Here are some of the first examples of student work (7th Grade Language Arts) created in this project. Note that these are first drafts and un-edited. Students are submitting all of their work to a class wiki. There, they will get feedback from their peers and their teacher and make necessary edits.

Student 1

Activity 1 - Character

Character Map

Character Essay

In Language arts class we are doing a lesson on characters and point of veiw. My sims name is Connar, he is a 23 year old Canadian man. He is rude, outdorsy, and also a conversationalist.

First, my sim Connar is mostly rude. Connars rude because he enjoys disterbing others who are sleeping and then sleeps in their bed. ALso, my Connar is rude because he likes the satisfaction of stealing and eating peoples food from their refrigerators, and he wants to slap other sims. As a result of this behavior Connar has no freinds and is diliked in the neighborhood.

Second, Connar is very outdorsy. He is outdorsy because he is always out and about , he hardly ever is in his house. The only time he is inside is when hes stealing food from neighbors. Plus, he is very outdorsy because he loves to fish. He fishs everyday and catchs at least ten fish at a time. he enjoys the outdoors alot.

Lastly, my sim Connar is a conversationalist. Hes always making conversations with other sims. You would hardly ever see him not talking to other sims or trying to make freinds. But his rude behavior and mean spirit dosen't get him any freinds.

In conclusion, my sim Connars character traiys are rude, outdoorsy, and hes a conversationalist. These are what fits him best.

Activity 2 - Point-Of-View (Third Person)

Connar was a young man who lived in the heart of Sim City. He lives alone, but is happy with his life. Ecept for the face that he has no freinds and that no one likes him because of what he has done in the past.

Connar dosen't like thinking of the old days or the bad days is what he calls it. Connar used to be a burglar because of pressure from his freinds at the tim and would steal anything he could get his hands on. He would steal anything from gold to food from his neighbors or people around him.

Connar wanted everything, espespecially he wanted friends in his neighborhood. But since everyone knew what he did no one would even get close to him or talk to him.

Connar went outside to his car and drove into town. Once there he went by the Hobby Shop to buy a new fishing kit. Connar loved to fish and more importantly loved the outdoors. What topped all of that was that he was really good at fishing. He bought his kit and went back to his car and drove down to the lake. Once there he grabbed the kit and took a place on the dock. He started fish and after a while finally caught a couple fish.

After he had caught 4 catfish it was time for a break. So he sat there for a little bit untill and women about Connars age came walking up the path. She was dressed casually and was walking slowlyalong. So Connar stood up and walked twords her. She looked from where she was walking and waved a freindly greeting to him. " Hello my name is Connar, you knew here?" Connar spoke to her.

" Yes I am , my name is Jill by the way. I see you like fishing."She replied as she look down at the 4 huge catfish.

"Yeah I love it, makes me feel so good to catch so many fish."

"Oh i see, well I have to go. Nice meeting you, Bye."

After his chat with Jill, Connar couldn't stand still. His first friend in years! This time he wouldn't ruin this freindship by being mean or stealing anything from her. He would be caring, compassionate, and of course freindly- or at least try.

§ § § § § §

Two days after meeting Jill in the park, Connar was going to have a stroll around the neighborhood. He went passed the quickmart, the Hobby sand then he was rounding the lake. Then Connar saw the the gift shop and decided to buy some flowers for Jill, he felt if he were to do this she would like him more. Once he bought the flowers he passed all of the houses of the neighbors who hated him and then he remembered Jill. The one who didn't know. Well Jill wasn't outside so he went up to the house and rung the doorbell. Jill then came out and the both shared greetings. " Oh my goodness are those for me?"

" Yes I thought you would enjoy them." Connar said.

" Well i have to tell you" She started" I am in a rela-"

" Honey whose at the door?" a new voice came.

" Oh this is my friend Connar. He was giving me these and was welcoming me to the neighborhood."

" Are you related or something?" Connar asked suddenly not knowing what was going on.

" Oh no, my name is Jack and I'm her boyfreind."

At that moment Connar froze. The women he wanted to like him could not. She was raken. How in the world could this day get any worse.

Activity 3 - Plot

Exposition

Rising Action 1

Rising Action 2

Rising Action 3

Climax

Falling Action

Resolution

Student 2

Activity 1 - Character

Character Essay

My sims's name is Ashley. She is very responsible, friendly, and active.

Ashley is an employee at the local Quick-Mart. She has a nice house with one bathroom, and one bedroom, and a kitchen and living room.. She has many good friends such as Jack and others.

Ashley is very reasponsible. She is never late to work and she manages her money very well.She never breaks into others houses and she never d is direspectful to her friends and random strangers.

She is also friendly and supports all of her friends. She loves talking with friends and eating over a friends house's. She also likes to meet knew people and introduce them to her old friends.

Last but not least, she is very active. She loves to go fishing. She also loves planting vegetables and going on walks with her friends around town.

I think my sim is a good citizen. I also think she will be a responsible, friendly, active person in the future.

Activity 2 - Point-Of-View (Third Person)

BAM!!BAM!! Ashley jumps up out of her bed. “Whatwas that” she says to herself. She notices that the noise came from the kitchen and that there is smoke coming from the kitchen. She slides her shoes on and runs toward the kitchen. The smoke gets caught in her throat and makes her cough ferociously. She looks around but can hardly see anything. So she gets on her hands and knees and starts to crawl to this tiny red glow.As she gets closer it becomes more visible. That little red glow was actually a tiny flame coming from the refrigerator motor!!

“What should I do” she says to herself. She strains herself to think of a plan as she lay knelt down in her kitchen filled with some smoke, gasping for air. She stands up suddenly and runs toward the door but misses it and slams her head right into the wall and is knocked on her back and barely conscious looked back at the flame.

By then it wasn’t a flame it was a blaze. All of a sudden SLAM! She turned her head and trough the smoke and her blurred vision she could barely make out the silhouette coming toward her. Then blank she fell into unconsciousness.

The sounds of squirting water and sizzling wakes her up. She struggles to open her eyes and has to blink rapidly to shield her eyes from the light. She listens vary carefully and hears people talking. She also can smell smoke. She jerks her head up quick. She slowly looks around and notices that she is lying in the back of an ambulance with the doors open.

“Are you alright” says a soft firm voice. She looks to her right and there sitting next to her right a woman dressed in an EMS uniform.” Yes, Yes I think so”. Ouch!! Yelled Ashley. “Man my head hurts.” “Yeah you hit it pretty hard, but you should be fine except you’ll have a whopper of a goose egg.”Ashley jumps up and looks around sharply. “OH NO!!” She gasps for air because she could hardly believe her eyes. There were her beautiful house stood was only a big pile of ash and a chard frame of an old 20th century style home.

Around where her house used to stand were two big red shine fire trucks with at least half a dozen fire fighters chatting amongst themselves. There on the ground stretched out around the house was fire hose.

She turns around and runs back to the medic and asks “What happened!!” .She stands and points to where the kitchen in the house used to stand and says that the motor on the refrigerator had collected dust over the years had been set a blaze by a tiny spark that jumped out of the motor then she said it had spread quickly from there.

Ashley scratches her head puzzled. “Then how did I get out I was unconscious”. She said that some stranger was jogging by and saw the smoke and ran in risking his life and picked you up and carried you out and laid you down on the sidewalk and called us and waited till we got there then he disappeared.

Five hours had passed since she woke up. She lay cold in a tent in her empty piece of land thinking to herself. “I am going to find the man that saved my life and repay him”.

So one year had passed since the fire. Ashley sold the old lot and moved into a one bedroom, one bathroom apartment. Still since one year ago she has been looking everywhere but hasn’t had any luck finding her saver.

She stands up and stretches and gives a big yawn. She looks at her watch. SHE’S LATE!! She runs to her dresser gets dressed and runs out the door still trying to put her shoe on. Not paying attention she runs down her walkway and right into a man on his morning jog.

They both go flying to the ground in a big heap. “Sorry, Sorry, I am just trying to hurry let me help you up”. She pulls him up and as she sees his face something just clicks inside of her. UUUUHHHHH!!My name is Ashley she says as she sticks her hand out to shake his hand. He looks at her face real closely then realizes that this is the woman that he had been searching for since that day.

He doesn’t say anything for at least two minutes and studies her. Then he introduces himself. “Hi, my name is Jack.”“Nice to meet you!! He says to her as they stare at each other. “You too” she says. He asks her if she had always lived there and she tells him no and how her other house had caught on fire and about the man that had saved her. Then he starts to tell her about his life and his wife and kids.

Then they said there good byes and as they start off in opposite directions they walk about 40 feet and he turns around and shouts out that he had been there when the fire had taken place and that he never did see the man that carried her out but he would look around for him. She said thanks and they went about each others business for the rest of there lives.

Both lived very happy and successful lives but Jack never told a soul that he had saved Ashley he had eventually taken it to the grave with him. Ashley got married and bought the lot that she had sold and rebuilt an exact replica of the house that had burned down. She eventually died without finding the man that saved her life.

THE END