Showing posts with label Week 2. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Week 2. Show all posts

Thursday, January 20, 2022

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 2 (January 20)

 Greetings!

We started today with a Quick Write using prompt options that they had written:
  1. What are some of your pet peeves?
  2. What do you do that annoys others, either accidentally or intentionally?
  3. What is the grossest thing you've ever eaten?
  4. What is the best/worst part of your hous?
  5. Whatever????
Our Words of the Day were from Michael, Nina, and Annelise
cantillate--  from Latin cantillare, "to sing low" -- to chant or intone
onychophagy-- from Greek onux, "nail;" phago, "to eat" -- nail-biting 
apathy -- from Greek a, not, without; pathos, feeling/emotion -- lack of feeling or interest; indifference
empathy -- from Greek em, "in;" pathos, feeling/emotion -- the ability to identify with feeling the suffering of others.

The usual Agenda for the class time is to do these beginning of class activities and then most of the time we cover these topics in this order:  Writing assignments/instruction, Literature discussion, and Grammar instruction/work.  My plan is to give the last 10 - 15 minutes of every class to working on Grammar assignments so that if students have questions, they can ask them right in class. 

For our Writing discussion, I checked in with them about the progress of their Mystery Stories.    The Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts are due next week. We discussed for a bit how writing this story will take a different kind of planning.  Students are thinking about putting in clues and even red herrings.  I am really looking forward to reading their stories next week!  By the way, if students want to read some student-written stories, they can go to the Writing 2 blog, and the stories are listed on right hand margin.  

The class has read the first 2 stories from our book, Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories. I read sections from the first pages of the story and we discussed the character and abilities of Sherlock Holmes.  Then I divided the class into 2 groups, and they played the game "Enter the Mystery Mansion."  Students were given cards with pictures, and as a group, they were to compose a mystery and/or spy story.  When they were done, they retold their stories for the Zoom portion of the class.  They were quite creative!

The last part of class was for Grammar instruction.  Today, I did a short lesson on simple and compound subjects and predicates along with compound sentences.  I often use fairly simple sentences to illustrate the concepts, but then we take these concepts and apply them to the students' own writing.  T

Have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard

Homework for Next Week:
Is it a Compound Sentence? -- Note: This one's extra credit because I left the worksheet at home


Links for this Week
Writing 2 Class Notes


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Thursday, September 2, 2021

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 p. 1 - 23 of My Antonia

Links for This Week
Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 2 (September 2)


Blessings!
Mrs. Prichard





Tamera M. Prichard
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