Writing 2: Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 1 (August 26)

Greetings!

We've started out our new school year well. I'm looking forward to working with this group of students. Below are the Class Notes for this week. Every week I will send out notes similar to these. I include the topics of the class and the direction of instruction. At the bottom of each email I list the homework and links to the blog, to the Google Classroom assignments, and to any other helpful information.

I almost always start class with a Quick Write and sometimes with a Word of the Day. I use a variety of prompts for these short writing opportunities that give students a chance to shift into a writing mode. These prompts are sometimes serious but usually lighthearted. For our Words of the Day, I like to choose unusual words, words of current interest, or words with interesting backgrounds. I especially enjoy looking at the etymologies of words and trying to figure out the journey of the word from its ancient meaning to its modern meaning.

For this week's Quick Write I asked students to respond to these 3 questions: 1) What do you need to be successful this school year? 2) What do you need from others, including me, to be successful this year? 3) What can you do for others in order to help them be successful?

We had two Words of the Day:

education -- fr. L. educare, to lead or bring out -- the act of teaching or receiving knowledge

teach -- fr. OE takn, token, to show, point out, declare -- to show or explain how to do something.

Much of our first class of the year is spent taking care of logistics and looking at some Class Resources. I gave the students a Class Policies handout, a syllabus, and a checklist of assignments. These are important documents that will help us be organized with our work this year. (Note: Parents, please read the class policies and initial it)

In addition to an overview of the topics in the class, we discussed Google Classroom. All of the materials and assignments will be posted on Google Classroom. If they haven't, students need to sign in to their chatclasses email and then join the Google Classroom for Writing 2. Many students are familiar with Google Classroom, but I plan to spend a little more time on it next week in order to clear up any questions students might have.

A quick note about scores on Google Classroom -- if a student has handed in a paper copy of an assignment, I will record the score on Google Classroom, usually by the next class period. A student SHOULD NOT use the "Turn In" option on the Google Classroom assignment.

We will write 4 essays this semester, and I introduced the first Writing assignment of the semester, a Personal Essay. This essay can be on any topic of personal interest. It can be about a hobby, a life-changing experience, a cause, etc. Students are not required to do an outline/pre-write for this short essay, but they can if they would like.

Our Literature selection for this semester is My Antonia by Willa Cather. I will introduce the book more fully next week, but for a pre-reading exercise, students should take time to consider their family backgrounds and histories. (The assignments checklist mentions the introduction and a quiz. We'll wait a week for that.)

No Grammar this week -- we'll jump in with both feet next week!

Have a great weekend!!

Blessings!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

(Note: The links will take you to the Google Classroom post for the particular assignment. If you plan to do the paper version, you can ignore the link)

Writing 2 Class Policies (signatures needed)

Personal Essay Rough Draft (Please use the Google Doc template attached to this assignment.)

Pre-Reading -- Family History

Before school started assignments