The Giver Critical Analysis

Creating an Acrostic Poem In this lesson, you will create an impressive acrostic poem. You will use your Intel-based MacBook, or iMac, (or other Macintosh computer running OSX 10. 5 or higher), and the preloaded software to complete the project. Images are provided to help you along the way, and there is a sample poem on the last page of this lesson. Try to follow the steps in the activity as closely as you can, but once you have a feel for the way the software works, feel free to elaborate in order to personalize your poem and further develop your computer skills.
Here is a list of the tools you’ll use: HardwareSoftware ComputerMS Office-Word iSight CameraDashboard Widget-Dictionary/Thesaurus PrinterPhotoBooth, iPhoto (optional) Procedure: Setting Up the Document 1. Open MS Word application. Look for the icon in the Dock. If you can’t find it there, open a New Finder Window, then click on Applications, then scoll down to MicroSoft Office 2004 or Office X, then open (or expand) that folder to show the icon. Double-click on it to open the application. 2. Pull down the File menu to New Blank Document, or, in the Project Gallery, click Word Document, then click Done. . Type the title of the poem (name of the person, animal, item) on the first line of the page, ideally with all capital letters. 4. Press the return key two or three times to leave some space between the title and the first line of the poem. 5. Now type the same word vertically, down the left side of the page, again in all captial letters, pressing the return key after each letter, so that each letter is on its own line. Don’t worry about the appearance being rather dull at this point. The first task is to get the structure down. 6. Save your document.
Some students may remark that they “…have not finished yet…” This is a good opportunity to remind ourselves that we should be saving our work early on in the process, and then repeatedly as the document grows. Pull down the File menu to Save… A ‘sheet’ will appear at the top of your window. The one shown here shows that the document will be saved as: HENRY. doc on the Desktop. (You may elect to have your students save their work with a more specific name, and in another location. ) Click Save. Using the Dashboard Widget – Dictionary/Thesaurus 7. Click on the Dashboard icon in the Dock. 8.

The dictionary widget may already be present on your desktop, but if it is not, click on the plus sign (in the circle in the lower left corner of the screen), and other widgets that are available will appear. 9. Click on the dictionary widget (it also includes the thesaurus). The widget will appear. You can drag it anywhere you like. Click on the Thesaurus button at the top of the widget, then type in a word you want to find synonyms for. Let’s say, for example, that you want to find a word that means ‘friendly’, but you don’t have an “F” in your name. Type the word friendly in, and then look for a word that starts with the letter you need. 0. Once you have found the word, click on the Word icon in the Dock to return to your acrostic poem. Type your word on the line that beings with its first letter.
Repeat this process until you have filled in all the lines of your poem. Remember to continue to save your work by pulling down the File menu to Save, or by holding down the Apple key and pressing S. (? +S). Using the PhotoBooth Application to Take a Picture 11. Click on the Finder icon. If a Finder window does not appear, pull down the File menu to New Finder Window (? +N). 12. Click on Applications, then scroll down to PhotoBooth. Double-click on the PhotoBooth icon to open it. 3. Adjust your seated, (or for small students, your standing position) in front of the computer. You may also be able to adjust the tilt of the iMac or MacBook screen to change the angle. Get close to the camera so your image is large. 14. If you want a standard photo, just click the camera icon below your image, then smile and wait for the 3-2-1 countdown. If you don’t like the result, simply click on the x in the corner of the little image (which deletes it), and then take another. If you want an effect in your image, click on the 1 or 2 next to Effects, click on the effect you want to try, and then click the camera to shoot.
Here are a few samples of the types of effects you can use: Once you are happy with the photo taken, you can simply drag and drop (with your mouse) the mini-photo from PhotoBooth onto the Word page. 15. There are several places you can store the photos you’ve taken: a. You can move them to iPhoto, and then create albums to organize them. b. You can save them to a folder on the desktop, or to a USB drive, or to a server folder. To locate the PhotoBooth images you’ve taken in the Finder, click File, Reveal in Finder. There you can rename the files and copy them to one of the storage locations mentioned above. 16.
Once the photos are saved, you can insert them in the Word document in many ways as well. a. You can copy/paste them in from iPhoto, or drag/drop them from iPhoto, if you had saved them there. b. You can drag the photo into Word just by dragging the icon onto the Word page. c. You can pull down the Insert menu in Word to Picture, From File… and then navigate to the location where you saved the photos. Once you see it, click Insert. Do not worry that that photo ends up in the middle of a sentence. Wherever the photo ends up, just double-click on it. 17. Once you have double-clicked on the photo, the Format Picture dialog box will appear.
Click on Layout, then Square, then OK. 18. Handles will appear in the corners of the photo. Click and hold the mouse button down and a square with arrows in the diagonal corners will appear. Drag inward to resize the photo down. (You can always resize the photo later, if necessary. ) Repeat the process if more than one photo is desired. Leave space so that you can enlarge the text of the poem. If the poems are exprected to be posted on a bulletin board, make sure the text is at least size 36-48, with an even larger title, so they can be read easily from a distance. Modifying the Text 19. Select the text.
Then, using the Formatting Palette, change the size, and font of the text. If you don’t see the palette, pull down the View menu to Formatting Palette. (Tip: If you want to select a single word, just double-click on it. If you want to select an entire line, triple-click on it). Finishing Up 20. Adjust the size of your photo(s) to have a good balance between the size of the text and the photo. Be sure there is enough white space on your page. Having a page that is too crowded is unappealing. 21. Change the color of the title text. 22. Change the color of the first letter to match the color used in the title text. 23.
Using the formatting palette in Word, you can add a bordering line around the photo(s), and also a shadow, which helps the picture appear to be ‘lifted’ from the page. 24. Save your work. 25. Once your work is saved, feel free to make more changes until the page looks just right. 26. As an extension of this activity, and to give students opportunities to modify photos using iPhoto, the PhotoBooth photos can be sent to iPhoto and then edited. 27. A common task is to crop the photo, removing unwanted portions of the photo, or enlarge the image of the face, if the student was sitting too far from the computer when the photo was taken.
California Reading/Language Arts Standards Included: Grade 3 Research? 1. 3 Understand the structure and organization of various reference materials (e. g. , dictionary, thesaurus, atlas, encyclopedia). Writing Applications 2. 2 Write descriptions that use concrete sensory details to present and support unified impressions of people, places, things, or experiences.? Capitalization? 1. 7 Capitalize geographical names, holidays, historical periods, and special events correctly. HENRY Healthy Easygoing Neighborly Reliable Youthful