Writing 2 Class Notes -- January 31

Greetings!

We had another good class today.  The students were bright, alert, and engaged.  The Quick Write was titled "For the Cause."  I asked the students to think about a cause about which they were passionate (or to make up one) and to write what they would do to further that cause.  (Our family had just watched The Help and was touched by the message of the movie.)

For our Vocabulary Exercises, the students looked up synonyms for the word "investigate" since that is what Sherlock Holmes does best.  We also discussed antonyms and came up with a variety of options. 

The students were assigned 2 more stories about Sherlock Holmes.  Judging from the lively discussion, the students are enjoying these stories.  We discussed the plot with its twists and turns.  We also discussed the concept of "story" and "plot" and how important are the events that happen outside of the written story.  We'll read the last 2 stories for next week.  For one of the stories, I'd like the students to keep track of clues that they find in the story.

The students handed in their rough drafts of their Cause/Effect or Problem/Solution Essays. I look forward to reading them.  They continue to grow as thinkers and writers.

We discussed some of the finer points of punctuation during our writing discussion.  I've told them that I'm on a mission to make them pros at using commas, etc.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read "Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House."
-- For one of the stories, underline or make a list of the clues which Sherlock Holmes will need to solve the case.
-- Make a list of 10 specific character descriptions of Sherlock Holmes found in the short stories.

Another blog entry with web resources.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard