Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 3 (January 27)

Greetings!

This week's Quick Write prompts were taken from the list that the students in Writing 1 and Writing 2 contributed to last fall.  Here are the prompts for today’s Quick Write:

• What is a favorite childhood memory?

• What is one of the best days of your life?

• What was a highlight of your week?

• Whatever …..

Our Words of the Day came from Michael, Nina, and Annelise

virile-- fr. Latin vir, "man" -- strong, manly

corvine-- fr. Latin corvus, "raven"  -- resembling a crow  

feriation-- fr. Latin, feriatus, "to rest from work" --  to take a vacation or holiday

misanthrope -- fr. Greek, mis, "hate" and anthropos, "man" -- to hate mankind

Students have handed in the Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts of their Mystery Stories.  Many of them enjoyed writing these and felt that they wrote more than they usually wrote.  Others felt that this writing assignment was a bit harder since it's not easy to be creative.  This kind of writing required some different planning and a different kind of thinking.  I am looking forward to curling up with a cup of coffee and reading my pile of Mystery Rough Drafts.  

We are 4 stories into our book of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and the consensus this week was that the "Speckled Band" was more interesting than "The Engineer's Thumb."  Most agree that there was something satisfying about following clues and deducing solutions.  Someone mentioned the "red herrings" in the story about the speckled band.   These false clues and distractions add another layer of interest.

For the Grammar portion of class, we worked again on complex sentences.  In our unit on Commas, we also need to learn about sentence structures.  You won't understand where the comma goes with regards to dependent clauses in complex sentences if you don't know what a complex sentence is.  You won't know the difference between an independent and dependent/subordinate clause if you don't understand what the essential elements of a sentence are.  All of grammar is interconnected, and the students are doing a great job at working to understand these intricacies.  

Assignments for Next Week:

• Holmes:  Read “The Final Problem” & “The Adventure of the Empty House"
  

• Characterization of Sherlock Holmes

• Grammar:  Wk3 - Complex Sentences & Commas

• Grammar:  Wk3 - The Complex Sentence (3 pages)

 

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 3 (January 27)

Video, audio, and pdf versions of "The Final Problem"

Video, audio, and pdf versions of "The Empty House"

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

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

Greetings!

We started our class thinking about "Gratitude."  I shared with the class that research shows that people who develop intentional habits of expressing gratitude have stronger cognitive functioning, better immune systems, and a greater degree of happiness.  For our Quick Write prompts today, students could choose from these options:  

• What is a simple pleasure that you are grateful for?
• What is something that you are looking forward to?
• Who is someone who could really use a "thank you note?"

The students had some great comments, and we decided that next week we would write some real thank you notes.  I will bring envelopes and stamps and the students are to bring addresses.  (What a great group this is!!)

Our Word of the Day came from Ethan:

apocalypse-- fr. Greek apokalupsis, "to uncover or reveal" -- something viewed as prophetic revelation; a revelation; also something perceived as catastrophic

For class this week, we had extras on Zoom due to the bad roads. We had enough on Zoom to make a small group for our literature discussion

Students have handed in the Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts of their Mystery Stories.  Most of them enjoyed writing these, and many felt that they wrote more than they usually wrote.  This kind of writing required some different planning and a different kind of thinking.  I am looking forward to curling up with a cup of coffee and reading my pile of Mystery Rough Drafts.  

We are 4 stories into our book of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and the consensus this week was that the "Speckled Band" was more interesting than "The Engineer's Thumb."  Most agree that there was something satisfying about following clues and deducing solutions.  Someone mentioned the "red herrings" in the story about the speckled band.   These false clues and distractions add another layer of interest.

For the Grammar portion of class, we worked again on complex sentences.  In our unit on Commas, we also need to learn about sentence structures.  You won't understand where the comma goes with regards to dependent clauses in complex sentences if you don't know what a complex sentence is.  You won't know the difference between an independent and dependent/subordinate clause if you don't understand what the essential elements of a sentence are.  All of grammar is interconnected, and the students are doing a great job at working to understand these intricacies.  

Assignments for Next Week:

• Spring Writing Survey (This is a Google Form on Google Classroom. It is not due for 2 weeks, but students can do it right away if they would like)

• Holmes:  Read “The Final Problem” & “The Adventure of the Empty House"

• Characterization of Sherlock Holmes (Students can do this on the document attached to the Google Classroom assignment OR they can print it and do it with pen/highlighter on paper.)

• Grammar:  Wk3 - Complex Sentences & Commas

• Grammar:  Wk3 - The Complex Sentence

 

Links for This Week

Track My Grades (note -- if you can not find your password in the email sent to you, please let me know.)

Class Notes

The Final Problem (audiobook on YouTube)

The Final Problem (video with Jeremy Brett)

The Adventure of the Empty House (audiobook on YouTube)

The Adventure of the Empty House (video with Jeremy Brett)

Sherlock Holmes stories on Librivox

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

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

A Connecticut Yankee Audiobook

Some students are strong auditory learners, and it helps to have an audio version of a piece of literature. Below are some options for students who would be helped by listening to the book.

LibriVox (whole book and iTunes)

Youtube (Parts 1 & 2)