Journal Entry  #13
   List three (3) things you like/dislike about Thanksgiving and explain why.

Classwork - Outlining
     Today we focused on reading an Informational Text-how to pull information out of a piece of writing.
       "Coming To America," pg 157 in our anthology.
  We want to build on our skill of outlining.  So today we practice "skimming."  Skimming is when you take read or glance through a text quickly.  You are just passing quickly over the surface of the writing.  You do not look for many details when you skim.

While skimming through "Coming to America," we focused on the text features.  Text features are the pieces of text that jump out at us.  They may include:  different text sizes or fonts, bold lettering, different colored text, bullets, headings, subtitles, graphics (pictures, graphs, diagrams), and captions (the words that describe a graphic).

We also had a conversation about why people move to the United States.
Some of the opinions offered were:  to better their lives, make more money, it was hard to surved where they came from, they want freedom to be able to do what they want, to find good jobs, and they want rights.

Teaching Point of Skimming:
                look at the text features
                this helps us to get an idea of how the text is designed and what it                      will contain.

    
Writing Assignment #5  "Thanksgiving"
        Based on your journal entry for today, develop an essay that explains why you like or dislike Thanksgiving.  Remember the 8th grade criteria that we are using:  * 5-7 paragraphs in length 
            * organized with an introduction, body and conclusion

If you wrote a journal entry today, you can use your 3 likes/dislikes as your main ideas for the body.  Be sure to expand what you are saying by using details to create believable images for your readers.