Friday, February 21, 2014

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 6 (February 20)

Greetings!

We had shortened classes at CHAT this week due to the impending blizzard.  Since I had to travel south into the "blizzard zone" after classes, I was glad to get an early start for my ride home.  Even with the shortened class, we were able to accomplish quite a a bit.  These are hard-working, conscientious students.

For our Quick Write, I asked for a favorite activity, favorite type of book, and a favorite food.  So, today we wrote about snowmobiling, Jane Austen, and Italian food.  They could either write a story or a comparison/contrast quick write.

Our Words of the Day were
factoid -- fr. Latin, factum (deed or detail) -- an unsubstantiated detail; something presented as a fact but without support
fatuous -- fr. Latin, fatuus (foolish, insipid) -- adj. meaning foolish, silly, or stupid (We also discovered that the word "infatuated" comes from the same Latin root.)
fungible -- fr. Latin functio (performance, function) -- adj. meaning exchangeable or replaceable (multi functional)
I handed back the  final copies of their Problem/Solution Essays. They all did a wonderful job.  We discussed the scores and the rubric.  These rubrics can be tools for them to use as they write their next essays.
The students are now working on Cause/Effect Essays.  The Pre-writes were due this week, and rough drafts are due next week.  As I mentioned in class, if pre-writes are handwritten, they can be kept to be used to write the rough drafts and handed in next week with the rough draft.

The assigned Short Stories for this week were all by British authors.  Though we had a shortened class time, we had enough time to discuss each of the stories.  I always find it interesting how differently they respond to the stories.  While most of the students found the short story by Dickens a little depressing, I remember a class a couple years ago who really like that story.  Go figure.
We'll read 3 stories by early American authors.  I handed out 2 worksheets; students should fill out one sheet (front and back) for one story, and one (front and back) for a second story.  The third story will not have a worksheet.

We did not have time to go over the Grammar Worksheets, but the directions are fairly clear. This week the worksheets are on appositives and subordinating clauses.  You can always contact me if you have questions, but I've also found some short video lessons that might be helpful.  If anyone has questions, feel free to send me an e-mail.
Video lessons:
Appositives -- Grammar Lesson
Complex Sentences -- Grammar Lesson 24.1
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read the following short stories:
     -- Hawthorne (p. 73); Bierce (p. 10); Poe (p. 156)
     -- Fill out 2 short story charts,
-- Write Rough Draft of Cause/Effect Essay
-- Finish Grammar Worksheets
-- Watch Grammar videos (optional)
This week's blogs
Class Notes
Have a great weekend.  Stay safe and warm!
Mrs. Prichard

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