Second Six Weeks

I just read the most amazing paper, written by my 14 year old. Her words flowed like poetry to me. The paper impressed me; no real words to describe how I feel. The written paper is about a full page, with her writing style, of course typed it was shorter, but still had it’s' impact.

The assignment was simple, read a series of chapters from 'The Art of Writing'. Think about what is said, and then write a short paper telling me if you agree with the author, or not. 

Below is the typed paper...

Yes, I agree on the author’s point of view because he mainly said that writing was an art. As art, we only see the outside. Like its' “beauty, fitness, and significance”. But we don’t see the trueness of a word, a word in itself is empty.

Writing is as delicate as architecture. Everyone should realize that every word has to move in a “logical form”. What I mean is, every sentence must flow like a stream (according to my dad). Words have to move and work together. Writing is the way you express feeling, the way you see the world. It defines you.

I hope this explains my agreement of his point and mine also.

Short, Concise and to the point. I love this paper, and I love the way it rolls off the tongue when read aloud.

This week I am also having the girls collaborate on a News Story of Sorts for Civics/Citizen ship. I had them read a story in the news dated October 7, 2005. This story had to do with misreporting by the media of events, or the lack there of, in New Orleans , LA.  

The hard part of this story for them should be the research and development of a timeline, given the events as reported by the media. Now, the trick is, for them to make a valid attempt in locating the correct information as reported by the media, then with the new story that came out today, to discern the discrepancies. Now, the discrepancies in question are...

• Corpses in Super Dome freezer as reported between September 1, 2005 and October 7, 2005, which would indicate slaughter of men, women and children.
• Shots fired at Military Helicopters from, or around the Super Dome.
• Children raped and murdered at the Super Dome.
• Assorted violations of Civil Rights, if applicable.

I also instructed the report had to have a minimum of a 6.0 reading level. I will give extra credit for anything over the 6.0. Now, here is the real kicker... I put them on a deadline. They have 3 hours to research and type almost 2 full pages of information, sources listing names and a synopsis of some sort. I told them this is what happens to reporters in the real world; and those reporters must make an attempt to report accurate news, with responsible research and some form of evidence supporting their story.

I hope the paper is acceptable to put on here. Especially with both working on the finished product. If so, I will place a copy of it below. I will include the Readability Score as well.

Update

Well as I expected, the stories have basic merit, but not fully the truth. According to the oral report from the girls. Shots were fired in the air, not specifically at the choppers, to date no one has found bodies in the freezer of murdered people that the girls can find and as for rapes. None found credible, since the stories were hear-say third party. Given the statistics for New Orleans, LA. taking into account that all those people were in a confined space. It would stand to reason that vigilante justice would have prevailed in such cases.