Writing 2 Class Notes -- November 28

Greetings!

Again, another productive class.  Have I mentioned how much I enjoy teaching this group of students?

With our Thanksgiving Dinners fresh in our minds, the Quick Write was titled "Eat Your Words."  I had the students list 10 verbs, 10 adverbs, and 10 adjectives that were related to their eating experience.  From all of the gobbling, slurping, munching, and "scarfing" involved, you all must have had a pretty good dinner.

They handed in their Rough Drafts of their Extended Definition or Classification Essays.  I look forward to reading them.  Any papers that were not handed in at class time should be sent before Sunday.

As maturing writers, our Grammar discussion has to move beyond simple sentence structures.  Most students are reading, talking, and thinking in complex sentences.  The challenge is getting our writing skills to catch up with what's in our heads.  Just because a brilliant, complicated idea pops into our heads does not necessarily mean that it's grammatically correct.  We discussed phrases this week and will continue next week.  I had the students take notes and copy the chart I had on the board.  Hopefully, by engaging in the 4 primary learning modalities (visual, auditory, tactile, kinesthetic) as well as have a lot of participation, this information will "stick" a little better.   This week we looked specifically at prepositional phrases (especially how they function as adjectives and adverbs), participial phrases and gerund phrases (both verbals).  Verbal phrases often trip up writers, so I want to make sure they have a good understanding.  They have a worksheet on Participial Phrases as homework.

We're now reading some American Poetry.  Since we'd taken a lot of time for our grammar, we didn't have as much time for the poetry.  We read aloud and discussed Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing."  I've posted this poem on the blog so you can read it, too.  This is a great "American" poem about hard work and individuality.  It's also wonderfully metaphorical in the way it makes us combine images of occupations with the idea of songs.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Stave 4

-- Write out answers to at least 2 study questions.  Extra questions may be done for extra credit

-- Write definitions and word roots for at least 5 vocabulary words.  Extras may be done.

-- Finish Participial worksheet.

-- Read the following poems

     Emily Dickinson

          Because I could not stop for Death'

          Death sets a thing significant'

          Hope is the thing with feathers'

          I died for beauty'

          If I can stop one heart from breaking'

          I'm nobody! Who are you?'

          My life closed twice before its close'

          Success is counted sweetest'

          There is no frigate like a book'

          This is my letter to the world'

-- For five of the poems:
          Write the meaning for each poem in one or two sentences.
          Note any symbols or images that contribute to the meaning of the poem.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard