Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 6 (September 30)

 Greetings!

We had a full day in class today.  I'm sure enjoying this group of students!

Quick Write

Today's prompt was inspired by the fact that is was on this day, September 30, in 1890 that Yosemite was named a national park.  I'm afraid I gave some incorrect information.  Yellowstone was the first national park, not Yosemite.  For the prompt, students were to write about some "great out of doors" adventure.  For responses, I heard about some close calls and some good times in nature.

Words of the Day

Vernacular -- fr. Latin verna (home-born slave) & vernaculus (domestic; native) -- "home-style language;" common language

Colloquial -- fr. Latin com (with) & loqui (to talk) -- language of a conversational style

Dialect -- fr. Greek dialektos (talk, conversation, speech) and fr. PIE -leg (to collect, gather, or pick out words) -- language specific to a particular region

Idiom -- fr. Latin idiomas (peculiarity in language) -- a figure of speech; words that have meanings other than their literal meaning

Homework Check

Usually after the beginning of class activities, I check in with the students about any homework questions.  We discussed assignments on Google Classroom.  I want to clarify an issue relating Google Classroom and the Grades Report that is emailed.  If students are missing an assignment, it will say "missing" on Google Classroom.  When I import the scores onto a Google Sheets spreadsheet using a grade book app, the missing scores are changed to zeros.  

Another note about homework.  I don't have a specific day that I correct homework, but the plan is to have it done and returned for the following class period.  When I'm done correcting work, I will update Google Classroom to reflect both the paper homework that was handed in during class and the assignments finished on Google Classroom.  

Writing Discussion

Students handed in the rough drafts of their Process Essays.  We also discussed the final drafts of their Personal Essays that were returned.  These were graded using a rubric that takes a holistic view of the writing process. It considers the following categories:  Focus, Content, Organization, Sentence Structures, and Mechanics. (For this essay, I did not grade the Focus area because I did not require an introduction, conclusion, or thesis statement.)

We took time and did some brainstorming about thesis statements for these process essays. Thesis statements for a process essay should include why the process and the end product are important.  These are often difficult to write.

Next Week we will meet in small groups for Writing Circles.  They were given a handout that they can fill out beforehand to prepare themselves for the small group discussions.

Literature Discussion

We had a short discussion about My Antonia.  We're in the section of the book title "Hired Girls."  I read a portion that included Jim Burden's comments about winter on the prairie.  I did notice that few of the students were ready to answer questions, which sometimes is an indication that students haven't read the material.  Sometimes when that happens, I prepare a pop quiz the next week.  Just sayin'. . .

I introduced our end of book project.  When we are finished reading My Antonia, the students will complete a project that illustrates some aspect of the book.  It can be an art project, something baked, a paper, etc.  

Grammar Discussion

The first grammar unit was a short review of parts of speech.  There is a Parts of Speech Quiz for students to take this week. This week's grammar worksheets deal with misplaced modifiers, which are adjective or adverb phrases placed in the wrong places.  There is a document describing misplaced modifiers on Google Classroom (link below)

Assignments for Next Week

Discussion Question -- Process Essay (Google Classroom only)

Writing Circle Preparation

Read My Antonia Book II, Sections VIII – XV (p. 94 – 118)

Week 6 -- 3 Reader Responses

Parts of Speech Quiz

Misplaced Modifiers #1

Misplaced Modifiers #2

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 6 (September 30)

About Misplaced Modifiers

Have a wonderful Fall weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 5 (September 23)

 Greetings!

We had a good class this week and covered a lot of information.  

Quick Write

For our Quick Write, students had 2 options:  1) For what are you willing to pay "top dollar,"  and for what items would you be willing to go the cheap route? and 2) Do you or someone you know have a notable collection.  As always, they could always take the "Whatever" option.  I also made a big deal about Friday's National Punctuation Day, but no one was excited as I was.

Words of the Day

This week our words were "cheap" and "extravagant."  Rather than discuss their etymologies, we explored 2 online resources:  Visual Thesaurus and Thesaurus.com.  Both of these sites are great tools for writing.

Writing Discussion

Students handed in their final drafts of their Personal Essays; I always want them to hand in the rough drafts so that I can compare them to see what revisions have been made.  As soon as we're done with one paper, we move right along to the next one.  Their next essay is a Process Essay.  For this essay they should explain a process and include information regarding why this process is important.  As a part of the discussion, we went over introductions, thesis statements, and essay structure.  The rough draft is due next week.

Literature Discussion

We had our first Literature Circles this week.  I heard lots of good discussion about the assigned portions of the book and the overall content of the book.  A key to a good Literature Circle is that everyone comes prepared to do their own parts.  When only half of the group is prepared, it's frustrating for those who have put in the work and the effort.  The ensuing discussions are really only half-hearted.  As part of their homework for next week, students need to fill out an evaluation for their Circle.

Grammar

Our Grammar for these first weeks is a review of parts of speech because we will use these terms and designations in our discussions of other grammar topics.  The worksheets they've been given have been fairly elementary.  This week's worksheets have students identifying prepositional phrases in sentences.  Students, remember to correct your work before handing it in!

A Quick Comment about Homework & Scores

As I mentioned in the email before sending out the Grade Reports, if a student wants to know if he/she is missing work, then Google Classroom is the place to look.  If a student wants to know scores and percentages, then the weekly email is what you should look at.

Assignments for Next Week

Process Essay Rough Draft

Read  Book II, Sections I – VII (p. 70 – 94)   of My Antonia 

Week 5 -- 3 Reader Responses

Identifying Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional Phrases

Links & Resources for this Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 5 (September 23)

About the Process Essay

Have a lovely weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 4 (September 16)

 Greetings!

This week's class was productive, but I always find myself wishing we had more time together.  They are a great group of students!

Quick Write

This week's prompts was a little more academic.  On September 16, 1620, the Mayflower departed from England.  In addition to bringing faith to this new land, the Pilgrims helped lay the foundation for democratic, self-government for the sake of community well-being in their document, the Mayflower Compact.  I had the students write about what they felt were essential rights AND responsibilities.  These could either be attributed in a large scale to humanity as a whole or closer to home (e.g. I have a right to my personal space and a responsibility to keep it clean.)  AND, if they were not thinking so deeply, they could write about their favorite fall beverage!

No Words of the Day this week.

Writing Discussion

I handed back rough drafts of their Personal Essays and went over common mistakes.  Students were to start a document in their folders or notebooks titled either "Watch out for ..." or "Areas to Work On."  On this page I want students to keep track of their own common writing mistakes.  We will refer to this list often over the course of the year, using it to set personal writing goals and to gauge progress.

Literature Discussion

We're reading My Antonia, and this week we had a good discussion about our reading.  We talked about the primary characters and a timeline of the plot so far.  Next week we will have our first Literature Circles.  Students were divided into groups of five, and in those groups each member chose a role:  Discussion Director, Illustrator, Luminary, Word Nerd, Connector, and Summarizer.  They are to each prepare for their roles in the group next week.

Grammar Discussion

Our grammar for these first few weeks is a review of the parts of speech, which are the basic sentence elements.  Students have worksheets this week that review interjections, verbs, and conjunctions.  A reminder:  They must correct their worksheets and turn in the corrected versions.  

Assignments for Next Week

Read pages 47 - 69 of My Antonia

Prepare for Literature Circles

Week 4 -- Reader Responses (p. 47 - 69) EXTRA CREDIT

Interjections Review

Verbs Review

Conjunctions Review

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 4 (September 16)

My Antonia -- Audiobook on Librivox

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 3 (September 9)

 Greetings!

We had a good class this week.  The students came into class ready to learn, and we had a productive time.  

Quick Write

Sept. 10 is National Swap Ideas Day, and it encourages us to share a creative or helpful idea with someone and trade them for their thoughts in return. Prompts:

• Where do you go to get good ideas?  

• What great ideas do you have to share with others?  

• What kind of group that you’d like to be in to share ideas.

On Sept. 8, 1930, the American company 3M began marketing a transparent adhesive tape that later became known as Scotch® tape.  On Sept. 10, 1846, American inventor Elias Howe was granted a patent for his sewing machine, which revolutionized garment manufacture in the factory and in the home.  Prompts:

• What is one of your favorite inventions/gadgets?  

• What invention do you think the world needs? 

Words of the Day  (These were invention-related words to go with our Quick Write.)

Patent -- fr. Latin, patere, to lie or be open; including litterae patentes, which means open letters. -- a document that is a license issued by the government conferring rights of ownership of an invention.

Innovation -- fr. Latin innovare, to change or renew -- a new method, idea, or product

Enigma -- fr. Greek ainigma, a dark saying or riddle -- a problem, puzzle, or mystery

Revised Syllabus

This week I was going to hand back the rough drafts of their Personal Essays and go over common writing errors, but I'm afraid my week took a turn that I had not expected.  I was with my mom from Friday to Tuesday until she passed away on Tuesday.  The papers weren't graded, so I pushed back the due dates of some of the writing assignments.  I will have the rough drafts back to them next week and will have all of the homework corrected and updated on Google Classroom.

Google Classroom

I reminded the students that if they don't do an assignment on Google Classroom, they should leave it alone.  I will update the scores for work that was handed in during class.

Literature Discussion

The class has read the first 20-some pages My Antonia and done their first set of reader responses.  We had small group discussions about grammar, and next week we'll have small group discussions about this book.  

Grammar Topics

Last week I had the students write 3 - 5 questions that they had about grammar.  They could be specific questions or general, over-arching ones.  This week we used the 4-Square model for asking and answering these questions.  This model requires everyone in the group to listen in order to respond.  One question that I suggested was "Why Grammar?"  I heard some good, academic conversations going on.  For our grammar topics this semester, we will start with a parts of speech review and then work through different types of phrases.  They will review nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and adverbs this week.

As I mentioned in the class policies, this year I am doing something different with the grammar homework.  This week students were given keys to all of the worksheets.  After they finish the grammar homework that was assigned for a week, they should correct it and then hand it in.  I want to see what they missed, so they should mark what was incorrect and then fix whatever was wrong.  Doing it this way will be more beneficial to the students.  They can see right away if they know the material.  Each worksheet is worth 10 points, regardless of how long it is.  If a student forgets to correct it, I will hand it back to be corrected.  

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read p. 24 - 47 (Book I, Sections VII - XIII)

-- 3 Reader Responses

-- Nouns/Pronouns Review

-- Adjectives/Adverbs Review

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 3 (September 9)

Grammar Worksheets KEY

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 2 (September 2)

 Greetings!

We had a good class today.  The students were engaged and interacted with the material and with one another.  

Quick Write

Students had 4 options today:  1) Sept. 1 was National No Rhyme Day  Students could try to rhyme some words that don't have clear "rhyme partners."  2) Sept. 2 is National Blueberry Popsicle Day.  Students could write about favorite frozen treats or foods "on a stick." 3) Sept. 3 is National Lazy Mom's Day, and students were prompted to write about tasks they could do for their moms or tasks that their moms do that they would never want to do.  4)  "Whatever."  Students could write about something else that was one their minds.  

Words of the Day

• Pertinacious -- fr. Latin, pertinax, "very firm, tenacious" -- stubbornly persistent.
• Ulotrichous --- fr. Greek, oulos, "curly, woolly" and thrix, "hair" -- having very curly, wool-like or stiff hair
• Gobbledygook -- a word coined by Maury Maverick in 1944 - means unintelligible, whether in communication is nonsense/gibberish or overly complicated

Google Classroom Instructions

I took a few minutes to go over the CHAT classes email and Google Classroom.  Some students haven't used Google Classroom and are unfamiliar with this resource.  It might take a while to become completely comfortable with all of the necessary aspects of Google Classroom.  

Writing Discussion

The rough drafts of the Personal Essay were due today.  They could be handed in on Google Classroom or as paper copies in class.  I will go over these rough drafts and hand them back next week for students to revise into final drafts.  I clarified that all students get a basic score for their rough drafts.  A qualitative evaluation will be given for the final draft using a rubric.

Literature Discussion

We're starting into our book for the semester, My Antonia by Willa Cather.  For a Pre-Reading exercise, they gathered some information about their family histories.  I gave students an introduction to the book and a study guide.  For each reading assignment, they're to complete 3 Reader Responses, and those could be study guide questions or something from the "Ala Carte" section at the end of the study guide.  They can do a mix of questions and ala carte options.

Grammar Topics

We started some thinking about grammar.  I asked students to think of 5 questions about grammar.  We will use those questions for small group discussions next week.  We will also start with some specific grammar topics next week.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read Introduction to My Antonia

-- Take Intro Quiz for My Antonia

-- Read p. 1 - 23 of My Antonia

-- Week 2 -- 3 Reader Responses for My Antonia

-- Writing Discussion Question (on Google Classroom)

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 2 (September 2)

My Antonia Study Guide

Blessings!

Mrs. Prichard

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature