We had a good second week of classes. We're getting to know one another, and I'm enjoying this group of students.
Our Quick Write this week was inspired by the State Fair, also known as "The Great Minnesota Get Together." I asked the students to either write about the fair or about some other favorite "get together." I always tell students that if they ever draw a blank with the prompt, they can write whatever they would like.
I had three students select our Words of the Day from their vocabulary lists from A Connecticut Yankee (ACY) Our words were:
forsooth -- fr. Ole English, sooth, truth -- truly, verily (a comment or response)
morion -- fr. Old French & Spanish morro, round -- an open helmet from 16th/17th century
nettle -- fr.Old English, netele, stinging plant -- to irritate or provoke
The students are to keep a list of these words because there will be a quiz at the end of the semester to see what they can remember.
I collected homework, and we discussed any questions that they might have with any of the homework. The rough drafts for the Personal Essays were due this week. If a student is ever not able to hand in an assignment in class, they can e-mail it in.
I introduced our Parts of Speech Unit. Students received a handout explaining the unit and a planning worksheet. I spent this week and will do a quick review next week of the primary definitions of the 8 parts of speech (interjections, verbs, adverbs, nouns, conjunctions, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions). Next week the students will take a brief pre-test. The following weeks, the students will teach one another more specifics about their assigned parts of speech. For this unit, students will do some research in order to learn more and then come up with a lesson, an activity, and homework
The Parts of Speech assignments are:
Interjections -- Simon, Nick, Jack
Verbs -- Corey, Abby, Faith
Adverbs -- Hannah, Shay, Ian
Nouns -- Chader, Ted, Darren
Conjunctions -- Katelyn, KC, Danielle
Adjectives -- Nicole, Andrew, Luke
Prepositions -- Christopher, Savannah, Megan
Pronouns -- Rachel, Anna
We had a good discussion about our book, A Connecticut Yankee in Kin Arthur's Court by Mark Twain (ACY). For those of you parents who have not read this book, the main character, Hank, is hit on the head and wakes up in Camelot with King Arthur. A lot of the attraction of this book is the verbal humor that Twain uses. Another key aspect to pay attention to is the way in which Twain comments on issues of his time through the lens of the 6th century.
Another note about the book. Some students are stronger auditory learners, and hearing the book is really helpful. I've included on the class blog a post with links to some audio versions.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Chapters 7 - 14 of ACY
-- Answer 4 Study Questions
-- Fill in 8 Vocabulary Words in the worksheet
-- Review the Parts of Speech handout
Links for this week:
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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