It's Spring, and before we know it Summer will be here, too. While you may still have more school to do at home, I can tell that students are ready for a change and for the end of CHAT classes. We've had a great year and they've worked hard!
For our Quick Write today, I used the following prompts. Students could write about one or more, and they always have the option to write about something else that is one their minds. I know of at least one student who combined the prompts.
#1 -- Describe your worst day ever.
#2 -- Describe your best day ever.
#3 -- "I couldn't believe my eyes . . . "
Our Words of the Day were all words of Latin roots:
incognito -- fr. Latin, in, "not" and cogito, "to know" -- when the true identity of a person is not known or is hidden
muscle -- fr. Latin mus, "mouse" -- Ancient Romans thought that the movement of muscles were somewhat mouse-like.
companion -- fr. Latin com, "with" and panis, "bread" -- The Old French version of this word meant someone with whom you would break bread.
Following our beginning of class activities, I checked in with their final essay assignment, which was the Essay Re-Write. Some students had asked if they could really alter the essay, and I'll never say "no" to doing more writing. I also mentioned that next week, May 10, will be their last chance to hand in any homework.
Their very last assignment for the class is to write a Reflection Paper. This doesn't need to be long, or perfectly written, but I want them to take some time and think about what and how they have learned this year. (I wrote a blog post a few years ago, "The Value of Reflection Papers" that might be helpful to read.) For these papers, students should include the following
Paragraph #1 -- Answer the question, "What have you learned this year?" (They can do this with a mix of sentences and lists.)
Paragraph #2 -- Answer the question, "What have you learned about yourself as a student/writer this year?"
Paragraph #3 -- Answer the question, "What did you like or not like in the class? What worked well for you and what didn't?"
Extra Credit -- Draw a picture of anything that will remind me of the class or of you!
We closed out the Grammar section with a "Final Exam." We've done a lot of talking about sentence construction this semester, so most of the test was to see if they can build their own sentences from scratch. If you were absent from class, I'm attaching the exam, and it can be done and brought to class.
And then -- the Poetry Jam! I look forward to this all year long. Some students love poetry, some tolerate it, and a few really don't like it; I've found that even those who don't like poetry are great sports. If you haven't heard about the logistics of the "jam," the students present their poems as teams with the other teams scoring them using a rubric. I plug those numbers into my spread sheet and average the scores. (The scores listed below are averaged from the scores of the judging teams and for the number of players in each team.) Next week, the top two teams will compete, and I have something for the top scoring students, too.
The scores for the Poetry Jam were pretty close. Teams 3 and 4 should come prepared for Round 2 of the Poetry Jam.
Team 1 -- 8.33
Team 2 -- 7.22
Team 3 -- 9.58
Team 4 -- 8.44
Our top scoring students were Caitlin, Noah, Madi, Katelyn, and Julia. They should come prepared to recite something that I will give them.
Next Week:
Poetry Jam, Round 2
Final Exam (a.k.a. a Jeopardy game)
Reflection Papers
Note: All homework should be handed in by May 10.
Links for This Week
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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