November 28, 2006

Homework: 11-20 pictionaries and synonyms unit 6
Finish the handout from class

In class we discussed an article about the cow killer ant, which is actually a wasp: http://lancaster.unl.edu/enviro/pest/Articles/CowKillerAnt.htm . We read the article to show how as they gather facts for the debate, they should be getting information on both sides. The article had reasons to squish this ant, and there were reasons to not bother squishing the ant. Ultimately, though, we concluded that the information was not even needed for the debate because the ant in the story was NOT a cow killer ant. Since the debate is on the ant in the story, not ants in general, it would be useless to bring up the information in the article. I want the students to become more critical of their resources as they research. The goal of the whole unit is to get the students to think more critically. The reasoning is that a persuasive essay is only good if it has something intelligent to say. Organization and grammar won't matter if the essay says nothing.