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

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 5 (October 1)

 Greetings!

We had a good, productive day yesterday.  We started with a Quick Write.  For today's prompts, I used the facts that October 1, 1908  was the day that Ford manufacturing rolled the Model T off its production line and that October 2, 1950 was the day that the first Peanuts comic was published.  Some students also mentioned that Tuesday was National Coffee Day.  Many students wrote about car-related stories.  Some haven't seen any of the Charlie Brown specials, so here's a link to the Christmas Special.

Following our Quick Write, I usually do a Homework Check (I use the time while they're doing the Quick Write to pass back work.)  Today I took time to go over the Final Drafts of their essays. The rubric that I use for evaluating their essays consider 5 categories:  Focus, Content, Organization,  Sentence Structures, and Mechanics.  This allows me to give more holistic grades for the papers they write.  As I noted with the students, the Focus section that includes the thesis statement, introduction, and conclusion is often the category that has the lowest scores.  I'm especially "picky" on that section because the quality of the introduction and conclusion can determine the overall quality of a paper.  

Students have handed in the rough drafts of their Process Essays, and I will hand them back next week. These papers can be turned in via the Google Classroom assignment.  We discussed forming strong thesis statements for essays such as these.  

We spent more time talking about some of the literary elements in My Antonia that included setting, theme, characters, and plot.  The students seem to have formed some specific opinions about the characters of Jim Burden and Antonia which means 2 things:  Willa Cather has done some good writing and the students have done some careful reading.  We also discussed the importance of the setting to the overall characters and plot.  As discussion progressed, we used some Accountable Talk practices in which students responded to comments made by their classmates with such comments as "I agree, and ..." or "I agree, but ..." or I disagree because ..."  Learning to have good, academic discussions is an important part of academic growth.

Finally, we spent some brief minutes on the next Grammar topic, which includes dangling and misplaced modifiers.  I must confess that instead of more time explaining these grammatical faux pas, I yielded to a request to play a quick game of "Dead Fish."  In this game, the players are supposed to be a still as possible.  Any movement and they're out.  This is a favorite of the under 5 group, so it was especially funny to see high school students on the floor doing their best to not move.  

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the beautiful fall colors (before that all need to be raked up!)

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read p. 70 - 94 of My Antonia

-- 3 Reader Responses

-- Correcting Misplaced Modifiers

-- Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

-- Misplaced Modifiers 1 & 2

     Note:  Students can do this homework on the paper version or on  Google Classroom.  Sometimes students forget what the homework looked like, so these links can help them should they forget.

Links for this Week

Class Notes

October 1, 1908   & October 2, 1950  Days in history

Charlie Brown Christmas Special

Writing 2 Google Drive folder

Process Essay Rough Draft assignment

How to Play Dead Fish

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature