Road Trip!

I guess I should say 'Field Trip'! We are FINALLY going to take our annual Read 180 field trip. We will attend a showing of the new Disney movie "College Road Trip" at El Capitan Theater in Hollywood. The date of our big adventure is Wednesday, March 26. It is the week we return to school from Spring Break. I am asking that each student donate money to help us cover the ticket cost and our lunch cost. The bus is already taken care of. The donation amount requested is $15. This will cover the ticket, a hot dog, popcorn, candy and a drink. This is going to be such a fun activity and a memorable experience. Thank you in advance for your generosity!

This field trip ties into the California State University 'How To Get To College' initiative. This is a big focus for our 7th & 8th grade students. Please look at the link I have set up below. It takes you to the official "How To Get To College" website.

http://www.calstate.edu/college/students.shtml

Writing Assessment!

The Seventh Grade California English-Language Arts Writing Assessment will be held on Tuesday, March 4th. It will take place during 1st and 2nd period. Please be on time this school day! Make sure you go to bed early on Monday evening. Also, it is important to eat breakfast Tuesday morning (even if you normally don't). ALL of my 7th graders will meet me in the library at the beginning of 1st period. My 1st/2nd period 8th graders will report to Room 48 (Ms.Dinwiddie). My 8th graders from 3rd/4th period will have me just like every other day during 3rd/4th period. Good Luck! I know you'll do wonderfully on this essay!

Essay: Summarize

Here is some information to help you get through your essay in Workshop 4...

What Is Summarizing?

Summarizing is how we take larger selections of text and reduce them to their bare essentials: the gist, the key ideas, the main points that are worth noting and remembering. Webster's calls a summary the "general idea in brief form"; it's the distillation, condensation, or reduction of a larger work into its primary notions.

What Are We Doing When We Summarize?

We strip away the extra verbiage and extraneous examples. We focus on the heart of the matter. We try to find the key words and phrases that, when uttered later, still manage to capture the gist of what we've read. We are trying to capture the main ideas and the crucial details necessary for supporting them.

What Do I Want You To Do?

• pull out main ideas



• focus on key details



• use key words and phrases



• break down the larger ideas



• write only enough to get your ideas across



• take short but complete notes

The Skull Lady

Check out this story that just came out on CNN! It is about a woman who recreates the skin facial features of skeletons that are found.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/02/15/skull.lady/index.html

DNA Analysis

Deoxyribonuleic Acid, or DNA is what is used often times to identify who did or did not commit a crime. Each of us has our own DNA, no two people have the same DNA with the excption of identical twins or triplets. Check out the links I've posted below that take to a couple of cool websites that talk about DNA. In your opinion, is it a good thing that we now have the knowledge and ability to test the DNA of people?

http://www.genetics.gsk.com/kids/index_kids.htm

http://www.surfnetkids.com/dna.htm

Show this link to your parents...

http://www.mypreciouskid.com/ID-DNA-fingerprint-kit.html

R.I.P. Bob

We have read the second story in workshop 4. It is about the murder of Bob Dorotik. Below I attached some links to a couple of websites that talk in detail about the murder and the investigation and trial that occurred after. Check them out and let me know who you think is guilty. Is Jane really the murderer?

http://www.cbsnews.com/htdocs/48hours/dorotik/vote2.html

http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/tv_programme/1272/Snapped_Jane_Dorotik.htm