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 Final Draft Rubric

Criterion	Incomplete (0)	Beginning (1 – 2)	Developing (3 – 5)	Proficient (6 – 7)	Advanced   (8 - 9)	Exceptional (10)
Focus:  Thesis, Intro, Concl.	Specific topic is unclear and no statement of an opinion or a stand. No introduction No conclusion	Specific topic is clear but no statement of an opinion or a stand. Brief introduction that doesn’t state the topic or subtopics Brief conclusion; abrupt ending	Thesis statement expresses the topic but not an opinion or a stand. Weak introduction that states the topic but is missing a clear thesis. The focus of the paper is unclear. Conclusion does not fully summarize the main points nor restates the thesis statement.	Thesis statement includes the topic and expresses a stand or opinion. Introduction states topic and thesis and gives direction to the paper. Conclusion reiterates main points and restates the thesis statement.	Clearly-stated topic and thoughtful thesis statement. Strong introduction with a thesis statement that grabs attention and directs the course of the essay. Strong conclusion that summarizes the main points and restates the thesis statement.  Satisfactorily wraps up the essay.	Clearly-stated, thought-provoking topic and compelling thesis statement. Excellent introduction with a thesis statement that grabs attention and directs the course of the essay. Excellent conclusion that summarizes the main points and restates the thesis statement.  Skillfully wraps up the essay.
Content	Contains mostly unrelated information No specific details, only generalities.	No major points to support the thesis are included.  No details related to the topic have been used; ideas are disconnected.	Some of the major points are covered. Some specific details are included. Lacks sufficient material to fully support thesis.	Many of the major points are covered. Many of the appropriate details are included with each point.	All major points are discussed. All points include some details.	All major points are thoroughly and insightfully discussed. All points are fully supported with strong details.
Organization	Ideas are arranged randomly.  There may be no division of paragraphs.	Ideas are slightly random with occasional orderly sections.  Inconsistent division of paragraphs.	Like ideas are grouped together, and paragraphs are present, but ideas within may not be organized logically.  Transitions may be lacking.	An apparent progression of ideas that allows the reader to move through the text without confusion. Sentences with paragraphs are organized and flow smoothly	A coherent progression of ideas that allows the reader to move through the text without confusion. Sentences within paragraphs flow smoothly with good use of transitions.	Expresses a clear, logical sequence of ideas within paragraphs and throughout the paper. Sentences within paragraphs flow effortlessly with excellent use of transitions.
Mechanics	Numerous errors; meaning of paper unclear	Frequent errors, seriously impairs flow & meaning of paper	Errors noticeable and occasionally detract from flow or meaning of paper	Some errors that are minor in nature and don’t detract from overall meaning of paper	Very few errors that are minor in nature and don’t detract from overall meaning of paper	Essentially faultless; errors may result from risk-taking and do not detract from the paper

Total Score – 40 possible points

Grades are Coming!

Greetings Writing 2 Students and Parents!

I've just finished grading the Comparison/Contrast essays, putting all of the scores for assignments in my gradebook, and calculating the grades for the Fall semester.  Look for an e-mail from me with the individual grades.  As tutors, these are suggested grades for you as homeschooling families to consider.  I've enjoyed my time with these students -- they've worked hard and are a delightful class!

My thoughts about grades:

For those who are new to my classes, let me share my thoughts on grades.  As I homeschooled, I didn't give my children grades.  I felt that grades were far too subjective.  I taught my own children for mastery and for learning.  Many times, we didn't proceed with a topic until they were ready, no matter how long that took.  In a class setting, we don't have that luxury, but I do my best to read the students and their understanding of the material.  Sometimes I can reteach or adjust the lessons, but I can never fully know the extent to which each student has grasped information or mastered a task.  This makes giving grades a challenge, and again, subjective.

Letter grades are a funny thing.  For some students, it becomes the only motivation for doing well.  For some, it becomes a measure of their worth as a person or as an academic learner.  I personally don't like these "side effects" of the grading system.  On the other hand, grades can be a valid reflection and reward for working hard, being diligent, and understanding the materials.

When teaching students to be good writers, I give a lot of consideration for growth and improvement.  Each student has a starting place; over time, I look for him or her to learn the mechanics of grammar, good writing techniques, and analytical thinking skills.

For this class, I gave points for attendance, participation, short assignments, grammar work, quizzes, and longer essays. I tend to be an "easy grader" and like to see my students encouraged to do their best. 

My Grading Process:

To further clarify my grading, let me explain the categories.  For the past two years I've been using Engrade, an online grade book.  With this program, I can assign a category to each assignment, for example, Writing, Literature, Grammar, Assignments (in-class work.) Each category is somewhat self-explanatory, except for perhaps the "Assignments" section.  This is where I put our Quick Writes, vocabulary work, and any other class participation scores. Engrade figures percentages for total scores and for scores within each of these categories.

However, the four categories do not have the same number of assignments, so a straight averaging of the scores does not give an accurate total percentage/grade.  For example, the Assignments category had 16 scores, and 15 of them were small, 5-point Quick Writes.  Writing section had fewer assignments, but the scores were higher per assignment. 

Though the categories are not exactly even, I feel that dividing the scores like this is helpful because it helps parent, students, and teacher have a better picture of the work done in the semester.  For example, if a student scores 100% on this Assignments section, I know that he showed up and participated well in class.  A low score in the Literature section is most likely a sign of a significant number of missing assignments.  Likewise, a low score in grammar could be because assignments were not handed in, or it could be a lack of knowledge in this area. As it is with all homework assignments for any subject area, the scores reflect a mix of quantity and quality. 

I hope I haven't further confused the grading for this class.  Working with students to help them develop into first-rate thinkers and writers is my  primary goal.  Points, scores, percentages, and grades are only small parts in the learning process.  If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

Blessings to all of you!

Mrs. Prichard

Essay Rubric for Writing 2

Criterion	Beginning (2 – 0)	Developing (5 – 3)	Proficient (8– 6)	Advanced (10 - 9)
Focus:  Thesis, Introduction, Conclusion	Specific topic is unclear and no statement of an opinion or a stand. Lacks a clear introduction. No conclusion.	Thesis statement expresses the topic but not an opinion or a stand. Weak introduction that states the topic but is missing a clear thesis. The focus of the paper is unclear. Conclusion does not fully summarize the main points nor restates the thesis statement.	Thesis statement includes the topic and expresses a stand or opinion. Introduction states topic and thesis and gives direction to the paper. Conclusion reiterates main points and restates the thesis statement.	Clearly-stated, thoughtful & compelling thesis statement. Strong introduction with a thesis statement that grabs attention and directs the course of the essay. Strong conclusion that summarizes the main points and restates the thesis statement.  Satisfactorily wraps up the essay.
Content	No major points to support the thesis are included.  Few details have been used. Ideas are disconnected.	Some of the major points are covered. Some specific details are included. Lacks sufficient material to fully support thesis.	All major points are covered. Appropriate details are included with each point.	All major points are thoroughly and insightfully discussed. All points are fully supported with strong details.
Organization	Ideas are arranged randomly.  There may be no division of paragraphs.	Like ideas are grouped together, and paragraphs are present, but ideas within may not be organized logically.  Transitions may be lacking.	An apparent progression of ideas that allows the reader to move through the text without confusion. Sentences with paragraphs are organized and flow smoothly	Expresses a clear, logical sequence of ideas within paragraphs and throughout the paper. Sentences within paragraphs flow smoothly with good use of transitions.
Mechanics	Frequent errors, seriously impairs flow & meaning of paper	Errors noticeable, and occasionally detract from flow or meaning of paper	Some errors, which are minor in nature and don’t detract from overall meaning of paper	Essentially faultless; errors may result from risk-taking and do not detract from meaning of paper.

Total Score – 40 possible points