Vocab and Thesis Statements

Terry already has a couple of interesting posts on a couple of his class blogs.

This post from his English 10 class is all about building vocabulary:

As we discussed in class, one of your first assignments is to find a word that could add to your vocabulary. When you find a good word, please add it as a comment to this post, along with the original sentence in which the word appeared, the source of the sentence, and a short definition in your own words. Your word should be unique in the class; that is, you shouldn't post the same word as someone else. Therefore, before you post your word and definition, read through the existing comments to see if your word is there already. If it is, you need to find another word.

So far we have optimum, fatuous and auspicious. An auspicious start for this blog I would say.

Then on his A.P. Literature blog, this post deals with the summer reading for their independent study project.

This doesn't need to be an analysis (you get to do that later), but rather your gut-level response. Give the title of the book and explain: What did you think of it? What details struck you? Would you recommend it to your classmates? Let your voice come through as you comment. Then, if you are ready, add some comments about possible thesis ideas.

It's interesting to see what the students thought of what they read, and their initial ideas about how they want to frame what they are going to write about it. I think the ability for the students to not only get feedback from Terry on the blog, but also to see other students' thinking about their own books will be very valuable for them.

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