Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 6 (February 19)

Greetings!
 

It was a great day at CHAT today.  Students were were attentive and engaged with our discussion.  I'm always impressed with how they can stay focused for the 90 minute classes.

We just celebrated President's Day and February 22 is George Washington's birthday.  According to General Henry Lee, Washington was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."  I used these details for our Quick Write and had the students write to any of our country's past presidents and ask 5 questions. 

I shared with the class about a speaker, Bob Goff, whom I heard share about his children who wrote letters to world leaders.  (You can read a review of this section of his book in this review or see an excerpt on the blog.)  As a follow up assignment, I asked the class to write a letter with three questions to some world or business leader, not a sports or Hollywood personality.

Note:  Students and parents may be interested in reading this review of Bob Goff's book and his letter writing adventure with his children.

Our Latin Roots of the Day:

equi -- L. same, equal -- English derivatives:  equal, equality, equilibrium, equitable, equity

equus -- L.  horse -- English derivatives:  equine, equestrian

ex -- out; out of -- English derivatives:  exit, excavate, exclude, extract

exter/extra -- L. out; outermost -- English derivatives:  extraterrestrial, exterior, extremity, external

We've finished our book, The Strange Adventures of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  The next writing assignment is a literary analysis of either a character or theme in the book.  In the past, some students have found this to be the hardest essay of the class, mostly because the guidelines are more defined, and the students can't write about their own topics.  The students met in small groups according to their topics for the papers in order share information and to discuss how they plan to organize their essays.

Our next book, a collection of O. Henry's short stories titled, The Gift of the Magi, was given to the class today.  If you've never read any of these short stories, borrow the book and read a couple.  They are clever and quirky.  For next week, they are to read 2 stories and fill out the worksheet for one of the stories.

We covered more comma exercises at the end of the class.  The students have a worksheet that deals with compound sentences, interrupters, and introductory elements.  We did many of the sentences in class.  The rest of the worksheet can be done as homework.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Write a letter to a world leader that includes 3 questions

-- Read the following stories:  Gift of the Magi (p. 1); After Twenty Years (p. 21)

-- Fill out the Short Story worksheet for one of the stories

-- Finish the Grammar Worksheet (13-4 and 13-5)

-- Rough Draft of the Theme or Character Essay
-- Finish the Vocabulary Chart for Jekyll/Hyde

This Week's Links

Class Notes

Be Secretly Incredible (about Bob Goff's letter writing adventure)

Background Information about O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi (audio version)
After Twenty Years (audio version)

NOTE:  We do not have class next week on February 26.  We will meet again on March 5.

Have a great two weeks!

Mrs. Prichard