We had a good day in class this week. Because it was a return-rough-drafts-week, the greater portion of our time was spent going over common mistakes, and this included lots of mini grammar lessons.
We wrote our Quick Writes about television because Sept. 7, 1927 was the date of the first transmission to a television set. We've certainly come a long way in the past 90 years!
Our Words of the Day were of Latin and French origin.
alma mater -- Latin, "nourishing mother" -- refers to the high school or college from which you graduated
cum laude -- Latin, "with praise" -- a distinction when graduating that refers to a certain grade point average. Similarly, magna cum laude means "with great praise" and summa cum laude means "with highest praise."
femme fatale -- French, "a dangerous woman" -- a stock character in film noir, in modern film or novels, this is an attractive woman who leads others into dangerous situations
esprit de corps -- French, "the spirit of the body" -- a feeling of pride or fellowship with a certain group of people.
As I mentioned, I spent the majority of class going over the Rough Drafts. My practice is to keep track of the patterns of mistakes made in these first drafts and then to address them in small grammar lessons. This week we addressed some format issues, compound sentences, contractions, comma splice sentences, and exclamation points. In the notes at the end of the rough drafts, I include a "Watch out for . . . " section where I list the 2 - 3 most prevalent mistakes. I've asked the students to start a page in their notebooks where they will keep track of these. As we progress through this year's essays, they can use this list for reminders of problem areas or to even set goals for their writing. For example, if he repeatedly has comma splice errors, on the next essay he could focus on that aspect of his sentence structure.
For the Grammar portion of the class, students were given a set of worksheets about sentence patterns. I often find that at the high school level, students have had a wide variety of grammar experiences and instructions. Therefore, some of this may be review and some of it may be completely unfamiliar. If there is ever a problem, please contact me. The advantage of learning this stuff at an older age is that students are more ready to understand the "whys" of many grammar rules, and therefore they stick in their minds a little better.
For the final few minutes of class, we discussed some of the questions from the study guide about this week's reading assignment for My Antonia. Most of the students seem to be enjoying the book, and I look forward to spending more time in discussions next week.
A note about our class time: In these first weeks I have observed a few distracting behaviors here and there in the class. Students come to Writing 2 directly after lunch, and it may be that it is hard to transition out of "free time" and back in to "learning time." What students may not realize, but what I clearly notice, is that even small comments or gestures to one another affects the whole class. Students, please be aware of your interactions; if you are prone to chatting, etc, you may need to choose to not sit by a friend. Parents, please have a check in with your student about this. As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or observations, please feel free to contact me.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Final Draft of Personal Commentary Essay
-- Read p. 47 - 69
-- 3 Reader Responses
-- 5 Vocabulary Words
-- Sentence Patterns Practice
-- Compound Subjects & Predicates
Links for This Week
Class Notes
Have a wonderful weekend. If you're not doing anything, join us in Northfield for the Defeat of Jesse James Days!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
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