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.
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)
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