Touching Spirit Bear R.A.F.T. Activity
Name:______Period:____
Introduction:
Now that you have finished your literary journey with Cole Matthew’s through “Touching Spirit Bear” it is time to put yourself into the world of Cole Matthews. You have a few choices below to choose a role and dive deeper into the facts around the story. This will give you a chance to further understand the vision quest and take an inside look into the truth and ideas behind the story.
Role(who you pretend to be when you write) / Audience
(who you are writing to) / Format
(the form your writing takes) / Topic
(the main idea of your topic)
1. Journalist / Children of ages 10-18 / Newspaper Article / Inform a young audience the PA Anti -Bullying Laws and importance
2. Your Choice
(Character from Touching Spirit Bear) / Your Choice (Character from Touching Spirit Bear) / Formal Letter / Bullying and what you learned about bullying from Touching Spirit Bear
3. Biographer / Children / Children’s
Book / Tells in a narrative -Who is Ben Mikaelsen?
1. Each RAFT activity should be at least two pages in length. Please double-space and use New Times Roman with black font size of 12 or 14.
2. Maintain a formal writing style.
3. Although you can choose different activities, keep in mind that this activity focuses on writing an informational piece with supports.
4. Follow the guidelines for writing a newspaper article, formal letter and biography.
Check the model center for samples, graphic organizers, templates.
4. Pay close attention to your role, audience, format, and topic.
5. Remember to stay focused on your tasks!
Choice 1 - Newspaper Article
_____Inform (who, what, when, where, and why) of the Pennsylvania Anti-bullying laws.
_____ Pretend your audience is a group of 10 to 18 years old.
_____ Your informational article must include a topic sentence, three main ideas with details, and a conclusion.
______Proofread for errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation ( )
Choice 2 –Formal Letter
______Identify who you are and who you are writing to in the story. (You could be Cole writing to Garvey, Cole writing to Peter, Peter writing to Cole, and so on.)
______Explain why you are writing the letter and your thoughts. Explain what you want to accomplish by writing this letter. Your letter must be about bullying in some way (something you learned or want to share about bullying).
______Provide information/evidence or events in the story that explain or connect to your thoughts and statements. Must have at least 3 references or events/ideas from the story present in your letter.
______Include at least 3 to 5 paragraphs with 5 sentences or more in each paragraph. Also, your paragraphs must include some research you have done on bullying that relates to TSB.
______Proofread for errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
Choice 3 - Biography on Ben Mikaelson
_____ Your biography on the author Ben Mikaelson should be 3 paragraphs and follow Ben’s birth, life, and accomplishments
____ You must have an introduction, details and conclusion about Ben Mikaelson
_____ The biography must include 5 facts that have been researched online or through a search engine (not wikipedia) and cite what website the facts are from
_____ Proofread for errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation ().
Informational Research Writing
In research writing, you can find answers to questions about a topic in which you are interested. Your writing organizes information from various sources and presents it to your readers as a unified and coherent whole.
Effective Informational Writing should:
●clearly state the purpose of the report in a thesis statement
●use evidence and details from a variety of sources to support the thesis
●contain only accurate and relevant information
●develop the topic logically and include appropriate transitions
●include a properly formatted Works Cited list
Techniques
Develop relevant, interesting and researchable questions
Asking thoughtful questions is an ongoing part of the research process. You might begin with a list of basic questions that are relevant to your topic. These would focus on getting basic facts that answer the questions who, what, where, when, how and why about your topic.
As you become more familiar with your topic, think of questions that might provide an interesting perspective that makes readers think.
Check that all of your questions are researchable. Ask questions that will uncover facts, statistics, case studies, and other documentable evidence.
Clarify Your Thesis - A thesis statement one or two sentences clearly stating the main idea that you will develop in your writing. A thesis may also indicate the organizational pattern you will follow and reflect your tone and point of view.
Document Your Sources - You need to document, or credit, the sources where you find your evidence. Good writers paraphrase and document the information they gather from sources.
Support Your Ideas - You should support your ideas with relevant evidence - fact, anecdotes, and statistics - from reliable sources.
Finding and Evaluating Sources
Begin your research by looking for information about your topic in books, magazines, newspapers, internet, etc. The following checklist will help you evaluate:
Checklist
Authoritative / Someone who has written several books, articles on your subject.Up-to-date / Check the publication date to see if the source reflects the most current research on your subject.
Respected / In general, tabloid newspapers and popular-interest magazines are not reliable sources. Check with your teacher or librarian to double-check reliability.
Taking Notes
As you find material that suits the purpose of your report, record each pieces of information on source cards, graphic organizers or thinking maps. You will probably use all three of the note-taking methods listed below:
Paraphrase - restate the passage in your own words. Start by finding the main idea and rewriting it in your own words. Then list the details that support the idea. As you restate the information, try to use simpler language. Remember to note the source of the passage.
Summarize - or rephrase the passage in few words. Restate only the main ideas, using your own words. Leave out details. As a final step, check to make sure that your summary is accurate and that it does not include unnecessary information.
Quote - copy the original text word for word if you think the author’s own words best clarify a particular point. Use quotation
marks to signal the beginning and end of the quotation.
Use Thinking Maps as note-taking guidelines as opposed to index cards.
Here are some suggestions:
Newspaper Article - (informs) Bubble Map, Sequencing, circle map
Children’s Biography - (tells) storyboard, sequencing (picture walk), tree map, bubble map, flow map
Informational Flip Book - (teaches) tree map, flow map,
Powerpoint/Lesson - (instructs) double bubble map, tree map, bubble map
Documenting Your Sources
When you quote one of your sources of write in your own words information you have found in a source, you need to credit that source. You can do this by using parenthetical documentation. Electronic sources, such as web-sites, must be credited just as your would credit print source.
Guidelines for Parenthetical Documentation
Work by One Author / Put the author’s last name and, if appropriate, the page reference in parentheses: (Woods 20)If you mention the author’s name in the sentence, put only the page reference in parentheses: (20)
For electronic sources, which have no page numbers, give the author’s name in parentheses unless the name is already in the the text. (Woods)
Work by Two or Three Authors / Put the last names of the authors and the page reference in parentheses: (Woods, Reed, and Fagan 20).
Work by More Than Three Authors / Give the author’s last name followed by et al. (Woods et al 20)
Work with NO Author Given / Give the title or shortened version and, if appropriate, the page reference: (Totem Poles). Electronic sources usually have no page numbers. No page number is necessary for documentation of an encyclopedia article.
Creating a Works Cited Page
At the end of your informational writing, you need to include a Works Cited page. All the sources that you have cited in your report should be listed alphabetically by the authors’ last names. If no author is given for a work, use the editor’s last name of the title of the work. Note the guidelines for spacing and punctuation on the model page. Works Cited entries for electronic sources require slightly more information than those for print sources.
Resources:
Bullying Laws Sources:
Ben Mikaelson Sources: