We had a good class this week. Even though they wanted to play "Funglish" again, we began the class with a Quick Write. The writing prompt was "If I could have a role on a TV program, I would be on ______ because ______ ." Also, as part of our beginning of class activities, I'm also introducing well-known Latin words and phrases. I've done this in the past, but haven't done it yet this year. This week's Latin words were deus ex machina (God out of the machine -- a literary technique that employs impossible solutions so that stories end well), Deus vobiscum (God be with you) and Deus Misereatur (May God have mercy -- the title for Psalm 67)
Regarding Grammar, since my aim is that we become masters of the comma this semester, we discussed Restrictive (Essential) and Nonrestrictive (Nonessential) clauses. Commas are used for nonrestrictive clauses or phrases which are groups of words that can be omitted from a sentence and not change the basic meaning. The students were given a worksheet with practice sentences for their homework.
Because we are reading about Sherlock Holmes, I wanted to test their observation skills. Before class began, I asked another student, Inga, to come in and give me an important note (which actually was a blank piece of paper). We spoke a few words, and she left. At the start of our literature discussion, I quizzed the students on how much they observed. Because is was an out-of-the-ordinary situation, they had been close attention. Turning our attention to our two short stories for today, "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Red-Headed League," we discussed the characterization of Sherlock Holmes as given by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Part of the writing discussion this semester will center on "style." The basic building blocks of good essays are well-constructed sentences. We'll talk about word choices and various ways to form sentences for different effects. To get us to think a little harder this week, we "unpacked" a quote from Gertrude Stein, "Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?" We discussed various ways to re-write that sentence and how rewriting it slightly changed the nuances of its meaning.
The students are to be working on their rough drafts for the Problem/Solution Essays. They should be prepared to hand in their prewrites along with the rough drafts next week.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" & "The Engineer's Thumb"
-- From the Study Guide, answer 3 questions for each story.
-- From the 2 stories, choose a total of 8 vocabulary words. Give the word origins and definitions.
-- Complete the worksheet on Restrictive/Nonrestrictive Clauses
-- Rough draft of the Problem/Solution Essay
Blogs for this week:
-- Class Notes
Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard
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