Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 12 (November 18)

 Greetings!

We had a good day in class and covered a lot of ground.

Quick Write

For today's Quick Writes, we had the following prompts:

1 -- Contribute to the list of Quick Write ideas to be used for my classes for the rest of the year.

2 -- Write about a sports mis-hap that happened to you or that you know about.

3 -- November 18 is National Princess Day and November 16, 1553, was the day that Queen Elizabeth I became the queen of England following the death of her sister, Mary.  Write about any royalty that you are especially interested in.

Homework Check

A reminder to students:  make sure you correct your grammar worksheets and show on the worksheet or the Google Classroom assignment that you're corrected it.  Also, make sure you turn in assignments that you've done on Google Classroom.  A number of assignments have been finished, but students have forgotten to turn the work in .  

Writing Discussion

Students have been assigned another essay -- a Comparison/Contrast Essay.  The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due the week after Thanksgiving break.  We did some brainstorming about how to organize a Comparison/Contrast Essay.  On the handout that they were given, they have a couple of organizational plans.  

Literature Discussion

We started with our My Antonia book project presentations.  We had a model of the farmland around Antonia and Jim's home, an original song, and a "book in a bag."  Joe, Tate, Rachael, and Annelise did great work.  After Thanksgiving, we'll have presentations from Grace A, Michael C, Sofia P, Nina N, Danica, B, Katelyn G, Gracie M.  As part of the project, students need to fill out a self-evaluation rubric about what they think of their own work.  (See the link below.)

Grammar

For homework, students are to complete a Phrases Review, which is posted as a Google Form on Google Classroom.

Assignments for December 2

Quick Write (11/18)

Comparison/Contrast Pre-Write

Comparison/Contrast Rough Draft

My Antonia Self-Evaluation Rubric

Phrases Review

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 12 (November 18)

Week 12 (11/18) Zoom Recording

About the Comparison/Contrast Essay

Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Blessings!

Mrs. Prichard

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 3 (Sept. 17)

 Greetings!

We had a great class yesterday.  This is a good, conscientious group of students.

We started with a Quick Write.  For today's prompt, I offered them 2 options.  September 15 was Agatha Christie's birthday, and she is known as the "queen of mysteries" with over 80 books to her name.  She also wrote the world's longest running play, The Mousetrap.  Students could write their opinions about mysteries, a mysterious event, or an original mystery.  The other option was related to National Apple Dumpling Day (Sept. 17).  Baked apple goods seem to be the quintessential fall food.  Students could write about apples or some other favorite fall food.  (And, as always, they can always choose the third, "Whatever" option and write on something completely different.)

Following our Quick Write, I went over some Google Classroom "Protocols," hopefully clarifying questions that students have had.

• 99.9% of your assignments are on Google Classroom (GC)
• You can hand in work on GC or in class but NOT BOTH
• If you do the assignment on Google Classroom, remember to "Turn In"  (button in the upper right corner of the window.)
• If you have handed in an assignment during class (the paper version), please the Google Classroom assignment alone.  I will assign a grade and return in.
• Some assignments can ONLY be done on Google Classroom. When that is the case, those homework assignments will be designated (GC)
• For the Final Drafts of your essays, follow these steps IN ORDER:
• Open your Rough Draft document, select/highlight all of the content (Ctrl-A) and copy it (Ctrl-C)
• Open the Google Classroom assignment for the Final Draft and then open the document/template.
• Paste the contents of the Rough Draft onto this document.
• Make corrections and revisions. (DO NOT MAKE CORRECTIONS WHILE IT IS STILL IN THE ROUGH DRAFT DOCUMENT!)
• Turn it in!

This week, students were to take notes of class, and these notes are due in class next week.  Sometimes when we are covering a significant amount of content, I will have students take notes and then turn in copies of those notes.  Students can hand in the paper copies of their notes next week OR upload copies to the Google Classroom assignment.  

I handed back their Rough Drafts of their Personal Essays.  I believe that students learn grammar best in the context of their own writing, so I like to take a generous amount of time to go over common mistakes and for them to ask questions from their own mistakes.  I had the students write on post it notes either the error most-corrected on their rough drafts or a grammar issue that they didn't understand.  After they brought these up to the white board, I covered those areas that seemed to need the most attention.  This week, those areas included contractions, the use of numbers, sentence fragments, and commas with compound sentences.

For the Final Drafts of these essays, students should submit them via Google Classroom (see the notes about the protocols.)  They should also bring to class on Sept. 24 their rough drafts with my corrections.

This week we didn't talk a lot about our book, My Antonia, but we took time to set up our literature circles for next week. Literature Circles are a way for students to have academic conversations for which they each have specific roles and responsibilities.   The students gathered in their groups and chose their roles:  discussion leader, illustrator, luminary, word nerd, connector, summarizer.

• Discussion leader -- be ready to lead the discussion by reading the assigned portion; be thinking about the major events and themes of that portion; 
• Illustrator -- draw a picture of one of the scenes or an interpretation of one of the themes
• Luminary -- find quotes that seem to sum up the main points of the section; choose quotes that seem particularly thoughtful, funny, or serious
• Word Nerd -- select words that are especially unusual and look up their roots
• Connector -- be ready to connect events, themes, character types, etc. with real world examples
• Summarizer -- at the end of the discussion, summarize and connect 

When they gather next week, they should come prepared.   The two topics that should guide their preparations and discussions are:  1) The conflicting worldviews between the immigrants and the other Black Hawk residents; and 2) The connections between the landscape and the people.  In addition to the Literature Circle preparation, students should complete 3 Reader Responses for pages. 24 - 47. 

Because we have more literature to do this week, the grammar assignments are postponed a week.  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Final Draft of Personal Essay (GC)

-- Remember to bring the rough draft to class on 9/24

-- Read Cp. 24 - 47 in My Antonia

-- 3 Reader Responses

-- Literature Circle Preparation

-- No Grammar this week  (If students have already done them, they won't have to do them next week.)

Links for This Week

Fall Writing 2 Google Drive Folder

Class Notes 9/17

My Antonia audiobook, part 1

My Antonia audiobook, part 2

My Antonia audiobook, part 3

My Antonia audiobook, part 4

My Antonia audiobook, part 5

My Antonia on Vibrivox (downloadable)

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 2 (Sept. 10)

 Greetings!

We had a great class yesterday.  These students are coming in with a readiness to learn and are encouraging a positive perspective for one another.

Our Quick Write today was from the National Days Calendar.  Yesterday was National Swap Ideas Day, in which people are encouraged to share their ideas and creativity with one another.  I asked them to write about any big, outside-the-box ideas they've done or had.  They could also write about whether or not they are creative.  I've just finished reading their Quick Writes, and this class has a wonderful variety of creative and practical students!

This week students handed in their first paper assignment of the year, their Personal Essay Rough Drafts.  I'm looking forward to reading them.  My procedure with student papers is to go through and correct them after they're handed in and then hand them back the next week.  Students are to take that following week to make revisions.  If they haven't already, they should answer the Discussion Question posted on Google Classroom, "From your perspective, what is the easiest part of writing an essay and what's the hardest?"

Last week for the Literature portion of the class, we started My Antonia by Willa Cather with an  introduction and a quiz on Google Classroom.  Before they started reading the book, they also wrote a little bit about their family history.  For next week, they are to complete 3 Reader Responses.  We talked in class about the study guide questions that are listed per chapter and also the ala carte options if students would like more creative opportunities to respond to their reading.  Students can do any combination of questions and ala carte options -- they just need to choose 3.  NOTE:  These reader responses can be done on paper and handed in during next week's class time OR they can be done on the Google Classroom assignment.  Students DO NOT need to do it both ways.

For the final third of the class time, we covered some Grammar.  Last year in Writing 1, the students did parts of speech projects during which they were the teachers.  I'm starting this year out with quick reviews of those parts of speech.  This week, the assigned worksheets are reviews of Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs.  All of the grammar worksheets for the semester will be on the Rocketbook template, so if students want, they can either hand in the assignment during class next week OR scan the worksheet using the Rocketbook app and upload it to the Google Classroom assignments.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

This Week's Homework

Note:  Many of the assignments have hyperlinks to the Google Classroom assignment.  If you're doing the paper version of the assignment, you can disregard the Google Classroom assignment.  ONLY if it has GC after the assignment is it required that you do it on Google Classroom.

-- Read p. 1 - 23 of My Antonia

-- 3 Reader Responses. 

-- Writing Discussion Question (if not already done) (GC)

-- Grammar Worksheets:  Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, and Adverbs

This Week's Links

Class Notes -- Week 2 (Sept. 10)

Mrs. Prichard's  Zoom link 

National Days Calendar.  

National Swap Ideas Day

My Antonia Project Self Evaluation Rubric

Name:  _________________________________

Description of Project

  

SELF EVALUATION

Rate yourself and your project

	0	1	2	3	4
Connection to the Book	Not at all connected	Vague connection	Some connection	Good connection	Strong connection
Project Quality	No effort; no product	Weak effort; poor product	Some effort; satisfactory product	Good effort; commendable product	Exemplary effort; insightful & impressive product
Presentation	No presentation	Vague & indistinct comments	Clear but incomplete comments	Clear & thorough comments	Thought-provoking & perceptive comments

TEACHER EVALUATION

Rate yourself and your project

	0	1	2	3	4
Connection to the Book	Not at all connected	Vague connection	Some connection	Good connection	Strong connection
Project Quality	No effort; no product	Weak effort; poor product	Some effort; satisfactory product	Good effort; commendable product	Exemplary effort; insightful & impressive product
Presentation	No presentation	Vague & indistinct comments	Clear but incomplete comments	Clear & thorough comments	Thought-provoking & perceptive comments

COMMENTS:

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 5 (Sept. 19)

Greetings!

We worked this week and covered a lot of material in class.  As always, we started our day with a Quick Write. Yesterday was International Talk Like a Pirate Day (here is the official website and here is a Wikipedia article and here are the Muppets!)  Most of the students were unaware of this notable event.  As an alternative, they could write about super heroes.  I look forward to reading their responses.

This week's Words of the Day included:

valise-- noun -- fr. French, valigia, of obscure origin-  a small piece of luggage that can be carried by hand

autocratic-- adjective -- fr. Greek, autokratis, ruling by oneself-- characteristic of an absolute rule; tyrannical, despotic

unmollified-- fr. Latin, mollificare , to make soft--  to NOT be pacifed, calmed, or made more temperate.

candid -- fr Latin, candidus, white, shining -- to be open, frank, sincere

IMPORTANT NOTE:  I had told the students that there would be a test at the end of the semester for their words of the day.  Instead, we will have a test at the end of second semester for the second semester words.  The Words of the Day will include unusual foreign words and Latin roots. 

In connection with the returned homework, we discussed their Final Drafts of their Personal Essays.  As I grade the final drafts, I use a rubric for a more holistic look at their work.  (The rubric is attached and is on this blog post.)  For the first essay, I'm a pretty easy grader.  As we progress through the year, we will use these rubrics to set writing goals and students will use them to evaluate their own writing.  For example, in the Focus category, students will be thinking about whether their thesis statements are compelling and thought-provoking or simply a statement that combines the topic and opinion.

We did not take a lot of time for My Antonia this week.  (I wanted to cover a lot of ground with our grammar topics)  I checked in with the class about their book projects that they will complete and present at the end of the semester.  Some students are planning to work in groups, and some have already come up with individual project ideas.  The proposal form is not due until Week 8, so they have time to brainstorm.  When they know what they want to do, they should turn in the proposal (with a parent's initials) so that I can OK it.  There is some great positive energy about these projects, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they produce.

We spent the remainder of the time in Grammar discussion.  I've had the students do work sheets for Parts of Speech review, and we briefly discussed these.  Every word in every sentence falls into one of these categories:  interjections, verbs, adjectives, nouns, conjunctions, adverbs, pronouns, and prepositions.  When we are correcting or revising our own writing, we need to know what parts of speech might be causing problems.  Likewise, many parts of speech do the work of other parts of speech in a sentence, sometimes making grammatical structures more confusing.  (e.g. the verb "swimming" would be doing the work of a noun in this sentence:  Swimming is my favorite sport.)

Following our parts of speech review, we discussed the basic construction of a sentence, and I'm including some photos of "equations" that I use to explain sentence elements. 

 
A common writing error that students make is to think that dependent clauses are independent clauses because they have a noun and a verb.  However, because the clause began with a subordinating conjunction, it loses its sentence status and is not a "complete thought."  Another common error is to omit the comma before the conjunction in a compound sentence.  If you feel confused, it's because grammar can be awfully confusing and is not as straightforward as we would wish. 

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read pages 94 - 118 of My Antonia

-- 3 Reader Responses

-- 5 Vocabulary Words

-- My Antonia book project -- proposal due Week 8

-- FANBOYS worksheet

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Essay Rubric

International Talk Like a Pirate

Talk Like a Pirate Wikipedia

Muppets Talk Like a Pirate

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 4 (Sept. 12)

Greetings!

Again, another great class.  This group of students brings a lot of positive energy and attitudes to the class.  The prompts for our Quick Write today were taken from the National Days Calendar:  National Video Game Day, National Day of Encouragement, and National Milkshake Day.  As always, if none of those options triggered any productive thinking or writing, students could write about something else.  We had good discussions about all three topics.

This week's Words of the Day came from the students and included:

taciturn--adjective--  fr. Latin, taciturnus, tacitis, to be silent -- temperamentally disinclined to talk

outward-- adjective-- fr. Old English, utweard, out-- moving, directed, or turned to the outside or away from the center

and-- conjunction-- fr. German, und, and-- along, together, in addition to

During the Writing portion of today's class I collected the final drafts of their Personal Essays.  For all of the essays that they will write they are required to hand in the rough drafts with the final drafts so that I can see the specific changes.  Those who didn't do that in class this week can send me a picture or scanned version of their rough drafts with my corrections.  A couple of students mentioned that they had thrown away their rough drafts, so I will correct their papers without them.  I also reminded them that they SHOULD NOT throw away any work from this class until the end of the semester; they should also save all of their essays until the end of the year.

In Writing 2, as soon as students finish one paper we start another.  Their new assignment is a Process Essay.  The topics for this essay can be something simple and every day or something complicated and more abstract.  For example, they can write about tying their shoes of about the process of becoming more like Jesus. 
As we discussed the topics, we also  considered thesis statements. I introduced my equation for a thesis statement and a template for thesis statements that include a plan for development. 

Equation:

     Topic/Subject

  +  Opinion/Stand

Thesis Statement

Template:

     (topic/stand)     is/are      (opinion/stand)     because      (reason #1)  ,      (reason #2)     , and       (reason #3)     .

We also  took time to discuss the elements of an introduction and conclusion.  The introduction should include a hook, a thesis statement, and a "road map."  The conclusion mirrors the introduction and should restate the thesis, summarize the main points, and leave parting thoughts with the reader.  

Our Grammar topic for this week, complete and compound sentences, was tabled due to our longer discussion about the next paper and our literature discussion.  When I write the course schedule for the class, I do it in a way that can be flexible.  (Most of the students didn't mind having the grammar homework.   )

For our literature discussion, I introduced the final book project for My Antonia.  The book project is due at the end of the book, but I want students to have plenty of time to work on it.  Some of students were getting excited about some of their ideas; they have permission to do work as a group as long as they divide the work evenly.  Students were given a proposal form that they will need to fill out and have you sign.  I love these projects because it gives students room to be creative.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read p. 70 - 94 of My Antonia

-- 3 Reader Responses

-- 5 Vocabulary Words

-- Process Essay Rough Draft

-- Preparation for your book project

Links for This Week

Class Notes

My Antonia Final Project

My Antonia Project Proposal

Process Essay

My Antonia audiobook, part 1

My Antonia audiobook, part 2

My Antonia audiobook, part 3

My Antonia audiobook, part 4

My Antonia audiobook, part 5

My Antonia on Vibrivox (downloadable)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

My Antonia Project Proposal

NAME:  ___________________________________________________

Parent’s Initials:  ___________

My Antonia Project Proposal Form

Description:

At the end of reading My Antonia by Willa Cather, students will present a project related to the book as a whole. Most of the projects are meant for individual work, but some can be expanded to a group project.  (Permission must be acquired for group projects.)  Some of the project ideas involve other media, and you are encouraged to be creative and to choose something that fits your interests, abilities, and personality. 

Due dates:

Project Proposal:  Week 8 (10/10)

Project Presentations:  Weeks 12 & 13 (11/14 & 11/28)

Presentations:

The format for the presentations will be dependent on the types of projects chosen.  Some projects will be suitable for a “science fair” format with stations, and others will be more performance or audio-visual oriented.  We will plan our two days for presentations accordingly.

My Proposed Project: 

  

Why have you chosen this particular project?

  

Will you be working with anyone else?

  

How will you present your project?  (for example, performance, poster board, artwork, written work, etc.)

Will you need any special materials for do your project?  If so, do you have plan for getting these?

My Antonia Final Project

Description:

At the end of reading My Antonia by Willa Cather, students will present a project related to the book as a whole. Most of the projects listed below are meant for individual work, but some can be expanded to a group project.  (Permission must be acquired for group projects.)  Some of the project ideas involve other media, and you are encouraged to be creative and to choose something that fits your interests, abilities, and personality. 

Due dates:

Project Proposal:  Week 8 (10/12)

Project Presentations:  Weeks 12 & 13 (11/16 & 11/30)

Presentations:

The format for the presentations will be dependent on the types of projects chosen.  Some projects will be suitable for a “science fair” format with stations, and others will be more performance or audio-visual oriented.  We will plan our two days for presentations accordingly.

FINAL PROJECT OPTIONS/IDEAS

1.      Design book covers for the five sections

2.      Create a travel brochure for Black Hawk

3.      Create a soundtrack or playlist for the five sections of the book

4.      Design a graphic novel for one of the sections of the book

5.      Write a radio play excerpt for one of the sections of the book

6.      Perform live or record a dramatic reading of a portion of the book (at least 3 pages).

7.      Prepare a TV commercial related to the book.

8.      Write a series of correspondence between you and the author or one of the characters (at least 6 letters)

9.      Play charades for the characters in the book.

10.  Design/draw clothing for 3 of the characters.

11.  Design/draw the various pieces of clothing that one of the characters would wear throughout the span of the book.

12.  Make a piece of clothing (full-size or miniature) for one of the characters.

13.  Make a diorama of a scene from the book.

14.  Design/build a board or card game for the book.

15.  Perform or record a scene from the book as a “silent movie.” 

16.  Create a children’s book for a section of the book.

17.  Write and perform a dramatic monologue for one of the characters.

18.  Create a movie trailer for the book.

19.  Create an ABC book that correlates with aspects of the story.

20.  Make a t-shirt that connects to the book.

21.  Create a mobile of characters, items, etc. that are a part of the book.

22.  Create a timeline for the whole of the book.

23.  Design/draw a set of maps for the pertinent sections of the book.

24.  Create a “book in a bag.”  Choose 10 items that represent the people, places, events, and other parts of the story.  Place them in a paper or fabric bag and write a key describing each of the items and their importance to the story.

25.  Create a sculpture of a character. 

26.  Create a book award that might be given to this book.  Create a ribbon, a certificate, and a press release.

27.  Write a report chard for two of the characters.  Come up with 5 areas of his/her personality to grade based on behavior in the book.  Design a report card to go with it.

28.  Write a test for the book that includes multiple choice, true/false, and short answer responses. (at least 20 questions)

29.  Make a stop animation video.

30.  Make a jeopardy game to go with the book.

31.  Put together a PowerPoint presentation that explains one of the following literary elements:  characterization, setting, plot, conflict, etc.

32.  Make a set of three inspirational posters using quotes from the book.

33.  Write an imagined interview with one of the characters.

34.  Write a song.

35.  Write about yourself in 20 years.

36.  Create a newspaper about the book that includes comics, ads, weather, letter to the editor, etc. along with news stories.

37.  Create a “lost scene” from the book.  Write and/or perform.

38.  Create a puppet show for the book.

39.  Write/perform a newscast for the book.

40.  Write an alternate ending for the book.

More ideas can be found at

http://teachnet.com/lessonplans/language-arts/more-ideas-than-ever-book-reports/