Gifted Education

I just read two articles on gifted education: one about funding and one about the effects that No Child Left Behind has had on gifted education.

Do you think that Redfield Public has a neglected and needy gifted population? Is a gifted ed program needed to challenge those "bright" and bored students that we have? Or is there another way to address the needs of the gifted as well as those of all the other students?

Violence in school

This subject is a passion of mine for some reason. The National Dept of Education recently published its 2009 report on violence in America's school. Read the key findings on the first few pages (7-10 or v-viii). They are interesting. What is school safetly? So how safe is our school? How safe are the students and do they really feel safe while in school? What could the school do to make this a safe place to be?

I am What I Learn

I came across a cool contest- The US Dept of Education sponsors a "I Am What I Learn" video contest. The top ten videos are posted on YouTube and viewers can vote on their favorites. You will have to watch the videos at home as YouTube is blocked at school, but they are worth watching and voting on. So, what would your I Am What I Learn video contain? What have you learned and what has that made you?

National Novel Writing Month

November is national novel writing month. So if you could write a novel, what would it be about?  Could you imagine spending one whole month writing nothing but one novel?

How worried are you about H1N1?

Tomorrow, several of the students of Redfield Public will voluntarily receive the "flu" shot for this year's influenza strains and for the H1N1 virus, in hopes of buliding an immunity to those viral diseases. Yesterday, on the news, a reporter stated that 30% of the deaths in the Unites States from H1N1 were in healthy people with no underlying health conditions. It seems that there is much information and misinformation flying around about the severity and dispersement of the "flu." People are scared and desperate for the vaccine, while others just shrug the whole idea off and go on with life. If the "Flu" or H1N1 is so life-threatening, then why are schools still haveing athletic events, concerts, practices and plays, businesses still having meetings and traveling and people still shopping in malls and traveling on public transportation where the virus could spread. We have only seen one wave of illness; the winter season with all of its colds and "flus" is not here, yet. What will happen then?  What is your opinion about this whole H1N1 subject? Anyone have any links on the topic that they would like to share? Here is what the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) says about H1N1.

How to solve school violence

By now most Americans should have heard about or seen the story of the Chicago student beaten to death by gang members while he was walking home from school. If not, then google it or go to Youtube.com and search for it.
The Secretary of Education and the US Attorney General meet with leaders in Chicago to talk about how to prevent this type of thing from happening again. Read the press release. They decided to throw money at the problem instead of laying blame where it really lies- with parents and a communuity not instilling a sense of values (especially the value of a human life) into their children. Children who learn that all human life is valuable -- something to cherish and protect don't kill others, wish that all those "gays with AIDS" should be rounded up and shot, or comment about how a racial or religious group deserves to be killed. Think about what is said in our community and in our school. Where are our values? Is not all human life sacred and worth portecting no matter what?

October Book Review

Honors Students- this month's (Oct) book review is a blog about your book. Here are some of my expectations about what this bookblog should contain.
First take a look at the sites below to learn more about what a book review is and what it should contain.
These are not all inclusive and you don't have to include everything; just remember that this is a review not a book summary. Pay special attention to the first website.
Rodman Philbrick's reviews
LAVC library page
Remember that blogs are not meant to be long discourses on a topic. Include links to sites that discuss the book or to places that provide access to the book. Maybe you could even add a review to Barnes and Noble or to Amazon.com. Be sure to link to your review.
Place your bookblog in the comment section of this blog topic.
Follow the link to the rubric.

What can you say in six sentences?

Annabel Sheila said...


Title: Back At Ya

The path to the front door was dark, littered with decaying leaves, as we approached the steps. Our exertion was hardly worth the meagre treat we might fetch from the old man, but there weren’t many houses in our country location and our bounty would be limited, so in silence we pushed forward. We’d been playing Halloween tricks on the old man for the past two years without getting caught, but at twelve years of age that stuff was beneath our level of maturity now. The front door was ajar, and lying on the floor just inside in a pool of red was old man Sawyer, with a huge knife sticking out of his head. In terror we stared at the gory sight in front of us, rooted to the spot with fear. Suddenly the old man sat up, “Back at ya”, was all we heard behind our hastily retreating backs.

What can you write in six sentences?

Try it!!

Obama's speech to the kids

Following is the speech President Obama gave to the youth of our nation a few weeks ago. If you did not see it, read it here and then tell me- is he talking to you?

OBAMA: Hello, everyone — how's everybody doing today? I'm here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through 12th grade. I'm glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday — at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I'd complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I've given a lot of speeches about education. And I've talked a lot about responsibility.
I've talked about your teachers' responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer — maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper — but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor — maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine — but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life — I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you're learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don't do that — if you quit on school — you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.
Now I know it's not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that's like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn't fit in.
So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I'm not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our first lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life — what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home — that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No one's written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn't speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who's fought brain cancer since he was three. He's endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer — hundreds of extra hours — to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he's headed to college this fall.
And then there's Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she's on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren't any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same. That's why today, I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education — and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you'll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you'll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you'll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don't feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject you study. You won't click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures. JK Rowling's first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
These people succeeded because they understand that you can't let your failures define you — you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice. It's the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it's good enough to hand in.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust — a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor — and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you — don't ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best. It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you've got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don't let us down — don't let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

The debate about blocking content

Read the debate in this blog about blocking Internet content in schools for teachers and students. What should our school do? How do we police the unblock Internet if it were allowed?

What did you do today?

What an interesting concept about the digital world and the learners in it!!
How many of these questions can you answer?

To that end, I’ve been coming up with a mental list of the types of questions I’m hoping they might answer:
What did you make today that was meaningful?
What did you learn about the world?
Who are you working with?
What surprised you?
What did your teachers make with you?
What did you teach others?
What unanswered questions are you struggling with?
How did you change the world in some small (or big) way?
What’s something your teachers learned today?
What did you share with the world?
What do you want to know more about?
What did you love about today?
What made you laugh?

Digital textbooks- What an uplifting Idea

Would it be nice to have all the textbooks that students carry around in a digital form that would require only a computer or Kindle or even a cell phone to read?

Read the article and comment on what could you could do if our technology here in RHS were that developed.

Summer break

Well, school is about to start and summer break feels like it has flown by. My summer was spent in Europe, camping, vacationing and sitting by the pool, with a little freezing thrown in. It definitely was not a normal SD summer. I did some reading and found a new author, C.J. Box, who writes about Yellowstone National Park through the eyes of Game Warden Joe Pickett, thanks to my daughter Talese. Overall my summer was pleasant. How did you spend yours?

Effort versus grades

As I am correcting my stacks of final projects, papers and portfolios in these last days of school, I keep reading and hearing a common theme among students when it comes to grades received on work done. This theme is: If I worked really hard and put a lot of effort into an assignment, I deserve and should get an A.
But realistically is that true? I think not.
In the real world, one is expected to work hard and put effort into "assignments" and, at the same time, do what is required. If a student puts much effort into doing an assignment but does a bad job at meeting the requirements of an assignment, does that student really deserve an A? Has he or she really earned it?

Need examples?

1. If, as a teacher, I spent a lot of time and effort and worked really hard at making my room look nice and really getting to know my kids, but did not teach what was required of me, should I keep my job?

2. In advertising, people work really hard and put a lot of effort into creating campaigns for a customer, but if that campaign does not fit the demands and requirements set by the customer, should they be paid?

3. If a mechanic works really hard at repairing a car, but gets only one done in the time it takes others to do five, should that mechanic be paid the same wage?

4. If an engineer puts a project he/she received weeks earlier off (procrastinates) until the last minute, and then does all the work in one night (staying up all night to do it), but creates an inadequate project, lacking in the detail and requirements necessary, should he or she keep that job?

I do agree that some who work hard and put in adequate effort and do a great job, earn and deserve the good grades they receive, but to equate hard work and deserving a good grade because of hard work is a fallacy that many hold. Effort grades are given in elementary school and not in high school for a reason. In life after high school and tech school and college, there are few effort grades given.

Should seniors create senior projects?

Senior projects: what do you think?

Teachers with energy or teacher with experience

Interesting story with an interesting dilemma: would you rather have a teacher with lots of energy or one with lots of experience teaching?

Are Redfield AP courses only for those certain few?

According to an article by educational journalist and blogger Jay Mathews, many people see AP courses in some schools as having problems. Do you see these problems in our school's AP classes?

Facebook and GPA- interesting

Study Links Facebook Use To Academic Performance.
USA Today (4/14, Marklein) reports that "a study of 219 students at Ohio State University being presented at a conference this week" strongly "suggests a link between" Facebook "and academic performance." According to the study conducted by Ohio State doctoral student Aryn Karpinski and Ohio Dominican University graduate student Adam Duberstein, "Students who said they used Facebook reported grade-point averages between 3.0 and 3.5; those who don't use it said they average 3.5 to 4.0." Furthermore, "Facebook users said they studied one to five hours a week, vs. non-users' 11 hours or more." Karpinski clarified, "'It cannot be stated (that) Facebook use causes a student to study less' or get lower grades...'I'm just saying that they're related somehow, and we need to look into it further,'" she added.
In an interview with Time Magazine (4/14, Hamilton) on Monday, Karpinski said that she was not "surprised by her findings, but notes that the study does not suggest Facebook directly causes lower grades, merely that there's some relationship between the two factors. 'Maybe [Facebook users] are just prone to distraction. Maybe they are just procrastinators,'" she added. But Time points out that "Karpinski and Duberstein's study isn't the first to associate Facebook with diminished mental abilities. In February, Oxford University neuroscientist Susan Greenfield cautioned Britain's House of Lords that social networks like Facebook and Bebo were 'infantilizing the brain into the state of small children,' by shortening attention span and providing constant instant gratification."
Nevertheless, Karpinski acknowledged that "there are a host of other variables that could be influencing the relationship, such as visits to different websites, like YouTube," Canada's Toronto Star (4/13, LaRose) added. Karpinski and Duberstein's survey included questions about "what other kinds of academic and non-academic websites" students use, "and Karpinski is hoping to analyze those responses in the future."

So how much time do you spend in on Facebook and how are your grades?

Is the Internet making us stupid?

Interesting debate- read the article and tell me what you think.

Four- day school week?

What do you think about the possibility of Redfield converting to a four-day school week? An article I read about it makes it seem like the idea has benefits. Comments?

abstinence- the right way to educate

The Texas educational system is finding itself in a quagmire of problems over its abstinence-only education plan for sex education in school. With the statistics it shows, the state has to re-evaluate what is going on. Read the article and tell me what you think. Comments?

grades, work, effort

Read this great article on the entitlement the current generation of students (the millenial generation) feel about work and grades. What do you think?

Student Expectations Seen as Causing Grade Disputes
College professors have observed that their students feel entitled to receive A’s and B’s for simply completing basic coursework.

By MAX ROOSEVELT
Published: February 17, 2009

Prof. Marshall Grossman has come to expect complaints whenever he returns graded papers in his English classes at the University of Maryland.
“Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,” Professor Grossman said. “Some assert that they have never gotten a grade as low as this before.”
He attributes those complaints to his students’ sense of entitlement.
“I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C,” he said. “That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A.”
A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.
“I noticed an increased sense of entitlement in my students and wanted to discover what was causing it,” said Ellen Greenberger, the lead author of the study, called “Self-Entitled College Students: Contributions of Personality, Parenting, and Motivational Factors,” which appeared last year in The Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
Professor Greenberger said that the sense of entitlement could be related to increased parental pressure, competition among peers and family members and a heightened sense of achievement anxiety.
Aaron M. Brower, the vice provost for teaching and learning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, offered another theory.
“I think that it stems from their K-12 experiences,” Professor Brower said. “They have become ultra-efficient in test preparation. And this hyper-efficiency has led them to look for a magic formula to get high scores.”
James Hogge, associate dean of the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University, said: “Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in students that ‘if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.’ “
In line with Dean Hogge’s observation are Professor Greenberger’s test results. Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in their grade.
Jason Greenwood, a senior kinesiology major at the University of Maryland echoed that view.
“I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade,” Mr. Greenwood said. “What else is there really than the effort that you put in?”
“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?” he added. “If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. If your maximum effort can only be average in a teacher’s mind, then something is wrong.”
Sarah Kinn, a junior English major at the University of Vermont, agreed, saying, “I feel that if I do all of the readings and attend class regularly that I should be able to achieve a grade of at least a B.”
At Vanderbilt, there is an emphasis on what Dean Hogge calls “the locus of control.” The goal is to put the academic burden on the student.
“Instead of getting an A, they make an A,” he said. “Similarly, if they make a lesser grade, it is not the teacher’s fault. Attributing the outcome of a failure to someone else is a common problem.”
Additionally, Dean Hogge said, “professors often try to outline the ‘rules of the game’ in their syllabi,” in an effort to curb haggling over grades.
Professor Brower said professors at Wisconsin emphasized that students must “read for knowledge and write with the goal of exploring ideas.”
This informal mission statement, along with special seminars for freshmen, is intended to help “re-teach students about what education is.”
The seminars are integrated into introductory courses. Examples include the conventional, like a global-warming seminar, and the more obscure, like physics in religion.
The seminars “are meant to help students think differently about their classes and connect them to real life,” Professor Brower said.
He said that if students developed a genuine interest in their field, grades would take a back seat, and holistic and intrinsically motivated learning could take place.
“College students want to be part of a different and better world, but they don’t know how,” he said. “Unless teachers are very intentional with our goals, we play into the system in place.”

Student ethics: cheating in school but not in the real world?

I read this interesting article and found the topic fascinating and one that I had really not thought of before. How can students who are know to cheat in school (for whatever the reason) be trusted to be honest and make ethical choices when they finish school?

Student advice on teachers using technology

I read an interesting blog post. Read it and comment on how you would teach subjects using the technology available in our school.

Cheerleading is a contact sport

ESPN just reports about a state supreme court ruling about cheerleading. This, I believe, officially puts to end the debate about whether cheerleading is a sport.

Just what we need with new email accounts for students

OK, are people really that gullible and do they actually believe this stuff happens so much that they have to forward these emails. Come on.

I laughed until I cried. You do have to scroll down a bit to get to the post. Enjoy!!

Reading

So are these kids right? Are students reading only because teachers force them to?

Imagination

Check out this blog: http://www.teachandlearn.ca/blog/2009/01/17/imagining-better-conversations/

Imagine the possibilities. What could you do?

Homework versus coursework

So, several teachers and I had a conversation about just what an Honors or AP course was supposed to entail in terms of homework versus coursework. These types of classes are supposed to be more intense and are supposed to go into more depth and cover more material than regular courses. The payoff is that the course is weighted at a higher weight (4.5 for Honors and 5.0 for AP). In my opinion, it is my job to present, teach and discuss the course material for the class and then assign homework. The debate is about how much homework to assign.

On average, according to educational researchers (the National PTA and the National Education Association), students should take home 10 minutes per grade level of homework each night. So for a typical junior that means 110 minutes per day. Now if the average junior has a study hall or a homeroom or both, between 30-80 minutes of that homework could be done in school. GREAT!! That would leave 30 minutes of work which could be done in the hour before bedtime or the half hour between 7:50 and 8:20 because that is when a majority of the students in our school get here. That's the average junior.

Now what the about the juniors who carry Honors or AP courses. They should expect to increase that number by about 10% per Honors or AP course taken. A full load- 3 Honors classes and 1 AP class- would require about 154 minutes (about 3 hours) per night in homework. Is that workable for the students? Only for those with great time management skills. Add in work, extra curricular, family and church time, and there is not much time left for school work. So the issue I wonder about is should the school limit the number of Honors or AP courses that students can take or should they require a study hall for all students in Honors or AP courses?

Comments??

Honors English Jan book review

Honors Students- this month's (Jan) book review is a blog about your book. Here are some of my expectations about what this bookblog should contain.
First take a look at the site below to learn more about what a book review is and what it should contain.
These are not all inclusive and you don't have to include everything; just remember that this is a review not a book summary. Pay special attention to the first websites.
Rodman Philbrick's reviews
LAVC library page
Remember that blogs are not meant to be long discourses on a topic. Include links to sites that discuss the book or to places that provide access to the book. Maybe you could even add a review to Barnes and Noble or to Amazon.com. Be sure to link to your review.