Greetings!
We had a good second class. I'm enjoying getting to know the students. Our Quick Write
was food related. The students could choose one of two options: 1)
Write about your favorite meal; 2) Come up with a recipe for "Elephant
Stew." Usually I have the students write for 5 - 7 minutes. I also
include Vocabulary Builders from time to time. This week we had
the words "masticate" (to grind or crush with teeth for swallowing),
"gastronomical" (good eating, culinary culture), and "repast" (a meal).
When I introduce words, I also like to look at the roots of words and
other related words. One of my goals for the class is to expand their
vocabulary.
We discussed the rough drafts for the Personal Essays.
We discussed out to narrow a general subject to a more specific topic;
we also discussed how a thesis statement is a sentence about your topic
in which
you take a stand or express an opinion. The students handed in the
rough drafts, and I will go over them and hand them back next week. I
gave them advance notice that they should expect to find lots of red
marks and comments.
Today's Grammar discussion centered on the 8 parts of speech:
verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions
and interjections. Every word in our English language falls into one of
these categories. Some words perform different "jobs" in sentences.
We took a longer portion of the class to discuss our book, My Antonia by
Willa Cather. The students were to read the Introduction and part of
Book 1 (up to page 23). We discussed the challenges of immigrants. The
introduction serves as a "frame," a literary device that sets the stage
for the rest of the book. A couple of students have read ahead and are
enjoying the book. I am looking forward to good, insightful
discussions.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read pages 24 - 47 of My Antonia
-- Write a paragraph about a childhood memory.
-- For extra credit, a paragraph about a second memory may be written.
-- Find out where Bohemia and Black Hawk, Nebraska are.
As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
Have a great week and enjoy the wonderful fall weather!
Mrs. Prichard
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