We had a great class this week. We began with our Quick Write, which noted the birthday this month of Johann Sebastian Bach. I asked the students to write about the importance of music in their lives. We came up with a number of words to describe the value of music for us: meaningful, emotional, educational, inspirational, energizing, etc.
Our Latin Roots of the Day were:
ign -- L. fire, to burn -- English derivatives: ignite, ignition, igneous, ignitable
inter -- L. between -- English derivatives: interstate, interstellar, intergalactic, interrupt
The students were to bring their Letters to World Leaders to class this week, along with mailing addresses. I supplied the envelopes and will mail them this next week. I'm really curious and excited to see what kind of responses they get. For those who didn't have their letters ready this week, they can bring them the next.
The Final Drafts of the Character or Theme Essays were due this week. I had given them rubrics that I will use to evaluate the essays, but didn't make it clear that they were to do a self-evaluation. We took some time for them to do this before handing them in. I clarified with them that they aren't grading themselves, but reflecting on the work they did. I will correct them, as usual, and will use this rubric to evaluate the papers. I find that I'm often a harder grader when I use the rubrics because of the clear guidelines and definitions for each category.
As soon as one essay is finished, we progress to the next, which is a News Story. For this paper, students can choose current events or topics of interest. In class, we talked about the differences between an essay with a thesis and a news story. In an essay, carefully crafted introductions state the thesis, give background information, and outline the course of the paper. When writing a news story, introductions and conclusions don't have the same importance. In a news story, the most important information is given first, while the lesser details follow. The Pre-Write should be done next week, and the Rough Draft is due the week after our Easter Break.
The focus for our Grammar study this week was use of the semicolon and the colon. Many students mistakenly use one with the other was required. Below are some links to videos the further explain correct usage of these punctuation marks. We finished our worksheet in class, so no Grammar homework this week.
Finally, we talked about the short stories for the week. O. Henry's stories have unusual plots and endings. The story, "A Retrieved Reformation," has been used a number of times for short films. If you look for it on Youtube, you will also find a number of high school literature projects. Next week's story is my favorite, The Ransom of Red Chief."
Assignments for Next Week:
-- News Story Pre-Write
-- If not finished, Letter to World Leader
-- NO Grammar Worksheets
-- Read "The Ransom of Red Chief."
Links for this Week:
Class Notes
Have a marvelous weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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