Thursday, February 10, 2022

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 10)

 Greetings!

We had a delightful class this week.  Our class time was quite full.

We started with a Quick Write, and these were our prompts:  
  • Ask me (Mrs. Prichard) 3 questions, and I will answer at least one of them.
  • Tell me something you've not told anyone.
  • Write about keeping a secret or planning a surprise.
  • Tell about something mysterious that has happened to you
  • Whatever . . . 
Our Words of the Day came from Ike, Megan, and Grace.  
avuncular-- fr. Latin, avunculus, "uncle" -- pertaining to an uncle
uxorious -- fr. Latin, uxor, "wife" -- devoted to or ruled by a wife
ataraxia-- fr. Greek, ataraxia, "impassiveness" -- calmness; impassivity
hystricine-- fr. Latin, hystrix, "porcupine" -- pertaining to porcupines 
ailorophile-- fr. Greek, ailouros, "cat" and philo, "love" -- a lover of cats 

We are now in Week 5, so students need to check in on their homework. I give students three weeks to get assigned work in (actually, they have 4 weeks from the assigned date until I will no longer take it.)  After that extended time, assignments will be given zeros.  According to my late homework policy, any assignments due on Week 2 is now overdue.  You will be getting a Grades Report sometime over the weekend.  

Students handed in the final drafts of their Mystery Story.  I'm really looking forward to reading these because their rough drafts were so good!  As a reminder, they should hand in their rough drafts with my marks/corrections when they hand in the final drafts.  The final drafts should be handed in to the Google Classroom assignment. 

When we finish one paper, we start another.  For the next round of essays,  students can choose to write an Cause/Effect Essay or a Problem/Solution Essay.  We did a lot of brainstorming about how to structure these kinds of essays.  Students have the next three weeks to do their brainstorming and research.  The pre-writes and rough drafts should be handed in on March 3.

We have finished our Sherlock Holmes stories and are not reading from a selection of short stories. For this week they read 3 stories by Russian authors, and we discussed the main points and overarching themes for each.  Then I gave the students cards from a game, Storymatic, and they were to compose a story that incorporated one of the themes from the Russian stories.  When they were done, they shared their stories with the rest of the class.

At the end of class, I gave a very brief Grammar  "power lesson" about the commas that follow introductory elements.  These elements can include interjections, personal addresses, prepositional phrases, and dependent clauses.  The have 2 worksheets to  practice this.  

I want to commend this class in its ability to take down the room every week.  Because we're the last class to meet in our room, the students have to fold the tables and take them to another room down the hall.  Then they have to load all of the folding chairs onto a rack.  They always do it with cheerful attitudes, and I'm so grateful for their work!

Next week my son Ryan Prichard will be subbing for me.  I will Zoom in for part of the class and he will take charge of the rest.  

Assignments for March 4

Links for This Week
Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 10)

Have a good weekend and a wonderful week off!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
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Thursday, February 3, 2022

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 3)

 Greetings!

We had an fun class today -- we covered a lot of material.  Before we started with our Quick Write I had them do a little drawing exercise, using as inspiration a picture I drew when I was a toddler.  They had to draw a stick figure -- with their eyes closed. 

Here are the Quick Write prompts for the day:

  • February 2 –  World Read Aloud Day.  Do you have a favorite story that was read aloud to you when you were young?  Write about it.

  • February 4, 2004 –  the day that Facebook was launched.  Do you use Facebook?  What are your thoughts about social media?

  • February 4, 1789 – the day that George Washington was elected our first president by a unanimous vote of the first electoral college.  Do you have any opinions about the electoral college?  Do you have opinions about what makes for a good elected leader


Our Words of the Day
mellifluous -- fr. Latin mel, "honey" and fluus, "flowing" -- sweetly flowing
monoglot -- fr. Greek, mono "one" and glotto "tongue" -- speaking only one language
borborygmus -- fr. Greek, borborygmos, "to have a rumbling in the bowels" -- a rumbling or gurgling noise in the digestive system
progeniter -- fr. Latin, progenit, "begotten -- an ancestor, parent, or origin (as of an invention or practice)

I handed back the rough drafts of the Mystery Stories.  These were amazing!  I found myself thinking of the plots and characters long after reading and correcting them.  Many students wrote more than they usually did, and they were pretty creative.  As per my practice, I go over common mistakes as part of our rough draft discussions and use these for grammar instruction.  The most common errors I found in their write had to do with punctuating dialogue, paragraph formation, comma splice sentences, and compound sentences with commas.  Students are to revise their rough drafts into final drafts for next week. Ask your student to share his/her story with you. 

We've now finished our 6 short stories of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  To round out this literature unit, students are to write an essay exam in which they address the question, "Is Sherlock Holmes a Hero?"  They must first define what a hero is and then apply their definition to Sherlock Holmes.  We had NO discussion on these points because I want students to give me their own original ideas.  Usually we had a debate-like discussion after this assignment, so I look forward to that next week.

I gave them their next book, Great Short, Short Stories,  they have a reading assignment, but no required homework for the stories.  

Our Grammar  was on hold for the week.  Students have enough other work to do for the week.

Assignments for next week

Links for This Week
Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 3)


Have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
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