Thursday, March 7, 2013

Writing 1 Class Notes -- March 6 (Week 6)

Greetings!

How many of you know that today is the 101st birthday of the Oreo cookie?  I had no idea that this well-known treat was that old!  We started the class with that bit of trivia before doing our Quick Write.  For today, I asked the students if they could start or run any business what would it be.  I like to encourage students to "dream big" because if often opens their thinking to possibilities and opportunities that the Lord has for them.  They shared some great ideas!

Our Latin Phrases for today were:
ars gratia artis -- art for the sake of art (art for art's sake) which is the motto for MGM films
ars longa, vita brevis -- art is long, life is short
ars moriendi -- the art of dying (Romans valued dying a noble death)
artes, scientia, veritas -- art, knowledge, truth (the motto for the University of Michigan)

We've started the next book for this semester which is a compilation of short stories by O. Henry.  Many of the students had read or heard the first story, "The Gift of the Magi" in which a young couple sacrifices their most treasured possessions in order to buy Christmas gifts.  The second story, "After Twenty Years," has some great characterization and a twist in the plot.  We looked specifically at some of the vocabulary and talked about the importance of word choices.  I've attached a revised syllabus for the class.  I had miscalculated the number of weeks that it would take to read the Jekyll/Hyde book.  For next week, they are to read two stories and fill in a full worksheet (both sides) for each story.


Rough drafts of their Theme or Character essays were handed in today.  For any students who were absent or not yet finished, please get your rough drafts to me by the weekend.  We've had some great discussions about the book, and I'm looking forward to reading their analyses.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read "Makes the Whole World Kin" and "The Furnished Room"
-- Fill out one worksheet (both sides) for each story.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

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