Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 23)

Greetings!

We had a good day "in class."  I know that this quarantine thing is getting old, for the students and their families. There's no instructional manual for this time -- except for the Word of God.

We started the class with a Quick Write.  Because April 23 is National Take a Chance Day, National Talk like Shakespeare Day, and National Poem in your Pocket Day, students could use any one of these as a prompt for their writing, and kudos if they could combine them.

After a quick homework check, we finished off our Words of the Day unit with a final "exam" in the form of a Bingo game (you can see the card here)  I used a mix of words and images on the card.  I gave definitions, the students figured out the word, and then they filled in their bingo cards.  It went well, from my perspective.

The Evaluation Essay Final Draft is due this week, and we have one more writing assignment for the year -- the Essay Re-Write.  For this essay, they are to take one of their previously written essays and improve it.  Many times students write essays, get them graded, put them in a file, and forget about them.  I like to end the year by giving students a chance to show their learning through their own revising abilities.  They could choose their worst essays, the one they enjoyed and want to continue to add more information, or their very first one of the year.  They can add more information or revise their sentence/paragraph structures.  I especially asked them to look at their introductions and conclusions.  They had this week to re-do one of their essays and then hand it in next week.  This isn't the regular rough draft/final draft cycle -- just one revision on one essay.

For the last 2 weeks of the semester, we do one of my favorite activities -- the Poetry Jam.  Everyone in the class should prepare 2 poems to recite for the class, and then their team will present a poem as a group. If they want, they can do a duet with someone.  The rules for the Poetry Jam are simple:  poems must be at least 5 lines long; extra credit for original poems, extra credit for memorized poems,  poems can be from our book or from another source.  The students have been sent an email with their groups and email addresses.

The Grammar homework is a comma placement review that uses the introduction from an essay that a previous student wrote.  They are to insert commas for compound sentences, complex sentences, lists, etc.  Next week, I will give them a take home test on commas.

It's good to see the faces of my students, even if it is just a video.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Essay Re-Write

-- Choose 2 poems to recite

-- Work with your team for the group work

-- Finish the Comma Placement "Flash" paragraphs

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Comma Placement "The Flash"  Paragraph 

Comma Placement "The Flash" Paragraph (Google Doc)

Essay Re-Write 

Poetry Jam Rubric

Comma Placement "The Flash"

NAME:  _________________

In the paragraphs below, insert the necessary commas

How the Flash Came To Be

            Barry Allen also known as the Flash had a very rough life but his powers changed his life forever. Living with his adoptive father and sister he began his career in forensics at his local police station. When Allen was young his mother had died and his father was wrongly accused of killing her. For many of his young years Allen's life was depressing but he soon grew out of his depression and worked at a police station with his adoptive father Joe West. Before too long Barry Allen's life changed for the better.

            Barry Allen's early life was very tough and depressing.  Because his mother had been murdered by his father his father went to jail.  With his mom was gone he changed homes.  His new family's name was the Wests; his adoptive father's name was Joe and his sister's name was Iris. Allen lived with them until he moved out. He often felt very sad and angry at his life because he wanted his family back but that never happened. Allen's life had ups and downs but his early life was especially depressing.

Essay Re-Write

Definition

The purpose of this essay is to improve editing skills by rewriting a previously written essay.  Effective editing is a step-by-step process.  One key is to re-read a paper multiple times, looking for only one kind of error at a time.

Editing Plan

As you re-read your paper, look for any errors in the following areas:

·      Complete sentences:  Each sentence should have a subject, verb, and a complete thought.  Look for incomplete and run-on/comma splice sentences.

·      Parallel Constructions:  Faulty parallel construction leads to unclear and awkward sentences.

·      There are/is/was/will be, etc.:  Any sentences with this type of construction must be changed.

·      Punctuation:  Pay close attention to commas and ending punctuation.

·      Agreement:  Make sure all subjects and verbs agree; also look for noun/pronoun agreement.

·      Spelling:  With the spell check function for most word processing software, this is not as much of a problem as it used to be.  However, your computer will not know if you’ve put the wrong word in, or it may autocorrect and change the word from the one you intended.

·      Paragraph construction:  Each paragraph must have a main idea.  Make sure that all of the thoughts expressed in the paragraph are part of that main idea.  Do any sentences need to be moved to another paragraph?  Does the paragraph need to be divided into smaller paragraphs?

·      Organization:  Is the overall organization of the paper logical?  Does each point lead to the next?  Should it be rearranged?

·      Content:  The essay should give sufficient information to support your thesis. Have you included enough background information?  Have you satisfactorily covered the material?  As you re-read, look for ways to expand your essay.  Also, note any information that seems unnecessary. 

Thesis Development

Your essay should have a clearly defined thesis that you explain and support.  Sometimes a thesis is simple and straightforward; sometimes they are more complex.  Your reader should never be confused as to your topic and your decided opinion or stand on that topic.           

Essay Guidelines

– Due date:  April 30

– Essay length:  500 – 700 words (between 2 and 4 pages)

– Final draft format:

– Typed (if this is not possible, please let me know)

– 1 inch margins

– Name and date on the upper right hand corner

– Number the pages on the lower right hand corner

– Title centered above the text of the essay

Poetry Jam Rubric

Poetry Jam Rubric

	1	2	3
Level of Difficulty	Simple, Easy, Short	Somewhat challenging	Extremely challenging
Memorization	Not at all	Kind of	Absolutely
Physical Presence	No eye contact; stiff & uncomfortable	Comfortable & confident	Authoritative, compelling
Dramatic Voice & Articulation	Inaudible, distracted, over-emoting	Clear, adequate; not overly stylistic	Mastery of rhythm, skillful, reflects meaning

Original poetry = 1 extra point

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 16)

Greetings!

What a great, flexible, mostly engaged group of students.  I say "mostly" because sometimes it's hard to be sitting in the same room all day, looking at a screen, and keep paying attention.  They're doing great!  

Our Quick Write prompt inspired by National Laundry Day:  a picture of a woman in laundromat dryer.   I didn't get to hear much about what the students wrote, but they had a chance to share with one another in a Breakout Room.  (By the way, today was National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day, which seems apropos for this quarantine season.)

For most of the semester, we've been doing Words of the Day to explore unusual words and etymologies.  Next week we will finish up this part of the class with a rollicking game of "Vocabulary Bingo."  To prepare for that, students should review the Words of the Day in order to be familiar with them. (No memorizing definitions is required.)

Following our beginning of class activities, we did a Homework Check.  On Wednesday I scanned and emailed homework that included the final drafts of their Cause/Effect or Problem/Solution essays, various worksheets, and rough drafts of their Evaluation Essays.  Students have done well in emailing their homework in.  When students hand in homework, the photos of worksheets and Quick Writes are clear enough for me to read, but not enough to be worth scanning and sending back.  When possible, I will scan work and send it back.  

The class has done a good job with the Evaluation Essay, and they are to do the final drafts for next week.  A number of students needed to expand their papers with more details about the criteria in their essays.  (See the notes that have organization options.)  The final drafts are due next week.

For the Poetry section of class, I sent students again to the Breakout Rooms to 1) choose 2 poems to discuss; 2) try to figure out why Mrs Prichard likes the poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" and 3) choose a poem to recite as a group.  While none of the groups figured out my quirky fascination for this poem, they were thoughtful and had good discussions.  Next week I will introduce our Poetry Slam -- a recitation competition.

Finally, for Grammar, I used my Aver document camera to work on two more comma-related worksheets.  (This lesson was a mix of technology and old school pen and paper.)  We've been reviewing comma usage with the Edpuzzle videos.  The worksheets I've made can be finished with Word or Google Docs.  (Note:  Some students have already done this and don't need to do it again.)

Blessings on all of you and your families.

See you next week!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Final Draft of the Evaluation Essay

-- Read the handout with T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams, and Lewis Carroll poems 

-- Grammar Worksheets:  

     -- Appositives & Parenthetical Phrases -- last 5 only 

     -- Appositives -- top half only

     -- Date &Addresses (top half only)

     -- Complements Worksheet (both sides)

Links for this Week

Class Notes

My GradeBook Instructions

Writing 2 Spring Words of the Day

Writing 2 Spring Google Drive folder

National Laundry Day

Dates and Addresses (a pdf)

Appositives  (you will have to make a copy to complete it online)

Appositives & Parenthetical Phrases  (you will have to make a copy to complete it online)

T.S. Eliot Poems

Wordsworth, Williams, and Carroll Poems

Poetry Submissions

I always time my Poetry Unit for April, since it's National Poetry Month.  Students have been assigned to read a number of poems, but must respond to at least 2.  One option is to find good recordings of someone reading a poem or to read the poems themselves.  Below are some results of our poetry assignments.

Emily Dickinson -- There is no frigate like a book

Recording with pictures

Recording only "There is no frigate like a book."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -- Paul Revere's Ride

Recording only -- "Paul Revere's Ride"

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 11 (April 2)

Greetings!

We've finished the second week of online classes.  I hope all is going well at your homes with the adjustment to a virtual classroom.  I know that some students are having technology challenges.  Please let me know if there are any difficulties that I might be able to help with.

Beginning of Class Activities

Whether we're in a building or on Zoom, we start our class with a Quick Write.  This week's prompts included the following:  1) What is an April Fool's prank that you've experienced or heard of; 2) What is a memorable childhood movie, either loved or hated; and 3) What was a favorite childhood read-aloud book.  Students were to type their Quick Writes into an email to me, or they could hand-write the Quick Write and take a picture and send it to me.  This week, when the students were done writing, I put them into Breakout Rooms to share what they wrote.  They seemed to enjoy these connections, so I will continue to do this in future weeks.

I've decided to forgo the Words of the Day section of our beginning of class activities, but that doesn't mean the we will not have a test on our words.  Students can start reviewing using the blog entry for the Writing 2 Spring Words of the Day.

Usually after the beginning of class activities we have a Homework Check-in.  It seemed so odd to me to have a pile of homework that had been corrected but that I couldn't hand back.  My hope is to be more paperless and to have more online options for the students to do work and to show their learning.  Until then we will still have some worksheets as part of our homework.  Students are to either take a photo or scan their work in.  (Remember to have sufficient light and resolution so that I can see and correct the homework.)  Before our next class I will have a scanned package of corrected homework.  

Writing 

For the Writing portion of the class, I reminded students that Rough Drafts of the Evaluation were due.  To turn them in, they can attach a Word or PDF document, share a Google Doc, or, if none of those is an option, copy and paste the essay into the body of an email.  Please, do not send documents from Pages or Open Office.

Literature

We then jumped into our Poetry Unit.  I started this section with a short video:  Taylor Mali's Authority visual & spoken poem.  (I was also going to share the scene, "What will your verse be?" from the Dead Poet's Society, but unfortunately the sound from this video was not good when I showed it in Writing 1.  Writing 2 students should still check it out.)  My hope was to inspire them a little bit about the wonder of poetry, especially when spoken aloud.  Much like dramatic literature, poetry is meant to be heard as much as to be read.  I again divided the students into Breakout Rooms -- I'm loving this feature in Zoom -- to discuss these four questions:  1) What makes a poem a poem? 2) Why do you think poetry is important? 3) Why do people like/love/hate poetry? 4) What was your favorite poem for this week?  Why?  We used the Square Model for group discussion for this, and students took turns asking the question, then answering, then agreeing/disagreeing, and finally adding to the already spoken comments.  We've used this model before, and it helps to give everyone a chance to talk.  

Below you will find the poems assigned for our next class period.  Students must read all of the poems and then choose 2 poems to respond to. As we did for this week, students have options for how they can respond:  Fill out the Poetry analysis worksheet, write a one-paragraph analysis, make a video of yourself explaining the poem, rewrite the poem, write a poem about the poem, illustrate the poem, perform the poem, interview someone about what they think about the poem, etc.  You get the idea -- students can be creative about how they choose to respond to the poem, but they can also go the straightforward path and fill out the worksheet.

Grammar

Finally, for the grammar unit, I checked in to see how the Edpuzzle assignments were working.  Most of the students were able to access the videos, watch them, and answer the questions, but for some reason that I can't explain, some students couldn't.  For next week, I have more review videos; students can either watch them on Edpuzzle or complete a Google Forms assignment.  (Both links will be listed below.)  

Note:  We will not have class next week because of the Easter break.

Again, the students were great with our new learning experience.  

Have a wonderful weekend and a blessed Easter!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for April 16

-- Read the following poems

     Wilcox (p. 33)  Solitude

     Thayer (p. 34) Casey at Bat

     Sandburg (p. 53) Chicago and I am the People

     Williams (p. 60) The Red Wheelbarrow and This is Just to Say

     Johnson (p. 41) Sence you Went Away

-- Respond to 2 of the poems (see option ideas above)

-- Edpuzzle or Google Forms assignment

     -- Video #1 --Commas and Introductory Elements on Edpuzzle or Google Forms

     -- Video #2 -- Commas and Restrictive Clauses on Edpuzzle or Google Forms

     -- Video #3 -- Commas and Lists on Edpuzzle or Google Forms

 

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Taylor Mali poem

"What will your verse be?"

O Captain, My Captain

Writing 2 Spring Words of the Day

Writing 2 Spring Google Drive folder

(Grammar videos are listed in the assignments)