Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 14 (April 29)

 Greetings!

We had a wonderful day in class.  We started the class period with a Quick Write, and today's prompt was connected with the fact that it is National Poem in Your Pocket Day.  I gave the students a sheet of paper with an extra large pocket outline. They were to write a poem within the lines of that pocket.  They could write originals or copy one from our poetry book.  (Note:  We also watched one of my favorite spoken word artists, Harry Baker, for some inspiration.)

This week was our penultimate class for the year -- the one before the last one!  We had fun during class, which can be a very good thing, especially since, according to research, "humor activates the brain's dopamine reward system, stimulating goal-oriented motivation and long-term memory, which means that humor can improve retention in students of all ages.? (Edutopia, 2015)

The Essay Re-Write was due this week, and their final writing assignment, a Reflection Paper, is due next week.   For this paper, they are to write about what they learned this year, what they learned about themselves this year, and what did and didn't work well this year.  At the bottom of this email is a link to an article about the value of reflection as a part of learning.

Last week, students took home, completed, and then corrected their Mastering the Comma Review.  This week, they have the Spring Grammar Test test to take home, complete, and then correct.  They should use different colored pens/pencils for correcting their work and be sure to make their marks clearly.  I will figure the final scores for their tests.  The test and the answer key are posted on Google Classroom.  If for some reason they are not able to access Google Classroom, they should still take the test and bring it to class.  I will then correct it.

And, finally, it was time in class for the Poetry Jam, 2022!  The class was divided into 4 teams and took turns coming up to the front to recite their chosen poems.  We had an exceptional panel of judges:  Levi M, Gabi F, Maria B, Halle H, and Mike M, all alums of Writing 2.  I loved listening to all of their poems (and heard a number of my favorites.) 

Here are the final places for Teams and Individuals

Team Scores	Round 1
1st Place	Anonymous Notes
2nd Place	Rhythmic Rhinos
3rd Place	Bull Frogs
4th Place	Things

Individual Scores	Round 1
1st Place	Michelle
2nd Place	Rachael
3rd Place	Michael
4th Place	Annelise
5th Place	Nina

     

On Thursday I sent an email telling the students that all of the scores were pretty close.  I also included a survey to find out what their thoughts were about Round 2 of the Poetry Jam.  Most people said it didn't matter what we did.  I would really love to have everyone read again, so unless someone is super opposed to reciting, ALL FOUR TEAMS will be in Round 2.    EVERYONE  should each bring another poem to recite.  The individual finalists (Michelle, Rachael, Michael, Annelise, and Nina) will present separately, and their scores will be added to the team scores   We'll finish our year with a "Party," and I'll set up a table in the hallway with some snacks.  (Students can bring some if they'd like.)

Next week is the final week, and I've told students that I will accept homework until Saturday, May 7 at 7:00 AM.  My experience is that once the CHAT classes are done, students really lose momentum for completing late homework.  My plan is to get final grades out within the week.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Any old homework

-- Essay Re-Write

-- Spring Grammar Test

-- The Reflection Paper

-- Bring a poem -- EVERYONE!

Links for this Week:

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 14 (April 29)

The Value of Reflection Papers

Harry Baker:  99 Problems but Maths Ain't One & Dinosaur Love

See you next week!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 21)

 Greetings!

We had a wonderful day in class.  We started the class period with a Quick Write, and here are the prompts:

• Today, April 21, is National Kindergarten Day.  What is something that you remember from your kindergarten days, when you were about 5 years old?  Can you remember toys you played with or activities you liked to do?  
• Today, April 21, is World Creativity and Innovation Day.  How do you like to express your creativity?  In what ways do you like to think outside the box?
• Saturday, April 23, is World Book Day.  What books would you recommend that others read?  Write convincing comments.
• Saturday, April 23, is also National Shakespeare Day and National Talk Like Shakespeare Day.  Write anything but put it in language that soundeth liketh the Bard of Avon hath verily penned it.

The Final Drafts of the Evaluation Essays were due today, and I introduced the next writing assignment, which is an Essay Re-Write.  For this essay, students can choose any essay they have written this year for Writing 2, or they can choose an essay that they've written for Writing 1 or another class.  They should take a one of their final drafts and look for ways to improve it.  I often suggest that students choose the essay that they got the worst grade on or that they want to spend some more time on. This writing assignment is due next week, and students should hand in the original along with the re-write.  (Note:  This isn't our regular pre-write to rough draft to final draft process.)

For our Literature portion of the class, we spend some of our time talking about one of my favorite poems by William Carlos Williams, "A Red Wheelbarrow."  After our discussion, I explained our Poetry Jam, which we will have for the next 2 weeks.  The class has been divided into teams, and those teams will compete in a group by reciting poetry.  (It looks like we might have some guest "judges" for the day.)  Each student should bring in 2 poems next week for the first round of the Poetry Jam.  

Here are the teams:

Team 1: Joe, Tate, Aoife, Nina, Anthony

Team 2:  Grace A, Michael, Kevin, Eden, Rachael

Team 3:  Cale, Michelle, Morgen, Julia, Lilia

Team 4:  Danica, Katelyn, Gracie M, Annalise, Mary

Finally, to conclude our Grammar for the year, I have a Final Comma Test that they will take next week.  For this week, they have a review sheet that they should complete and then correct. (The KEY is on the Google Classroom assignment.)  Correcting their own work will further help them review and will be much more beneficial than waiting a week to see if they got the answers right.  

We have a couple fun weeks planned to finish out our year, so let's make sure you get caught up on any late work.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Bring 2 poems for your contribution to the Poetry Jam (Here is the scoring information)

-- Complete the Essay Re-Write

-- Complete the Mastering the Comma Review sheet and correct it. (Bring the corrected version to class)

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 21)

About the Essay Re-Write

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 7)

 Greetings!

As always, we had a good class today.  This is a lively class (who sometimes need reigning in ), but they are always ready to learn.  

For our Quick Write this week, they had 4 options:

• On April 6, 1917, the United States officially entered World War 1.  What do you know about either of the World Wars?  What are your thoughts about the US’s involvement in conflicts in other parts of the world?

• On April 6, 1896, the first modern Olympic games were held.  Do you have a favorite Olympic sport?  What are your thoughts about the Olympics?  About amateur and professional sports?

• On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced the first astronauts.  What do you think about America’s space program?  Do you keep up with current developments?  Do you think we should continue to explore space?

Our Words of the Day came from Grace, Ike, and Megan:

autodidact-- fr. Greek autos, "self," didaktos, "taught" -- a person who is self taught

enervate-- fr. Latin enervare, "to weaken" -- to weaken or impair

cerebration-- fr. Latin cerebrum, "brain" -- the working of the brain; thinking

After our beginning of class activities, we talked through common errors found in the rough drafts of their Evaluation Essays. Students put on the white board the issues that I marked on their papers. These ranged from using capital letters and italics to comma splice sentences to parallel structure. Their Final Drafts of the Evaluation Essays is due April 21. For those who got their rough drafts in late, I will go over them by this weekend and will let students know when they are ready to revise.

I introduced our Poetry Jam, a poetry recitation & competition that will be held the last 2 weeks of the semester (Weeks 14 & 15). In order to get ready for that, we watched 3 poetry presentations; two were from Harry Baker, a national and world slam poetry champion and Bella Callery, a 2019 national champion for Poetry Out Loud (who happens to be a graduate from the charter school in Northfield where I teach) These and some others are posted on Google Classroom, link below.

Our Grammar assignment for this week will have students using italics and quotation marks.  NOTE: I will correct the Grammar assignments, so no KEYs were given.

Be blessed this weekend! Happy Easter!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:

• Poetry:  Whitman (p. 25), Dickenson (p. 27), Burgess (p. 39), Frost (p. 44), Sandburg (p. 46), Williams (p. 48), Hughes (p. 53)

Note: All of the poems are in the book and can also be found on this Google Classroom post: Week 13 Poetry

• 2 Poetry Responses

• Evaluation Essay Final Draft

• Grammar – Wk12:  Italics & Quotation Marks

• Grammar – Wk12:  Using Italics

Links for This Week

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 7)

Week 13 Poetry (pdfs)

Sample Spoken Word Videos

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 14 (May 6)

 Greetings!

This week we had our penultimate class for the year -- the one before the last one!  We had fun during class, which can be a very good thing, especially since, according to research, "humor activates the brain's dopamine reward system, stimulating goal-oriented motivation and long-term memory, which means that humor can improve retention in students of all ages.? (Edutopia, 2015)

For our Quick Write, I gave the students the following options:

-- Write about Star Wars (May the 4th is National Star Wars Day)

-- Write some fanfiction about another movie, book, or TV series

-- Write about anything else that's on your mind.

For our Words of the Day, we had the following words brought in my the students:

zealot -- a person who exhibits extreme zeal for a cause or ideas

sumptuous -- something that is luxurious and lavish

patootie -- an attractive girl; someone's "backside"

pogonotrophy -- the act of cultivating and growing a beard

The Essay Re-Write was due this week, and their final writing assignment, a Reflection Paper.  For this paper, they are to write about what they learned this year, what they learned about themselves this year, and what did and didn't work well this year.  At the bottom of this email is a link to an article about the value of reflection as a part of learning.

Last week, students took home, completed, and then corrected their Mastering the Comma Review.  This week, they have the final test to take home, complete, and then correct.  They should different colored pens/pencils for correcting their work and be sure to make their marks clearly.  I will figure the final scores for their tests.  The test and the answer key are posted on Google Classroom.  If for some reason they are not able to access Google Classroom, they should still take the test and bring it to class.  I will then correct it.

And, finally, it was time in class for the Poetry Jam, 2021!  The class was divided into 6 teams and took turns coming up to the front to recited their chosen poems.  Not only did the other teams help out with the judging, but we had an illustrious Writing 2 alumni, Nicholas Westerberg, join us as a guest judge.  Nicholas had taken Writing 1, 2, and 3 and Latin 1 from me and is now in college. He wrote a number of original poems for our Poetry Jams!  

I loved listening to all of their poems (and heard a number of my favorites.)  I recorded the Poetry Jam and have posted the video on Google Classroom.  All of the judges' scores have been tallied, and here is the list, in no particular order, of the top 3 teams and top 3 individuals who will complete in the finals next week:

• Teams
• Team 3 (Carson, Peter, Bennett, Ellie, and Ava)
• Team 5 (Elliot, Benjamin, Levi, and Michael S.)
• Team 6 (Philip, Tyler, Michael M. and Jesse T.)
• Individuals
• Kara
• Nalani
• Peter

For the Final Round of Poetry Jam 2021, the team members should each bring 1 poem.  The individuals should also bring 1 poem.  I will also have a poem that we will do as a whole class.  We'll finish our year with a "Party," and I'll set up a table in the hallway with some snacks.  (Students can bring some if they'd like.)

I hope to finish getting all of the scores for current and late homework in my the end of the weekend.  As I've told the students, all work should be in by 11:59 PM on May 15.  I will send an email for you to double check your scores on Track My Grades.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Any old homework

-- The Reflection Paper

-- Bring a poem if you are a finalist

Links for this Week:

Class Notes

The Value of Reflection Papers

Poetry Jam 2021 Video

Blessings!

Mrs. Prichard

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 29)

 Greetings!

We had a wonderful day in class.  We started the class period with a Quick Write, and today's prompt was connected with the fact that it is National Poem in Your Pocket Day.  I gave the students a sheet of paper with an extra large pocket outline. They were to write a poem within the lines of that pocket.  They could write originals or copy one from our poetry book.  

Here are our unusual Words of the Day:

Hexadosioihexekontahexaphobie -- the fear of the number 666

ructation -- the act of belching

heaven -- a place regarded as the home of God, the skies

resplendent -- attractive and impressive through being richly colorful or sumptuous.

The Final Drafts of the Evaluation Essays were due today, and I introduced the next writing assignment, which is an Essay Re-Write.  For this essay, students can choose any essay they have written this year for Writing 2, or they can choose an essay that they've written for another class.  They should take a one of their final drafts and look for ways to improve it.  I often suggest that students choose the essay that they got the worst grade on or that they want to spend some more time on. Another option can be to trade essays with a friend and re-write the friend's essay.  This writing assignment is due next week, and students should hand in the original along with the re-write.  (Note:  This isn't our regular pre-write to rough draft to final draft process.)

For our Literature portion of the class, we spend most of our time talking about one of my favorite poems by William Carlos Williams, "A Red Wheelbarrow."  After our discussion, I explained our Poetry Jam, which we will have for the next 2 weeks.  The class has been divided into teams, and those teams will compete in a group by reciting poetry.  (It looks like we might have some guest "judges" for the day.)  Each student should bring in 2 poems next week for the first round of the Poetry Jam.  

Here are the teams:

Team 1:  Maria, Maddy, Anna, Sam, Josie

Team 2:  Ethan, Raya, Zach, Nalani, Grace

Team 3:  Carson, Peter, Bennett, Ellie, Ava

Team 4:  Ingrid, Leighton, Jessie M, Kara, James

Team 5:  Elliot, Benjamin, Levi, Michael S.

Team 6:  Philip, Tyler, Michael M, Jesse T

Finally, to conclude our Grammar for the year, I have a Final Comma Test that they will take next week.  For this week, they have a review sheet that they should complete and then correct.  Correcting their own work will further help them review and will be much more beneficial than waiting a week to see if they got the answers right.  

We have a couple fun weeks planned to finish out our year, so let's make sure you get caught up on any late work.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Bring 2 poems for your contribution to the Poetry Jam (Here is the scoring information)

-- Complete the Essay Re-Write

-- Complete the Mastering the Comma Review sheet and correct it. (Bring the corrected version to class)

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 23)

Greetings!

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

Comma Placement "The Flash"  Paragraph 

Comma Placement "The Flash" Paragraph (Google Doc)

Essay Re-Write 

Poetry Jam Rubric

Poetry Jam Rubric

Poetry Jam Rubric

	1	2	3
Level of Difficulty	Simple, Easy, Short	Somewhat challenging	Extremely challenging
Memorization	Not at all	Kind of	Absolutely
Physical Presence	No eye contact; stiff & uncomfortable	Comfortable & confident	Authoritative, compelling
Dramatic Voice & Articulation	Inaudible, distracted, over-emoting	Clear, adequate; not overly stylistic	Mastery of rhythm, skillful, reflects meaning

Original poetry = 1 extra point

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 15 (May 11)

Greetings!

Well, we've made it through another great year at CHAT.   I know that these great students learned a lot -- just compare their first essays with their final ones!

Even though I had a full day planned for the class, we didn't skip the Quick Write.  Thursday was the 159th anniversary of Minnesota's statehood, the day that SPAM was produced, and National Eat What you Want Day.  Students could write about any of the choices.

We didn't do any Words of the Day this week.  I wanted to make sure we had time for the rest of our activities.

I handed back all the homework that I had graded, and students handed in their Spring Grammar Tests along with any other homework that they had for me.  If there is still any homework left to be handed in, I will take it until next Thursday (May 18).  After that, I will send out grades.  I'm not planning on returning any worksheets, etc. unless a student notifies me.

Now for the fun stuff ...

We finished our Poetry Jam.  Last week the class decided that they would all like to participate in Round 2 of our competition.  So, all students recited again while their classmates judged.  The results:  

First Place -- Team 4 (Grace, Gavin, Samuel, Leah)

Second Place -- Team 2 (Maggie, Isabel, Brady)

Third Place -- Team 1 (William, Ashley, Jean-Marc, Abby)

Fourth Place -- Team 3 (Jack, Daniel)

We had one more poetic activity for the class. We divided up Dr. Seuss's "One Fish, Two Fish" and read it as a rap, complete with a rap music accompaniment.  They did a great job!

. 

Remaining in our teams, the class then played a Jeopardy game with questions related to the grammar, writing, and literature that we've covered this year.  

I'm pretty proud of these kids.  They've written well, engaged well in class discussions, worked hard on homework, and been generally great all-around kids.  We had a marvelous year reading and writing!

Assignments for Next Week:

-- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!

This week's links:

Class Notes

Jeopardy Final Exam

Have a great summer!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 14 (May 4)

Greetings!

Just brief notes about today.  I'll give a fuller summary of the year next week.

This week's Quick Write options:

National Day of Prayer -- write about what you feel is the most pressing prayer need for our country.

Cinco de Mayo -- The 5th of May, -- write about what you know of Hispanic culture or your favorite Mexican food.

Star Wars Day -- "May the forth be with you."  See this article for how this became Star Wars day.

Words of the Day:

trans -- Latin, across -- trans-Atlantic, transportation, transport, transition, trans-continental

tempo -- Latin, time -- tempo, temporarily, temporal, contemporary

ultra -- Latin, beyond -- ultrasound, ultrasonic, ultraviolet

In with the Homework that I handed back were two handouts from My GradeBook:  missing reports, and current grade reports.  Since next week is our last week, I'd like students to be able to get any missing homework in.  (Note:  Be sure you contact me if you have any questions.)  If a student is missing any worksheets, he/she can find missing worksheets on Google Drive:

Grammar Worksheets

Literature Worksheets

Writing Handouts

Students have finished the Mastering the Comma Review, and are to take the Spring Grammar Test about commas at home this week.

After handing in their homework for this week, we settled into our Poetry Jam. When one team recited, the other teams judged.   While we had two winners for our first round, the whole class decided that they'd like to have a replay.  We'll have our Poetry Jam Play-offs next week.

Next week we will also have a final exam in the form of a Jeopardy game.  Students can bring snacks to share.

Assignments for Next Week 

-- Spring Grammar Test

-- Bring a poem to recite

-- Any old homework!!

Links for This Week:

Class Notes

Spring Grammar Test

Grammar Worksheets

Literature Worksheets

Writing Handouts

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 14 (April 30)

Greetings!

We had a very full hour and a half for this, our penultimate class period.  April 30 is National Poem in Your Pocket day, so I gave them a sheet with a pocket shape for them to write their own original poetry on.  (Some students used these poems for our Poetry Jam, later in class.)

Following our Quick Write, the students took their Grammar Final.  Similar to the Mastering the Comma Review that they handed in last week, this was a "commas only" test.  They worked diligently to finish these.  I've graded most of them, and they all did well.  Hopefully, they can confidently consider themselves "Masters of the Comma."

The remainder of the class time was spent on our Poetry Jam.  A cross between a Poetry Slam,for which students write their own original poems, and Poetry Out Loud, for which the choose for a selected list of poems.  Both of these events are competitive poetry presentations.  The students were divided into teams; each student gave an individual presentation.  The other teams then scored the "players" using a rubric that divided the presentation into the following areas: level of difficulty, memorization, physical presence, and dramatic voice and articulation.  Players received an extra 2 points if the poem was an original.  

After we worked out the kinks of the scoring method -- adding & averaging then adding and averaging again -- we had a good solid round of presentations.  We had a mix of serious, light-hearted, and original poetry.  Even those who dislike poetry were good sports and gave good readings.  We have two teams who will participate in the "Play Offs" at the beginning of class this week.  For this round, I will provide the poetry.

This Thursday is our final week of classes for the CHAT school year.  I have 3 items on the agenda for this week:  a short reflection paper as the Quick Write, the Poetry "Play Offs," and a final exam for the students.  This exam looks a lot like a bingo game, complete with prizes.  Students may bring refreshments to share.

Assignments for our last week:

-- Bring in any missing homework

-- For those in presenting poetry, warm up your presenting voice.

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Value of Reflection Papers

National Poetry Month

Poetry Slams

Poetry Out Loud

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 23)

Greetings!

We're nearing the end of our classes here at CHAT, and I can sense a change is the atmosphere.  While the students are doing their best to stay engaged, you can tell that the end of the school year is just around the corner.

This week on April 23 was the 10th anniversary of Youtube.  For the Quick Write, I gave the students two options.  They could write something about Youtube, or they could combine the following words (gathered randomly from the class) into a short story:  Ghana, wallaby, walking, and purple.

Our Latin Roots of the Day:

navis -- L. ship -- English derivatives:  navy, nautical, navigate, circumnavigate, navigable, nave

nihil -- L. nothing -- English derivatives:  nihilism, nihilist, annihilate, annihilation, nil

nocto -- L. night -- English derivatives:  nocturnal, nocturne

nova -- L. new -- English derivatives: innovation, novice, novel, renovate, supernova, novelty

Students handed in the Final Drafts of their Evaluation Essays, and in return were given their final writing assignment:  an Essay Re-Write. For these essays, they are to select one of the essays to edit and revise.  This can be what they would consider a "worst essay" or an essay they would like to spend more time on.  They should consider the previously written final draft as the rough draft for their Re-Write.

Next week is a big week for our class.  For me, it's better to have the important, end of the year assignments due the week before the final week.  During the final week, we celebrate the end of the year with some poetry presentations and treats.

To finish out our Grammar unit of commas, we will have a test next week.  Similar to the Comma Review of last week, the test will be 37 sentences that require commas.  In class, we discussed how to study for this test.  They can go over past worksheets and assignments, check out previous e-mails, and read through blog posts from this semester.  To help, I'm sending the answer key for last week's "Mastering the Comma" assignment.

Note:  If you will NOT be in class next week, let me know and I will send you the grammar test to take at home under the watchful eye of a parent.

Finally, the Poetry.  In class, we watched a couple video presentations of poems:  "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg read with period photos and an analysis of "The Red Wheel Barrow" by William Carlos Williams.  Next week we will start our "Poetry Jam."  The class will be divided into teams and as individual players will each present a poem for their teams.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Essay Re-Write

-- Study for the Spring Grammar test

-- Prepare at least 1 poem for the Poetry Jam

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Essay Re-Write

Comma Usage Handout (from Week 1)

Purdue OWL:  Conquering the Comma

The Comma Song video

How to Use Commas Correctly video

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 2 Class Notes -- OUR FINAL WEEK!! (May 8)

Greetings!

On this last week, we eschewed our customary Quick Writes and Words of the Day.  In lieu of our regular Quick Write, the students wrote Reflection Papers about their time in Writing 2 this year.  I asked them to write about what they had learned and how they had grown as writers this year.  They've written some thoughtful comments.

We spent our last class having some great literary fun and eating cookies and brownies.  Last week we began with our Poetry Jam, and we finished it this week.  We only got half-way through the first round during our previous week.  This week we finished our "Poetry Play-offs."  

I was really pleased with the involvement of the students.  They were great sports to not only recite so many pieces of poetry but to carefully score the presentations of their classmates.  

To conclude the class, 2 members from each team participated in a "rap" version of "Oh, the Places You Go." (You can see this youtube video with a rap version of this Dr. Seuss poem.)  I've posted some pictures from this class on the blog site.

Some students handed in some late homework, which I will finish grading.  The grades for this class will be ready to go out in a few days.  My "suggested grades," along with my thoughts on grades, will be out soon, too.

I've had a great year with these students.  They've been wonderfully engaged in our discussions and have worked hard on their essays.  They have grown as writers and thinkers.  I hope to see many of my Writing 2 students next year in Writing 3.

This week's Class Notes link.

Have a great summer!

Mrs. Prichard