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

• Mystery Story Final Draft

• Sherlock Holmes Final Exam

• Short Stories: Read  Pushkin (162); Tolstoy (169); Chekhov (26)

Links for This Week

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

Have a great 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