We had a good class this week. Even though they wanted to play "Funglish" again, we began the class with a Quick Write. The writing prompt started out as "If I could have a role on a TV program, I would be on ______ because ______ ." We altered it to "If I could have a role in something/anything ________ " in order to give them more choices. As part of our beginning of class activities, I'm also introducing well-known Latin words and phrases. I've done this in the past, but haven't done it yet this year. This week's Latin words were ab absurdo (to the absurd -- to go on at length with a ridiculous explanation) Absolvo! (I quit -- a phrase used by judges at at acquittal) and a capite ad calcem (from the head to the heal -- we would say from head to toe)
Regarding Grammar, since my aim is that we become masters of the comma this semester, we discussed Restrictive (Essential) and Nonrestrictive (Nonessential) clauses. Commas are used for nonrestrictive clauses or phrases which are groups of words that can be omitted from a sentence and not change the basic meaning. As a class we worked through some practice exercises.
We've begun our first literature selection, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I've given the student 3 worksheets that they are to be working on AS THEY READ. I want to emphasize that the best course is to be filling in the charts with details of the book on a weekly basis. In the past, some students have left this until the end of the book and have moaned and groaned about how hard it was. Though I call them worksheets, they are really charts for them to record their observations about a character, a theme, and vocabulary. One of the essays they will write this semester is a literary analysis for which they will use their worksheet as a resource.
Part of the writing discussion this semester will center on "style." The basic building blocks of good essays are well-constructed sentences. We'll talk about word choices and various ways to form sentences for different effects. To get us to think a little harder this week, we "unpacked" a quote from Gertrude Stein, "Why should a sequence of words be anything but a pleasure?"
The students are to be working on their rough drafts for the Narrative Essays. They should be prepared to hand in their prewrites along with the rough drafts next week.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Ch. 3 & 4 from Jekyll/Hyde.
-- Choose 2 questions for each chapter from the study guide to answer
-- Begin filling in details for the Character & Theme charts.
-- Rough draft of the Narrative Essay
This week's blogs
Resources for Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde (Including a link to an audio version)
Class Notes
Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard
No comments:
Post a Comment