Writing 1 Class Notes -- October 10

Greetings!

Once again, we had a great Writing 1 class.  I really enjoy working with this group of student.  Since I had a lot planned today, our Quick Write was brief.  Using the first line from Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times," they were to write the first line of the great novels they plan to write.  Or the last line. Or the title.  Even in brevity, they were creative.

We've finished reading our novel, Animal Farm and spent a good portion of our time discussing the final chapters.  Chapters IX and X were, in part, sad conclusions to the story.  The death of a favorite character, Boxer, revealed the depths to which those in power had sunk.  Also, in a set of not-completely unexpected events, the students discovered that the lines between the pigs and the humans had blurred.  For next week, the students are to put together a character sketch for one of the characters in the book.  They should give specific references from the book about the physical qualities, words and actions, opinions of others, and the impact the character has on the story.  They can write their character sketch as a list or in paragraph form.  We will discuss them next week in class.

The next writing assignment is a Biographical Essay.  Unlike a report that simply gives details, they are to write a thesis-driven essay.  Learning to form a thesis is one of the most challenging aspects of essay writing.  I have simple equation for a thesis:  

Thesis = Topic + Opinion/Stand

For the previous essays, we used a 2-step process.  (rough draft then final copy)  For the rest of the year, we'll be using a 3-step process (pre-writing, rough draft, then final copy)  The pre-writing activities include brainstorming, list-making, researching and outlining.  

At the end of the class, we finally reached what all the students had been waiting for:  the Grammar Quiz.  Actually, what I had intended to be a quiz, came out as a full-sized test of 100 points.  We did pages 1 and 2 and will do pages 3 and 4 next week.  Some students had left sections blank or were unsure of the correct answer.  I will NOT correct the tests this week, but will leave them for the students to finish and/or correct.  If they review the handouts again from the first 6 weeks, they will find them helpful for part 2 of our test next week.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Animal Farm's Character Sketch

-- Biography Essay Pre-Write exercises

-- Review all grammar sheets for finishing the quiz/test

Time to pull out the hats and mittens!  Enjoy your weekend.

Mrs. Prichard