Commentary Competition

Feelings, Emotions, Explanation, Reasoning

 Get to Know Your Team
• Take 2 minute to introduce yourself to your
teammates.
• Create a team name for the competition.
 Commentary Sentence Starters
This means that…
This shows…
As you can see…
It’s evident…
Obviously…
Clearly…
Can you imagine…
Would you…
This proves…
This suggests…
 Commentary Writing Instructions
• I will show you an essay that is missing commentary.
• Silently read the prompt and the provided portion of the essay.
• You will have 3 minutes to individually write the best
commentary you can think of for the anecdote on a sticky note.
• As soon as you can, stick your commentary sticky onto the board.
• When time is up, I will read your commentary and vote on
whether or not it would be effective in the essay.
• If it would be effective commentary, your team wins a point, if it
is not, no point will be awarded.
 Hoop Points
• For each point your team earns by writing
effective commentary, you will vote on one
teammate to shoot for additional points.
• Your team earns one chance to shoot for
every point your team earned.
• For every throw your teammate gets into the
hoop, your team will get an extra point.
• Good luck!
According to Source 1, para. 3, it states,
“Cheerleading is the leading cause of
emergency room visits in girls from the
ages of 8 to 16.” This shows that
cheerleading can lead to serious injuries.
This may be due to the fact that
cheerleading stunts have become so
challenging over the past three decades.
Prompt: Your parents are concerned over recent news reports about Facebook and similar websites.
Think about the safety issues of using Facebook and other websites. Now write to convince your
parents whether or not you should have unsupervised access to these websites.
 
I believe I should not be able to have unlimited access to Facebook and other similar
websites because they increases my chances of being involved with cyber bullying and
interacting with child predators.
First of all, having unlimited access to Facebook and other similar websites may
increase my chances of being involved in cyber bullying. Last year, I almost made the
mistake of cyber bullying one of my friends. I had been friends with Stephanie since the
4th grade; however, during 7th grade our friendship almost ended. T the beginning of the
school year, I remember her telling me that she had the same P.E. class as my boyfriend.
It just so happened that during that same period, I worked in the main office. Sometimes
while delivering passes to students, I would see her talking with him on the basketball
courts. I knew that he was not going to break up with me for her, but it still really
bothered me. I was too afraid to confront her about it face to face; however, Stephanie
and I were friends on Facebook, and I was really tempted to write really nasty things all
over her page. But knowing that my mom and dad checked my Facebook page
periodically and they would not be happy if they found out I was cyber bullying her, I
restrained myself.__________________________________________________________

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Just earlier this year I, myself, was cyber bullied on my Facebook page. It
all started when my best friend and I posted cute pictures of ourselves at
the beach, and someone we did not even know started writing messages
about how ugly we looked. It did not bother me at first, but the
comments kept coming and every comment seemed to make me feel
worse and worse. I did not want to talk to anyone about it because it was
so embarrassing, but luckily my mom checked my page and noticed the
comments. She and I had a long talk about how I should not care about
what other people think, especially strangers. After that, I took the
picture off my page so I would not have to see or read comments about it
anymore. ___________________________________________________
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As you can see the likelihood of me being exposed to cyber bullying
decreases when my parents supervise my access to social media websites.
Prompt: Often students are put into cooperative learning groups in the classroom.
Think about whether working in groups is a good or bad idea for you. Now convince
your teacher your point of view on cooperative learning groups.
 
Cooperative learning groups are a great idea because I can get help from my
peers, and group work makes learning fun.
Most importantly, I love getting help from my peers during group work. I hate to
admit it but I do not always know how to do everything. For example, I am not the
best artist and because of this, I cannot stand assignments that require art work of any
kind. In science class the other day, we were assigned to do a project on
photosynthesis. I understand how photosynthesis works and can easily answer any
question verbally or in writing, but do not ask me to draw a diagram about how it
works. Luckily we had a kid named Matt in our group, who just so happened to be the
best cartoonist ever. With our forces combined, our project not only earned us all A’s,
but the teacher also displayed it in the media center for all to see.________________
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 Art is not the only thing I am not so good at. In language arts class, my teacher
Ms. Widnall asked us to perform a scene from a Shakespearian play. I was so
nervous until I found out that we were able to do it in groups. I was lucky
enough to be paired with my two best friends, Rich and Zyon. Those two are
characters, and I knew they would let me take the role with the fewest lines.
We performed our scene one week later, and because I only had one line, I
didn’t even hyperventilate.____________________________

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____________________________________________Cooperative learning
groups allow me to earn higher grades on some assignments because they
allow me to get help from my peers.
 
 Prompt: The principal of your school is considering the use of IPODs in the classroom.
Think about ways in which an IPOD could be used in your classroom. Now write to
convince your principal that IPODs could be used in the classroom.

I absolutely think we should be allowed to use iPods in the classroom because

music helps me focus, and they can be used as learning tools.
I have always been a student who is hard to keep focused, but if I was able to use
an iPod in the classroom, I know I would be able to stay on track. Just last week, I was
in my reading class and once again Ms. Francis asked us all to read an article silently. I
do not know about you, but other than in Ms. Frances’s class, silence does not exist in
my life. I live in a three bedroom house with seven people. Even in the middle of the
night, there is always someone up talking on the phone, watching television, or playing
a video game. I am so used to noise that I need a little bit of it in order to be able to
focus, and whenever I am in Ms. Francis’s class and she asks me to read silently, I try
my hardest to read the words on the page in front of me, but I just cannot do it.
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Another example of a time when an iPod would have some in handy was
last week in my geography class when we were allowed to work in groups
to create a map of the United States. I would have loved to complete my
portion of the assignment, but I just could not stop paying attention to
and joining in on the conversations around me. For example, one of my
partners had just broken up with her boyfriend for cheating on her.
Listening to the story of how she found out was like listening to the plot of
a soap opera. I was transfixed on the drama of it all, and by the end of the
period, I had accomplished only twenty percent of what I set out to
finish._____________________________
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_______________________________________________________ If I
could use an iPod in class, it would definitely keep me more focused.