Thursday, October 30, 2014

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 10 (October 30)

Greetings!

We had a good class today.  We've developed a good sense of camaraderie and collaboration in this class.  

I had the students do a Quick Write today from the College Application Essay Prompts.  Our prompt today was #40 -- If you were a door to door salesperson, what would you be able to sell?  Again, the goal of the college application prompts is to help students think creatively and reflectively. 

Our Words of the Day from A Connecticut Yankee were
Shindies -- origin unknown -- a row, noisy party of people, shindig
Ambuscade -- fr. M. French, embuscade, ambush -- an ambush
Crusader -- fr. Latin crux, cross -- a fighter, normally someone who was a part of the crusades held by Christians in the early Middle Ages
Picket -- fr. French piquet, fr. M. English pik, pointed staff -- a post or stake

I handed back the rough drafts of their Extended Definition or Classification Essays.  As they make the revisions and edits, they have two other activities to accompany this.  I gave them two handouts for this:  a list of common mistakes and an essay rubric.  Both are for self-evaluation.  On the list of common mistakes, they need to highlight or mark in some way the mistakes that were in their own papers.  Using the rubric, I want them to evaluate their own final drafts of their essays.

We spent the bulk of the class time going over the list of common mistakes as I explained many of the Grammar rules related to this list.

I showed a video that was a spoken word presentation about words, conviction, and the tendency of today's society to end declarative sentences with that little lift of the voice that makes it a questions.  Though it had a humorous bent, it encouraged people to speak boldly about their convictions.

During the final minutes of class, they worked together on a short quiz for A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  Next week we will have our "Final Exam," a baseball game.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Final Draft of Extended Definition or Classification Essay
-- Highlight or mark items on the list of common mistakes
-- Complete the self-evaluation using the rubric
-- Complete the Parallel Structure Worksheet (using the handout for reference)
-- Bring any outstanding assignments related to the A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

This week's links:
Class Notes

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard

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