Do Now! Day Six.

Get straight to finishing up your Power Point presentations.

This is your last day to work in class. Use it wisely!

Presentations will be done in class on Thursday, and Friday.

Day Six: March 22

Here are your goals for today:

• Finish your power point presentation.
• Make sure that your information is properly cited.
  

Here is how you cite your information:

1. On your final slide, list and number your sources.
2. After you use information from a source, put the number of that source from your citation slide.

Some other things to check on:

1. Remember, book titles get underlined or italicized every time your use them.
2. Remember to cite your information. There should be at least one citation for each slide that has text.
3. Reread your presentation to make sure that anything that was copied directly and pasted in is in quotations.
4. Reread your presentation to make sure that you are free of grammar and spelling errors, do not trust spell check and auto-correct.
   

Get to it!

Do Now! Day five.

Get straight to work on finishing your research and starting the Power Point.

Welcome to Monday.

Day Five: March 21

Here are your goals for today:

1. Fill out a participation rubric and give it to Mr. Thompson.
2. Finish finding sources of information about the author and the topic of your book and taking notes.
3. Finish finding reviews of your book from critics and readers.
4. Start working on making your Power Point presentation.
   

Some useful search hints:

• Search for "author's name, bio."
• Look for the publisher's website and see if they have a bio for your author
• If you are confused about how to research the topic of your book, consider focusing on your book's setting or genre.
• Check amazon.com for reader reviews.
  

Get to it!

Do Now!

In the comments section leave a comment with the following information:

1. Your Name.
2. The name of your book.
3. The name of your author.
4. One fact about the topic of your book that you found in your research.
   

Day Four: March 17

Here are your goals for today:

1. Fill out a participation rubric and give it to Mr. Thompson.
2. Finish finding sources of information about the topic of your book and taking notes.
3. Find reviews of your book from critics and readers.
4. Add a useful link to the comment section of the "help your friends" post.
   

Some useful search hints:

• Search for "author's name, bio."
• Look for the publisher's website and see if they have a bio for your author
• If you are confused about how to research the topic of your book, consider focusing on your book's setting or genre.
• Check amazon.com for reader reviews.
  

Get to it!

Do Now!

In the comments section leave a comment with the following information:

1. Your Name.
2. The name of your book.
3. The name of your author.
4. One interesting or important fact about your author
   

Day Three: March 16

Here are your goals for today:

1. Fill out a participation rubric and give it to Mr. Thompson.
2. Finish finding sources of biographical information about your author and taking notes.
3. Find sources of information about the topic of your book and take relevant notes.
4. Add a useful link to the comment section of the "help your friends" post.
   

Some useful search hints:

• Search for "author's name, bio."
• Look for the publisher's website and see if they have a bio for your author
• If you are confused about how to research the topic of your book, consider focusing on your book's setting or genre.
  

Get to it!

Day Two: March 15

Here are your goals for today:

1. Fill out a participation rubric and give it to Mr. Thompson.
2. Find a good source of biographical information about your author and take notes.
3. Begin looking for a source of information about the topic of your book and take relevant notes.
4. Add a useful link to the comment section of the "help your friends" post.
   

Some useful search hints:

• Search for "author's name, bio."

• Look for the publisher's website and see if they have a bio for your author.

Get to it!

Day One: Monday, March 14

Start your search for information about the author of your book.

Your goals for today:

1. Understand what is expected of you for this project.
2. Create and save your research notes file.
3. Find at least one good source of information about your author.
4. Turn in a copy of the participation rubric.

Get to it!

Help Your Friends!

If you find any particularly good websites with author information, book reviews from professional critics, or reviews from readers, post them here in the comments.

I'll check the comments and keep an updated post with any of your suggestions that really stand out.

Some sites that you've suggested in the comments so far:

www.biography.com

• Check here to see if your author has a biography on the site. Also, if your book focuses on a real person or people, check here for information on them.

www2.scholastic.com

• If your book is published by Scholastic, check here for author information and other books in the same series or by the same author.
• Look at the site for the publisher of your book. Ask Mr. Thompson if you don't know where to find that information.

www.walterdeanmyers.net

• Your source for all things related to Walter Dean Myers. If you are reading a book by this author check here for biographical information and bibliography.
  

The Task

Independent Reading Text Mini Research Project

What are we going to be doing?

· We are going to create Power Point presentations that will let our classmates know all about the authors and subjects of our independent reading books. We’ll also show what some of the critics and other readers have thought of our books.

How will we be graded?

· On the content and presentation of the Power Point presentation.

· On the content and organization of our research notes.

· On how focused and on-task we are while working in the computer lab.

What are the requirements for the Power Point?

· At least five slides including the following:

o A title slide that gives the title and author of the book as well as your name, class, and period.

o Information on the author’s biography and other things (s)he has written.

o A short “blurb” that summarizes what the book is about as well as any background information on the topic of the book that might be interesting or useful.

o What made this book and/or author interesting and what sort of reader would you recommend it to?

o Reviews from critics as well as readers.

o A works cited slide listing your sources.

· Make it look awesome.

o Include images that relate to the author and subject of the book.

o Make sure that the presentation is easy to read for audience members.

o Be creative.

What are the requirements for the research notes?

· They should be clearly organized by source.

· There must be clear indication of what is a quotation from a source (copied and pasted) and what is your own summary or paraphrasing.

· You should have at least four sources.

What are the expectations for behavior?

· That you remain on-task while doing the research and completing your presentation.

· That you keep discussions focused on the work we are doing.

· That you do not disrupt or distract your classmates.

Some guiding questions for your research:

1. Who is the author?

2. What are some relevant details about the author’s life?

3. What sorts of things has this person written before?

4. What is this book about?

5. What information about this topic might interest a reader?

6. What has the critical response been to this book? If there hasn’t been much, why?

7. What have other readers said about this book?