Writing 2 Class Notes -- February 7

Greetings!

When you combine a busy schedule with being under the weather, sometimes you don't get things done as soon as you'd like.  I aim to get the Class Notes done ASAP after the class.  I hope the fact that they are a little later doesn't mess up anyone's schedule.

In honor of the caucuses which were to be held, I asked the students to write a politically-themed Quick Write.  They were to write from the following prompt:  "Dear _________ , Won't you please be our president. ..."  They could pick anyone and be either serious or funny.  As always, we enjoyed the responses.  One student even wrote asking his dad to be president.  Our Vocabulary Words came from the students; they put on the board words they thought were interesting.

I handed back the rough drafts of their most recent writing assignment which was a News Story.  I feel that our discussions about the rough drafts are the most productive.  We not only cover grammar mistakes, but our discussion about writing strategies makes more sense when you have something you've written in your hands. We took a longer time to discuss "choosing the right word."  I look forward to reading the final copies of these papers next week.

We finished the last two stories in the Sherlock Holmes book.  The consensus with the students is that these were "winnners."  They enjoyed the plots and the puzzles of the mysteries.  We also discussed the composite characterization of Holmes in the collection of stories.  Our next reading assignments will be more short stories from our  Great Short, Short Stories book.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read the following stories:
     "The  Coffin Maker" by Pushkin
     "The Three Hermits" by Tolstoy
     "A Malefactor" by Chekhov
-- Worksheets:  2 short story worksheets  and 1 themes/character worksheet
-- Final copy of Cause/Effect or Problem/Solution

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard