Friday, February 9, 2018

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 8)

Greetings!

We had a great class this week.  I really enjoy the positive energy and attitudes in the class and the way in which they engage in the class discussions.  

Our Quick Write prompt was the same one that I used with my Northfield students this week:  "What is boring? Why? What can you do about it?"  We discussed how people don't find the same activities, places, or situations boring.  We seemed to agree that common ways of dealing with boredom are leaving the situations, making new friends in the situation, changing the situation, or, if those fail, resorting to using phones and apps.

We often to a "National Day" as part of our Quick Write prompts, but we didn't today.  For an extra credit assignment, students can look up and find the specific "days" celebrated on their birthdays.  

Our Words of the Day, chosen by Madi:
Makimono -- Japanese -- a horizontal hand scroll containing text or a captioned painting
regina -- fr. Latin, the feminine version of rex, "king" -- queen
jojoba -- fr. Spanish jojoba -- a small seed-bearing tree bearing seeds that are the source of an oil used in cosmetics

I handed back the rough drafts of their Mystery Stories.  These were so much fun to read! This is a creative group of students.  Many who might struggle to fill up three pages of an essay had no problem writing double that for their stories.  The primary discussion related to their stories was how to correctly punctuate dialogue.  Next week the Final Drafts are due, and they should bring their rough drafts to hand in with the final drafts.

For our literature discussion, we discussed the question of the essay exam, "Is Sherlock Holmes a Hero?"  For this, I had the class divide into two "yes" groups and one "no" group.  We had a mini-debate, and students shared their perspectives, giving examples and specific details to support their opinions.  At the end, a few students switched sides.  I look forward to reading their essay exams.

Last week I gave them their next book, Great Short, Short Stories.  This is a compilation of stories from Europe and American.  For next week, we start with Russian stories.  They have a worksheet that is front and back.  They should fill out one side for one story and the other side for another story.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Extra Credit -- Find the National Days for your birthday
-- Final Draft of Mystery Story
-- Read Pushkin (p. 162), Chekhov (p. 26), and Tolstoy (p. 169)
-- Fill out Short Story Worksheet
-- No Grammar


Links this Week
Class Notes

Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard

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