Of Picture Books and Perspectives...

Today, we are handing in our final drafts of the SYNTHESIS essay. You made it! I really appreciate your hard work on an arduous skill--and I am very proud of each of you writing and revising these essays paragraph by paragraph.

Yes!

Yesterday, after reviewing the proper heading and workshopping engaging titles, we had the chance to channel our inner five-year old selves. We left our seats and gathered on the floor in the center of the room for a reading of the awesome picture book Emmanuel's Dream by Laurie Ann Thomspon. Since we had just finished writing our synthesis essays based on the documentary about Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah and the novel The Breadwinner, it was a great time to read a fabulous picture book.

WE ARE NEVER TOO OLD FOR PICTURE BOOKS! 

Our word of the day yesterday was ANTIQUITY, which simply means ancient times. An example of the the word in a sentence is One of my favorite people is Socrates, who lived in antiquity, but whose wisdom still resonates today.

Our word of the day for today is DUBIOUS, which means causing doubt or untrustworthy.

Today, we are beginning our new novel, Nothing but the Truth by Avi. We read aloud from the opening pages and for tonight, share a couple of sentences on the class blog with your response to this question: WHAT IS PATRIOTISM, AND HOW IMPORTANT (or unimportant) IS IT?

AAAAHHHH! What is Synthesis!? And how do I create a Synthesis Essay?! Aaaahhhh!

Lovely Students!

If you are trying to write your introductions for this synthesis essay assignment, and you are beginning to wonder if Mr. Reynolds is insane, or if synthesis is even a real thing or not, cease and desist!

It is going to be okay. We will get through synthesis together. And forever afterwards, whenever you hear the word SYNTHESIS, you will smile a wide, knowing smile, rub your chin, and say, "Synthesis and I, we're old friends, we are."

You might also say, "Synthesis? I've taken Synthesis around the dance floor for a few twirls. I surely have."

You might even find yourself saying, "Synthesis changed my life forever. In a good way. In a great way. I see the world, now, through the lens of SYNTHESIS."

Can't envision yourself saying any of that stuff? Really? Did you try actually saying that stuff out loud? You did? And that didn't work? Hhhhhhmmmm.

It might be because we need more practice! Yes! As you are working on writing your introductory paragraphs tonight for your synthesis essay, here is a video which goes over some of the key ideas that we explored in class today. It walks through one example of how to create a synthesis essay.

Here goes!

If you'd prefer to watch the video via link, click here and you'll see the same video explanation of synthesis! Yes!

And if you would like to check out some of the models we created in class, here you go! These are some examples of how we found thematic statements for our two texts, and then put them together to create a Synthesis statement. 

Our word for the day is REVERBERATE, which means to echo, or to continue onward even after the action /words have ended. An example of our word in a sentence is this: A kind action can reverberate for years.