General Comments about Grades for Spring, 2013

General Comments

The grades have been sent out for the Spring semester.  I've divided the scores into 4 categories:  Writing, Literature, Grammar, and a Combined Score.  Sometimes a student is stronger, or weaker, in one area, so it helps to know the breakdown of the scores.  As I've said before, these grades are suggestions for you as homeschoolers.  Writing is a challenging subject to grade.   As homeschooling parents, you know that  some children are "naturals" in an area while others put a lot of extra time and effort in order to achieve the same results.  Sometimes a high score means quality and sometimes it means quantity.

I've thoroughly enjoyed this class this year.  We had a good sense of community, and I believe we learned a lot.  I hope to see many of you next year in Writing 3!

Missing Assignments and Links

As I'm going over my record book, I'm finding that a few are missing assignments.  In order to help, I've got a list of some of the assignments with links to the blog posts with the specifics of the assignments.

Week 2  Questions for RedHeaded League

Week 2 Rest/Nonrestr Worksheet

Week 3 Prob/Solution RD

Week 3 Quest Speckled Band & Engineer’s Thumb

      Study Guide

Week 3 8 Dfn from Sherlock Holmes

Week 4 Sentence Rewrite

Week 4 Good2Bad Sentences

Week 4 Sherlock Holmes Final

Week 5 Problem/Solution Final

Week 5 Thesis statement

Week 5 5 Corrections

Week 5 Short Story Worksheets

Week 7 Cause/Effect RD

Week 7 Series Comma worksheet

Week 8 Short Story Worksheets

Week 9 Cause/Effect Final

Week 9 Short Story Worksheets

Week 10 College Essay

Week 11 College Essay

Week 11 Master the Comma

Week 13 Evaluation Finalvv

Week 13 Evaluation Thesis & 5 Corrections

Week 13 Reverse Outline

Week 13 Writing Test

Week 13 Grammar Test

Week 13 Thesis Statement & 5 Corrections

Week 14 Rewrite

Week 14 Rewrite Thesis Statement

Week 14 What I’ve learned

Week 15 Final Reflection

Links for the Short Story Worksheets:

Characters

The Short Story

Themes

Setting

Writing 2 Class Notes -- January 16 (Week 1)

Greetings!

We're back at it again!  It was good to see the students again.  They are such a great group of kids.  For those new to my classes, I write a weekly class update after each class.  Usually, I try to do it on Wednesday.  Unfortunately, I returned home from classes not feeling too well; I'm just now getting back on track.

Usually we begin each class with a Quick Write.  Since I had gotten a new game for Christmas, Funglish, we played that.  This game is a vocabulary guessing game that uses adjectives as clues.  After a couple of rounds, the class got the hang of it, and we had a hearty game.  Anytime I can get my students to think creatively and intentionally about words, I count it as a success.

The students received fresh syllabi for this semester. As you can see, we'll be reading from Sherlock Holmes mysteries, short stories from a variety of authors, and American poetry.  They will be writing 3 fresh essays and will re-write an essay of their choosing.  Our grammar focus for this semester is punctuation.  (Many of the marks I make on their rough drafts have to do with the misplaced or forgotten comma.)

To begin our discussion of the Sherlock Holmes stories, we looked at background information about the author and mystery stories, and the Holmes stories in general.  After reading the first two stories in the book, they are to answer questions from the study guide for "The Red-Headed League."

Our first grammar lesson (link to the blog) for the semester dealt with commas and compound sentences.  Hopefully, by the end of the semester they will be "masters" of the comma.  They have a worksheet due next week.


The first essay assigned for this semester is a Problem/Solution Essay.  For this week, they're to work on their pre-writes.  Pre-writing activity includes any brainstorming needed before they start writing the rough draft.  This can also include an outline or mind map; this is also a good time to do any research.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Red-Headed League"
-- Answer 4 questions from the study guide to "The Red-Headed League."
-- Week 1 Grammar worksheet on commas 
-- Pre-write for the Problem/Solution Essay.

Blogs for this week:
Syllabus
Good Detective Story
Characterization in Holmes stories
Grammar Lesson
Grammar Worksheet
Problem/Solution Essay

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- May 8 (Week 15 -- Final Class)

Greetings!

Well, we're done with another wonderful year of writing.  I've had a great 2 semesters teaching these hardworking students.  For our last class together, we had a little more fun than work.

For our Quick Write, the students were told to write a "There is" sentence.  All year we've discussed how sentences using this kind of construction are weak and wordy.  "Lame," as a student from another class called them.  Once they had a sentence written, they handed their papers to the person on the right who would write another "there is" sentence to continue the story.  We did this 4 times.  My favorite set of sentences was:

1. There is anger in Mrs. Prichard because I just use the phrase "there is."
2. There is anger in Mrs. Prichard because I just used the phrase "there is" because I could.
3. There will be fire in Mrs. Prichard's eyes because we have all used the phrase "there is" multiple times.
4. There might be a clown, Mrs. Prichard's dad, in the class today.

Our next activity for the day was a "Rhyme Off."  Like a spelling bee, we went around the class coming up with sentences that rhymed with a given word.  If they couldn't think of any or repeated a word, they had to sit down.  Due to the clues and extra time given, it really wasn't very competitive.

Our last activity of the day was our Final Exam, which looked an awful lot like a Bingo Game.  The students brought prizes to add to the ones that I had.  (Our town has a HUGE booksale in April, and on the last day, you can get a bag of books for $5.  All of my prizes came from that sale.)  They each had 2 cards with titles, authors, grammatical and writing terms, and punctuation marks.  I would give clues, and as a class they would give the answer.  Since I limited the prizes to 3 a piece, they could trade/steal prizes from classmates.  As always, some items were more sought after and others were quickly abandoned.

As I've said, I've had a great time teaching this class.  I will have grades out within the next few days.  I'd like to direct you to a blog post that I wrote after the first semester.  This gives my thoughts on grading.  

Next year I will again be teaching Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3 -- Research and Writing (fall semester), British Literature (spring semester) and a new class, Latin I.  You can find descriptions and schedule on the CHAT website.  I hope to see many of you again!

This week's blog

Have a great summer!

Mrs. Prichard

The Value of Reflection Papers

I've asked my students from my classes this year to write an end-of-the-year paper that will cause them to reflect on their classes and on themselves as students.  They groaned a bit because  they realized they would have to put some deliberate thought into this assignment.  

I thought I'd give some of my thoughts about reflective work that students can do in order to be more effective learners.  Reflection, put simply, is looking back and thinking about what you've done, where you've been, what activities you've been involved in, and what you've learned.  It's taking time to allow think about the information you've learned and your performance as a student.  When students take time to "think about their thinking," it affects their retention and enables them in future studies.

How does this happen?  Firstly, when a student is forced (at least that's how if might feel to him) to take stock of what he's learned and how he's learned, he owns his education to a greater degree.  He not only has learned stuff, but he's aware that he's learned it.  He also might be more aware of how he learned it.  Secondly, being reflective helps them in future classes.  The more a student is aware of how he learns, the better he will learn new material.  According to Republic Polytechnic in Singapore, "Learning is not just a process of accumulation of information. Instead it is about how the new knowledge that the learner encounters is integrated with his existing schemata of prior knowledge ... Reflective thinking is not only an organic component in the learning cycle, it is simultaneously the very ground from which knowledge and belief spring.  Reflective thinking, in short, is both process and product."

Other thoughts about reflection:
1.  Reflection helps turn an experience or academic information into genuine learning.  It's crucial for integrating material in a real way.
2.  Reflection helps a student assess his own goals, values, and progress.
3.  Reflection can help improve basic academic skills; it promotes a deeper understanding of the class materials and its relations to the rest of the world.
4.  Reflection papers force a student into higher level thinking by causing them to look at his own personal development, sense of self-awareness, and capacities.
5.  The writing process itself often brings new ideas to mind.

Writing 2 Class Notes -- May 1 (Week 14)

Greetings!

We're at on the home stretch for CHAT classes.  Next week is our last week.  Since we haven't had any snow days for our classes, we'll be done on schedule.  This week's Quick Write was:  (the person on your right) wants me to __________ , but (the person on my left) thinks I should ______ .....

Our Latin Phrases were:

Domino, dirige nos -- Lord, direct us (the motto for London)

Domino illuminatio mea -- The Lord is my light

Domino optimo maximo -- The Lord, best and greatest (the motto for Oxford University)

Domino vobiscum -- The Lord be with you

I handed back their final drafts of their News Stories.  Again, they've done a great job on their essays.  They each improve with every set of papers.  I also handed back the Grammar Test which focused on commas, our primary grammar topic for the semester.  They handed in their take home Writing Test which I will grade and give back next week.  

This week the students were to prepare a piece of Poetry to recite for the class.  They could choose one from our book, something written by another poet, or write one themselves. They each did a wonderful job.  I know that poetry is not a favorite of theirs, but they've been troopers.  Someday they'll believe that it's good for them.  

Next week, we'll have a "final exam" in the form of a Bingo Game.  I'd like each one to bring a prize for the game.  It can be a white elephant, candy, or something from the dollar section.  I'll bring plenty of prizes for them next week.

They have one final writing assignment for this class.  I would like them to write a Reflection Paper about their time in this class:  "Describe yourself as a student in my class."  They should include thoughts about their likes/dislikes, strengths/weaknesses, and accomplishments. I'd like them to think about their roles as readers, writers, and class participants. They can comment about what they've learned and what they would have like to have learned.  Finally, I would like them to tell me what grade they think they should get and why.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Find a Bingo Prize

-- Write a Reflection Paper

This week's blogs:

Class Notes

Rumor is that the Cities are snow-free, while we have almost 7 inches in Northfield.  This weather is simply amazing!!

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard