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:
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.
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?
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
-- Read pages 94 - 118 of My Antonia
-- NO Reader Responses
-- Prepare for Literature Circle (see Discussion Questions above)
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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment