii. It was beautifuI. I took my surf board and went surfing, the water was ice cold at first but I got used to it. I was surfing when out of the blue my surf board disappeared. Suddenly a massive wave came and took me under the deep blue water. I couldn’t breathe, I was scared.

I woke up on a mysterious beach, completely different to the one I was on before. It was lonely and silent you couldn’t even hear a thing. It looked like a deserted island. Where was I….

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Megan

I walked along the sandy white beach; the sand was soft and warm the sea was calm and blue.
I listened close to the wonderful sound of parrots, sitting in the tropical trees.  I thought, “How lucky I am to be here with such beauty and pleasure”.
The sea lay calm and crystal clear, but suddenly everything seemed to change.  My head started to hurt, my feet started to burn, the sea started to crash, the birds stared to fly…  What was wrong, what did I do, where am I.

I turned round to… wake up!!!

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Lloyd

The walls are painted every colour in the rainbow, the floor is black. Pitch black. 

Everything is quiet.

There aren’t any doors just silence and darkness sitting here alone, I don’t know if I’m dreaming or not and I cannot escape.  It feels like forever and then a door appears. I open it to find complete blackness and then I fall and land on a spot of light, there’s a white door infront of me.
I walk up towards it slowly. Then I open it as fast as I can and I wake up in bed.

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Hannah

Falling asleep, sometimes I am on a beach with my family that I won’t see. Sometimes I’m falling and can’t stop it; it just frightens the life out of me out of the blue. Dreams normally end in nightmares, scary as they are they come and go when they like - controlling your mind.

I overthink with my mind, they run over and over…

As I lie here thinking what this mess has done to me, it’s like my own mind is against me. Circling, confusing, over-powering, fighting, turning.. Bang! It was out of the blue.

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Ryan

One day on the island of Zimbabwe, Jayson Brodey is running from Vaas and his men. The men have their guns and are in their cars. Jayson is kidnapped. Then he manages to escape the camp.

Suddenly, as he is crossing the road across the river, the road brakes and he falls in to the river. He gets knocked out on his way down stream. A man with no name pulls him out and brings him to his camp and gives him food and water and a gun. He is now going to kill Vaas.

I wonder what will happen?

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Dan J

“The Alley-Way”

I was slowly walking down the dark alley-way, when I met a man named Anthony. He was a bit strange, but otherwise a lovely man.  Then all of a sudden he pulled out a piercing dagger; he stabbed me hard with it.

I staggered to the ground like a corpse being thrown wildly without care. I screamed for help - no one came.  I slowly crawled in agony to the end of the alley-way. All the people I thought I knew, didn’t even help me. I thought they were my friends! Just seconds after, I painstakingly bled out to my eternal death.

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Georgia

Here I am once again sitting at the beach on a family trip out. I don’t know why we have these family trips they are so boring.

“Come on George, come surfing with us” shouted dad from the sea.

I stood up and headed to the sea. My dad just surfed a wave which was cool but I was going to show him how it’s done. I grabbed my surf board and… then all off a sudden a massive wave came crashing towards me. I fell over. Out of the blue my dead grandma said “how are you my princess”.

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Matt Hi

He was in the forest to get to a log cabin he had been told about by his friend.  It was dare.  It was so risky because there was a man who would take the people and would make them do chores for him.  If they tried to run they would appear back in his house and get put in a jail for however long he chose.  He makes them do things such as mine get fire wood, get food and build weapons.  he always notices when they are gone because he set a time for them.

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - William

It was a dark gloomy day; it felt depressing going to school on a day like this. I wish the school would close because its been snowing for 6 days non-stop. All my teachers and classmates feel the same as me; we think it’s ridiculous that we have to come to school when it snows.

The windows are all frozen so we can’t see outside. I’m guessing it’s bad because there’s no internet connection. Then suddenly it came. The words from heaven “the school is closed due to the snow”. “YES” we cried. It’s the best news we’ve heard in ages!

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Shakirah

Its Monday again, me on my own walking around like a lost puppy in the big wide world.  Why doesn’t anyone like me? What have I done wrong? Is it because I’m different?

It’s so out of the blue anyway it's the firsts lesson of the year and the worst lesson ENGLISH the teacher is so nice but I just can't get the hang of it and I have to sit next to the school bully Jack. He’s so annoying and always calling people names for no reason but anyway I hope he knows what coming for him in the future.

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Dan C

Bob woke at 7 AM on a cold Sunday morning. He walked downstairs, walked over to the fridge, and got the milk out. He then got a bowl out of his cupboard. He was about to get the cornflakes out of his cabinet when suddenly, out of the blue a rat scurried across the floor!

“ARRGH!” screamed Bob.

Bob reached for the cereal bowl and threw it at the rat. It hit it right in the head, and decapitated it, leaving the body scurrying around on its own. The rat slowly stopped moving, and Bob made a sigh of relief.

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Matt Ha

It is a clear crystal day on the beach then the sound the horn, it’s a danger horn. The life-guard springs into action. Then it appears a great white shark that’s what all the fuss is about, then out of the blue music starts playing. Child music. Haunted music.

The music stops then the horn stops, it all goes back to normal like nothing has happened.  They all get back to what they were doing. It sounds again, everyone panics except me because it a few minutes. This time the music doesn’t play. This time it stays this way forever

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue - Katie

Walking along with the blue sky in front of me, wanting to walk along the untouched sand.  It looked so beautiful, untouched; no nothing.

The light blue sea’s gleaming into my eyes, as I sit on the untouched ocean, over thinking with my mind…

As I look up, the blue circle is looking at me, telling me everything is going to be ok.
The untouched sand was no longer untouched, with my crawling feet all around it.
As I look around there was nothing around me, just me, thinking, and the deep blue sea.

100 Word Challenge - Out of the Blue

 

Post your first ever 100 word challenge stories.  The theme this week is 'out of the blue'. 

 

Below are the pictures you will be analysing before writing your stories, to get some inspiration.

 

 



The Massacre by William

The massacre

The noise thundered in the soldier’s ears as bullets fly past like bolts of lightning.

 Rockets scream past leaving a gust of thick smoke,

Turrets fire louder than a crying baby.

The crashing planes above are like fireworks exploding bright as the sun and quick as a comet, it makes its final journey to the ground.

“THERES TWO OF US LEFT!” cried the commander

“THERES STILL A CHANCE!” replied the soldier.

They make their charge but are caught by an unexpected rocket.

The battle is lost.

The end.

Apply for the Job!

Job title: Trainee Journalist  Closing Date: 11.01.12

Salary: £20,000 PA

Full details: We’re on the hunt for a young and enthusiastic trainee journalist who thrives in a busy and varied role. The job involves working on different and interesting projects in your chosen section (Fashion, Music, Sport etc.). There are opportunities for rapid advancement and support is available for your future career.  You will be working on news reporting, story writing, advertising, media reviewing and problem pages.

Successful candidates will require a good news sense, excellent writing and editing skills, and an ability to adapt to a variety of writing styles.

 

CVs and covering letters should be sent to:
Lois Lane - Recruitment Manager, Magazine HQ, 183 Press Gang Avenue, London, SW1 8TR

 

In your covering letter, please explain why you would be suited to the role of Trainee Journalist in your chosen section (Fashion, Music, Sport etc.)

Candidates who do not receive a response within eight weeks should assume their application has been unsuccessful.

 

Good luck candidates.