We had a good day "in class." I know that this quarantine thing is getting old, for the students and their families. There's no instructional manual for this time -- except for the Word of God.
We started the class with a Quick Write. Because April 23 is National Take a Chance Day, National Talk like Shakespeare Day, and National Poem in your Pocket Day, students could use any one of these as a prompt for their writing, and kudos if they could combine them.
After a quick homework check, we finished off our Words of the Day unit with a final "exam" in the form of a Bingo game (you can see the card here) I used a mix of words and images on the card. I gave definitions, the students figured out the word, and then they filled in their bingo cards. It went well, from my perspective.
The Evaluation Essay Final Draft is due this week, and we have one more writing assignment for the year -- the Essay Re-Write. For this essay, they are to take one of their previously written essays and improve it. Many times students write essays, get them graded, put them in a file, and forget about them. I like to end the year by giving students a chance to show their learning through their own revising abilities. They could choose their worst essays, the one they enjoyed and want to continue to add more information, or their very first one of the year. They can add more information or revise their sentence/paragraph structures. I especially asked them to look at their introductions and conclusions. They had this week to re-do one of their essays and then hand it in next week. This isn't the regular rough draft/final draft cycle -- just one revision on one essay.
For the last 2 weeks of the semester, we do one of my favorite activities -- the Poetry Jam. Everyone in the class should prepare 2 poems to recite for the class, and then their team will present a poem as a group. If they want, they can do a duet with someone. The rules for the Poetry Jam are simple: poems must be at least 5 lines long; extra credit for original poems, extra credit for memorized poems, poems can be from our book or from another source. The students have been sent an email with their groups and email addresses.
The Grammar homework is a comma placement review that uses the introduction from an essay that a previous student wrote. They are to insert commas for compound sentences, complex sentences, lists, etc. Next week, I will give them a take home test on commas.
It's good to see the faces of my students, even if it is just a video.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
Assignments for Next Week
-- Essay Re-Write
-- Choose 2 poems to recite
-- Work with your team for the group work
-- Finish the Comma Placement "Flash" paragraphs
Links for this Week
Class Notes
