Book Bytes

It’s getting close to time for us to wrap up this year’s ERP with our final projects! Be aware that you need to be finishing your reading, blogging, quizzing, reviewing and working on a video or dramatic performance all at the same time! Projects need to be finished by APRIL 27th. If you need help, PLEASE ASK! 

Enough chit-chat though, let’s take a look at this week’s prompt!

• Identify a significant conflict (AKA problem) contained in one of the books that you have read for the ERP. You may choose from the following types of conflict:
  • Man vs. Man
  • Man vs. Self
  • Man vs. Nature/Supernatural
  • Man vs. Society
• Identify the title of the book that you have chosen to use for this response and describe the specifics of the conflict including the main characters who are involved and their situation.
• Explain why this conflict makes the book interesting.

I know what you’re thinking. If you read the dates in the title of this post you just thought, “Wow, Mrs. Northcutt. You really have NO idea how long a week is!” Well, that’s not true, but the fact is that next week is spring break, so this one is going to stay open until we return. Think of it as an Easter present.

We’re getting close to the mid-way point with the ERP, so I just want to check in with you on a few topics.

Some things to consider:

• You guys did an INCREDIBLE job with your responses to the Week #3 post. WOW! Keep up the great work!
• Most likely, you should have finished at least one book by now. 2 would be better. Keep in mind that you need to read 3 and if you’re behind then you can take advantage of spring break to catch up!
• After you read each book, you need to take the AR test on it and write a review for it in our library catalog.

Let’s get to this week’s hot topic!

• Explain a connection that you made with the ERP book that you are currently reading.
• Remember – connections include text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world. You can click on each of the previous links to get prompts that will help you compose your answer.
• Please include the title of your book in your comment!

Click on the following link for information on how this week’s prompt will be scored! – Prompt #4 – Scoring Guide

Hey there! Just as I promised, this week we will be focusing on PLOT! Remember what that is? I really hope so. If you’ve forgotten, it is the sequence of events in a narrative.

For this prompt, I want you to imagine what it would be like if book characters could have Facebook accounts!

• Choose one of the books that you have read for the ERP and create a Facebook-like status update for its main character. Pick a significant event (plot point) from your book, imagine what the character might want to say in that moment and put those thoughts into the format I have used in the example below. In my example, I am going to create a status update for Katniss Everdeen, the main character of the Hunger Games trilogy (who happens to be the star of a big Hollywood movie that I MUST SEE). I chose a moment from near the beginning of the book to create the following:
• Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games) is NOT looking forward to the reaping tomorrow. Why can’t the Capitol just leave us alone? Isn’t life in District 12 hard enough without worrying every year about being sent off to certain death in the Hunger Games?
• In your status update, you must include the character’s name, the book that they come from and an adequate amount of detail for blog readers to be able to understand how the character is feeling or something that they are facing in their book. This should be approximately 2 to 3 sentences in length.

Click on the following link for how this week’s prompt will be graded: Prompt #3 – Scoring Guide

For this post, please make sure that you are addressing the CHARACTER of the status update rather than the student author. For instance, you wouldn’t want to respond to ME for the post above, you would respond to KATNISS. Clear as mud?

Remember, you need to be keeping up with blog comments, response comments, AR tests, book reviews in the catalog and staying on track to have 3 books read by the end of the project!

Happy posting! I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with for this assignment!

Hey gang! Let me say that I am VERY pleased with the progress you guys are making on this year’s ERP. I’m noticing that LOTS of books are being read, I’m hearing students talk about books a lot and your blog responses are going quite well for Week #1. Bravo!

This week, let’s try to ask more open-ended questions to one another. If you can answer a question with a simple “yes” or “no”, it’s NOT open-ended. Give it a go. I think you’ll like the conversational results. 

Oh, and did you notice that Mrs. Scott chimed in under the wire? Maybe she heard what I do to people who don’t meet my deadlines. LOL! Seriously, if we can’t get to see her every day at school, at least we know she can participate virtually. Ah, technology!

You may recall that I made a big deal last week about how our first three posts were going to deal with the three biggest elements of literature – character, setting and plot. We talked about character last week and this week we’ll be tackling (drum roll, please!) – SETTING! Guess what’s up for next week?

And now…THE PROMPT!

• List the title and author of an ERP book you are currently reading/have read.
• Describe the setting of your ERP book. 
• Remember that setting consists of two concepts -  place AND time. If a town, city, country or planet is mentioned, please include that type of information for the “place”. Please think about “time” in terms of time period (i.e. modern day, 1700’s, ancient world) rather than time of day.
• Explain whether you would or would not want to live in the world created by this book.

Whew! It’s been a while, my friends, but the Book Bytes blog is back in business! (How’s that statement for an example of alliteration, huh?)

The hiatus has been longer than I planned, but the 2012 ERP is here and with it will be a slew of posts for you and I to chat about. We’ve been doing this for a while, so this should be old hat to you student-types. Well, as long as you’re not a 6th grader and in that case it’s TOTALLY new to you!

And so, without further adieu, I bring you your Week #1 post topic!

• Identify the title and author of the book that you have chosen as your first ERP selection. Is it a personal choice selection or is it on one of the KBA lists?
• Identify the main character (or subject, if nonfiction) of your chosen book and describe 3 of its important traits. You should include both physical and personality characteristics for a character.