Writing 2 Class Notes -- November 15

Greetings!

We had a great class yesterday.  I really enjoy that they stay so well-engaged for a 90 minute class. 

Our Quick Write for today was created with their help.  Using my husband's storytelling abilities as inspiration, I asked them to give me four first names, four animals, and four adjectives.  With that information, they wrote stories about a squishy sloth named Bob and a fast platypus named Alex.

Our Vocabulary Activity was a mix of "Scrabble," "Bananagrams," and their literature assignments.  We built a Scrabble-like form making words that we could use in a sentence to discuss Gulliver's Travels.

We finished Gulliver's Travels, and I think the students are glad to be done.  As I've said before, the beginning of the book was fun and light-hearted, but the last two adventures were more serious.  Swift had some serious statements to make against many mindsets and attitudes of the current English culture.  In our last discussion, we discussed Gulliver's hypocrisy and the faults of the Houyhnhnms.  Next week I'll give a final and we'll play baseball

Since we had discussed at the length the next essay assignment (a Comparison/Contrast paper), we took a short time to review the specifics of this paper. 

CHAT doesn't have classes next week due to Thanksgiving.  That means only three weeks left in our semester:  November 29, December 6 and December 13.

Next Assignments:
-- Prepare for the final and "game"
-- Read the short story "Berties Christmas."
-- Write rough draft of Comparison/Contrast Essay.

Enjoy your family and the Thanksgiving holiday!
Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- November 8

Greetings!

What a great group of students!  I especially enjoy the measure of cohesiveness and collegiality to which they've come.  We have good, insightful discussions.  Occasionally they interrupt because they have something important they can't wait to contribute to the class or chat too much between themselves.  If you ever walk by my room and hear single, double, or triple claps, it's because I'm doing something I learned from a director of a grade school.  When the students were gathered for all-school gatherings, she would quietly stand at the front and say, "If you can hear my voice clap once ... if you can hear my voice clap twice ... clap three times."  Without raising her voice, she got their attention and then quieted 180 kids.

For some reason, the some students found the Quick Write a bit difficult.  Entitled "Mama's Soup Surprise," they were required to write 12 sentences about food -- 4 facts, 4 opinions, 4 lies.  Here's a link to the Nancy Cassidy song:  Mama's Soup Surprise

No Vocabulary Words this week.  I have a fun activity for next week, though!

We were briefly interrupted by some wild turkeys outside our door.  I allowed a couple students to go after them.

The students handed in their Final Copies of their Extended Definition/ Classification Essays. I l look forward to reading them.  They're doing a great job editing and revising their papers.  Our next paper assignment is a Comparison/Contrast Essay.  We took a long time to go over the difference between a report and an essay.  In an essay like this, students are not to only list similarities and differences but are do it in a manner as to promote a position or stand.  We worked through a couple of examples and especially went over how to develop a thesis statement.  Here's the "equation" that I gave them:

    main topic/subject
+  position/stand/opinion
    thesis statement

We spent the last part of our class discussing Gulliver's Travels.  We discussed Gulliver's discussion of wars, the English legal system, health care, and lawyers.  In the book, he's trying to explain such things to the virtuous race of horses who never lie, steal or express any unkindness.  We tried an experiment:  I pretended to be "Aunt Bea" from the Andy Griffith series and asked them to try to explain the internet to me.  They found putting common, everyday terms in language that someone from the 1950's would understand.  We will finish the book next week.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Part IV, Chapters 9 - 12 of Gulliver's Travels
-- Bring in any final Baseball questions
-- Pre-Writing for Comparison/ Contrast Essay.  Bring something you can hand in!

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- November 1

Greetings!

A brief recap of our class today --

Quick Write:  Write sentences with alliteration (repetition of beginning sounds)

Vocabulary: Write as many synonyms as you can for the following words:  wealth, conversation, little, big.

I left the room for a moment, leaving Korie, Daniel, and Josh O. in charge.  While I was out, the students chose to write their sentences with alliteration on the board.  This class is a creative group!

Extended Definition and Classification Essay Rough Drafts
I handed back the rough drafts for the current assignment.  As I usually do, we went over common problems.
Some notable items:
-- numbers:  write out in words numbers 100 or under; use figures for larger numbers, dollar amounts, decimals, or to be consistent in form
-- 1 inch paragraphs and indent 1/2 inch for first lines of the paragraphs
-- parallel constructions (see link 1 or link 2)
-- avoid using the generic word "things;" find a more accurate word
-- no contractions
-- commas with dates
-- the difference between then (an adverb) and than (a conjunction used in comparisons)
-- conclusions:  sum up and reassert the thesis in the conclusion; don't add extra information
-- introductions:  lead your readers into your topic, state your opinion about the topic, give a road map for the body

Gulliver's Travels
We are now in the last adventure of the book in which Gulliver finds himself in a land of talking horses who rule human-like characters called "Yahoos."  I have the 1996 version of the movie which stays pretty close to the book.  We watched a short portion that pertains to this week's reading assignment.  We are on the home stretch with this book, and I think the students have mixed feelings about this piece of literature.  Parts have been great fun; others have been more challenging.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Chapters 5 - 8 of Part IV
-- Look over the study questions for this section; you don't need to write
-- Write 2 - 3 baseball questions for this section
-- Finish the final copy of the assigned essays

They say it might snow this weekend.  Time to find that box of boots, hats, and mittens.
Mrs. Prichard