Memoir Requirements

Unit Question: How do my experiences impact who I am?

Your memoir should tell about an important event in your life and how this event helped shape who you are.

It should have a title, be 500-800 words long, and include at least three Smiley Face Tricks.

You will set up your paper in MLA format.  (See https://owl.english. purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/)

The memoir will be graded on IB Criteria A and C (Content and Style/Mechanics).

You will also create a Photo Story slide show to accompany your memoir.  More instructions on that later…

Second Draft due 9/13, end of class

Final Draft due 9/24, beginning of class

Slideshow due 9/25, end of class

 

Tips for Editing Your Posts

Everyone is doing a great job creating their book review blogs!  Here are some tips to help you edit your posts:

• Read each post aloud to check for repeated words, run-on sentences, and other errors.
• Capitalize all proper nouns, including names of people, places, books, and specific historical events.
• Example: the Holocaust, Elie Wiesel
• Capitalize the first word in the title of a book/movie, as well as all other "big" words in a book/movie title.  Also, remember to italicize OR underline book/movie titles, using the same style throughout all your posts.
• Example: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
• Copy-and-paste entries into Microsoft Word to check word count.  All entries except the poem must be at least 150 words.

Happy writing!

Blog Project: 2012 Instructions

As a culminating project for our spring units, you will create a book review blog.

• At least ten entries
• Each entry must be at least 150 words (except for poem)
• Appropriate tone, spelling, and grammar

Out of the ten entries, six will be on books of your choice and four will be on the following assigned topics:

• Review of Night
• Compare/contrast entry on Night and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
• Review of the book you chose for the “Your Choice” unit
• An original poem

What is a Book Review and How Do I Write One?

A book review is a description and evaluation of a book, intended to recommend (or not recommend) the book to other readers.  It is NOT a summary.  There are many different ways to write a book review. 

Your review needs to include the following information:

• Title, author, plot, protagonist, and setting
• Explanation of the book’s impact on you (theme!) and recommendation of the book to other readers

Book Review Resources

Remember when we wrote book reviews of The Outsiders in the beginning of the year and you got a bunch of handouts to help you?  Well, here they are.  Refer to these pages for book review tips.

• Scholastic Book Review Home Page
• Book Review Example
• Writing Tips
• Revision Guidelines

Testing, testing... Is this thing on?

Hi, students!  Welcome to our book review blog project... Make sure you create a password that you will remember on Monday.

Here are some book review blogs you can check out as examples:

http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com/
http://thebookcellarx.com/

Enjoy the project!