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