Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 17)

 Greetings!

We celebrated our final class with a "Christmas party" that included an "Ugly Christmas Sweater Design" contest and a Jeopardy game.  They were pretty intent on their designing and coloring.  When they were finished, they voted on the best/worst sweater design.  We enjoyed a nice, calming Christmas "vibe" with a YouTube video of a fire and relaxing Christmas music.

After our drawing and coloring, we had the final presentations for our My Antonia book projects.  We had a quiz, a Jeopardy game, some baked molasses cookies, artwork, a travel picture, and original music.  I am so proud of the work that the students have done; many of them have put a lot of their own creative selves into their work.  After our My Antonia projects, Bennett, Josh, and Jesse shared some memes made especially for our Writing 2 class. (see the link below)

Students handed in their final drafts of their Comparison/Contrast Essays.  I will go over the essays and any other homework that was handed; my goal is to have final grades out soon.  I mentioned to the class that I will take any homework today (until 11:59 p.m.) for full points value; I will also take work until Saturday, but for 1/2 point values.  As I told students, I've carefully gone through all of the Google Classroom assignments, so students need to contact me if they finish any assignments in Google Classroom.

Links for this week:

Writing 2 Class Notes 12/17 (with pictures)

Ugly Christmas Sweater

Learning and Reflection article

A Christmas Carol Final Exam slides

Night Before Christmas Mad Lib

Game-Based Learning

Best Relaxing Christmas Music w/Fireplace

Writing 2 Memes

I've enjoyed this group of students.  Each one is uniquely gifted for the plans that God has for him/her.  Have a blessed Christmas!!

Blessings, 

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Memes

As an extension on their My Antonia Memes project, 3 students put together some memes just for the class.

 

 

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 14 (December 14)

Greetings!

Every Thursday this semester it's been delightful to see the smiling faces of this class.  I love this place in the school year when we've gotten to know one another and have a productive learning community.

We started class with a Quick Write, using these prompts that came from their list of suggestions:

Option 1:  What is your favorite Christmas tradition?  Describe it.

Option 2:  What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done.? Tell about it.

Option 3:  What is something you’ve always wanted as a little kid?  Why?

Our Words of the Day were winter-related words:

solstice -- from Latin solstitium, from sol, "sun" and sistere, "stopped, stationary" --  the time or date at which the sun reaches its maximum or minimum declination, marked by the longest (June 21) and shortest (Dec. 22) days.

hibernate -- from Latin hibernare, from hiberna ‘winter quarters’, from hibernus ‘wintry’ -- when a plant or animal spends the winter in a dormant state.

apricity -- from Latin apricus, "having lots of sunshine" or "warmed by the sun" -- the warmth of the sun (We talked about how cats are especially good at finding that one sunny spot in the house.)

subnivean -- from Latin sub, "under" and nives, "snow" -- the area between the surface of the ground and the bottom of the snowpack.

The Rough Drafts of their Comparison/Contrast Essays were handed back, and I commented on how much I enjoy teaching writing because I get to learn about so many topics from their essays.  I covered some common writing issues/errors, including writing dates and numbers, correcting comma splice sentences and revising "there is/are" sentences.  The Final Drafts are due next week.

To end our Grammar portion of the class for the semester, I have 2 short assignments:  a phrases review Nearpod presentation.  Nearpod is an online platform for presentations that includes interactive capabilities.  Students should sign in with Google using their chatclasses email.  At the end of the presentation I have a short 4 question quiz.  I also have a Phrases Final Exam for them to take for next week.

The rest of our class was spent enjoying the Book Projects for My Antonia.  This included a set of memes, some artwork and inspirational quotes, a children's ABC book, a quiz, and some yummy baked goodies.  I'm afraid I don't have pictures this week.  I was so busy enjoying the presentations that I forgot to take them.

We will finish up our projects next week.  Everyone who hasn't already presented will present.  Speaking of next week, I like to spend that last week before Christmas doing fun stuff.  We can't have food in the classroom, but we can set up a table in the hallway for treats and eat out there.  Students are invited to bring goodies.  

Since we're almost at the end of the semester, students should finish up any work they have not done.  In the assignments list, I've included a couple past assignments in case students have forgotten to do them.  (All assignments are on Google Classroom in case students no longer have the paper version.)  ALL ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE WEEK 15 (DECEMBER 17).  I will accept work until midnight on that day, but nothing after that.  

Note:  Students, if you hand in any work that is late, please also send me an email so that I can record it.  

You've worked hard this semester; just a few more sleeps until our long Christmas break!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:

Quick Write 12/10

Comparison/Contrast Final Draft

Comparison/Contrast Pre-Write (missing many of these!)

Discussion Question -- Improved!

Discussion Question -- Christmas Fun!

My Antonia Rubric -- Self-Evaluation

Verbals Practice #1

Verbals Practice #2

Phrases Review (Nearpod)

Phrases Final Test

This Week's Links

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 14 (December 10) 

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 13 (December 3)

 Greetings!

It's hard to believe that we're in December already and that there are only 2 weeks left.  I feel like I'm just getting to know the students, so I'm already looking forward to working with them again next semester!

For our Quick Write, I chose from the long list of ideas that the students put together.  Here are the prompts for this week:

• Option 1: Do you like to take pictures or be in them? Why?
• Option 2: Do you re-watch TV shows or re-read books? Explain.
• Option 3: Share a story about a long car ride. 

After the Quick Writes we enjoyed some more obscure, Christmas-related words for our Words of the Day:

natal -- fr. Latin natus, "pertaining to one's birth" -- often this word is used to describe the star that appeared over Bethlehem, i.e. Jesus' natal star  [Note:  nativity also comes from the same root.]

epiphany -- fr. Greek epiphainein, "to reveal" -- a festival, manifestation, or commemoration; traditionally, Epiphany is on January 6 and is a celebration of the the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12).

poinsettia -- fr. John Poinsett, an ambassador to Mexico who brought this plant to the attention of botanists -- a plant of large green leaves and large red blossoms that is used to decorate at Christmas.

wassail -- fr. Old Norse, ves heill, "be well/healthy" -- a greeting of good cheer; also hot mulled cider, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, a Medieval Christmastide English  ritual intended to ensure a good cider apple harvest the following year.

swaddling -- fr. Middle English, swathlen, to bind with clothes -- longs strips of cloth used to wrap or bind.  Jesus was "laid in swaddling clothes."

Note:  For the Spring semester, I've encouraged students to bring in unusual or interesting words that they find.

Following our beginning of class activity, we had a thoughtful discussion about the role of grammar instruction.  I had read a study about teaching grammar in 3 different ways:  through direct instruction, in the context of student writing, and in the context of reading quality material.  In this study, students in the writing-only and reading-only groups scored higher on a post-test.  For that reason, I like to incorporate as much of my grammar instruction with the students' own papers and with the literature we read.  As I mentioned to the class in response to a question, this does NOT mean that I will discontinue grammar lessons.  In the study, those who experienced grammar through direct instruction still learned a lot!

The bulk of our class time was given to the My Antonia student presentations of their book projects.  I love seeing the creativity of the class and encourage them to find a way to respond to their reading that fits who they are.  We had a short dramatic interpretation of Jim's encounter with the snake (thanks, Michael, James, Ethan, and Carson), a waltz lesson from Nalani, a quiz from Ava, some amazing sketches from Ingrid, and a game of My Antonopoly from Tyler.  (I've post pictures and videos on the blog -- see link below)

Here's the schedule for the next two weeks:

December 10

Jesse T

Josh

Bennett

Jessie M

Anna

Kara

Michael S

Ellie

Josie

Maddy

Grace

December 17

Philip 

Elliot

Leighton

Zach

Peter

Levi

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Quick Write for 12/3 (for those absent)

-- Discussion Question -- How improved (GC)

-- Comparison/Contrast Rough Draft

-- Comparison/Contrast Pre-Write

-- Verbals Practice #1

-- Verbals Practice #2

Links for This Week

Class Notes Blog Post 12/3

My Antonia Book Projects, Day 1

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

My Antonia Book Projects, Day 1

 Below are some photos and videos from class on Dec. 3.  I'm afraid the picture of My Antonopoly didn't turn out.  I also didn't get pictures of the amazing pages of Ingrid's sketch book.

Thanksgiving Thoughts -- Grades & Grace

 

Happy Friday!!

I want to give a quick update on the grades for this semester.  We have only 3 weeks left before the end of the term, and I want to commend the students for their hard work.  As homeschoolers your schedules are not as disrupted as those of public or private schools, but this year has been far from normal.  Using Google Classroom and attending classes via Zoom has been both a benefit for distance learning but also a challenge for keeping work and grades organized.  I've just finished triple checking my folder of hand in homework, my paper grade book, Google Classroom, the GradeSheets, and a few stray emails, and I believe everything is 90% accurate.  Here are some notes about grades:

• If you can't find the link to your student's individual GradeSheets, send me an email and I will re-send a link.  (Search in your Inbox for "GradeSheets" first)
• On the GradeSheets, any homework that has not been handed in is marked M, which averages into the score as a zero.  Because we have just finished Week 12, I am not accepting any homework that was due before Week 8 (October 22).  
• On the GradeSheets, each assignment has a link to the Google Classroom assignment.
• If a student has handed in some homework that I've missed, please let me know.

As we head into our Thanksgiving break, I think that it's an important time for some self-care. I have heard Christians say that we should have joy during this time, and I always want to jump in and interrupt and correct them.  As Christians we are faced with the same challenges of this pandemic, the election chaos, and economic situation, BUT WE GET TO HAVE JOY. God has abundant grace, compassion, peace, and comfort for us; these difficult times give us lots of opportunities to learn how to access and take hold of what God has for us.  (For example,I know that God gives grace and comfort, but pretending that I'm NOT sad because I won't see my children at Thanksgiving and Christmas because they can't travel is just plain silly. Instead, I need a little bit more of a peaceful quiet time to soak in that grace.)

As I tell my students, you got that little sermonette free of charge.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Blessings on your family time whether it's face to face or virtual.    

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 12 (November 19)

Greetings!

We had a great class today.  Students have worked hard this semester, and it shows in their attitudes and the quality of their work!

For our Quick Write today, I had students come up with some ideas for our weekly Quick Writes.  By now, they have an idea of what works for a good Quick Write, so it will be good to have ideas from them.  Usually, I type up a numbered list and students choose random numbers every week.

We covered 3 Latin roots in our Words of the Day. As I explained to the students, having some background knowledge about Latin roots will help them decode unfamiliar words that they might encounter in their academic careers.

ambi - Latin, ambiguu, having double meaning or both -- derivatives:  ambidextrous, ambiguous, ambidexterity

aud - Latin, audire, to hear -- derivatives:  auditory, audio, audience, auditorium.  (by the way, audacious comes from audacia, boldness)

aqua -- Latin, aqua, water --  derivatives:  aquatic, aquarium. aqueduct, aquifer

While the students are busily writing their Quick Writes, I hand back their homework.  Following our beginning of class activities, we discuss the homework.  This week I handed back their final drafts of the Biography Essays.  They've done a wonderful job writing!  I'm waiting for a few students to give me their rough drafts with my corrections before correcting their final drafts.  I've asked students to hand in their rough drafts when they hand in their final drafts.  I like to compare their drafts so that I can see what improvements they've made.  

Students should be working on the Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts of their Comparison/Contrast Essays, which are due the week after Thanksgiving Break (on 12/3)

For the Literature portion of the class, we talked about our presentation for our book projects for My Antonia.  We watched 2 videos that the students from previous years had done for their book projects.

Finally, in the Grammar portion of the class, we did a review of the phrases that we had previously worked on, including prepositional phrases, participle phrases, and gerund phrases.  During our next class we will go over infinitives.  Verbal phrases can be really confusing.  For example, when we looked at gerund phrases (verbals that serve as nouns) we had a sentence that had a verbal phrase that was an object of a preposition, and they gerund had its own direct object.  So it was a direct object of a verbal as the object of a prepositional phrase.   Confused??  Most of the students had glazed eyes and spinning heads by the end of class!

Finally, I encouraged the students to check their GradeSheets to make sure that what I have recorded is accurate and to see if they are missing any homework.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!  Be blessed!!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Week 13 (12/3)

-- Quick Write for 11/19

-- Comparison/Contrast  Essay Pre-Write and Rough Draft

-- Discussion Question for Writing

Links for This Week

Class Notes

My Antonia Book Review

My Antonia Trailer

Here's the presentation schedule:

December 3

Michael M

James

Ethan

Carson

Nalani

Benjamin

Ava

Ingrid

Tyler

December 10

Jesse T

Josh

Bennett

Jessie M

Anna

Kara

Michael S

Ellie

Josie

Maddy

Grace

December 17

Philip 

Elliot

Leighton

Zach

Peter

Levi

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 10 (November 12)

 Greetings!

We had a good class this week.  We had a few more in our Zoom class, reminding me of what a blessing it is to have Zoom as an option these days!

For our Quick Write we used these 3 prompts:

• What would you do if you were locked inside your favorite department store overnight?

• What would you do if you woke up one morning to find yourself invisible? 

• What would you do if you were able to communicate with animals?

Our Words of the Day followed a Latin root theme of omni, which means "all."

omnibenevolence -- Latin, omni, "all," bene, "good," and volo, "to be willing; have the power to do" -- Unlimited kindness and generosity

omnia vincit amor -- Latin -- love conquers all

omniarch -- Latin, omni, "all" and arch, "lead, command" -- the ruler of everything

omnific -- Latin, omni, "all" and facere, "to make, to do," -- capable of doing everything

Students handed in their final drafts of their Extended Definitions or Classification Essays, so it was time to introduce the next essay, which is a Comparison/Contrast Essay. We talked at length about the challenge of composing a strong thesis statement for this essay. When students write about similarities and differences between topics, they should have a reason for the comparison. I also explained 2 different ways to organize a Comparison/Contrast Essay.

We have finished My Antonia and took some time to discuss the end of the book. Some people were sorely disappointed that Jim and Antonia did not marry. Others liked the book and the descriptions, and some did not like the book at all. We will start sharing our book projects on 12/3. Following our wrap up of My Antonia, the students divided into small groups to discuss the reading from Giants in the Earth.

Here's the presentation schedule:

December 3

Michael M

James

Ethan

Carson

Nalani

Benjamin

Ava

Ingrid

December 10

Jesse T

Josh

Bennett

Jessie M

Anna

Kara

Michael S

Ellie

Josie

Maddy

Grace

December 17

Philip 

Elliot

Leighton

Zach

Peter

Levi

No Grammar for next week!

Great job this week! Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read Grapes of Wrath section and answer the question (GC)

-- Comparison/Contrast Pre-Write

-- Comparison/Contrast Rough Draft

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Quick Write 11/12

About the Comparison/Contrast Essay

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 10 (November 5)

 Greetings!

I can't believe that we're 2/3 of the way through this first semester.  At the beginning of the year, I think many of us were uncertain about how school would go, but the students have been amazing.  Working with Google Classroom, attending class via Zoom when necessary, and wearing masks has not daunted this great group of students. Pat yourselves on the back and thank God for his abundant grace!

I gave a plethora of options for the Quick Write today. 1) Nov. 5, 1605 is Guy Fawkes Day in England, which commemorates the plot to blow up parliament, the king, and his family. 2) Nov. 5, 1872 is the day that Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting (it was not yet legal for women to vote); 3) Nov. 5, 1935 is the day Parker Bros. launched the Monopoly game; 4) Thursday was National Donut Day; and finally, 5) Thursday was National Men Make Dinner Day.  Students could write about violence vs. civil discourse, women in politics, board games, donuts, or men who cook.

Our Words of the Day were common Latin abbreviations, some I often use in notes to students and others students might encounter in their reading:

i.e. -- Latin id est, "that is"-- this signals an expansion on a comment.  (Make sure you do your homework, i.e. your rough draft and worksheets.)

e.g. -- Latin, exempli gratia, "for the sake of example" -- this signals possible examples.  (You must create a project, e.g. an activity, artwork, or game.)

c.f. -- Latin, conferro, "to compare with" -- this is often used in reference materials as a shortcut to point out comparisons

n.b. -- Latin, nota bene, "note well" or "a good note" -- used to draw attention to a side, related comment.

Rough drafts of the Extended Definition and Classification Essays were handed back, so it was time for me to discuss common errors found in the essays.  I especially took time to go over the introductions.  Personally, I think one of the hardest and yet most important aspects of writing an essay is developing a strong thesis statement and giving a clear road map/plan of development.  By the end of an introduction, the reader should know not only the topic, but should know the driving idea (the thesis tells why it's important) and where the essay is headed (the road map tells what subtopics will be covered to support the thesis.)  Strong thesis statements elevate a paper from a report with some details to an essay with a strong purpose.  The Final Drafts are due next week.

Following our discussion of the Grammar topics related to the essays, the students broke into small groups to discuss some sample introductions. They worked together to find the hooks, thesis statements, and road maps.

The last portion of the class was spent discussion active and passive voice, which refers to the verb and whether or not the action of the verb is being done by the subject or the action of the verb is being done to the subject.  e.g. The boy hit the ball (active voice).  The ball was hit by the boy (passive voice).  They have two worksheets to do for this topic.

A quick note about Google Classroom -- I have rearranged the assignments in the category so that the newest assignment is at the top of the list and the assignments are now in order from the newest to the oldest.  (This should save some time for students because they won't have to scroll through the whole list.)  And a reminder -- if you go into Google Classroom from another gmail account, you will not be able to answer discussion questions, fill out quizzes, or turn in homework.  If you're not sure if you are in the right account, look in the upper right hand corner of the screen where the settings and Google apps icon are.  Hover your cursor over the small circle to the right.  This will tell you what account you're in.  

Have a wonderful weekend!  Enjoy this great fall weather, Rumor has it that winter is coming!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Complete the My Antonia Final Test (GC)

-- Read the handout of the first chapter of Giants in the Earth

-- Answer the Discussion Question for Giants in the Earth

-- Active & Passive Voice Homework:  Active/Passive Voice, Fun with Active/Passive, Using Active/Passive in Writing

-- Extended Definition or Classification Final Draft

Links for this Week

Class Notes (11/15)

Fall Writing 2 Google Drive folder

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 9 (October 29)

 

Greetings!

We had a full class today, covering all of our topics:  Writing, Literature, and Grammar

We started the class with our Quick Write, For today's prompts, they had 3 options:  They could write about National Chocolate Day (10/28), about National  Cat Day, or about something that refreshes them.  The best advice I got when I first started homeschooling was to figure out what was refreshing and to do it often.   I talked a bit about the fact that because these days are challenging, we all need to figure out how to keep balanced and at peace.  As an addendum to this topic, I referenced an article about the benefits of science. 

Our Words of the Day

biblioklept -- fr. Greek biblio, "book" and klept, "thief" -- someone who steals books

psephology -- fr. Greek I, "small stone" -- the study of elections, taken from the ancient practice of dropping pebbles or small stones in order to cast a vote.

sophomoric -- fr. Greek sophos, "wise" and moros, "foolish" -- conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature

After our beginning of the class activities, we had a quick check in regarding homework.  I handed back homework and fielded questions about homework.  The pre-writes and rough drafts of their Extended Definition or Classification Essays were due today.  For students who have not finished their essays, they should finish them by the end of the weekend.  If their rough drafts are much later than that, they might not get them back next Thursday. 

As I said, the Rough Drafts of the Extended Definition or Classification Essays were due today.  Students don't have a writing assignment for next week, but next week in class we'll be going through the introductions in writing circles.  Note: I'll make copies of their introductions to bring to class.

We read from My Antonia today. Students were to have read through Book IV,  in which Jim visits Antonia after she comes back with her baby and he comes to Black Hawk for a visit.  We read a number of paragraphs.  We also talked about the final book projects that students are to do for this book.  The proposals were due today, and the projects should be ready for students to present on 11/19.

I've not assigned any more grammar because I don't want to go to the next topic because they didn't do very well with their  verbal phrases worksheets.  We'll work more on those next week.

Have a good weekend.  Who knows, the snow might be gone fairly soon, and we'll have fall again.

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Finish Pre-Write & Rough Draft if it has not been handed in on 10/29

-- Read Book V (finish the book!)

-- 3 Reader Responses

-- Identifying Participles Worksheet (if not done)

-- Phrases Quiz (if not done)

Links for This Week

Class Notes (10/29)

Quick Write (10/29)

The Hidden Benefits of Silence

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 8 (October 22)

Greetings!

We had a good time in class this week.  This is a good group of students, and I always enjoy the time I have with them in class.

As many of you know, the church has expressed that students must wear masks in the hallways, common areas, and classrooms.  If students are exempt, parents must communicate with Laura Johnson, who will communicate with tutors.  Some teachers allow students to snack and/or drink in their classrooms, but the church doesn't allow food in the clubhouse, which is the room where my writing classes take place. (They can have water.)  This week a few students were snacking, and I let it go.  Next week, only water.    I know that some students are not happy with having to wear masks in class, but they all had great attitudes and seemed willing to bless the church and its leadership.  

Our Quick Write today had 3 options.  First, October is German-American Heritage Month, so I gave students the option to write about their family heritages.  Secondly, on October 22, 1938, Chester Carlson invented the first photocopier.  He presented it to IBM, RCA, and Kodak, but they rejected it because they didn't see the value in a machine that only made copies.  I asked the students to write about their favorite gadget/inventions or about something that they felt needed inventing.  And, as always, students could write about anything else that was on their minds.

We had 2 Words of the Day:  

preposition -- fr. Latin, prae, "before" and positus, "put or placed" -- the word placed before a noun or pronoun to establish a connection to another noun or a verb.

conjunction -- fr. Latin con, "with," and juncto, "to join together" -- the word used to join other words, phrases, or clauses.

Before we talked about our writing, I showed a short video that I had intended to show the previous week when students were writing their Process Essays.  This video is of 2 children writing detailed instructions for their father about making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  (link below)

For our Writing portion of the class, we discussed various ways topics that might work for an Extended Definition or Classification Essay.  For the Extended Definition, abstract topics seem to do well because the writer can use examples or analogies to explain the topic.  For Classification Essays, students should think of topics that are composed of various categories. Below are links to websites with examples and further explanations.  The Pre-Write and Rough Draft should be handed into Google Classroom next week.

We spent time going over some of the verbal phrases that are part of our Grammar unit for this fall.  Verbal phrases are challenging because we're trained to look at the verbs as the second part of the sentence and as the action that the subject does.  Students are fairly familiar and adept with prepositional phrases, but gerund, infinitive, and participial phrases can be confusing.  Especially if the verbal takes a direct object or includes a prepositional phrase.  We'll continue practicing identifying these phrases throughout the year.  (See the link below, "About Phrases" for some more information)

For the Literature portion of the class, I went around the room and collected descriptions of the primary characters.  With the exception of a couple half-hearted, non-serious responses, I could tell that the students are getting to know these characters.  They're aware of strengths, weaknesses, and even inconsistencies in Jim, Antonia, Lena, etc.  That means they've done some careful reading and that Willa Cather has done a good job writing.

Have a great weekend.  Peace to your homes!

Mrs Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read p. 141 - 153 of My Antonia

-- Project Proposal (due 10/29)

-- 3 Reader Responses

-- Extended Dfn/Classification Pre-Write

-- Extended Dfn/ Classification Rough Draft (GC)

-- Discussion Question (GC)

-- Identifying Participles

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Fall Writing 2 Google Folder

About Phrases

Pre-Write Tools

About the Extended Definition Essay

About the Classification Essay

How to Write an Extended Definition Essay

Writing the Definition Essay

The Classification Essay

Learn How to Write a Classification Essay

Extreme Instructions -- PB & J

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 7 (October 15)

 Greetings!

This would have been our fall break, so I feel that we should all get a merit badge for having a good class this week.  For our Quick Write, I asked students to write about a strong opinion that they have.  Then, they were to give three specific points about that opinion.  Following that, they were to think about what the other side might think.  The goal of this Quick Write was to encourage the students to think about how others think about the same topics.  As I told them, being able to actively listen to others while trying to understand their perspectives is a sign of maturity.  In this day and age, God needs us to value those around us, whether we agree with their strong opinions or not.  (By the way, one of the most controversial topics for all classes today was "Does pineapple belong on pizza?")

We had a short Words of the Day portion of class.  Here are our words:

comma -- fr. Latin, comma, and Greek komma, which means a "piece which is cut off." --   The comma is that little bit of punctuation that separates parts of a sentence.

noun -- fr. Latin nomen, "name" -- The noun is the part of speech that names a person, place, things, or ideas.

veb -- fr. Latin verbum, "word" -- The verb is the part of speech that communicates action or state of being.

Students handed in their Final Drafts of their Process Essays.  Now, it's time for the next essay, which is a choice between the Extended Definition Essay and a Classification Essay.  For the rest of the year, students will be doing a 3-step process that includes a pre-write, a rough draft, and a final draft.  The pre-write is any kind of composing that shows brainstorming of ideas and organization.  This can include a formal or informal outline, a mind map, or a digital brainstorming file.  (I have a document in the links below that further expounds on pre-write tools and gives links to some interesting web platforms for making a digital outline or mind map.)  I don't require the students to hand in their pre-writes until they hand in their rough drafts.  Note: Students should work on the gathering and organizing of their information during this next week (in other words, prepare the pre-write) so that the following week they are ready to write the rough draft.

I have 3 short writing-related assignments:  Writing Goals (from our writing circle conversations), Discussion Question for the Process Essay, and a Discussion Question for the Extended Definition/Classification Essay.  

For the Literature portion of the class, we broke into our Literature Circle groups to discuss the current reading assignment.  I walked around and listened to conversations.  One particular aspect that I enjoyed was seeing the artwork that some students had done.  Great job, students! At the end of class, I introduced the My Antonia Project and the Proposal Form.  At the end of our book, we will celebrate by enjoying the creative responses to our reading.  We'll talk more next week!

For the Grammar portion of the class, we discussed verbal phrases, particularly gerund phrases. Verbal phrases can be confusing because they are essentially verbs acting as nouns, adjectives, or adverbs.  For example, in the following sentence, "Acting" is a gerund, which is a noun phrase, that is serving as the subject of the sentence, and "preparing" is the action verb of the sentence:  Acting in plays was preparing Tom for his future career.  For next week, students will do some practice with infinitive phrases, which are verbal phrases that are formed with "to" and the stem of the verb.  

Have a wonderful weekend!  Take some time to do something that refreshes and rejuvenates you!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

PS.  I will be away from my computer until Sunday night, so if you have any questions, I will not get to them until Monday.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read p. 119 - 140 of My Antonia

-- Week 7 Reader Responses

-- Literature Circle Evaluations

-- Extended Definition or Classification Pre-Write

-- Writing Circle:  Writing Goals  

-- Discussion Question for the Process Essay  (GC)

-- Discussion Question for the Ext Dfn/ Class Essay  (GC)

-- My Antonia Project Proposal

-- Infinitive Phrases (along with 2 resources explaining infinitive)

-- Identifying Infinitives

Links for This Week

Class Notes

About the Extended Definition and Classification Essays

Pre-Write Tools

My Antonia Book Project

Writing 2 Zoom Recording (10/15)

 Greetings!

We had a good day in class yesterday.  We started with a Quick Write.  The two prompts for today were inspired by two October 8 events.  In the year 876, Charles the Bald was defeated in the Battle of Andernach.  I was struck by the unusual nickname, so nicknames were the topic of one option.  Also on October 8, 1871, was the Great Chicago Fire.  I asked students to write about fires, especially if they had a fun fire-related story.

Following our Quick Write, we looked over the rough drafts of the Process Essays that I had handed back.  As is my custom, I use their own writing to explore grammar issues with which they are struggling.  For this round of essays, we discussed introductions and conclusions, comma splice sentences, run-on sentences, and compound sentences. I also explained to them two types of writing problems that we will work on to eradicate this year:  using the word "things" and writing "There is/are" sentences. Sentences that start or include "there is/are" types of structures are considered an expletive construction.  In other words, as an expletive (don't worry, we didn't use any!) is a placeholder, when students write this kind of sentence, they are not clearly designating a subject and verb.  Grammar Revolution has some more information and a short video. 

(By the way, here's an old blog post with explanations and pictures pertaining to the marks that I make.)  Their Final Draft of the Process Essay is due next week.

For the rest of the class, we divided into Writing Circles to discuss personal writing goals and the role that working with others in the context of writing might be helpful.  All of the groups agreed that having others read and give feedback on their writing would allow them fresh perspectives and could be really encouraging.  My hope is to incorporate time in class for them to do that.  

Next week, we will again have Literature Circles for our discussion of My Antonia.  We'll use the same circles as before, but the students can change roles.  Literature Circles are a way for students to have academic conversations for which they each have specific roles and responsibilities.   The students gathered in their groups and chose their roles:  discussion leader, illustrator, luminary, word nerd, connector, summarizer.

• Discussion leader -- be ready to lead the discussion by reading the assigned portion; be thinking about the major events and themes of that portion; 
• Illustrator -- draw a picture of one of the scenes or an interpretation of one of the themes
• Luminary -- find quotes that seem to sum up the main points of the section; choose quotes that seem particularly thoughtful, funny, or serious
• Word Nerd -- select words that are especially unusual and look up their roots
• Connector -- be ready to connect events, themes, character types, etc. with real world examples
• Summarizer -- at the end of the discussion, summarize and connect 

These are the students & circles:  

• Circle 1:  Ellie, Peter, Ethan, Benjamin, Anna, Maria
• Circle 2:  Michael M, Sam, Kara, Josie, Maddie, Ingrid
• Circle 3:  James, Tyler, Raya, Grace, Zach, Elliot
• Circle 4:  Bennett, Jesse, Carson, Philip, Jessie, Gabriella
• Circle 5:  Leighton, Levi, Nalani, Josh, Michael S, Ava

The Discussion Questions that will be a focus of the Literature Circles are these:

1. Jim says of the immigrant girls who work in Black Hawk, “If there were no girls like them in the world, then there would be no poetry.” Explain his statement.
   

2. Frances Harling says of Jim, “the problems with you, Jim, is that you’re romantic.”  Was this meant as a compliment or as an insult.  Is it an accurate comment?

3. Jim and Antonia have experienced a number of changes so far in the book.  List at least 6 changes for each.
   

And finally, for the Grammar portion of the class, the students were assigned a worksheet about Gerunds, which are a verbal phrase.  The class unanimously wanted more time for the Writing Circles over a Grammar lesson, so I said I would include a video lesson.  Students can go to the Google Classroom assignment with the worksheet to find 2 good videos that explain Gerunds.  I've also included the videos with the links below.

A note about Google Classroom:  I've reminded students that they should NOT turn in an assignment on Google Classroom if they have already turned in the paper copy.  Doing so causes some confusion for me when I'm grading assignments.  In the future, I will deduct points from their assignments if they unnecessarily turn in their assignments to Google Classroom. 

Have a wonderful weekend.  The weather should be perfect for enjoying the fall colors!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

--  Final Draft of the Process Essay

-- Read pages 94 - 118 of My Antonia

-- NO Reader Responses

-- Prepare for Literature Circle  (see Discussion Questions above)

-- The Gerund Phrase

-- Identifying Gerund Phrases

Links for This Week

Class Notes 10/8

     A quick note about the blog post:  The blog post includes the same information that is in this email, but I do not include links to either assignments or documents specific to this class due to security concerns.  If you're looking at the blog for assignments and need a link, use the date of the blog post to find the email with the links.  

Student Notes 10/8

     Often I will have a student take notes of the information covered in class.  This week Ingrid took great notes.  Students can refer to them if their notes are a little spotty.

Fall Writing 2 folder

What is a Gerund?

Gerunds

Quick Write 10/8

Grammar Revolution -- There is/are

Sample Editing Marks

Charles the Bald

Great Chicago Fire

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature