"Everyone's a Critic"

THE AMS REVIEW PROJECT:

In the upcoming weeks (until Christmas) Mrs. Gilchrist's classes will be doing reviews of books, places, products, businesses, stores, restaurants, and movies around town. Students will be learning about how to write opinion pieces and also the needed skills that allow them to write towards specific audiences.

Here's the Requirements:

1.) Students must write two different reviews (preferably a negative and positive) and turn those in first. (100 points.)

2.) Once that part has been "checked off" and edited, they are allowed to creatively express their reviews through online blogs, videos, YouTube, consumer reviews, Urban spoon, the local newspaper, and even posters hung in the windows of the businesses themselves!

3.) Students will rate each product, movie, book, store, restaurant, and or business with the AMS REVIEW rating system of 1-5 pitchforks.

Happy Reviewing!

Most and Least Guilty

This island had 10 murderers as its visitors. Who do you think was most guilty and who was least guilty? Explain your answer.

Scary Story Presentations

On Monday we read scary stories in class, but they weren't just simple stories. Students worked on these stories for two class days and the weekend! The hard work really showed in the final products. After having class discussion about "What makes Scary stories Scary?" the mission was to incorporate lots of details, noises, adjectives, adverbs, and juicy details. They were to play with the common "fear of the unknown" (ex: sounds, darkness, music, and other unexplained events). I was so proud that my students did such a spectacular job with these. Some stories were about lighthearted pranks by siblings and others were deep, dark, chilling tales of Halloween and ghost tales. Students presented stories in the dark by flashlight and fireside. (The "fire" is made of Christmas lights and orange and yellow butcher paper.) As a reward for such tedious writing and creativity, I allowed students to bring snacks. We sure do have some terrific story-tellers and writers in this bunch of 8th graders!