Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 8 (March 6)

Greetings!

Our class was productive yesterday.  After opening in prayer, I took a moment to remind the students about the importance of refraining from extraneous talking.  This is a key to good classroom dynamics.  Parents, please check in with your students; a reminder from you will be helpful.

Our Quick Write for today was fairly light-hearted -- "What would happen if you were invisible?" The consensus for both Writing 1 and Writing 2 is that  this could be fun, mischievous, and even temporarily advantageous, but it might not be that great if it were permanent.

The Words of the Day:

chamois -- (French "sha-mwah") -- an agile, goat-like antelope; a soft leather cloth
charade -- (French; chatter, riddle) -- an intentional pretense or deception; a game where you act out a word or phrase

chapeau -- (French, fr. Latin; capella; hat, hood) -- a hat

chandelier -- (French; fr. chandler -- a candle-seller) -- a branched , light fixture

The students were assigned to bring to class 2 discussion questions for each of the two O. Henry stories which they were to read this week.  I divided the class into groups of 3 to discuss the stories using their questions.  Small group discussions give students more opportunities for focused interactions and more opportunities to share ideas than is always a possibility in large group discussions.  The first story, "Makes the Whole World Kin," was generally liked by the students because a thief and his intended victim become friends.  The second story, The Furnished Room," is a sad one wherein a young woman and a young man die in the same room.  The students had great insights for both stories.

Our last portion on the class was spent in discussing the rough drafts of the Literature Essays that I handed back to the class.  As I point out common writing errors, this is an opportunity to talk about grammar in the context of their own writing.  Three highlights from this discussion:  1) No using the word "things;" 2) No contractions; and 3) No "there is/are/was/were/will be/etc." sentences.  If students have any questions about the comments I made on their rough drafts, they should feel free to send me an e-mail.

Assignments for Next Week:

--  Final Draft of Character or Theme Essay

-- No "5 Corrections" explanation for this essay

-- Read "Retrieved Reformation" (p. 49); "The Pimienta Pancake" (p. 29)

-- Write 2 discussion for each story.  (No vocabulary words this week.)


This week's blogs

Class Notes

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard