We had a full class this week. I'm always amazed at how quickly that hour and a half goes. Ideally, I try to divide the class into three equal sections: writing, literature, and grammar. Some days we concentrate more on one area than the other, and the time is always full and productive.
Because Wednesday was William Carlos Williams' birthday (and I realize that I am one of the few in the world who even noticed/cared), we commemorated the day with a salute to his poem, "The Red Wheel Barrow." For the Quick Write, I asked the students to think of a common, everyday item and then to write a poem about it. A couple of students shared their poetry with the class; those who didn't want to recite their poems had the option to have it added to the class blog. I'll type those in this weekend.
Our Words of the Day were once again from our book, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (ACY). Jesse, David, Nathan, and Caroline volunteered words this week:
Usufruct: (fr. Latin usus, use, n + fructus, fruit,n) -- the right to enjoy the use of something that belongs to someone elseUndulatory: (fr. undulatus, wave) -- having the appearance or effect of wavesVesuvius: the volcano in SW Italy the erupted and destroyed PompeiiRapacious: (fr. Latin rapere, to seize) -- inordinately greedy
The students handed in their final drafts of the Personal Essays. I will grade these and be ready to hand them back next week. Some students forgot their rough drafts; if it's possible to scan these and e-mail them to me, that would be great. If not, that's OK. I like to have the rough drafts so that I can see what changes were made and how carefully the essay was revised. For these first essays of the year I do a lot of modelling of how to correct sentences. As the year progresses, I will mark sentences/phrases as needing correction, and the students will make the revisions.
The next essay is a Process Essay. These are to be essays about any kind of process and must include a thesis (topic + opinion). They can write about common everyday processes or about more complex, abstract topics. This does not need to be researched, so it should be something about which they have some familiarity. The rough drafts of this essay are due next week.
We used the study guide questions to lead us in our discussion of ACY. Our Yankee, Hank, is currently questing with the loquacious Sandy; we discussed the quest, Morgan le Fay, magic, and the propensity of the people of Camelot to lie. For next week, they should read Chapters 20 - 24, write out answers to 3 study guide questions, and choose 5 vocabulary words.
Last week our Grammar discussions focused on the errors found in the rough drafts. This week we took time to discuss sentence structures, including the necessary punctuation. One of the most common mistakes that I correct in my students's writing is the missing comma in a compound sentence. The following examples may look like a secret code to some, but the students will know what it means:
Simple Sentence: S-V or S &S - V or S-V & VCompound sentence: S-V, fanboys S-VComplex sentence: Sub Clause, S-V of S-V sub clause
They should complete the packet on Sentence Structures for next week.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Write the rough draft of the Process Essay
-- Read Chapters 20 - 23 of ACY
-- Answer 3 study guide questions and choose 5 vocabulary words
-- Complete Sentence worksheets.
This week's blogs:
Class Notes
Conjunction Junction video
Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard
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