We had a productive day in class this week. Our Quick Write began with a discussion about figures of speech and cliches related to "hands." We compiled quite a list:
I gotta hand it to you; in the palm of my hand; being fingered for a crime; wrapped around my finger; 5-finger discount; back of my hand; a slap in the face; thumbs up/down; give me five; lend a hand; hand it over, etc. After this little brainstorming, I asked the students to write something about hands. They could use some of our cliches or they could write about the use of their hands. When they were done, I had them watch a short video about hands by spoken word artist, Sarah Kay.
This week's Words of the Day were "coined words;" in other words, they were words that someone just made up and they ended up "sticking" in our American vocabulary.
boondoggle -- coined by Robert H. Link, a Boy Scout leader, in reference to a small braided piece on the scout uniform. It has come to mean some project or venture that is a useless waste of time and resources.
heebie-jeebies -- coined by cartoonist Billy DeBeck in the early 1900s; a feeling of nervousness and creepiness
runcible -- coined by Edward Lear as a word with obscure meaning, it was later applied to a combination spoon, fork, and knife utensil; like a spork.
We discussed the Rough Drafts of their Mystery Stories this week. One question that some students had brought up was concerning the suggested word count. Most of them were finding that they were going over the limit and that it was pretty easy to write a lot. My advice to them was to write what the story needs. If it's short and concise and yet complete, they can consider it done. This prompted a general conversation about word counts for essays. Since they have shown themselves to be conscientious writers, we can discontinue the word counts for the next essays. I feel that they have a good sense for when they have fully covered a topic.
I am especially excited to sit and read the rough draft of their stories. While the rest of the American world is watching the Super Bowl, I will be curled up with a cup of tea reading these!
We're working on Phrases during the grammar section of class this semester in Writing 2, and we took time to work as groups on Prepositional Phrases. In their groups, they were to come up with a selection of prepositional phrases, then write sentences using them, then determine if the phrases in the sentences were adjective phrases or adverb phrases, and finally draw an arrow from the phrase to the word it modifies. Students can understand that an adjective or adverb is a word that modifies a noun or verb, respectively. It's a bit harder to view a group of words (i.e. phrases) that do the work of an adjective or adverb. They did marvelously!
Our final topic of discussion for the class time was their Final Essay Exam for the Sherlock Holmes stories. After reading all six stories, I would like them to respond to this question:
What Makes a Hero?
Is Holmes a hero? What qualities do you admire in heroes? In at least 3 paragraphs, discuss whether or not Holmes possesses these qualities, using examples from the text. Specific instances and quotes should support your comments. You may want to consider whether some of the flaws Watson acknowledges keep Holmes from becoming truly heroic in their eyes. Feel free to compare Holmes with other literary characters.
For this essay, they should first define what a hero is and then explain whether Holmes fits this description or not. I will grade this essay on how many independent points and how many specific references they include. This is an open
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read "The Final Problem" and "The Empty House"
-- Final Exam for Sherlock Holmes
This Week's Links:
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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