Writing 1 Class Notes -- August 29

Greetings!

Those of you who have children who have taken classes from me may remember these weekly class notes on our work in class.  I try to send them out to parents and students as soon after the class as I can.  In the updates, I include our activities, points of discussion, and assignments.  Occasionally I will share links to websites that might be helpful or interesting to our study.

I begin each class with a Quick Write.  These short exercises are usually light-hearted and are intended to get the “writing juices” running.  This week’s Quick Write was to write their names on one sided of a note card and 2 truths and a lie on the back.  The purpose of this activity was for me to get to know the students a little better.

I like a lot of discussion in my classes, but this week I did most of the talking.  I had a large packet of papers for the students, which I’m also attaching to this e-mail.  This packet included:

Syllabus Overview

Classroom Policies

Grammar Plan

Week 1 Grammar – The Sentence

Animal Farm Introduction

Animal Farm Study Questions

Personal Essay

Pre-Writing Strategies

I mistakenly handed out the information for the Personal Essay when I should have given them the handout for the Observation Report.  I’m attaching that also to the class notes.

Please take some time to read through theClassroom Policies document.  This explains some of the components for the class; always feel free to contact me if you have questions.  As you see, I have a place at the top of the paper for your signature.  I found last year that requiring the students to get a signature caused them to be more aware themselves of the details, requirements, etc. of the class.

The students will write 4 essays this first semester.  Our first essay is an Observation Report.  They can observe anything they want (an activity, place, person, etc.) and write about it.  This is a short, one-page essay.

As you’ll notice in the Classroom Policies, I have 2 other online resources:  a blog (www.chatwriting1.blogspot.com) and Dropbox (an online document storage site). For the most part, the blog contains the same information as the e-mails.  You will be receiving an invitation from Dropbox to join the folder connected to this class.  I will put copies of all the handouts on this site.

Assignments for Next Week (Sept. 5)

-- Animal Farm:  read the handout and the Preface and Introduction

     -- In paragraph or list form, write what qualities you think makes a good leader.

-- Writing:  write the rough draft for the Observation Report

-- Classroom Policies:  read and get a parent’s signature

Have a great holiday weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

PS. For some reason I can't access my blog site or Dropbox at this time.  I will send those links later.