Writing 2: Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 24)

Greetings!

We had a great class yesterday. Beginning our class with a Quick Write, we celebrated William Shakespeare's birthday (a day late) with our own stories about "star crossed overs." I asked them to be creative about pairing 2 unlikely candidates. Of the stories, we had a clever, pun-filled account of a relationship between a stone wall and a window.

Our Words of the Day came from a book of common sayings and their origins. The phrases we looked at this week were:

"Great Scott!" -- an exclamation taken from Winfield Scott, a general of the Mexican War and an arrogant, pompous presidential candidate opposing Franklin Pierce.

"Hat in the ring" -- a phrase that means to join a political race, taken from Ringstrasse, a city center in Vienna that was a gathering place for those politically involved in the city. Gentlemen would be visible because of their hats.

"Hobnob" -- to socially mix with those of a higher class taken from the old English word that means "to give and receive." People would gather at pubs and offer toasts to one another.

"Kit and Caboodle" -- the whole collection of things, taken from a set of tools/objects (kit) and personal items (fr. Dutch boodle)

Students handed in their Evaluation Final Drafts today, along with their self-evaluations. I had asked the students to use the same rubric that I use to grade/score the papers. Our next essay is a Re-Write of one of the essays that they've written for this class this year. They might want to choose a paper that they feel needs improving or a favorite essay that they would like to work more on.

We had a a good amount of time to talk through some of our Poetry selections. Those who had taken Writing 1, remember our class discussion about William Carlos Williams's short poem, "The Red Wheelbarrow." While it may seem an insignificant poem, I've always enjoyed unpacking it with students. We also looked at Carl Sandburg's poem, "Chicago," and Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Less Traveled." We had a wonderful discussion about the ways we take the unconventional paths in life.

We're winding down our semester of classes, and part of our next two classes will be our "Poetry Jam." Combining the ideas of a poetry slam (a competition featuring original poems) and Poetry Out Loud (a competition featuring pre-selected poems) students will read or recite poems for the class. James Stephenson, a Writing 1 student, set up a bracket for us to use. I've divided the students into teams (please remember your number!). They are to bring 1 - 2 poems next week. We will take time for some team collaboration before starting.

We ran out of time to discuss the Reflection Paper that I would like them to write. Next week, as the class's Quick Write, I will be asking them to take a longer time to write about what they've learned about writing and about themselves as writers this year. I would like each student to take some time before class time to brainstorm their ideas about this topic. If they would like, they can write some notes or compose a kind of prewrite that they can use to answer this. I'm attaching a link to a scholarly article about the value of reflection as part of the learning process.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Essay Re-write

-- Select 1 - 2 poems

-- Reflection paper brainstorming

This week's links:

Class Notes

Improving Learning through Reflection

William Carlos Williams information