Storypedia Asks You

Essential Question: If you were in sixth grade and had to write a novel based on both of these plots and summaries, how would you do it using built vocabulary & word structure?

The View From A Pumpkin Patch
Plot and Summary
Mourning the loss of her mother's death, nine year-old Noah unlikely befriends independent and brutal Kajal, as the two help each other by discussing what is missing in their lives. After Kajal is paralyzed below the waist, and befriends Noah, she realizes the true meaning of friendship and the importance of family. Meanwhile, even though Noah's sister, Nadia, has been considered strange and a loser throughout all her years of education by her classmates, her optimism and the spirit of her mother left behind do not allow her to feel that way about herself.
Planted
Plot and Summary
Living their whole lives next to coal-burning power plant, thirteen year-old Alissa and eleven year-old Margret, after raising the money, escape from their polluting parents who run the plant, to travel the world and conduct experiments that they hope will change the environment forever.

Essential Question: Do you think sixth grade should be in elementary school or middle school?
Decide by using your instincts, your experience in sixth grade, and the information below:
Some information gathered from The Los Angeles Times (online):
The LAUSD school board of education has decided to make a goal to put sixth grade in all elementary schools by 2012. (Quoted from a 2007 article)
Do you think this a good decision? There are a lot of weird things going on in middle school today--mostly things that sixth graders should not have to be subjected to. It has only been about thirty years, you know, since the national change of taking sixth grade from elementary school and putting it in middle school occurred.
The Standardized Test Scores (STAR test scores) show that sixth graders in middle school have lower test scores than the ones in elementary school--probably because of all the new changing classes and all the work. In fourth and fifth grade, you also get introduced into Rotation (at my school):
You have regular class, and then math, and then more regular class. There are two different types of math, and not everyone switches, but most do: Advanced (more than State Standards) and Regular (State Standards). Usually one to two months before the end of Advanced, you finish the textbook, unlike Regular where you don't get to finishing the textbook most often. In fifth grade, you get pages from sixth grade textbooks and algebra, if you're in Advanced.
But this is only pre-rotation, not full rotation.
But the CA Standardized Tests also show that seventh graders who enter middle school for the first year have worse test scores than the ones who have already been in middle school for a year....Maybe sixth graders should have half a year in elementary school, and half a year in middle school. Maybe that will solve all of this madness....
with Also: Do you think the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will stick to what it said in the 2007 article? Woodland Hills Elementary is an elementary school (circa 2009-2010) and it still doesn't have sixth grade in it....But some schools in the LAUSD do. (Do not confuse LAUSD with the Las Virgenes Unified School District, or LVUSD.)

Essential Question: Do you think kids should get paid to go to school? Explain using your instincts and resources below:

School is just another way of saying "work before actual work" isn't it? And in actual work, you get paid money. In most cases, minimum wages, and in some cases, maximum wages...So you should at least get to use some of this scale in school, right? It starts in first grade. You get paid $5 for a good job when you get your report card, but there are some flaws in this experiment, so you would also have to pay $5 if you do a bad job. In second grade, the amounts are multiplied by 1.25. And then, in third grade, the second grade amounts are multiplied by 1.5. But in fourth and fifth grade, here is where you can earn a lot of money. Every test you take will have a certain amount of points, whether it is for all of you grade or for little of it. Every test is worth five points; multiple choice; seven points; free response, total questions being 25.

In middle school and high school, things get tougher. Try to experiment with your own grading scale, because mine will be way to confusing....In college, you get paid nothing. Sorry!

Self-Questions

Essential Question: To prevent all the gasses and exhaust that come out from cars, do you think we should travel on horses?

Essential Question: If you had the option of being an author or an actor, which one would you be?

Essential Question: Would you rather live as a child in the 19th century, 1900s, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, or 2009? Explain.

Will Life Continue?

Environmental Issues......
Watch how one girl silenced the world for five minutes with a truly encouraging speech.
It's to bad she couldn't change anything, though.......
Also: Watch my second Animoto on how the environment does matter:

The Power of Google Docs

Google Docs is a new online service in which you can do MANY things.
ONE of these things is to make a DOCUMENT, a SPREADSHEET, or even a PRESENTATION. It has all the features of Microsoft Word, except it's free!
NUMBER TWO. Other people can edit your document if you think it doesn't sound right. For example, if you are writing a love letter to your girlfriend, and you don't think it sounds right, you can invite your friends to edit the document. Or if you are writing a report for school with a partner, and somehow you need to communicate with each other. Usually when you and your friend are using the same computer, you fight to use it. One will say, "My turn," and the other will say, "Give me it back," and things just won't work out. But, the problem is, you cannot come over to each other's houses. Google Docs allows you and your partner to edit the report at the same time from different computers! All you need is an internet connection, and your set.
NUMBER THREE. Google Docs is compatible with any computer at all. If you make a project on your computer at home, and you need to print it out at school, you can bring a flash drive an upload it to the computer at school. But sometimes, the computer at school is not compatible with your document--and your screwed. Well, not exactly. If you uploaded your document to Google Docs, it is for sure compatible with any computer at all, as long as it has Internet.
NUMBER FOUR. Do you have PowerPoint? Where do you think you got it? You probably had to pay for it, didn't you? What about Microsoft Word? You had to pay for that, too, right? Or how about some other tool like these ones? Google Docs has the power of all of these. It is compatible with any system, any computer, as long as it has Internet. But don't you have to pay for something so wonderful? you ask. The answer is a simple NO. In fact, Registration is the easiest part: All you have to do is type in your current email address, choose a password, type in your location, and your set to go. No names, no credit card numbers, nothing. And your set to go for Google Docs.
MY Google Docs is a very funny story I made, but then a kid in my class named Travis edited it on a different computer. I looked at his changes, and edited those all over again.
Here is the link for my Google Doc: http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AUrZcrUk77SbZGZxemNmZ21fMGt0Z25uZ2N3&hl=en
Here is the link for the Google Docs homepage:
http://docs.google.com
Have fun exploring Google Docs......