Opinions Writing Preview Activity

    Student sharing- too much change, or great opportunity?
   
    1. Kamryn Bryce
    2. Kamryn's story is about the proposed changes to the FIT schedule and the changes to the overall bell schedule that affect students at Bowie.
    3. "Giving students lunch detention for being late to FIT....is essentially saying that FIT is more important class, which couldn't be further from the truth. While I think we should have FIT every day, I don't think that FIT is more valuable than actual class time."
    4. Yes, they considered teachers' viewpoints on the altered schedule.
    5. Yes, "Had students been asked to vote on FIT the same way the teachers did, the result may have been the same"
    6. There are no quotes in the section.
    7. This person wrote in first and third person.


   The office welcomes the dawn of the technology age

   1. Kelsie Stella
   2. This story is about the efforts by the school office to use modern technology to its advantage.
   3. "I think that moving towards a more technology-based system for these two documents, especially at a school like this, is going to prove to be extremely successful."
   4. Yes, this person addressed what students might think and the issue of having hard copies available.
    5. No, this person was straightforward with their opinion used to end the article.
    6. There are no quotes in this section.
    7. This person wrote in first and third person.

   I scream, you scream...

    1. Nya Martin
    2. This story is about the listeria outbreak at Blue Bell.
    3. "I understand that everyone makes mistakes, but if a mistake that could've been avoided by doing your job drastically affects other people's lives, you should be held accountable and punished." "I believe the victims should press charges."
    4. The writer addressed the victims' issues but not those of Blue Bell itself.
    5. No, the writer makes their opinion clear.
    6. There are no quotes in the story.
    7. This person wrote in first and third person.

   The problem with pep rallies

      1.Annika Holm
      2. This story is about the forced enthusiasm generated by pep rallies where attendance is almost mandatory.
      3. "The first easily fixable problem with pep rallies is to move them back a day, make them on Fridays" "The second problem...is the limited representation of sports" "Including other sports in the pep rally would go a long way to show that they're equally supported."
      4. The writer offers a balanced opinion and suggests compromises.
      5. This person firmly believes that their solutions would help make pep rallies equally supportive of all sports teams.
      6. There are no quotes in the story.
      7. The story is written in third person.

   Emotional learning effective?
       
  1. Melissa Weprin :-)
  2. This story is about the several SEL classes available on campus and their effectiveness in teaching life skills to students.
  3. "SEL is important for students to learn, but a few tweaks to the way it's taught could really make a difference in every world history student's high school career"
  4. The person addressed many different approaches to the topic.
  5. Yes, "If there was an introduction to SEL as well as an explanation to what it is, it could potentially stick better with the student by letting them know it's important and not just a way to fill time in the hour and a half class"
  6. There are no quotes.
  7. This is written in third and first person.

  A call for athletic equality

  1. Amaya Marquez
  2. The story is about the unequal representation between sports that offer classes at the school and "club sports".
  3. "Some of these sports are represented as "clubs", these sports teams should be able to have classes just like the others"  "So basically the point of this is that all we need is a lacrosse field and a class, which would make things so much more easier, as well as making it better for lacrosse players."
   4. This section is written to be more one-sided.
   5. No, this person does not go back on their opinion.
   6. There are no quotes in the story.
   7. This story is in first and third person.


A.  A hard news story serves to deliver immediate news to the reader, while an opinions piece brings less urgent topics to the reader. An opinions piece is obviously influenced by the writer's thoughts on the topic, while hard news is as objective as possible. Hard news contains as much description, supplementary information, and as many photos as possible, while opinions are usually more concise and contain less background information.

B. Photos are used more often in hard news stories because real-life images provide a more objective depiction of events being described. Drawings, diagrams and cartoons can all reflect an opinion easier.

C.  Fiesta Day discourse on Twitter
      AISD cloud has terrible IT and never works
      Issues with skipping class