I thought I might have to swim to school yesterday. Later in the afternoon we watched it rain so hard that the parking lot was flooded. Hopefully all are safe and dry.
Our Quick Write today was inspired by the trivia question on the board at Caribou Coffee this morning: Who said, "Question everything"? (Socrates) I gave the students a number of choices: Write something all in questions; write a "Bucket List" of questions; respond to the quote. As responses, students asked what the meaning of life was and something about a woodchuck! I also showed the students a presentation by a spoken word artist, Taylor Mali, titled "Conviction." He speaks about that trend to end sentences so that they sound like questions; he also encourages students to speak (and write) with conviction and authority.
The Words of the Day were:
frenzy -- fr. Middle English -- a state or period of uncontrollable excitement or behavior
hauberks -- fr. Middle English/Old French/Frankish -- a long defensive shirt extending to the knees
smote -- fr. Middle English/ Old English -- to strike or hit with hands or a weapon
Following our beginning of class activities, the students took the Pre-Test for our Parts of Speech unit. The bulk of this test asked them to identify the various parts of speech (interjections, verbs, adjectives, nouns, conjunctions, adverbs, prepositions, and pronouns) within sentences. This test will be our baseline that we will compare to the Post-Test that they will take after they've given their presentations.
Next week we start our Parts of Speech presentations. Below is the schedule for each week:
Week 5 (9/24) -- Nouns (Hannah, Shay, Ian)
Week 6 (10/1) -- Pronouns (Christopher, Savannah, Megan)
Week 7 (10/8) -- Adjectives (Nicole, Andrew, Lukel)
Week 8 (10/22) -- Adverbs (Chader, Ted, Darren)
Week 9 (10/29) -- Verbs (Corey, Abby, Faith)
Week 10 (11/5) -- Prepositions (Rachel, Anna)
Week 11 (11/12) -- Conjunctions (Katelyn, KC, Danielle)
Week 12 (11/19) -- Interjections (Simon, Nick, Jack)
Week 13 (12/3) -- Review
Week 14 (12/10) -- Parts of Speech Test
The final drafts of the Personal Commentary Essay were due today. I had forgotten to mention to the students that I also want them to hand in the corrected rough drafts along with the final drafts. Some of them brought them, and others did not. For this essay, it's OK either way. Going forward, I will remind them to hand in both drafts. I like to see how they made corrections and revised their own work.
Our next essay is a Process Essay. Students may choose practical, every day processes (i.e. baking a cake, getting ready for school, driving a car); they may also choose broader or more abstract topics (i.e. how to be diligent, how to make a good impression) A challenging aspect of any essay is coming up with an effective thesis statement that directs and gives structure to the essay. I've included on the blog some links to websites specifically discuss thesis statements with process essays; it also has a couple of videos about writing thesis statements.
We've reached the part in our book, A Connecticut Yankee, in which Hank Morgan is on his quest with Sandy. Mark Twain is a genius with his verbal wit, and I took some time to read aloud a couple of sections.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Write the Rough Draft of the Process Essay
-- Prepare your Parts of Speech presentation
-- Read Chapters 20 - 13 of ACY
-- Answer 3 Study Guide questions; fill in 5 Vocabulary words
Links for this Week:
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
No comments:
Post a Comment