Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 10 (April 1)

 Greetings!

For our Quick Writes, we had 3 options:  1)  Write about a memorable joke or prank; 2) Write about your family's or church family's Easter traditions; 3) Ask Mrs. Prichard 3 questions.  Over the years, the students have enjoyed when this third option comes up; they ask thoughtful, curious, and often quirky questions.  

We had a brief check in on their Evaluation Essay; the rough drafts are due on April 15.  Some students have given this some thought, and others have waited until this next week to work on it.  Establishing criteria and evaluating something with that criteria is an important academic skill.

We had a quiz about our the four Short Stories that we read for this week, and even though I mentioned last week that I might do this, some students were not prepared.  I expected that to happen.  When spring arrives and the end of the year is in sight, most students turn their thoughts to activities other than school.  (The 2020-21 school year has been exceptionally long, so I really don't blame them.)  This was a low stakes reminder for them to do their homework.  

We are finished with our Short Stories and are now onto Poetry. Some students picked up books last week, and I didn't have the extras with me.  So, I have links for the poems they are to read.  These poems come from a book titled 101 Great American Poems, and they will be reading a chronological collection of poems, starting with poetry from the early 1800s to that of the mid-1900s.  

After the students read all of the poems, they are to choose 2 poems to respond to.  They need to respond to 2 poems, and here are their options:

1.  Fill out a Poetry Worksheet for one or both

2.  Write a paragraph about the poem(s) that analyzes the poem; discuss what you think it means and why you like or don't like it.

3.  Instead of writing a paragraph, record a video commentary about the poem.  Youtube LiveStream or some other app on a device is OK as long as it can be seen by me.

4.  Do a piece of art that connects with the content and meaning of the poem.  

5.  Make a video of your recitation of the poem.

Finally, for our Grammar portion of the class, we continued our discussion of punctuation.  This week we went over how parentheses and dashes are used and how they differ from  commas.

Have a blessed Easter weekend!  

Blessing,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Week 11 (April 15)

-- Evaluation Essay Pre-Write

-- Evaluation Essay Rough Draft

-- Poetry: Read Emerson (4-5); Longfellow (6-10); Holmes (21), Whitman (22-26),Dickinson (29 - 32)

Week 11 Poetry Pt. 1 -- Emerson, Holmes, Longfellow

Week 11 Poetry Pt. 2 -- Whitman, Dickinson

-- Poetry Responses (2 Poems)

-- Grammar:  Wk10 - Dashes & Parentheses

-- Grammar:  Wk10 - Parentheses & Dashes

-- Grammar:  Wk10 - Ellipsis

Links for this Week:  

Class Notes

Poetry for Week 11 (April 15)  (Note:  I've added some poetry that wasn't on the syllabus)

Holmes (p. 21 - 22)  Old Ironsides

Emerson (p. 4, 5) Concord Hymn, and The Snowstorm

Longfellow (p. 6 – 10) The Arrow and the Song, and The Builders, and Paul Revere's Ride

Whitman (p. 22 – 26) I Hear America Singing and  O Captain, My Captain

Dickinson (p. 29 – 32)    Because I could not stop for death, and Hope is a thing with feathers, and If I can stop one heart from breaking, and  I'm nobody, who are you? and  There is no frigate like a book, and  This is my letter to the world

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature