The weather people say that Thursday was, most likely, our last really cold day. It's March and we're half way through the second semester at CHAT -- it could be that Spring is really on its way!
Our Quick Write this week celebrated two events: March 4 was National Grammar Day and March 5 was the day the Hula Hoop was invented. Students could write about either topic or about a favorite toy from their childhoods.
Our Latin Roots of the Day were:
finis -- L. end -- English derivatives: finish, finite, final, finality, infinitive, infinity, infinite, define, definition
fort -- L. strong -- English derivatives: fort, fortress, fortitude, fortify, force
fug/fugi -- L. to flee, flight -- English derivatives: fugitive, refuge, refugee
We had a lot of homework to hand in this week: Quick Writes, Comma worksheet, rough draft, pre-write, letters to world leaders, and short story worksheets. We shared in class about our letters to world leaders and each student shared about the person to whom his/her letter had been written. A few students forgot this part of the homework, but they can hand them in next week. The letters they handed in are the rough drafts. I'll go over them to check for mechanics and possible content suggestions. I'll hand them back next week and the following week I will bring envelopes for them to address.
We discussed our O. Henry Short Stories assigned for this week. Many were familiear with "The Gift of the Magi." Focus on the Family has a delightful story on its Adventures in Odyssey series, "Gifts for Madge and Guy." Our other story, "After Twenty Years," was a typical O. Henry story -- interesting characters, colorful vocabulary, and a surprise ending. While O. Henry's writing style is not overly complicated, we found that some sentences needed a little more work to unpack the meanings. We'll read two more stories for next week.
The Rough Drafts of the Character or Theme Essays were handed in this week. This is probably the hardest essay for some of the students. For all of our other essays, students can choose the topic to fit the type of essay. For this one, they are given narrower parameters. Some students love to "unpack" and analyze literature; others do not. I know that they've worked hard on these essays, and I look forward to reading them this week.
Our final activity of the day was another comma-related grammar worksheet. This week we looked at commas used in dates and addresses. We did most of the worksheet as a group, and they finished it before leaving class.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read the following stories: "Makes the Whole World Kin" (p. 85); "The Furnished Room" (p. 23)
-- For each story, fill out one side of the short story worksheet (Ask 5 Questions)
-- No grammar worksheets (worksheet attached if you were absent)
-- No essay assignments
-- Finish the Letter to a World Leader, if not already handed in
-- Finish the Vocabulary worksheet for Jekyll/Hyde, if not already handed in
Links for this week:
Class Notes
Enjoy the weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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