Monday, March 24, 2014

The Cheat




Hey Team here are two conflicting and opposite opinions about the book the Cheat. 

Read the reviews and then write your own mid way review of the book The Cheat (pretend you are writing your review for the school newsletter and you are trying to inform other students in grade 7 and 8 about the book.) 

Review 1 

This is a middle school book about cheating on a geography midterm. What makes it charming and thought-provoking is the fact that it's told from the points of view of six kids who were involved, with 2 or 3 pages of text at a time told in each kid's distinctive voice. The voices are great: they make the book.

Review 2
This is a book that I picked up as a MS reading teacher. I try to read books to recommend for my students. I would NOT recommend this book. The book focuses on a group of friends who get caught (some not caught) cheating on a midterm. The narration moves from person to person. I felt like there were too many voices--4 main, 2 supporting--for middle school students to follow. Because there were so many voice, the characters, in my opinion, were never really developed at all. I found myself asking, "Wait, is she the one who's dad died? or did he leave her mom? Which one was that again?" I also felt that there was no real resolution to the problem. The book explained what happened, but nothing was really resolved. Overall, a quick read, but not one that I would recommend to my students



Comment on 2 other reviews.  Do you agree or disagree why?

Monday, March 17, 2014

Out of Sight - Word Problem

OUT OF SIGHT 


Here is a picture from our problem of the week.  

What was the biggest obstacle to finding a solution?

How did you overcome the obstacle?

Share your brief narrative and then respond with two other students. One from your group and the other from another. 


Wednesday, March 5, 2014

The Cheat

The Cheat



Sara is stuck.  She is suspended until she reveals who she got the quiz from.  Dan and Rob have been given consequences for their role and Katie nervously tries to convince Sara that she is not responsible for Mr. Teacher discovering the cheating. 


Will Sara rat on Jake to save herself from suspension?  Why or why not? Respond and discuss...

Have you ever been in a dilemma like this?  What did you do?