We had a productive class this week and covered a lot of material. I brought two dates up for the Quick Write: 1887 was the first official "Groundhog Day" in the US (it had been a tradition in Europe and according to folklore, if the groundhog, or hedgehog in Europe, sees its shadow, we will have 6 more weeks of winter); and 1996, which was the day the record low was recorded in Minnesota (60 degrees below zero in Tower, MN). I asked the students to put together a Winter Survival Kit.
Our Words of the Day were the following Latin roots:
capit -- Latin, "head" -- derivatives: captain, capitol, capital, decapitate, chief, chef, chapter, recapitulate
circum -- Latin, "around" -- derivatives: circumference, circumnavigate, circumvent, circular, circumstance
contra -- Latin, "against/opposite" -- derivatives: contrary, contract, contradict
cred -- Latin, "believe" -- derivatives: credible, incredible, credit, credence, creditor
Students handed in their rough drafts of their Mystery Stories. I've told them that if they ever forget their homework at home, they can bring it in the next week, except for when Rough Drafts are due. I need the week to grade them, and if they come in late, then their final drafts are late. If a student didn't bring a paper copy to class, he/she can share it on Google docs or send it as an attachment either as a Word doc or a PDF. (I don't have a patch in my computer to open documents from Apple Pages.) I will have the rough drafts back next week for them to revise. I am really looking forward to reading these!
We briefly walked through the content of the two assigned Sherlock Holmes stories. A simple action that I ask of them to get a feeling for how they felt about a reading assignment is to show a "thumbs up, thumbs down, or thumbs sideways." The class consensus seemed to be that the story "The Engineer's Thumb" was not as interesting as "The Adventure of the Speckled Band." The first story didn't have any clues that led to solving a mystery, not did it have much action. The second story also had some unexpected details that made it more interesting.
I handed out a Take Home Test for the Sherlock Holmes stories. They are to answer the question "Is Sherlock Holmes a hero?" In order to do this, they must first define "hero" and then apply this definition to Sherlock Holmes as he is presented in the stories. With this essay exam, I'm not looking for a specific answer but for the students to do some of their own thinking and analyzing. I explained to them that I will be grading according to the number of specific ideas and examples that they include.
We took the rest of the class for Grammar in order to go over compound and complex sentences. In our quest to be experts in the Comma, we need to learn many other elements of grammar and sentence construction. Students have encountered and written compound and complex sentences but are not 100% sure about how and why they work.
A final note: Many of the students seem to have good friends in the class. This last week the neighbor-to-neighbor chatting seemed to be more than usual, so I'd like to remind all of the students to stay engaged with the class and to resist the urge get involved in those little conversations that distract everyone. I will start separating people during class if it seems necessary to the wellness of the class.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read "The Final Problem" and "The Adventure of the Empty House."
-- No study guide questions
-- Write the Take Home Test for Sherlock Holmes
-- 2 Introductory Elements Worksheets
Links for this week:
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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