September 12

Bite-Sized Nonfiction

After reading the article, “The Curse of the Hope Diamond,” in Scholastic Scope Magazine, one of our students practiced writing a CSA response to answer the question: Is the curse of the Hope Diamond real? Keep reading to see if her evidence supports her claim.

                                     CSA for The Curse of the Hope DiamondStories, as well as theories, are not always factual. Take the story of The Curse of the Hope Diamond for an example. There isno actual evidence of the coincidences that occurred while people had it in their grasps, and it might’ve not been because of thediamond. “There have been, over the years, even decades, numerous stories about how the Hope Diamond carried an ancient curse,”(Kurin 1). Due to this one sentence saying there are several stories on The Hope Diamond, it’s possible that it’s a hoax. There are also theories on why all these terrible events happened, theories are also not reliable or factual as well. “The first few stories of The Hope Diamond came in the financial pages of The New York Times in 1908,” (Kurin 9). The quote therefore states that this whole commotion about the diamond is just a chronicle. Which could accordingly be just a hypothesis about why these people were witnessing such horrible things while having the diamond. In summary, stories and theories are not always true.

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January 19

When Authors Inspire Student Writing

Author visits are a great way to encourage students to read and write. Fortunately, our school is a champion at planning author visits for our middle schools students. We are eagerly awaiting Book Week from January 23rd to the 27th at Lake Highland Preparatory School. We have Jarrett J. Krosoczka visiting our middle school students, and he’s bringing books! My 7th grade students worked in small groups to create short graphic stories using Book Creator. We are sharing the digital books with Jarrett and the rest of the world on this blog. We hope you enjoy reading our stories and don’t forget to leave us feedback.

The Illusion

Mrs. Darden's 2nd Period Graphic Stories

Mrs. Darden's 3rd Period Graphic Stories

Minor Joe: Criminal Miner

The Fair of a Lifetime

Mrs. Darden's 5th Period Graphic Stories

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December 18

A Book Review by Anwita

Winter

Book Review by Anwita

A thrilling and exciting fourth book in the Lunar Chronicles series, Winter is about how cyborg Linh Cinder must reclaim her throne on the moon. The book includes high action, satisfying romance scenes, humor, mystery and suspense. Merissa Meyer takes a unique approach on the traditional fairytales of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Ariel and turns them into modern stories people of all ages can relate to. 

The book opened up with an adorable moment between Kai and Cinder that was absolutely amazing. However, the pace of the book was a bit slow in some parts, particularly the beginning few pages. Fortunately, it picks back up as the plot moves to Luna and there is much more action. The author had me rooting for the characters throughout the entire story.

Meyer was able to truly illuminate how there is more than one side to a story. In the chapter through Queen Levana’s perspective, Meyer demonstrates how despite Levana’s tyrannical rule of Luna, she truly believed that the people loved her and she was helping them. 

As a middle school student, I was able to relate to the theme of not fitting in, something Cinder struggled with her whole life and was able to overcome. Winter also brought light to important issues around the world such as tyrannical dictators, social class order, racism, and economic crisis. 

I would recommend this book to people who enjoyed Aru Shah, the Inheritance Games, Scythe, Percy Jackson, and are looking for a new story that will have them completely hooked with the action, humor, and suspense. 

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December 16

Consumers Beware During the Holiday Shopping Season

After reading some articles on how advertisers capture consumers’ attention, we learned how to deconstruct ads to make us more aware of the tactics that are used. We used our annotations and new found knowledge to create teen guides that help consumers shop more effectively during the holiday season. We hope you enjoy a few of our showcased teen guides!

Teen Guide Created by Phillip

Holiday Brochure

 

Teen Guide Designed by Lola

Copy of Text here

Teen Guide Written by Anwita

Deconstructing Ads brochure

 

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December 5

Creative Writing in 7th Grade

After reading, “The Red Button” by Kristin Lewis in the Scholastic Scope magazine, students were inspired to write a prequel or sequel to the story. We worked in pairs to write the stories and shared them in class. Then, we voted on our favorites to be published on our class blog page. We hope you enjoy our creative stories!

Prequel for “The Red Button” by Roan and Brock

Today is the day. The day I set up the test. The test to see who will press the button. I made this harmless button that does absolutely nothing in my secret laboratory behind the fair. Then when it was time I went looking. Where should I put this button? Then I found it. It was big and beautiful. It was a giant crate. I placed the button on the crate. I then put a trail of gum on an old path so people would follow it. Then I left.

You may be wondering why? Why do this test? Well, every few hours I have this thing called short term memory loss. Meaning I forget all about what happened before. So I am testing to see will I press it? I have set up a camera to review my test. So if you are reading this let me know did you press it Stephen?  Did you?

 – Sincerely,  Stephen 

The Red Button Sequel by Liv and Lily G. 

Stephen couldn’t seem to stop himself. His feet shifted, and he couldn’t seem to stop himself from moving closer and closer to the button. What would happen? Would it explode? Would nothing happen? Was this a test set up by his grandma because he could stay out of her cookie jar? Why was there a random button tempting him to press it? Stephen found himself reaching toward the button. His fingers were above it when someone came up behind him and bumped into him.

Stephen slipped and pressed the button. The ground beneath him started to shake. Other people didn’t seem to notice what was happening. The ground began to split. He couldn’t believe his eyes. What in the world was happening? This is the end of the world. Stephen started to run, but the ground finally caught up to him. He fell into the void. In an instant, he woke up and realized it was just a nightmare, a very realistic nightmare. Then only realized it wasn’t a nightmare and he had ended the world and fallen into a void and into another dimension. “Snewmens”, the world of the forbidden and forgotten Christmas.  

Sequel to “The Red Button” by Max and Nico

Bang! The door slammed and the security guard rushed in he screamed don’t touch the button. But the button had put him into some sort of state in which he couldn’t hear him. Stephen said, “I don’t care anymore, I don’t care about being better than Kakarot. I don’t care about being a super Saiyan. I don’t care if I live. I don’t care about anything. Then it happened, he touched the button and became a Super Saiyan.

Then he took over the world with his superpowers and united the continents. There was no more world hunger. It took time but everyone got used to it. He became the richest and most powerful man in the universe. But there was something missing, he needed a rival then he heard the song, “John Cena Bing Chilling”. Then John Cena and Stephen had a battle. They had a gruesome battle but Stephen was no match. John Cena Bing was chilling and he was able to concur the universe.

The Big Red Button Sequel by Nicole and Ava

After Stephen presses the red button he falls into a cave. He saw Mason Thames and Cesar Mendoza in the cave. Moments later, thousands of rats start biting his ankles and one of them was carrying a disease. Stephen starts to feel dizzy and falls into Mason’s and Cesar’s arms gracefully, and realized he was hallucinating. 

When he realized that he was hallucinating, four big guys come and carry him away to a secret room. In that room, there were 574 monkeys dancing in a circle singing ring-around-the-rosy. The monkeys then scratched his face and became blind. JJ appeared in the same room that Stephen was in and gave him a secret potion. When Stephen drank the potion, it fixed his eyes and he could then see. Unfortunately, he dies due to an infection from the rats.

 

 

 

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November 18

Student Poets

Death Itself

By Adam

In the shadowsCold as the windsWith an ember inside and withinEating away all of mankind’s sinsFeeling empty as a hollow Deaths embrace will come to followDepression and sadness settle in Without a doubt on man’s whimsPeople cry People mournOver their loved ones that have been bornIn this world of DespairNone can ever be repairedO’ Death do us partSome shall never have a heartBroken inside and throughSuch is one who has never bloomed

 

John was inspired to write this poem during hurricane season.

 

McLane wrote this rhyming poem on Canva.

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September 24

Refugee Experience Challenge

Alan Gratz

After reading Refugee by Alan Gratz this summer, students returned to school and embarked on a short research challenge. They browsed through the UNHCR website to learn about a variety of refugees around the world. After deciding on a focused refugee story, the students created a short profile for the refugee. Thank you to Emily at readitwriteitlearnit.com for the idea and resource. We hope you enjoy reading a few of these profiles written by some of our students.

The Refugee Project

Refugee Profile Project

Refugee Profile

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January 10

Board Game Creation

Taj succeeded in creating an engaging board game for his classmates to play in stations. This passion project exam was well planned out and designed.  Taj was able to tie in themes from the graphic novels titled, Cardboard and When Stars are Scattered.  Congrats on making a fun game for the class!

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