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