Writing 2 Class Notes -- September 6

Greetings!

We enjoyed our second class of Writing 1 for this semester.  After starting the class with prayer, we wrote our Quick Writes using the cards from a game called "Man Bites Dog" in which players are given cards with common words found in newspaper headlines.  The students were to arrange the words into their own headlines and start a short newspaper story to go with it.

Our Mystery Words for today were "birl" and "bijou."  Some days I will have the students help to randomly select words from a "Word a Day" book.  On others we'll work with common Latin roots.  Expanding their working vocabulary and piquing an interest in words is my goal.

The writing topic this week was "Write to Learn."  During our discussion we talked about how writing helps a person learn.  I anticipate all kinds of learning to take place with this class this year.  I also mentioned that writing is at times a complex set of steps:  1) Selecting a topic; 2) Collecting information; 3) Connecting the information through writing meaningful sentences; and 4) Correcting and revising.  We'll dive a little deeper into each of these topics throughout the year.

We briefly reviewed some grammar by listing the 8 parts of speech:  nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, interjections, adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions.  Every word in our language falls into one of these categories.  I think the students don't realize how much about language they really know.  Reviewing helps to bring that information forward.

We discussed the introduction to Gulliver's Travels.  In most books, introductions are written by someone other than the author of the book.  In this case, however, Swift writes an introduction in which the publisher introduces the reader to Lemuel Gulliver.  He explains the Gulliver is an "ancient and intimate friend" who owns land in Nottingham and whose father comes from a neighboring countryside.  However, this introduction is also part of Swift's fictional tale.  We discussed the effect that this introduction has on our ability to relate to Gulliver.

Next Week's Assignments:
-- Read Chapters 4 - 6
-- Answer in a paragraph or two one of the study questions from the study guide for Chapters 1 - 6.
-- Extra Credit Option:  find out if Gulliver is a real name.  Are there people in the world with that name?

Have a great week,
Mrs. Prichard