We had a full class this week. I'm always amazed at how quickly that hour and a half goes. Ideally, I try to divide the class into three equal sections: writing, literature, and grammar. Some days we concentrate more on one area than the other, and the time is always full and productive.
Every year, it seems that this is about the time that I send out to Writing 1 parents and students a reminder about classroom decorum and my expectations for our time together. One of my aims for all of my classes is to offer the opportunity to engage in collaborative learning in which students can hear and learn from one another. I've loved the way that the CHAT students have seemed eager to learn.
That being said, I am finding that because I encourage a lot of group discussion and interaction with our topics, I take the risk of giving too much room for talking. While students are glad to be in a class with one another, it's important for them to remember that they are in the class to learn. Side conversations not only keep students from engaging with the discussion at hand, but it is very distracting for the the rest of the class. Rather than becoming a cohesive group learning together, I find that students can become disconnected and inattentive. This is a large class with a range of ages, so it may be that we will all need to work extra hard to make this work well. Also, a seating chart next week may help.
Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, on to the Class Notes .....
Because Wednesday was William Carlos Williams' birthday (and I realize that I am one of the few in the world who even noticed/cared), we commemorated the day with a salute to his poem, "The Red Wheel Barrow." For the Quick Write, I asked the students to think of a common, everyday item and then to write a poem about it. A couple of students shared their poetry with the class; those who didn't want to recite their poems had the option to have it added to the class blog. I'll type those in this weekend.
Our Words of the Day were all "m" words. Often I will ask a student to open my foreign words and phrases book at a random page, close his/her eyes and point to a word. I then use that word and whatever words that are on the page the seem appropriate. This week's words were:
Moron (chosen at random by a student): (fr. Greek moron, foolish) a person who is notable stupid and lacking in good judgment. Note: We had a good conversation about the inappropriateness of ever using this word.
Motif: (fr. French, motiv, serving to move) a recurring subject, theme, or idea in literature, music, visual art or speeches
morituri te salutant: (fr. Latin, those about to die salute you) These are words addressed to the emperor by gladiators upon entering the arena.
Students handed in their final draft of their Descriptive Essays. I will have them corrected and ready to hand back next week. Some of the students forgot their rough drafts. I like to have the rough drafts to look at while I correct the papers. I'm able to see what changes a student has made and how carefully they've revised the papers. If it's possible to scan in the rough draft and e-mail it to me, that would be great. If not, that's OK. I can still grade the papers.
Our next essay is Personal Essay. The handout says "Personal History Essay," but if a student has some other topic related to their personal histories, that would also work. We discussed ways of writing these essays with thesis statements since they are to include opinions/stands in their papers. The rough drafts are due next week.
The students were given a packet, Week 3 -- Parts of Speech: Verb: to use for our Grammar discussion. We discussed action, state of being, and linking verbs along with active and passive tense. They need to complete the worksheets stapled with this packet.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Write the rough draft of the Personal History Essay
-- Read Chapters V & VI of Animal Farm
-- Choose 2 study guide questions and 3 vocabulary words.
-- Complete the worksheets on Verbs
This week's blogs
Class Notes
Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard
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