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.