Writing 2 Class Notes -- March 6

Greetings!

We had an enjoyable class this week.  The first signs of spring often invigorate us and give us fresh energy for the tasks at hand.  (That is, until the change in weather makes us antsy to be done with all school work!)

Our Quick Write for this week was this:  “BREAKING NEWS:  Mrs. Prichard’s writing class has a bad case of ………”  The students must have felt inspired because they took a bit of time to finish their writing.  I also tested to see if they knew a bit of trivial information about this past Sunday.  None of them knew that the day was an “imperative” (“March forth.”) or that it was National Grammar Day.  I suppose those are details that writing teachers are more aware of.

We discussed out three short stories assigned for this week: “Dr. Heidigger’s Experiment” by Nathaniel Hawthorne; “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allen Poe; and “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce.  In each of the stories, readers are challenged regarding what they think really happened.  As we discussed each story, we needed to go back into the text looking for details to support what we think transpired.  Did the old people in Hawthorne’s story really return to their youth or did they just think that they did?  Was the episode with Fortunato literal or metaphorical?  At what point does the plot and sequence of events in Bierce’s story make sense?  When students especially enjoy a story, we’re able to discuss the specific artful style of that particular writer.

In our writing portion of the class, we worked on editing a sample of bad writing.  Being able to recognize and correct poor writing is a skill that will help them in editing their own work.  Every sentence in the paragraph that we looked at needed so much help that we found it hard to figure out the content and meaning that the writer intended.  Often when writing for ourselves, we struggle to put into words our particular thoughts and insights.   

The students have handed in their Evaluation Essay rough drafts.  I will correct them and have them ready next week.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read the four short stories – Harte (p. 64); Twain (p. 175)

Jewett (p. 87); Crane (p. 34)

-- For one story, fill out both a “Themes” and a “Setting” worksheet.

-- For another story, fill out a “The Short Story” worksheet.

      -- These worksheets are attached, are on Dropbox, and can be found on the blog.

--  Write 1 bad paragraph at least 5 sentences long.  E-mail these to me before Monday morning.  I will use them with Writing 1 for editing practice.  (I’m having other students write paragraphs for the Writing 2 class to edit.)

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard