Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 9 (October 29)

Greetings!

We had a great class this week.  I always enjoy the discussions with this group of students.

The Quick Write last week was "Confined to the Couch."  The students were to write what they would do if they were stuck on a couch somewhere for 24 hours.  What would they want to have with them.  This week, we had a similar prompt.  Because October 28 was International Internet Day, I asked the students to write about what they would do on a computer, especially the internet, for a whole day.  Their responses were of mix of social media, Netflix, music, games, and photos.

Our Words of the Day:

noisome -- fr. Middle English noy (a variant of annoy) -- offensive or disgusting, as an odor  

gaudiest -- fr. Latin, gaudere, "to rejoice" -- brilliant or excessively showy

sapient -- fr. Latin, sapiens, "wise"  -- having or showing great wisdome

I collected the rough drafts of the Extended Definition and Classification Essays.  For those students who were gone or who didn't have the essay done, please e-mail it to me when it is finished.  I will have the essays back to them next week for them for revisions.

Our next item on the agenda was the Presentation on Verbs by Faith, Corey, and Abby.  They had a good presentation that included a video, a PowerPoint presentation, a game, cookies, and homework.  Each of the groups presenting their part of speech has been thorough, and I appreciate their hard work.

We had a good discussion about our book, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.  For many, this has been a difficult book to read , in great part because the vocabulary is more challenging that the students are used to.  A good deal of the verbal humor is not comprehended because the language is from an older period and the content in unfamiliar.  Another point I made is that this was written during a time when the attention span of readers was much longer.  The very paragraphs that are causing them trouble were sources of entertainment for the 1889 readers.  One student mentioned that she listens to the audiobook while reading the text of the book.

This week they are to finish the book.  Additionally, I've given them a final test which they are to take using their books.  And, finally, they are to come up with "Baseball Questions" that we will use for our Final Exam for the book.  Hank Morgan, our Connecticut Yankee, introduces the game of baseball to the knights of Camelot.  For our final activity for this book, students should each write 4 questions to test their classmates.  These questions should range in difficulty, from easy (First base hit) to quite hard (a Home Run).  The Baseball questions are due in 2 weeks, but since the students are going through the book to answer the quiz questions, I thought they might like to get a head start.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Finish A Connecticut Yankee

-- Finish the Vocabulary Worksheet for ACY

-- Take Home Quiz

-- 4 Baseball questions (due in 2 weeks)

-- Verbs homework

Links for this week:

School House Rock -- Verbs

Grammaropolis Verbs Video

ACY Mid Term Quiz

Class Notes

Have great weekend!  The weather looks to be great!

Mrs. Prichard

A Connecticut Yankee -- Mid Term Quiz

 Answer the questions 2 – 4 with complete answers.  Use the back if necessary.

List 4 “inventions” that Hank brought from Connecticut to Camelot.

According to Mark Twain’s own account, the event that lead to Connecticut Yankee was his purchase of a book -- Le Morte D’arthur.  Did Twain give a romantic or anti-romantic view of the Middle Ages?  Give examples.  (hint:  “romantic” refers to an imaginative, expressive, sentimental, visionary quality)

Describe King Arthur’s character and responses to situations while he is traveling with Hank.

  

Who said, “Take a rest, child’ the way you are using up all the domestic air, the kingdom will have to go to importing it by tomorrow, and it’s a low enough treasury.”?  To whom did he say it?  When did he say it?  Why is it humorous?

Adjective Videos

As part of the Adjectives presentation this week, Nicole, Luke, and Andrew put together a great video "News Program."  I've included their video and the video that Writing 1 used.

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 6 (October 1)

Greetings!

Yesterday was a great day, weather-wise and class-wise.  

I gave the students two options for the Quick Writes.  September 26 was John Chapman's birthday; most know him as Johnny Appleseed and remember that he traversed our young country planting apple trees.  The second option was to comment on the fact that October is National Pizza Month.  I heard from the students their favotie apple recipes and favorite pizza combinations.

Our Words of the Day included:

abbott -- fr. Middle English -- a man who is the superior in a church

rheumatism-- fr. Latin, fr. Greek -- any disorder of the extremities, especially back and legs

mere -- fr. Middle English -- to be nothing more, nor better than.

The students got back their rough drafts, and as is my policy, we go over common mistakes found in those rough drafts.  One of the best ways to learn grammar is to learn in in the context of their own writing.  For this discussion, we covered introductions/conclusions, contractions, punctuation in dialogue, and semicolons.

This week we had our Pronouns presentation given to us by Savannah, Megan, and Christopher.  They did a great job!.  A video along with a short presentation were given; the presenters prepared a game, and students were also given some homework. I will be including a link to the PowerPoint presentation that one of the students put together.  Additionally, I have some other links for students to check out if they want to do more research.

Next week:  Adjectives with Nicole, Andrew, and Luke

We did not have time to discuss A Connecticut Yankee.  For next week, I would like students to be sure to be ready to discuss the  chapters.  Youtube has a great audiobook available if students are have a hard time reading the chapters.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Final Draft of Process Essay

-- Pronouns Homework

-- Read Chapters 28 - 31 in ACY

-- Answer 3 Study Questions and fill in 5 Vocabulary words

Links for This Week:

Class Notes

A Connecticut Yankee audiiobook

Understanding Pronouns

Pronouns PowerPoint

Pronouns Video

Pronouns Explanation

See you next week!  Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Pronouns Project PowerPoint

Follow this link to the PowerPoint presentation about Pronouns from our class project.