can you read? do you write?

Is your brain engaged in your reading and writing activities? Room5ians brains are - they do all these things when reading actively....

• Summarize: Every once in awhile, you should stop, look at a portion of text you just read, and try to summarize the content in your own words. This is a good way to test your understanding of the material.


• Make Predictions: To keep your brain fully engaged in the text, you should make predictions about what you think might happen next based on what you already know. It's always fun to see if your predictions are accurate.


• Formulate Opinions: We have opinions on everything from the weather to politics. When you are reading, allow yourself to form opinions about the characters, the plot, the style of the writing, etc.


• Make Connections: A good way to understand something that is new and unfamiliar to you is to connect it to something you already know or have experienced. Can you connect the text you are reading to a personal experience? Does it remind you of something else you've read or seen?


• Ask Questions: Don't expect that you are going to understand everything in the reading with complete clarity the first time through. What don't you understand? What confuses you? What words are unclear to you?


• Analyze the Author's Craft: As you are reading, you may notice certain things about the writer's style. Is there a lot of description? Is there too little description? Is the reading easy to follow or difficult in some way? Does the author use a lot of literary devices like similes and metaphors? Do you understand how and why the author is using such devices?


• Reflect/React/Comment: What do you notice? What surprises you? How do you feel about what you are reading? What do you think about what you are reading?


• Look for Patterns/Repetitions: What do you notice about the way the text is structured? Do you notice some kind of pattern? Is there some element in the text that is repeated? What is important about this pattern or these repetitions? How does the structure contribute to the overall meaning?

[- as described in Angela Maiers blog]

http://www.angelamaiers.com/2008/02/active-reading.html

And thoughts on actively engaging with a txt:

http://psuwritingcenter.blogspot.com/2007/09/talking-to-books.html

Reading via the blog

Is the blog an effective way to supply you with reading lessons?
Can you please state the reading strategies here whilst at home to see if you can remember them...

Also, re-read earlier posts and comments to find hidden maths homework. First to find and answer the questions wins the prize! [extra weeding time!]

Bloggers are "monkeys living by the law of the jungle"

"Malaysian candidates required to have blogs"

According to the Malaysian youth deputy Khairy Jamaluddin [A Malaysian politician] people who blog are monkeys, but now even he has succumbed to the usefulness of this modern communication tool.

Read the article by following the link and analyse the points of view contained within. Assess the author's purpose and write what you think it is as comments.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/11/malaysia.blogging.ap/index.html?eref=rss_tech






"Israeli officials: Facebook is national security threat"

As cybersafe Room5ians, you are aware of the potential peril's of social software such as Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, etc. As M-learning secret agents, you do not want to give away personal details to complete strangers via the net. It could jeopardise your cover.

The Israeli military is highly skilled and has concerns over the use of Facebook by it's troops. Read the article to establish the main point of their opinion. Write it here as a comment.


http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/11/israel.facebook.ap/index.html?eref=rss_tech


"Even your dog has a blog"
Even your dog has a blog
It goes without saying that Max, a 3-year-old golden retriever can't talk. But that doesn't stop him from chronicling his dog's life -- as told to his owner Aubrey Jones -- on the blog "Max the Golden Retriever".

- read the article and the blog of the dog, then use your reading stategies to determine the author's purpose or reason for writing Max's blog. State your opinion as a comment.

Green V8s for HamiltON400

Agetn S has forwarded to me HCC documents showing the council's plan to make the V8 event carbon neutral, This is very cool. There is also a green policy for us to read as part of our literacy programme.
We ROCK!!!
Hamiltron, city of the future

literacy planning online

The net is a rich source of well designed lessons, units, ideas, etc.
Why reinvent the wheel?
These plans are all from "readwritethink.org" - a great site for resources and ideas.

Action Is Character: Exploring Character Traits with Adjectives:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=175

A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words: From Image to Detailed Narrative:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=116

Audience, Purpose, and Language Use in Electronic Messages:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=159

Audio Broadcasts and Podcasts: Oral Storytelling and Dramatization:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=901

Become a Character: Adjectives, Character Traits, and Perspective:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=168

Defining Literacy in a Digital World:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=915

Designing Effective Poster Presentations:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1076

Book Reviews, Annotation, and Web Technology:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=137

Character Clash: A Mini-Lesson on Paragraphing and Dialogue:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=117

Choose Your Own Adventure: A Hypertext Writing Experience:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=128

Choosing, Chatting, and Collecting: Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=296

Collaborating, Writing, Linking: Using Wikis to Tell Stories Online:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1087

Empowered Fiction Writers: Generating and Organizing Ideas for Story Writing:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1025

Exploring Plagiarism, Copyright, and Paraphrasing:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1062

Guided Comprehension in Action: Teaching Summarizing With the Bio-Cube:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1028

Literature Circle Roles Reframed: Reading as a Film Crew:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=877

More than One Way to Create Vivid Verbs:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=1008

Peer Review: Narrative:
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view_printer_friendly.asp?id=122

[For any educators out there, do you have ideas for online publishing of shared planning?]