Student Writing Showcase 3-5

Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting Students learn about summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. They explore how to do this and why it is important.  Student read the follow article and practiced summarizing it.  Summary of Modern Day Magellan  - by Ted       According to “The Modern Day Magellan” by Lizbeth Mitchell, Yates rode his motorcycle around the world in one year and experienced a lot of difficulties. Yates traveled to 35 countries and 6 continents and mostly slept in his tent. In addition, he experienced different types of weather, he couldn’t go into some countries, he had mechanical problems with his motorcycle, and he didn’t understand the different languages. However, Yates rode through the planet's beautiful places and met people who could do amazing things.  Yates traveled for many months, though many countries, and saw many amazing things throughout his journey around the world. Summary of "The Modern Day Magellan" by Scott ...

  Lake Hillier, the Pink Lake by Scott Did you know that there are pink lakes all over the world? Lake Hillier in Australia is one of them! But Lake Hillier has some specialities that set it apart from other pink lakes. For one, Lake Hillier is the only known pink lake that keeps its pink color in a cup. Another fact is that it is relatively untouched by humans and is on an uninhabited island.  Lake Hillier is a relatively small pink lake, untouched by humans, and home to very few animals.  Lake Hillier is a small pink lake in sharp contrast to the surrounding (forest and ocean) that makes its pink color stand out even more. It’s a rather small pink lake measuring only “ 600 meters long and less than 250 meters wide” (Hillier Lake). It is shaped like a footprint (Tourism Western Australia); like a giant stepped on Australia's main island in the Recherche Archipelago (Fadden).  The reason why the lake is pink is still a mystery but some scientists think that the lake...

  The Great Barrier Reef (World Atlas)   by Ted  The Great Barrier Reef is made up of more than 1 million corral polyps. It is located off the Northeastern coast of Australia (Rector). Many animals live there like the clownfish and the sea anemone. The Great Barrier Reef has lots of animals, the algae is very important, and it is very big.  The best thing about the Great Barrier Reef is that it is home to many animals. There are many species of animals and plants in the Great Barrier Reef. There are 200 species of seabirds and shorebirds, 450 species of hard coral, 150 species of soft coral, 500 species of seaweed, and 2,600 plant species (Rector). So that means there are 3,900 types of life at the Great Barrier Reef. Some of the special animals that live there are the dugong, giant clams, blue-ringed octopus, cone shell sea snails, manatees, sea cucumbers, and blue sea stars (Franchino & Rector). The manatees are my favorite because they swim in herds. There are...

Classroom Reports  Student worked hard reading and researching about an interesting place. Then they learned how to put that information into a report.  Ted - The Great Barrier Reef   Scott