Evidence of Critical Thinking: Thoughtful observations, connections between readings and the larger world and/or your life, and growth in your thoughts/ observations from the beginning of the year.
Evidence of Critical Reading: Evidence of thorough readings, comprehension of reading materials, insightful reflections, and connections between readings materials.
Evidence of Creative Thinking: Inclusion of photographs, music, videos, or other media that enhances the presentation of the post; original ideas presented in readings are extended in a creative manner.
Evidence of the Ability to Write Clearly and Effectively: Grammar, spelling, capitalization errors do not interfere with audience understanding. The structure of your blog posts allows for understanding and is easy to follow.
Evidence of Awareness of Diverse Audience: Opinions, justifications, rationalizations, and summaries are written in a way that allows a diverse audience to understand your intent. Writings are not offensive, but engage audience members in your ideas and opinions in a creative manner.
Blog Entry 1:
As part of our unit for A Long Way Gone, we've learned a whole lot about a a variety of African countries, some in more depth than others. Here are the ones we've studied:
Chad
Democratic Republic of Congo
Rwanda
Sierra Leone
Somalia
Sudan
Choose one of these countries to write about for this blog post. In your post, explain:
- What is happened in that country in the past
- What you learned about this country that affected you/ made it stand out to you
- What is happening in that country right now (give a news update)
(LABEL=A Long Way Gone)
Blog Entry 2:
In our last unit over the memoir A Long Way Gone, we have talked extensively about the use of child soldiers in many countries around the world. In our next book, The Hunger Games, children are going to be used as soldiers in a different way. Explain how you feel about the use of child soldiers after learning about it this quarter. Make sure to include a photo (with link) that shows how you feel about the practice of using child soldiers.
(LABEL=A Long Way Gone)
Blog Entry 3:
In A Long Way Gone, Ishmael describes several instances where his life is saved because of rap music. We studied the origins of hip-hop in the United States as a political and social movement where frustrated inner city African Americans used music to convey their anger and frustration with society.
For this final post, choose a song for Ishmael. It could be one that represents him as a child soldier in Sierra Leone, or one for him today now that he has undergone therapy. Embed your song in a blog post and explain why you chose this particular song for him. Point out lyrics that are meaningful. Make sure to quote the lyrics as they are written by the artist.
(LABEL= A Long Way Gone)
