Sunday, October 26, 2014

Writing 1 Class Note -- Week 9 (October 23)

Greetings!

My apologies for the lateness of the week's e-mail; it's been a busy week at the Prichard house.  You never know when it's going to be this nice again for yard work.

This past week's class was a beautiful day and a wonderful class.  We began our class with a Quick Write from the list of college application prompts:  Describe a day without any technology.  Some students found this easy to imagine, and some couldn't.  At our house, we take occasional media fasts; we find that our intention spans and thinking abilities are affected by too much computer, smart phones, TV, etc.

Our Words of the Day, from the book of foreign words and phrases, were:
Victor ludorum -- fr. Latin, victor ludorum, the victor of the games -- achievement awards for sports or academics
Vigilante -- fr. Latin vigilans, watchful; fr. Spanish vigilante, watchman  -- someone who takes the law into his or her hands
Villa -- fr. Latin villa, country house  -- a country estate; a pretentious residence
Vinaigrette -- fr. French vinaigre, aromatic vinegar -- a sauce made with herbs, spices, and an aromatic vinegar

They handed in their rough drafts of the Examples/Illustrations Essays along with their Pre-Writes.  I've already started reading them and am enjoying their writing and topics.  I will hand them back next week.

Before class started, I could hear many of the students quizzing one another as they were waiting to come into the room because this week they had their final exam for the book, Animal Farm.  I had them begin the test working alone, and them divided them into groups to discuss them before correcting them in class.  As we finished up the book with this test, we had one more chance to discuss some of the dynamics of the characters and the plot.

Next week, I will bring their next book, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  As an extra credit activity, I told them they would get extra points for bringing in some information  (at least 1 paragraph) about Charles Dickens.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- No reading
-- There Is/Are Worksheet

This week's Class Notes post

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

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