Writing 1 Class Notes -- January 31

Greetings!

We had another good class today.  The students were bright, alert, and engaged.  The Quick Write was titled "For the Cause."  I asked the students to think about a cause about which they were passionate (or to make up one) and to write what they would do to further that cause.  (Our family had just watched The Help and was touched by the message of the movie.)

Our Vocabulary Work included words from the O. Henry short stories that were assigned for this week.  O. Henry has a broad and colorful vocabulary.  Two examples:  obmutescence and philoprogenitiveness.  We passed the dictionary around to find the definitions of the words.

We spent some time talking about the 3 short stories by O. Henry.  As we discuss these, I especially talk about making clear observations and using precise language.  When we discuss the irony found in these stories, the students tap into some higher level thinking skills.  They'll use these as they do their own writing.

We're beginning a new book next week.  A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ("ACY") is a delightful book by Mark Twain and will continue to stretch the students as thinkers and writers. I have some handouts for the students, but I'm afraid my printer wasn't working so that I could print copies for everyone.  I've attached these with this e-mail.  One is an introduction to the book, characters, and themes.  Two are worksheets for the characters and themes in the book.  A fourth is for vocabulary that the students find in their reading.  Since I wasn't able to hand out copies this week, we'll discuss them in length next week.

The students handed in their rough drafts of their News Stories.  I look forward to reading them.  When you think about it, writing is a pretty complex activity which combines grammar, creative thinking, knowledge and information, specific writing strategies, and just plain hard work.  I'll hand back the rough drafts next week and students will have a week to write up the final copies.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Introduction Worksheet for ACY
-- Print worksheets for Themes, Characters, and Vocabulary
-- Read through Chapter 7 of ACY.
-- Fill out SourceBank up to Week 4

The worksheets are available on Dropbox and can be seen on the blog:  Introduction, Vocabulary Worksheet, Character Worksheet, Themes Worksheet.

This Week's Class Notes on the blog.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

ACY Themes Worksheet

Themes Worksheet

Theme:  ___________________

Twain’s perspective	Supporting passages	Your opinion

Theme:  ___________________

Twain’s perspective	Supporting passages	Your opinion

ACY Character Analysis Worksheet

Character Analysis Worksheet

Character	Supporting Passage (page number; direct quotes)
Words
Actions
Appearance
Thoughts
Effects on Other People
Analysis:

ACY Vocabulary Worksheet

Vocabulary Worksheet

INSTRUCTIONS:  For this book, the students will compile the vocabulary lists.  As you read each chapter, make a list of the unfamiliar or interesting words.  You are responsible for finding the definitions and roots of the words.  Fill in the table below with your words.  As part of the end of the book discussions and presentations, each student will have some kind of vocabulary project for the others to do.  (eg. crossword puzzle, wordsearch, quiz, etc.)

	Page	Word	Root	Definition

Introduction to A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

Introduction

            Published in 1889, Connecticut Yankee is one of the world's first stories about time travel. The seed for this novel was probably planted during MT's 1884-1885 reading tour for Huck Finn, when George Washington Cable bought him a copy of Malory's Morte D'Arthur in an upstate New York bookstore. But MT's interest in travel to "old worlds" was a longstanding one, as his first book shows. And his interest in the British past was also a lifelong preoccupation, as can be seen in texts like The Prince and the Pauper, or even the Memory-Builder game he invented and patented to help American children learn the dates of England's various monarchies. As MT's fantastic attempt to locate his time and place in terms of its imagined pasts and its possible futures, Connecticut Yankee is perhaps his most complex book.

Major& Minor Characters

Hank Morgan

Clarence (Amyas le Poulet)

Sandy (Alisande)

King Arthur

Merlin

Sir Launcelot

Guenevere

Sir Sagramor le Desirous

Morgan Le Fay

Sir Kay

Marco

Dowley

Primary Themes

Magic/ Superstition vs. Technology

Religion/ Church

Education/ Training vs. Nature

King Arthur/ Monarchy

Chivalry/ Round Table/ Knighthood

Justice

Slavery

Topics for Analysis Discussion

Use of humor & satire

Role of the narrator

Writing 1 Class Notes -- January 24

Greetings!

We had an enjoyable and productive class today.  We began with a Quick Write in which the students were to write a sequel to a favorite commercial.  They were very creative.  Our Vocabulary Words were from the O. Henry stories.  I put the words on the white board and the students took turns looking them up.

We discussed the three short stories assigned for today:  "The Gift of the Magi," "After Twenty Years," and "Makes the Whole World Kin."  O. Henry is a wonderful writer and is able to sketch creative pictures with some few well-chosen words.  He also is good at twisting an unexpected, creative ending.  We will read three more stories for next week. 

Their next writing assignment is a News Story.  We discussed some of the parameter of this assignment.  Both O. Henry and Mark Twain were reporters/journalists.  Both writers were excellent observers and writers about every day life.  For these papers, the students are to write a description of an event or person.  It can be an interview or a profile of a person or an account of a venture related to a business, non-profit or other organization. 

In a News Story, the writer begins with a "bang" which is a strong opening and lead that grabs the reader's attention.  The story then should pick up momentum in the body with support, background and details.  Unlike an essay with a thesis, journalistic writing gets the primary information out at the beginning of an article because the reader often has a limited attention span.  As the students are 1)Choosing a subject; 2) Gathering details; and 3) Bringing focus to the writing they should consider whether what they have chosen has "news value."  In other words, does it have impact, timeliness, closeness or human interest.

A note about Grammar:  I will continue to teach grammar details in connection with their written work.  I also plan to focus on the comma.  That's the one little bit that continues to trip us all up.

Assignments for Next Week:
--  Read A Retrieved Reformation (p. 49); The Ransom of Red Chief (p. 71); The Pimenta Pancakes (p. 29)
-- Fill out 1 Evaluation of a Theme essay
-- Fill out 1 Short Story Chart
-- List 5 similarities found in the 6 stories.
-- Rough draft of News Story.

I've attached the two worksheets in case anyone has lost his/hers.

This week's blog entry.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- January 17

Greetings!

We've started a new year with fresh reading and writing assignments.  I'm glad to be back in the class and working with the students.

We'll again start the classes with Quick Writes and some Vocabulary work.  Our Quick Write for today was "Freaky Friday on Tuesday."  The students were to imagine what it would be like if they woke up as someone else (either a parent or an older sibling.)  For our "Mystery Words" I shared with the students some words I encountered while on my trip to England after Christmas:  bailey, motte, barbican, and parsonage.  For Extra Credit I asked them to tell me what they knew of the Magna Carta (I got to see it at the Lincoln Gaol!)

I handed out a fresh syllabus for this semester.  These are also attached, on Dropbox, and on the blog (literature and writing)  I briefly introduced the books that we'll be using this semester:  O. Henry's Gift of the the Magi and Other Short Stories, Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Great Short Poems.  My goal is to use the literature to connect to encourage critical thinking skills and to connect to the students own writing processes.

As for writing, the students will write 3 new essays this semester (a news story, and editorial/ persuasive essay, and an essay about our literature).  I've also assigned one essay "re-write."  Being a good writer is an exercise in producing original work AND editing and improving already written pieces.  The first Writing assignment is a news story.  O. Henry was a short story writer who used every day events as the source of his stories.  Mark Twain was a reporter and a travel writer before he wrote his novels.  We discussed at length  being observant in our lives and looking for those thoughts, events, ideas that might be good writing topics.  I handed out a chart called a Writer's SourceBank which I'd like them to fill out throughout the semester.

The students are assigned 3 short stories for next week.  I handed out 2 worksheets, one on short story elements and one on theme evaluation.  They are to fill out one worksheet for one story and the other for a second story.  The third story only needs to be read.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Gift of the Magi (p. 1);  After Twenty Years (p. 21); Makes the Whole World Kin (p. 85)
-- Fill out a Short Story Elements worksheet and Evaluation of a Theme worksheet
-- Pre-Writing for News Story (brainstorming, outlining & research)
-- Fill in Week 1 & Week 2 of Writer's SourceBank

Looking forward to next week.  Keep warm!
Mrs. Prichard

Evaluation of a Theme

Evaluation of Theme

1.  What is the story’s purpose?

2.  What does the action of the story reveal about life or people?  What is its central insight?

3.  Is the theme stated directly by the author?  Where? OR is the theme implied?

4.  Does the title of the story have special significance?

5.  Write several possible statements of the story’s theme.

6.  Do your statements of theme take into account the whole story—all of its events and characters—and not just part of it?

7.  What is your response to the theme?  Do you think it is valid?  Why or why not?

Writer's SourceBank

Writer’s SourceBank

To think like a writer, you should act like one and develop your own “SourceBank” of possible writing topics.  Be alert for writing ideas you find unexpectedly as you go about your day-to-day life.  Writers often carry small pocket notebooks to capture images and ideas they happen upon.  In the table below, write ideas, topics, themes, issues, current events or anything else that comes to mind as possible writing activities.

Week 1	Week 2	Week 3
Week 4	Week 5	Week 6
Week 7	Week 8	Week 9
Week 10	Week 11	Week 12
Week 13	Week 14	Week 15

Spring Syllabus -- Writing & Grammar

	Writing		Grammar
	Assignment Due this Week	Writing Discussion	Discussion & Assignment
Week 1 1/17		Observation Skills Writer’s SourceBank
Week 2 1/25	News Story Pre-Write	Gathering information Observing & investigating	Building Sentences Run-on & Comma splice sentences
Week 3 1/31	News Story Rough Draft	Organizing information	Review common errors in rough drafts
Week 4 2/7		Writing better introductions Writing better conclusions	Using commas correctly
Week 5 2/14	News Story Final Copy	Opinions vs. Fact	Using commas correctly
Week 6 2/21	Editorial/ Persuasive Pre-Write	Choosing the right words	Using commas correctly
Week 7 3/6	Editorial/ Persuasive Rough Draft	Revision strategies	Review common errors in rough drafts
2/28
Week 8 3/13		Logical thinking “Fuzzy” thinking
Week 9 3/20	Editorial /Persuasive Final Copy
Week 10 3/27	Themes/Character Paper Pre-Write	Writing about literature Review worksheets
4/3
Week 11 4/10	Themes/Character Paper Rough Draft		Review common errors in rough drafts
Week 12 4/17
Week 13 4/24	Themes/Character Paper Final Copy	Revision strategies
Week 14 5/1	Re-Write
Week 15 5/8

Spring Syllabus -- Literature

	Literature
	Reading Assignment Due this Week	Assignment Due this Week
Week 1 1/17	Introduce short stories & O. Henry
Week 2 1/25	Short Stories: Gift of the Magi (p. 1);  After Twenty Years (p. 21); Makes the Whole World Kin (p. 85)	Read 3 stories:  Make a list of similarities.  What do they tell you about O. Henry?
Week 3 1/31	Short Stories:  A Retrieved Reformation (p. 49); The Ransom of Red Chief (p. 71); The Pimenta Pancakes (p. 29)
Week 4 2/7	ACY:  p. vii – 37 Intro & Ch. 1 – 7	2 Baseball questions 2 Critical Thinking questions
Week 5 2/14	ACY:  p. 37 – 71 Ch.  8 - 15
Week 6 2/21	ACY:  p, 71 – 107 Ch. 16 - 21	2 Baseball questions 2 Critical Thinking questions
Week 7 3/6	ACY:  p. 107 – 150 Ch. 22 – 26
2/28	No CHAT
Week 8 3/13	ACY:  p. 150 – 188 Ch. 27 - 31	2 Baseball questions 2 Critical Thinking questions
Week 9 3/20	ACY:  p. 188 – 226 Ch. 32 - 37
Week 10 3/27	ACY:  p. 226 – 268 Ch. 38 – Final PS	2 Baseball questions 2 Critical Thinking questions
4/3	No CHAT
Week 11 4/10	ACY:  Final Exam
Week 12 4/17	ACY:  Baseball
Week 13 4/24	Poetry (TBA)
Week 14 5/1	Poetry (TBA)
Week 15 5/8	Poetry (TBA) Presentations