We had another good class this week. I'm working hard to get to know this class, especially the new students.
For our Quick Write today, I used the fact that September 1 - 7 is National Childhood Prevention Week, and I asked the students to write about some injury or accident that happened to themselves or to someone they have known . As a mother of 7, I've made 8 trips to the ER with my kids, and I heard about big and little injuries from the students.
Our Words of the Day were French expressions that have become parts of our day to day language:
RSVP -- fr. French "Répondez s'il vous plaît" -- Please respond; a request for a response to an invitation
déjà vu -- fr. French "already seen" -- th feeling that a situation has already occurred
du jour -- fr. French "of the day" -- used to describe something that is being served on the day or of a current interest
faux pas -- fr. French "false step" -- a slip or slight blunder
bon voyage -- fr. French "good travels" -- an expression used to express good wishes on a journey
For every week's class, I put the agenda for that day along the side of the whiteboard. We always start with the Quick Write and Words of the Day, and following that, we cover writing, literature, and grammar topics. This week, we covered our writing assignments, then literature, and finished with grammar.
Students have finished and handed in the Rough Drafts of their Personal Commentary Essays. I will go over them this week and hand them back next week. They will then revise the rough drafts and hand them in the following week. Another short writing assignment for them for next week is to write 1 paragraph titled "Penguins as Pets." I teach writing classes at Arcadia Charter School, and this year I'm having students from each school write paragraphs that students from the other school can use for editing practice. These paragraphs should have at least 5 mistakes; these mistakes can be spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization, or usage related.
We've started our book, My Antonia, and have read the first portion. In it, we were introduced to two of the most important characters, Jim Burden and Antonia Shimerda. Another "character" in the book is the prairie landscape of Nebraska. As the students read, I want them to pay special attention to the significance of the landscape and to the dynamics of the relationships that Jim has with others.
Students have a Study Guide of questions for each reading assignment, but they may also choose up to 2 reading response from the "ala carte" portion at the end of the study guide. I also told the students that I would include links to audio versions of the books. Many students find that either listening or listening while reading helps with reading comprehension. We discussed for a little bit the final project for the book. We will talk more extensively about the proposals in the weeks to come.
In the Grammar portion of our class, we did a quick review of the parts of speech (including IVAN CAPP and interjections, verbs, adjectives, nouns, conjunctions, adverbs, prepositions, and pronouns). They have a worksheet for review, complete with a "MadLibs" story.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Sections VII - XII (p. 24 - 47)
-- 3 Reading Responses (you can do up to 2 ala carte options)
-- 5 Vocabulary Words
-- Write 1 paragraph -- "Penguins as Pets" (at least 5 errors)
-- Parts of Speech Review Sheet
Links for this week:
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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