Our current focus is on the research process. The research paper process is designed in a step-by-step fashion, meaning that you will get the best results (and the highest grade!) if you complete the steps in order. If for some reason you get behind, you need to backtrack to where you left off in the process and start from there – do NOT skip any steps! If you skip any steps, your research paper (and your grade! ☹) are likely to suffer.
 
Please note that the daily assignments are separated into a Research section and a Vocabulary section. I also add additional notes to the end of the day’s assignments. Be sure to read and complete all sections! All assignments are due by 11:59 PM to Turnitin.com. If you are having difficulty meeting this deadline, you need to discuss your situation with me individually and I will help you come up with a solution.
 
Here’s what you need to do to complete the Day 7 Research assignment:
Today, you are going to continue conducting research for your research paper. You will want to locate and save (and print, if possible) THREE MORE articles (for a total of SIX) you might want to use to support your assertions in your research paper.
 
Ideally, you would print a hard (paper) copy of each article you find that you might want to use AND you would save the article in electronic format. I know that it might not be entirely possible for you to print a copy of each article (depending on your home printer situation) but you MUST at least save an electronic copy of each article you find and hope to use. Here are directions for saving an electronic copy of each article:
Saving from the Google Chrome Web Browser

1. If you can, it is best to search for your articles in Google Chrome because Chrome makes it really easy to save an electronic copy of the article.
2. Once you find an article you want to keep, select Ctrl+P (or select “Print” from the options menu).
3. For the Printer, select “Save as PDF.” In this dialogue box, scroll through the pages and make sure it looks like the article is going to save in a readable format (some web pages resist being saved or printed).
4. Click “Save” and Navigate to the location on your computer where you want to save the article.
5. Click “Save.” CHECK THE FILE on your computer and make sure it actually saved in a readable format. If it did, please print a hard copy of the article if you are able. If it didn’t print in a readable format WITH THE URL VISIBLE, you will need to follow the directions, below, for saving it to a document file.

Saving to a Document File

1. Find an article you want to keep.
2. Open a new document file and save the empty document on your computer. Name the empty document the name of the article you are saving to make it easier to find later.
3. On the web page, click ONE time in the navigation bar at the top to highlight the URL. Copy (Ctrl+C) the URL and Paste (Ctrl+V) it to the top line of the empty document.
4. Press enter to go to the next line of the document.
5. Back on the web page, start at the top and highlight the entire article, along with the title and the author’s name.
6. With everything highlighted, Copy (Ctrl+C) the information and Paste (Ctrl+V) it into the document underneath the URL you already pasted there.
7. Save the document. This should give you an electronic copy of the entire document, along with the URL. Print the article if possible.

Research Paper Rubric Activity

1. Find your handout titled “Research Paper Rubric * British Literature *” or go to the Google drive Writing folder and download “Research paper rubric SP20.”
2. Go to Turnitin, click on the Discussions tab, and answer the following questions about the research paper (the answers are found on the rubric) in Research Paper Rubric 2 discussion.
   1. How many vocabulary words are you required to use correctly in your research paper?
   2. What is the difference between an Exemplary conclusion and a Meets conclusion?

 
Vocabulary
Finish Vocab 10 CTS.
 
Notes
Contact: My normal online “office hours” will be from 10:30 until noon, Monday thru Friday. If you have a question or concern, you may either email me or tune into the live office hours on ZOOM. I posted information Monday on how to access the live session. Scroll down to read that information. I also posted the ZOOM access ID code to the “On the Web” page of our class web site so you don’t have to scroll down every day to get the access code. If you email me outside of office hours, I WILL respond, but there might be a delay in the response since I do occasionally have to get out of this desk chair! 😊
 
Email: I have been corresponding with many of you via email, and I would like to make a request. When you email me, please sign your email (or at least make sure your first AND last name are both in your email address). I have received several unsigned emails that I wasn’t really sure who the sender was (Email doesn’t work like a text message – you need to tell me who you are rather than assuming I will know.). Who knows? I might have been answering questions for students who aren’t even mine! (I hope their teacher doesn’t mind! :-D).
 
Assignments: I will post the day’s assignments by 9:30 every morning.
 
Have a great day! Stay safe and healthy!
 

​Feedback has now been posted on your Claim Statements. You should be able to see it if you go into Turnitin and, beside the Claim Statement assignment, click View. The feedback will appear on the right in the Text Comment box. Some of you really gave me a chuckle with the methods that you used in order to get around Turnitin’s requirement of a minimum of twenty words!
 
If you have been asked to modify your claim statement, please re-submit to the REVISED Claim Statement assignment. If you put your claim in a properly formatted MLA document, you won’t need to worry about your claim statement being fewer than 20 words (Turnitin requires at least 20 words be submitted for any assignment). Use the MLA Format Essay template and you won’t have any worries (since the template already has over 20 words in it that are marking the place of future research paper elements).

Welcome to Week 2 of our digital learning journey. Our current focus is on the research process. The research paper process is designed in a step-by-step fashion, meaning that you will get the best results (and the highest grade!) if you complete the steps in order. If for some reason you get behind, you need to backtrack to where you left off in the process and start from there – do NOT skip any steps! If you skip any steps, your research paper (and your grade! ☹) are likely to suffer.
 
Please note that the daily assignments are separated into a Research section and a Vocabulary section. I also add additional notes to the end of the day’s assignments. Be sure to read and complete all sections! All assignments are due by 11:59 PM to Turnitin.com. If you are having difficulty meeting this deadline, you need to discuss your situation with me individually and I will help you come up with a solution.
 
Here’s what you need to do to complete the Day 6 Research assignment:
Today, you are going to start conducting research for your research paper. You will want to locate and save (and print, if possible) THREE articles you might want to use to support your assertions in your research paper.
 
Ideally, you would print a hard (paper) copy of each article you find that you might want to use AND you would save the article in electronic format. I know that it might not be entirely possible for you to print a copy of each article (depending on your home printer situation) but you MUST at least save an electronic copy of each article you find and hope to use. Here are directions for saving an electronic copy of each article:
Saving from the Google Chrome Web Browser

1. If you can, it is best to search for your articles in Google Chrome because Chrome makes it really easy to save an electronic copy of the article.
2. Once you find an article you want to keep, select Ctrl+P (or select “Print” from the options menu).
3. For the Printer, select “Save as PDF.” In this dialogue box, scroll through the pages and make sure it looks like the article is going to save in a readable format (some web pages resist being saved or printed).
4. Click “Save” and Navigate to the location on your computer where you want to save the article.
5. Click “Save.” CHECK THE FILE on your computer and make sure it actually saved in a readable format. If it did, please print a hard copy of the article if you are able. If it didn’t print in a readable format WITH THE URL VISIBLE, you will need to follow the directions, below, for saving it to a document file.

Saving to a Document File

1. Find an article you want to keep.
2. Open a new document file and save the empty document on your computer. Name the empty document the name of the article you are saving to make it easier to find later.
3. On the web page, click ONE time in the navigation bar at the top to highlight the URL. Copy (Ctrl+C) the URL and Paste (Ctrl+V) it to the top line of the empty document.
4. Press enter to go to the next line of the document.
5. Back on the web page, start at the top and highlight the entire article, along with the title and the author’s name.
6. With everything highlighted, Copy (Ctrl+C) the information and Paste (Ctrl+V) it into the document underneath the URL you already pasted there.
7. Save the document. This should give you an electronic copy of the entire document, along with the URL. Print the article if possible.

Research Paper Rubric Activity

1. Find your handout titled “Research Paper Rubric * British Literature *” or go to the Google drive Writing folder and download “Research paper rubric SP20.”
2. Go to Turnitin, click on the Discussions tab, and answer the following questions about the research paper (the answers are found on the rubric) in Research Paper Rubric 1 discussion.
   1. What do your topic sentences and concluding sentences need to do in order to receive a grade in the Exemplary category?
   2. What ONE WORD describes the difference between lead-ins that receive an Exemplary rating and lead-ins that receive a Proficient rating?

 
Vocabulary
Finish Vocab 10 CTS.
 
Notes
Contact: My normal online “office hours” will be from 10:30 until noon, Monday thru Friday. If you have a question or concern, you may either email me or tune into the live office hours on ZOOM. I posted information Monday on how to access the live session. Scroll down to read that information. I also posted the ZOOM access ID code to the “On the Web” page of our class web site so you don’t have to scroll down every day to get the access code. If you email me outside of office hours, I WILL respond, but there might be a delay in the response since I do occasionally have to get out of this desk chair! 😊
 
Email: I have been corresponding with many of you via email, and I would like to make a request. When you email me, please sign your email (or at least make sure your first AND last name are both in your email address). I have received several unsigned emails that I wasn’t really sure who the sender was (Email doesn’t work like a text message – you need to tell me who you are rather than assuming I will know.). Who knows? I might have been answering questions for students who aren’t even mine! (I hope their teacher doesn’t mind! :-D).
 
Assignments: I will post the day’s assignments by 9:30 every morning.
 
Have a great day! Stay safe and healthy!
 

Greetings, Digital Learners! Whew! We’ve made it through the first week of digital learning, and I think I’m safe in saying we’ve ALL learned some things this week! That being said, I want you to know how proud I am of all of you who are checking in daily and doing a great job keeping up with the assignments. Well done! Thank you also to my early bird troubleshooters who have been working early enough in the day that they’ve been able to notify me when Turnitin isn’t working the way I think it should be. I’ve been able to get most of the problems fixed before many of you even noticed there WAS a problem! {{{Virtual tickets to my troubleshooters!!}}} 😊
 
Please know that even over the weekend I’ll be checking my email periodically, so if you have questions over the weekend as you are finishing things up, please feel free to email me. I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
 
Our current focus is on the research process. The research paper process is designed in a step-by-step fashion, meaning that you will get the best results (and the highest grade!) if you complete the steps in order. If for some reason you get behind, you need to backtrack to where you left off in the process and start from there – do NOT skip any steps! If you skip any steps, your research paper (and your grade! ☹) are likely to suffer.
 
Please note that the daily assignments are separated into a Research section and a Vocabulary section. I also add additional notes to the end of the day’s assignments. Be sure to read and complete all sections! All assignments are due by 11:59 PM to Turnitin.com. If you are having difficulty meeting this deadline, you need to discuss your situation with me individually and I will help you come up with a solution.
 
Here’s what you need to do to complete the Day 5 Research assignment:

1. Log in to Turnitin.com and click the gray Discussion tab at the top of the page.
2. Go through and take a look at ALL of the Group # PRESENTATION discussion boards. Each board will provide various Rhetorical slanter information and the examples that the group found in the two videos.
3. After you’ve reviewed the presentations, go to the discussion board titled “Eye Openers” and answer the following questions: What element(s) of the video assignment did you find the most eye-opening or surprising? What lesson did you take away from this activity? (That is, what did you learn?)
4. Go to the Google drive à Springboard folder à Unit 4 Videos & Handouts and locate the two articles: “Trump plan to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital triggers warnings - NBC News” AND “Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, forge ahead with moving US Embassy _ Fox News” (Both are present as a docx or pdf – pick whichever format works best for you.)
5. Read the two articles. Note that ALL reputable media outlets are sworn to present only verifiable facts (they can’t say things that are untrue). If they are caught publishing untrue information, they will lose credibility and advertising dollars (NONE of them wants to lose $$$!!). As a result, we can only assume that both articles present as facts only information that can be verified as true. How, then, are they so different?
6. Respond to the “Two Article, Same Topic” discussion board by answering the following prompt about the articles: What similarities and differences did you notice between the two articles? Give examples of the rhetorical slanters and emotional words (diction) that you noticed. What effect were they designed to have on the audience? Do the articles share the same purpose? How do they present such a vastly different perspective on the same event?

 
Vocabulary
Check your answers to Unit 10 Syn/Ant (In the Vocabulary folder on the Google drive), and work on Vocab 10 CTS.
 
Notes
Contact: My normal online “office hours” will be from 10:30 until noon, Monday thru Friday. If you have a question or concern, you may either email me or tune into the live office hours on ZOOM. I posted information Monday on how to access the live session. Scroll down to read that information. I also posted the ZOOM access ID code to the “On the Web” page of our class web site so you don’t have to scroll down every day to get the access code. If you email me outside of office hours, I WILL respond, but there might be a delay in the response since I do occasionally have to get out of this desk chair! 😊
 
Email: I have been corresponding with many of you via email, and I would like to make a request. When you email me, please sign your email (or at least make sure your first AND last name are both in your email address). I have received several unsigned emails that I wasn’t really sure who the sender was (Email doesn’t work like a text message – you need to tell me who you are rather than assuming I will know.). Who knows? I might have been answering questions for students who aren’t even mine! (I hope their teacher doesn’t mind! :-D).
 
Assignments: I will post the day’s assignments by 9:30 every morning.
 
Have a great day! Stay safe and healthy!
 

I just discovered that Turnitin tries to force you to submit at least 20 words if you are typing in the text box. This won’t work since your claim statement should be MUCH shorter than 20 words! Follow these directions instead:
 

1. Create the document, in proper MLA format, that you are going to use as your research paper document. Make sure you get the running header and the 4-line heading correct.
2. Enter a proposed title in the title spot (you can modify this later).
3. As the first (and ONLY, at this point) line of your paper (properly indented), type your claim statement. That’s it. Nothing else. Just your simple (or complex) claim statement.
4. Save the file as *your last name* Research Paper.
5. Upload the file and submit it to the Claim Statement assignment. Do NOT upload a picture for this assignment.

From now on, all pieces of the research paper should be added in this one file and re-submitted at each step along the way. TIP: Make sure you fix the line spacing and take out the extra business-line-spacing that Word automatically adds. (Alternately, you could just use the template.)

Our current focus is on the research process. The research paper process is designed in a step-by-step fashion, meaning that you will get the best results (and the highest grade!) if you complete the steps in order. If for some reason you get behind, you need to backtrack to where you left off in the process and start from there – do NOT skip any steps! If you skip any steps, your research paper (and your grade! ☹) are likely to suffer.
 
Please note that the daily assignments are separated into a Research section and a Vocabulary section. I also add additional notes to the end of the day’s assignments. Be sure to read and complete all sections! All assignments are due by 11:59 PM to Turnitin.com. If you are having difficulty meeting this deadline, you need to discuss your situation with me individually and I will help you come up with a solution.
 
Here’s what you need to do to complete the Day 4 Research assignment:

1. Log in to Turnitin.com and click the gray Discussion tab at the top of the page.
2. Discuss your findings from yesterday with your group and have ONE group member collect and post the names, definitions, and examples of the techniques in the Group # Presentation discussion board. You may identify the videos as MSNBC and Fox so you don’t have to type the entire name when you identify your examples.
3. Find the handout titled “Argument Research Synthesis Essay” you were given in class and read the description of the research paper assignment (on the Google drive, the file is in the Writing folder and is titled “Argument Research Synthesis Essay SP20”). Your first task is to decide on a topic and an argument.
4. On the discussion board titled “Research Paper Topics and Arguments,” post a minimum of three topics and arguments that you might be interested in writing about.
5. Read over the ideas that your classmates have posted and respond (Be nice! Be tactful!) to at least three of your classmates’ ideas. Help them by telling them why you think an idea may or may not work. You might also suggest which of their three topics you think might be the best one for the task. (If you are the first person to post, you will need to come back later in the day after more of your classmates have posted their ideas in order to respond to others.)
6. Open the Essay Guide. This is titled “Your Essay and Multimedia Project Guide Ver. 7.pdf” and can be found in both the Writing folder and the main British Lit folder.
7. In the Essay Guide, read the section titled “Step 1: Create a Working Thesis” (pages 6 – 9). There are lots of things to consider, lots of dos and don’t, so read carefully. Your thesis/claim should be a SIMPLE sentence. It can be very brief – you don’t want your argument to be misunderstood.
8. Read over the suggestions that your classmates have given you and decide which topic you are going to choose for your research paper.
9. Go to the Assignment titled “Claim Statement.” Submit your one, simple statement of argument, following the revised directions for submitting the claim statement I have posted above, and I will provide feedback.

 
Vocabulary
Check your answers to Unit 10 CTRW (In the Vocabulary folder on the Google drive), and work on Vocab 10 Syn/Ant.
 
Notes
Contact: My normal online “office hours” will be from 10:30 until noon, Monday thru Friday. If you have a question or concern, you may either email me or tune into the live office hours on ZOOM. I posted information Monday on how to access the live session. Scroll down to read that information. I also posted the ZOOM access ID code to the “On the Web” page of our class web site so you don’t have to scroll down every day to get the access code. If you email me outside of office hours, I WILL respond, but there might be a delay in the response since I do occasionally have to get out of this desk chair! 😊
 
Assignments: I will post the day’s assignments by 9:30 every morning; however, I will often post them the evening before. If you want to get a “sneak peek” at the next day’s assignment, you will often be able to do that by 10:00 PM on the previous evening.
 
Have a great day! Stay safe and healthy!
 

If you are taking pictures of handwritten pages, you will need to merge them into one document in order to submit them in Turnitin (Turnitin accepts only one file per person per assignment). Simply take your photos and then insert them into ONE Word or Google document. You can then submit that one document that includes ALL of your photos. ​Step by step:

1. Take a picture of each page and save the picture onto your computer.
2. Open a Word or Google document.
3. Use the Insert option to insert the pictures into the document.
4. Save the document.
5. Upload the document to Turnitin.

 

Our current focus is on the research process. The research paper process is designed in a step-by-step fashion, meaning that you will get the best results (and the highest grade!) if you complete the steps in order. If for some reason you get behind, you need to backtrack to where you left off in the process and start from there – do NOT skip any steps! If you skip any steps, your research paper (and your grade! ☹) are likely to suffer.
 
Please note that the daily assignments are separated into a Research section and a Vocabulary section. I also add additional notes to the end of the day’s assignments. Be sure to read and complete all sections! All assignments are due by 11:59 PM to Turnitin.com. If you are having difficulty meeting this deadline, you need to discuss your situation with me individually and I will help you come up with a solution.
 
Here’s what you need to do to complete the Day 3 Research assignment:

1. Get your blue Springboard textbook or go to the Google drive. In the Springboard folder, open “ELA_Grade 12_Unit 4_National Student Edition.pdf.” This is the online version of the blue Springboard textbook.
2. Turn to page 273 in the blue text, “Slanting the News” and read about rhetorical slanters.
3. Go to the Google drive, to the Groups folder, and find your group number.
4. Go to the Google drive à Springboard folder à Unit 4 Videos & Handouts and locate the two videos: “MSNBC Matthews_ We Need To Do More On Gun Control _ Hardball _ MSNBC.mp4” AND “Fox News Ben Shapiro on Fox and Friends_ 'Gun Control Is Not The Answer To The Vegas Massacre'.mp4.”
5. Log in to Turnitin.com and click the gray Discussion tab at the top of the page.
6. Click on your group # Rhetorical Discussion link (NOTE: There is a Discussion link and a Presentation link – you want the DISCUSSION link for this part of the assignment). Underneath where it says “Created by Kimberly McCarter,” you will see a sentence that tells you which Rhetorical Slanters have been assigned to your group.
7. Watch the two videos “MSNBC Matthews_ We Need To Do More On Gun Control _ Hardball _ MSNBC.mp4” and “Fox News Ben Shapiro on Fox and Friends_ 'Gun Control Is Not The Answer To The Vegas Massacre'.mp4” and identify examples of the slanters assigned to your group in each video (Take notes!!).
8. On your group’s discussion board, post your findings (Click the yellow “Reply to this topic” button). You may identify the videos as MSNBC and Fox so you don’t have to type the entire name when you identify your examples.

 
Vocabulary
Check your answers to Unit 9 CTS (In the Vocabulary folder on the Google drive), and work on Vocab 10 CTRW.

​Notes
Contact: My normal online “office hours” will be from 10:30 until noon, Monday thru Friday. If you have a question or concern, you may either email me or tune into the live office hours on ZOOM. I posted information Monday on how to access the live session. Scroll down to read that information. I also posted the ZOOM access ID code to the “On the Web” page of our class web site so you don’t have to scroll down every day to get the access code. If you email me outside of office hours, I WILL respond, but there might be a delay in the response since I do occasionally have to get out of this desk chair! 😊
 
Assignments: I will post the day’s assignments by 9:30 every morning; however, I will often post them the evening before. If you want to get a “sneak peek” at the next day’s assignment, you will often be able to do that by 10:00 PM on the previous evening.
 
Have a great day! Stay safe and healthy!

​I have been contacted by several people who are trying to upload photos of their worksheets but Turnitin will only allow them to upload one file and they need a place to upload the back of the worksheet. I have now created a second assignment where you can upload the back of the worksheet. I'm sorry about that! From now on, if there needs to be more than one file uploaded, I'll create a second place right away.

If you have already sent me the back in some other way, or if you uploaded the electronic document that contains the front and the back in one document, you don't need to worry about this.
 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
 
Our current focus is on the research process. The research paper process is designed in a step-by-step fashion, meaning that you will get the best results (and the highest grade!) if you complete the steps in order. If for some reason you get behind, you need to backtrack to where you left off in the process and start from there – do NOT skip any steps! If you skip any steps, your research paper (and your grade! ☹) are likely to suffer.
 
Please note that the daily assignments are separated into a Research section and a Vocabulary section. I also add additional notes to the end of the day’s assignments. Be sure to read and complete all sections! All assignments are due by 11:59 PM to Turnitin.com. If you are having difficulty meeting this deadline, you need to discuss your situation with me individually and I will help you come up with a solution.
 
Here’s what you need to do to complete the Day 2 Research assignment:

1. Get your blue Springboard textbook or go to the Google drive. In the Springboard folder, open “ELA_Grade 12_Unit 4_National Student Edition.pdf.” This is the online version of the blue Springboard textbook.
2. Find the worksheet you received on Friday that is titled “Bias in the Media Worksheet” OR go to the Google drive à Springboard folder à Unit 4 Videos & Handouts folder, and download the file titled “Bias in the Media Wkst Pp 266_270.” It is there in both Word and PDF format – pick whichever one works for you better.
3. Turn to page 266 in the blue text and read “How the Media Twist the News” pp. 266-268 and paragraphs 1, 7, and 10 of “Why Partisans View Mainstream Media as Biased and Ideological Media as Objective” (pp. 268-270) and answer questions on worksheet. You may do this in digital format, or you may complete the worksheet on paper and upload a picture of your handwritten answers in order to get credit.
4. Upload your answers to Turnitin.com.

 
Vocabulary
Check your answers to Unit 9 Syn/Ant (In the Vocabulary folder on the Google drive). Hand in Vocab Journal #4 and work on Vocab 9 CTS. 

Notes
Othello test: Please remember to finish the Othello test questions. They are due tonight at 11:59 PM. If you were absent on Friday, we will evaluate whether or not you need to take the multiple choice portion of the test once we find out when we will return to the classroom. You need to do the best job you possibly can on the written portion of the test just in case your grade is based on only the written answers. Please note that questions 60, 62, and 63 require quoted, cited evidence from the text (use your charts!!), while question 61 can be answered in one simple sentence.
 
I posted information yesterday about how to see the Othello questions and rubric in Turnitin. Scroll down if you need that information.
 
Contact: My normal online “office hours” will be from 10:30 until noon, Monday thru Friday. If you have a question or concern, you may either email me or tune into the live office hours on ZOOM. I posted information yesterday on how to access the live session. Scroll down to read that information. I also posted the ZOOM access ID code to the “On the Web” page of our class web site so you don’t have to scroll down every day to get the access code. If you email me outside of office hours, I WILL respond, but there might be a delay in the response since I do occasionally have to get out of this desk chair! 😊
 
Assignments: I will post the day’s assignments by 9:30 every morning; however, I will often post them the evening before. If you want to get a “sneak peek” at the next day’s assignment, you will often be able to do that by 10:00 PM on the previous evening.
 
Have a great day! Stay safe and healthy!