Our Quick Write for today was this prompt: If you could learn anything from anyone, what would it be and from whom would it be? The purpose of this prompt was to cause students to look inward, forward, and outward. In life, it helps when we can identify what we want to learn for the sake of our futures; then we need to engage in the world around us to find mentors and teachers. They shared both practical ideas and more abstract, personal growth ideas.
We did not have any Words of the Day this week.
This week the class handed in their final drafts of their Process Essays, along with their rough drafts, so it was time to assign another essay. This time, they can choose to write either a Classification Essay or an Extended Definition Essay. We took time to discuss what each of these essays would look like, how to choose a topic, and how to organize these types of essays. If a student wants to, he/she can write 2 essays and get extra credit for the second one. Most students won't need that much extra credit for a good grade, but they might want the extra essay-writing practice.
During our discussion of the essay, I also explained the new stage of the writing process that we will be using for this and the rest of our essays. In addition to a rough draft and final draft, students are to do a Pre-Write for their essays. This can look like a mind map or an outline, and the goal of a pre-write is to facilitate brainstorming and organizing. (Here is a link with a picture of a mind map.) This will give them an extra week to plan, research, and organize their essays. (In fact, for this essay, they have the extra week of fall break.)
For the Literature Discussion about our book, My Antonia, the students broke into small groups to discuss 2 questions about our current reading assignment: How were Lena and Antonia different from one another? and Why did Cather devote a large portion of the book to this "secondary" character? As a circulated through the classroom I heard some good, insightful comments.
Many students have already handed in their proposals for their My Antonia Book Project, but those who haven't need to hand them in next week (Oct. 10) We will start presentations on Nov. 14.
We did not have any direct Grammar instruction, but I gave the students some work to do related to sentence patterns. Their work will tell me how much instruction on this topic will be needed.
A note about My GradeBook: I worked with a couple of students and discovered that they were putting the class code where the password should go. If you are having difficulties, remember that the temporary user name (until you change the primary log in) is the class code, and your student's first name and last initial (unless I've had to change it for you) is the password.
You'll also find a link at the end of this email to a new feature of the class -- Student Notes (Rocketbook). Every week I will have a student take notes, especially those elements that are written on the board.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read pages 141 - 153
-- 3 Reader Responses
-- 5 Vocabulary Words
-- Pre-Write for Extended Definition Essay OR Classification Essay
-- Sentence Patterns Practice Worksheet (Mr. Jackson)
-- Sentence Patterns Practice Worksheet (Three of my friends)
Links for This Week
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
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