Click here to tell Mr. Swedberg about your reading blogging this trimester.

Take a second to write a post on your reading blog that marks the beginning of the 3rd

Click here to take the reading blog survey.

Just a reminder that all reading blog posts are due by 8am on Monday.  Students may turn in two per school day.  Parents, check with your kids and see if they have at least written a blog post for Nate Saint, which we read as a class this trimester.

Take a look at some of the topic sentences below.  Remember, a topic sentence has a topic and a main point, and that main point should be as specific to the paragraph as you can make it.

Hopefully, next Wednesday you'll be more than half-way through with your independent reading goal for the second trimester.  Keep in mind, we had Christmas Break as part of this trimester, and it doesn't "count" toward your time, so it was like two weeks of extra reading time this trimester.  Did you use it?

Open your reading blog, then fill out this survey to let me know how you're doing.

Then, do a blog post that:
1) Tells me that you are starting the second trimester, and
2) Lets me know what your goal is for the second trimester.

Officially, reading blogs were due today.  However, a number of students waited until the last night to write their blog posts and now they need to be re-written in order to receive credit.  Any re-written blog posts must be turned in by 8am tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.

As we near the final due date for reading blogs, we need to remember that the middle paragraph of your blog post will include a claim supported by specific examples from the text.  A number of students are making claims, but not providing examples.  They might say it is a suspenseful book with out giving an example of a suspenseful part, or maybe they make a claim about a character like, "She is always sneaking around," without providing a specific example from the book of that character sneaking.

In other words, if you are going to make a claim, you need to prove that it's true with examples.  Otherwise, your reader has no reason to believe you!

The following two example blog posts need to be re-posted because they make claims but don't support them with specific examples.

A Long Way from Chicago, Pages 196

     A Long Way from Chicago By: Richard Peck is a story about two kids who go and visit their Grandma every summer. And every summer something new happens. I finished the book on
     I think that an interesting thing that Richard Peck does is he keeps you coming back for more! Like how he uses Joe's point of view to make you wonder what Grandma will do next! And he will make you very suspenseful if you read this book! Richard Peck is a good author at suspense.
      I think that this book would be a great book for 3rd graders and up because it's just a really good book for kids! I would really recommend that you read this book! Thanks for reading!:)


A Long Way from Chicago, 148 pgs.

       A Long Way from Chicago, by Richard Peck is a fun and exciting book. I finished this  book in October.
      For example, a interesting character in this is defiantly Grandma! This book is defiantly exciting because she is always up to something and always has a plan! One of my favorite chapters in this book is the first chapter because you really get to know the characters and get to find out that grandmas always got a plan. This book  is totally a fun book because it isn't all one big story, each chapter is its own story. My favorite part about this book is the way Richard Peck makes the characters act and how there is a bunch of different storys and how Grandma gets herself into problems and trouble.
      I would recommend this book to fourth grade and up. But what do i have to day if your younger and at a higher level of reading go for it:)  

These following example was counted because it supports its claims with specific examples from the book.

Along Way From Chicago, pgs.160

         Along Way From Chicago, by Richard Peck, I finished this book in  October. This was a very suspenseful book!
            Richard Peck did an awesome job with writing this book. It was full suspenseful. this book kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time! One way it was suspenseful was when grandma asked Joey to go get her gum boots and so he went to the shack. He went to go pick up the boots when he stuck his hand in he felt something furry he thought it was a spider but was a kitten. Richard Peck didn't say right off the bat that he found a kitten we had to wonder what it was! That's why I thought it was suspenseful!!
            I would recommend this book to everyone! It was funny and suspenseful. I loved this book!  READ THIS BOOK!!