Writing 2: rocketbook

Saturday, September 12, 2020

Writing 2 -- Homework & Google Classroom

Greetings!

A couple notes about handing homework, Google Classroom, and the Grades page on Classroom:

Students DO NOT need to do an assignment both on paper and in Google Classroom.
Most homework assignments can be handed in during class.

If a student hands an assignment in class, they DO NOT need to do anything with the Google Classroom assignment
I will mark those assignments as done and return them with a score AFTER I've corrected the paper versions
If a student does the assignment on Google Classroom, they DO NOT need to hand in a paper version

Some assignments can ONLY be done on Google Classroom (e.g. quizzes, discussion questions)

I will designate these assignments as (GC) and include a link to the assignment
Some students have handed in homework using the Rocketbook app and uploading it to the Google Classroom assignment. When they do that, they DO NOT need to hand it in again in class.

When I grade some homework on Google Classroom, I use my Samsung tablet

I can "write" on the document, and it saves as a pdf and attaches to the assignment, which students will see with their returned work.
I'm experimenting to figure out the best way to correct rough drafts. I've done it with pen and paper for years, but I'm going to do one set with my tablet, and then one set comments in Google Docs. Students can give feedback about what works best for them.

The gradebook for Google Classroom is not the greatest format for communicating with students their scores.

If students see a score but the comment "not turned in," it's because they turned the work in during class. I have updated the score to match the one on paper.
Some students don't like seeing the "Missing" when they know they have turned in their work. They need to be patient for me to correct the material handed in during class.
PLEASE DON'T TURN IN A BLANK ASSIGNMENT to get rid of the "Missing" designation. I will take care of that.
The best place to check on grades is on your student's personal Gradesheets. This document will be updated every other week.

I apologize for confusion or challenges with Google Classroom. Learning new systems always takes a bit of time, and my hope is that over the course of the semester we will all find the benefit of having this online repository for all of our assignments and resources that enables us to not only stay on top of our work (i.e. not lose stuff) and to participate digitally if we can't be face to face.

If you need your link to your Google Gradesheets, please let me know.

One other tip -- an idea that has been helpful for me:

Since I'm online so much these days, often with multiple tabs open every day, I've started bookmarking and organizing those bookmarks to be more efficient. Students should consider bookmarking their chatclasses.com email, Google Classroom, and their Gradesheets. Here's a link for how to create bookmarks and how to create folders of bookmarks. (I have a folder called CHAT Stuff, and when I right click on the folder, all of the tabs open.)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Friday, September 27, 2019

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 6 (Sept. 26)

Greetings!

Again, another great class. This group of students brings a lot of positive energy and attitudes to the class. The prompt for our Quick Write today was the 190th anniversary of Scotland Yard. We discussed detectives, law enforcement, mysteries, and perspectives about rules. Students could take the topic(s) in any number of directions.

We skipped the Words of the Day this week because I knew that we already would have a full class. We'll resume next week. A new element that I'm adding to the class is the role of a "Class Scribe." I recently purchased a Rocketbook, that is a digital notebook, and I want students to take turns taking handwritten notes, especially of the examples and diagrams that I put on the board. Those notes then get shared to the Google Drive folder for the class and a link to them will be included with the Class Notes.

I handed back rough drafts of their Process Essays. These were amazing essays that I thoroughly enjoyed. Whenever I hand back rough drafts, I take a significant amount of time to go over common errors/mistakes so that we can make those mistakes into learning opportunities. The three most common mistakes this week included the following:

Having the right spelling but it's the wrong word (spell check and auto-correct can be helpful but not always trusted); e.g. costumer/customer, plane/plain, right/write, heard/herd
Parallel structure. If students have a list, all of the elements need to be in the same form, such as all nouns or all verbs with the same endings.
Comma splice & Run-on sentences. We will probably talk about this all year long!
There is/There are sentences. These sentences postpone the subject and are considered grammatical expletives. (go here for more information)
Amount vs. Number, which has to do with countable and non-countable nouns

I took some time to discuss some new guidelines for formatting their papers, moving towards MLA formatted papers. (Here is a video for formatting in Google Docs, and here is one for doing the same in Word.) Going forward, I would like the students to format their papers in the following way: 1 inch margins, 12 pt. font, double spaced, header in the upper right margin with last name and page number, and a heading on the left side with full student's full name, class name, teacher's name, assignment name, and date handed in. This document is a "sample."

With all of our essays, I'm having the students designate a section of the note-taking to those "Watch Out For" points that I've noted in the comments section of my corrections. Along with making revisions for their final drafts, I want students to fill out the little half-sheet titled, "My First 5 Errors." For this worksheet, students should look at the first five marks that I made on their rough drafts and write what the error was and, if they know, what grammar rule is connected with the error. Under the First 5 section is a place for them to write about what area they want to improve in.

Because we discussed a lot of grammar topics while going through the rough drafts, I felt that was enough grammar for the day.

For our discussion of My Antonia, I had the students gather in "table groups" to discuss the primary characters and their behaviors as exhibited in sections we've recently read, which included Antonia, Wick Cutter, grandmother, and Jim. One table group discussed 2 significant events from these pages: the dance and graduation. In our reading of the book we will be transitioning from Jim as a boy and teenager to Jim as a young adult in college.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read Book III, Sections I - IV (pages 119 - 140)

-- 3 Reader Responses & 5 Vocabulary Words

-- Work on Book Project (the proposal is due Week 8, Oct. 10)

-- Process Essay Final Drafts

-- My First 5 Errors worksheet

-- Verbs Homework

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Class Scribe Notes

Grammatical Expletives

Countable Nouns