Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
Dear grade 8,

I want to thank you in advance for your cooperation over the next four LA 8 lessons while I am awasy on my trip to the USA.
Wednesday, 8th period Mr. Rossol will be with you in the lab;
Thursday, 7th period Mr. Preston will be with you in B2. Bring a novel to read, or work on rough copies for the work below as stated in the 3rd quarter outline.
Friday: 8th period you will be in the lab with Mr. Schvaneveldt.
Monday: 6th period you will be in the lab with Ms. Rodriguez. Five of you will need to work on rough copies, and the others on your BLOGS.

In the USA I will be working on connections for the Middle and High School programs, particularly in creating new courses in High School and in making technology connections for Middle/High School. I will also be trying to set up some future connections (online and perhaps exchanges) with schools in the USA on the West Coast. I will tell you when I get back. I will also be "showing off" your BLOGS at a few workshops and to some technology specialists, hoping to get some help from them in how to further develop our Language Arts Class for the rest of this year.
Below is the same information as that given to you Tuesday- the 3rd quarter course outline.
See you all on Tuesday the 27th!


To: Grade 8 LA 8 Class
From: Mr. Pastore
RE: 3rd Quarter outline
Date: TUESDAY, Feb. 20th, 2007

3rd quarter LA 8 OUTLINE
week 1: Feb. 5-9- time to wrap up 2nd quarter, fix BLOG by posting a quarter self grade, and also send said analysis to Mr Pastore by email
' 2: Feb 19-23: Many of you STILL need to send me an email about your 2nd quarter grade (see BLOG for instructions) and also post that email information on your BLOG site! You also have to go in and do the security “update” we talked about in class on Monday the 20th
' 3: Feb 26-2 see below
' 4: Mar 5-9 see below
' 5: Mar 12-16 see below
' 6: Mar 19-23 see below
' 7: Mar 26-30 see below
' 8: Apr 2-5 (four day week) see below
' 9: Apr 16-20 see below

Work this quarter:
I. 6 Blog entries:
1. Novel Synopsis 9: Student choice, but teacher approved. Proofed rough draft and final post due by Tuesday, March 6th. LENGTH is to be 250-300 words.
2. Book Synopsis 10: must be either a BIOGRAPHY or a work of Historical Fiction. Proofed rough draft and final post due by Tuesday, April 3rd. Length is to be 250-300 words.
3. Historical Entry on Trieste: Pick, with teacher approval, a topic about Trieste that will interest our exchange school. Due by Friday, March 2. (NOTE: this was given to you already... I want SPECIFICS, not a general history. For example- one church, one castle, one famous person, one famous event, etc.....)
4. Geographical Entry on Trieste: ditto...Due by Tuesday, March 13th. (NOTE: pick a SPECIFIC item of Geographical interest. Do not cut and paste from the internet! Use your own words to write about something that interests you- Bora; Carso; Caves; Bay of Trieste; being on the Adriatic; etc...). 200 words.
5. Personal Aspect Entry on Trieste: ditto...Due by Tuesday, March 20th. Something you like about Trieste and WHY. 200 words.
6. Editorial Commentary: Teacher approved. 500 word maximum. RC1 due Thursday, March 22nd; RC 2 due Monday, March 26th. FC Due Tuesday, March 27th. We will pick this later...

II. The last week of the 3rd quarter will be left for catching up, and making sure you have continued to make blog comments as done in the 2nd quarter (for each of the 6 Blog topics this quarter, you must comment on four classmates writings, for a total of 24 comments.).

III. Reading and Writing Editorials:
We will read editorials together on assigned websites. An "editorial" is a personal commentary about a topic. Editorials generally cover a wide variety of topics, and writers many times specialize in a particular topic. Many famous editorialists are "political commentators". Others editorialize about economics, sports, modern life, etc. At times famous people (politicians, actors, businesspeople, etc) write editorials about particular topics that interest them.
On several Thursday we will read some editorials together on the projector in our classroom. You will write TWO handwritten rough drafts, each of which will be checked by me to see that you have corrected errors, made adjustments and proofed grammar, spelling and punctuation. You must also have TWO other people who are fluent in English look over your editorial- a fellow student, a teacher, a parent or friend of the family, etc.
I will investigate asking a journalist to come to our class to speak to you about how an editorialist does their job.

Thursday, February 8th, 2007 (from Cambridge, Mass., USA)

Dear Grade 8 students,

The first semester ended very well in both Language Arts and Physical Education. I am scheduling a follow up meeting with each one of you to write in your grades for Language Arts and PE on your report cards together. I also want to follow up the meeting we each had together after the first quarter to review our "note" to see what progress you have made so far, and to discuss how to make even more progress in the second semester.
Therefore- your report cared will NOT have grades on it for the 2nd quarter and First Semester for our two classes: Language Arts and Physical Education. I do have the PE grades, but I want to discuss those with you face to face at the same time we review the Language Arts grade. You will get your grades on February 19/20th.
I do depend on and trust you to translate this note for your parents. You are old enough to do this without school supervision, and they should already be used to this from the end of the first quarter.
I have looked at your Blogs, and I must say that we are doing a very good job overall. I do think that as a group we need to use the laboratory better when we are there, and to help us do so, I have asked Mr. Pozar and Mr. Rossol to make sure that the internet connection for IST is as fast as we can make it. We need this to help us when we start our class "Wiki" with the Masterman School in Philadelphia. We will use the Wiki in the second semester to teach the Philadelphia kids about our school and about Trieste and Italy.
Have a great Ski Week vacation, and make sure to take a good book with you to read for fun while you are not at school. I will see you on Monday the 19th.
Sincerely,
Mr. Pastore

Thursday and Friday, February 8-9, 2007

Dear Language Arts Class,

You are to write on your blog a 200 to 300 "commentary" on some aspect of life in Italy/Trieste. You are to write the ROUGH DRAFT in class on Thursday, proofread it, and input it onto your Blogger site Friday in class. This is to be done, and UNPUBLISHED (ie. saved only as a "Draft") for me to look at on Monday, February 19th, when we next have class.
Thank you for your cooperation.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Dear Language Arts Class,
Please send me an email at the following address: jimperuzzo@yahoo.com

Your email should include the following information:
1. A verification that you did all 6 BLOG entries ("I did all 6 entries")
2. A verification that you did all 6 ROUGH COPIES for the 6 blog entries (("I did all 6 rough drafts")
3. Give yourself a grade in which you justify the grade (from an "F" to an "A"). You must justify the grade with proof that you:
a. Did your work on time
b. Did your work completely
c. Used good grammar
d. Did proper proofreading (spelling, punctuation, etc.).
e. Did the best you could to make the 24 total comments that you needed to make (4 comments on each of the 6 blog entries).
f. That you used your time wisely in class over the last month.
g. That you followed the rules for each blog entry (titles, blog length)

You are to ALSO put this email content ONTO your blog as the FIRST entry of the 3rd quarter.
So- write the blog entry following the rules above, and then cut and paste what you write into an email and send it to me. I expect to BOTH read your blog with the update AND receive and read the email (with the same information in it) Wednesday when I arrive at my hotel in Boston.
This is a double control system- I should be able to see what you have written either by email or by looking on the class blog and clicking on your name and seeing the Wed. Feb. 7th entry.
THANK YOU FOR COOPERATING, and I will see you on the 19th.