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 10 (November 3)

Greetings!

We had a good class time.  Last year, my students noticed that many Thursdays were overcast, sometimes making our room a bit dreary.  This year, so far, we've had bright sunshine coming through the windows.  I'm loving it!

Our Quick Write assignment this week was to write something about role models.  November 1 was All Saints Day, and I think it's good to take time to think about those people who are valuable examples to us.  

Our Words of the Day were:

res publica -- Latin, res, "thing," and publica, "of the public" -- a public affair, of or belonging to the state or commonwealth

res non verba -- Latin, res, "thing," non, "not," verba, "words" --  deeds, not words

restaurateur -- French restaurater fr. Latin restaurator, "restorer" -- the owner or manager or a restaurant

     [Note: We talked for a bit about how the word that meant "restorer" became the word that means an owner of a restaurant.  I love making those connections between original roots of a word and the current day meaning.  Our language is so very rich!]

I gave the students back their rough drafts of the Extended Definitions or Classification Essays.  I mentioned some common mechanics/grammar errors (contractions, noun/pronoun agreement, commas, etc.), but I took most of the time to talk about building good introductions and conclusions.  The three elements that every introduction should have are a strong thesis statement, an attention grabber/common ground establisher, and a "road map."  In other words, the introduction should tell the readers the subject and opinion (thesis statement), answer the question, "Why should I care?" and tell the readers where the essay is headed (road map.)  The conclusion should mirror the introduction:  restate the thesis, tell the readers "where you've been" (a summary) and leave the reader with something to think about.  For the Final Drafts of these essays, I want students to underline the thesis statement in their introduction.  If they can't find that one sentence that tells their subject and opinion, it may be that they don't have a clear thesis.  Also, using the rubric that I handed out to them, I want them to do a self-evaluation of their essay.  They should look at the categories and think about where their own essays would be graded.

Students were to have finished A Connecticut Yankee for this week.  For those who are still reading, please finish for next week.  We read a few portions aloud and discussed both the humor woven in the book and the sadness with which the book ended that seemed opposed to the general tone of the book.  I have a links below to some articles written about this ending.  One commentary noted that Twain was following a familiar "Voyage" plot, and therefore had to return to his own time and place.  Since he couldn't stay in Camelot, it might make sense to Twain to not leave all of the improvements in the hands of the simple, superstitious people there.  Read the articles and tell me what you think!

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Final Draft of Extended Definitions or Classification Essays

-- Underline thesis statement in Final Draft

-- Complete self-evaluation using rubric

-- Bring Baseball Questions to class

Links for this week:

Class Notes

What not to do in an Introduction Video

Introduction Paragraph

An Explanation of ACY's Ending

A Note about the Final Word

Have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Sentence and Predicates Vidoes

Below are some review videos regarding complete subjects and predicates and simple subjects and predicates.

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 8 (March 17)

Greetings!

This week in class we started with a Quick Write that asked about family heritage since it was St. Patrick's Day.  While my kids are "mutts," a blend of 8 or 9 nationalities, we have incorporated some Scandinavian traditions into our family celebrations.  As I write this, I'm thinking that it would be fun to incorporate some those British, German, and Scotch-Irish elements into our family, too.

The Words of the Day were short words or words for very small items:

aglet -- fr. OF aiguillette, a small needle -- the plastic or metal end of a shoelace

chad -- origin unknown -- a small round or square bit of paper formed when a hole is punched

grommet -- fr, OF gromette, curb of a bridle -- a metal or plastic ring encasing and reinforcing a hole

vim -- fr. an Americanism; fr. Latin vis, energy, force -- a lively and enthusiastic spirit

mauw -- fr. German, maul, muzzle -- the mouth, throat, or gullet of an animal

I handed back the Rough Drafts of the Cause/Effect or Problem/Solution Essays.  The class did a wonderful job with this assignment.  When I hand back rough drafts, I like to use that as an opportunity to go over common errors.  Students can learn points of grammar with worksheets, but it makes the most sense in the context of their own writing.  Our list included such items as not using contractions, avoiding "there is/are" sentences, avoiding the word "things," subject-verb agreement, noun-pronoun agreement, etc.

For the past few weeks, during the Grammar portion of class we've been learning about various types of phrases.  This week we concluded this unit by reviewing infinitive phrases.  Students shouldn't be surprised if they are confused.  These are really advanced grammar topics and are not as simple as picking out the subject or verb of a sentence.  When verbs (action words) morph into adjectives (participles) or nouns (gerunds) or nouns/adjectives/adverbs (infinitives), it gets pretty complicated.  We're now leaving phrases, and will be exploring types of sentences and elements in a sentence.

The class had read 4 Short Stories for this week; to close out the class we watched a Lego version of Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaverous County.

Assignments for this Week:

Read the following stories:  Chopin (p. 30), London (p. 122), Mansfield (p. 130), Gilman (p. 50)

Write 3 Discussion Questions per story

Final Drafts of Problem/Solution or Cause/Effect Essays

Grammar Worksheets -- 9.2

Links for this Week:

Class Notes

A Pair of Silk Stockings (audiobook)

The White Silence (audiobook)

If I were a Man (audiobook)

Direct and Indirect Objects video

Have a beautiful week!

Mrs. Prichard

Video for Gerund Phrases

Please watch this video to review gerunds.  Take notes if it will help!

Videos for Infinitive and Appositive Phrases

Watch and take notes if it would help. Infinitive Phrases



 Appositive Phrases

Sarah Kay's "Hands"

Our Quick Write began with a discussion about figures of speech and cliches related to "hands."  We compiled quite a list: 

I gotta hand it to you; in the palm of my hand; being fingered for a crime; wrapped around my finger; 5-finger discount; back of my hand; a slap in the face; thumbs up/down; give me five; lend a hand; hand it over, etc. 

 After this little brainstorming, I asked the students to write something about hands.  They could use some of our cliches or they could write about the use of their hands.  When they were done, I had them watch a short video about hands by spoken word artist, Sarah Kay.

Adjective Videos

As part of the Adjectives presentation this week, Nicole, Luke, and Andrew put together a great video "News Program."  I've included their video and the video that Writing 1 used.

Links & Videos for a Process Essay

Writing a thesis statement for a Process Essay can be challenging.  It is often hard to come up with an opinion on a process or to figure out what kind of stand to take?  Below are some helpful resources:

From Miami Dade College


From Synonym.com




From Literary Education Online

Week 6 Grammar Lessons

Greetings Class!

Due to the shortness of this week's class, we didn't have time to discuss the material that you need to know for the worksheets.  Below are some links for video lessons that might prove helpful.

Appositives:
Grammar Lesson 20.2 -- Appositives
How to Use Appositives
Appositives -- SAT Boot Camp
School House Rock -- The Tale of Mr. Morton
Commas & Appositive

Subordinating Clauses
Subordinating Clauses -- SAT Boot Camp 
Subordinate Clauses
Subordinated Conjunctions Classroom song
Grammar Lesson 21.4 -- Subordinating Clause 

Some Video Remakes of Sherlock Holmes Stories

Over the years, people have been fascinated with the stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle about Sherlock Holmes.  Below are some classics

A Scandal in Bohemia (with Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes)
The Empty House (also with Jeremy Brett)
The Red-Headed League (also with Jeremy Brett)
The Speckled Band (Jeremy Brett, again)

Class Infomercials

The class was assigned to write short scripts for their Quick Writes.  These scripts were to explain various grammatical, literary, or writing terms.

Week 5 Grammar Videos

We have not spent a lot of time on specific Grammar lessons.  I gave the students handouts for this week and for next week.  I would like the students to read the handouts that they've gotten in the past weeks.  Rumor has it a pop quiz might be planned for next week.

Part of next week's assignment includes watching some videos.  I've found some good, short, and to-the-point instructional videos that can help with our grammar and writing instruction.  Last week's videos are for optional viewing.  For the videos about clauses and verbs, the students are to watch one for each section and to write 3 things about grammar they have learned.  Below are the video options:
Last week's Grammar:  Phrases
Gerund phrases
Participial phrases
Participle phrases
Prepositional phrases
Prepositional phrases
Appositives
Restrictive/Non-restrictive phrases
More on Restrictive phrases

This week's Grammar:  Clauses
Dependent Clauses #1
Dependent Clauses #2
Mr. Grammar's Subord. Clauses
Subordinate Conjunctions
Clauses
Subordinate Conjunct. part 1
Subordinate Conjunct. part 2
Subordinate Conjunct. part 3

Next week's Grammar:  Verbs & Tenses
Verb Overview
Troublesome verbs
Simple verbs

WEEK 3 Video Grammar Lessons

Below are links to some grammar videos that might be enjoyable and definitely helpful.  We did not have time for a full discussion of phrases in class, and some students may appreciate the aid of these videos.

Gerund phrases
Participial phrases
Participle phrases
Prepositional phrases
Prepositional phrases

Enjoy and Learn!
Mrs. Prichard