We are just one week from the end of a great semester. Unfortunately, this last week was 1/2 an hour shorter than usual because I was late for class due to traffic on the roads the day after the snow storm.
When I got to the class, I found not only the Quick Write that Mrs. Nelson wrote for me, but a list that the class put together regarding who was in charge. On most days, whenever I leave the room, I usually put someone in charge of the classroom, another in charge of the first person in charge, and a third person to evaluate how it all went. Since I had not yet gotten to school, they put their own order into place. What a great group of kids!
For the Quick Write, I asked the students to write about their Thanksgiving Days using 10 different adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs. From their writings, we chose some of their favorite word choices to use for our Words of the Day. Here's the list of the words: copious, mangled, frozen, thankful, contemplation, grateful, tart, Winkelman, quirky. We had a discussion about these words and how they could be changed into other parts of speech.
Following this discussion, we went into the paragraphs they had written from paragraphs of John Steinbeck's from the Grapes of Wrath. They all got a chance to read their paragraphs, and it was fascinating to hear how they rewrote these passages. Some were more descriptive and others were less. We even had a couple of Shakespearean-styled passages. We had a great discussion about words and how they affect the mood and meaning.
I handed back to the students their rough drafts of their Comparison/Contrast Essays. We discussed briefly some of the common errors. In the early days of the class, I did a lot of editing of their essays. As we progress through the various essays, they will do more of that editing themselves.
Next week is our last week for the semester. The class will be 1/2 final exam and 1/2 party. For the exam part,the students should review the Words of the Day for the past 14 weeks. They can find those on the blog and on past e-mails. For the party part, they are to bring some Christmas poetry or reading. These do not need to be original works. We will use them to entertain one another. The may also bring treats if they like.
Assignments for Next Week
-- Final Copy of Comparison/Contrast Essay
-- Review Words of the Day
-- Review Words of the Day
-- Bring a Christmas poem of short reading to share with the class.
-- Bring treats, opt.
If you haven't signed up for next semester, and are planning to, contact CHAT. I will be ordering books for next semester soon.
This week's blog
Class Notes
Have a great weekend. See you on Thursday!
Mrs. Prichard
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