We had a good second week of classes. We're getting to know one another, and I'm enjoying this group of students.
Our Quick Write this week was inspired by the State Fair, also known as "The Great Minnesota Get Together." I asked the students to either write about the fair or about some other favorite "get together." I always tell students that if they ever draw a blank with the prompt, they can write whatever they would like.
I had three students select our Words of the Day, directing them to choose a word that begins with the same letter as their first name. Our words were:
tyro -- fr. Latin tiro, recruit, young soldier -- a novice or beginner
jellaba -- fr. Arabic djellaba -- a loose-fitting, long-sleeved, often hooded robe commonly worn in Egypt, Morocco, and Northern Africa.
weltanschauung -- fr. German welt, world and Anschauung, perception -- a comprehensive perception of the world.
The students are to keep a list of these words because there will be a quiz at the end of the semester to see what they can remember.
I collected homework, and we discussed any questions that they might have with any of the homework. The rough drafts for the Descriptive Essays were due this week. If a student is ever not able to hand in an assignment in class, they can e-mail it in.
I introduced our Parts of Speech Unit. Students received a handout explaining the unit and a planning worksheet. I spent this week and will do a quick review next week of the primary definitions of the 8 parts of speech (interjections, verbs, adverbs, nouns, conjunctions, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions). Next week the students will take a brief pre-test. The following weeks, the students will teach one another more specifics about their assigned parts of speech. For this unit, students will do some research in order to learn more and then come up with a lesson, an activity, and homework
The Parts of Speech assignments are:
Interjections -- Cassie & Isabelle
Verbs -- Jonathan S. & Eden
Adverbs -- Jack & Jeremiah
Nouns -- Tadashi
Conjunctions -- Greta & Ella
Adjectives -- Brady & Daniel
Prepositions -- Jonathan G.
Pronouns -- William & Samuel
The students wrote a short essay, "What Makes a Good Leader?" as a precursor for our literature. Orwell explores the theme of leadership in his book, Animal Farm. I had intended to show a video that introduces the political and governmental background, but I couldn't get the projector to work. (I discovered at the end of class that all of the miscellaneous cables weren't plugged into the wall.)
Another note about the book. Some students are stronger auditory learners, and hearing the book is really helpful. I've included on the class blog a post with links to some audio versions.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Chapters 1 & 2 of Animal Farm
-- Answer 3 Study Questions
-- Fill in 3 Vocabulary Words in the worksheet
-- Review the Parts of Speech handout
Links for this week:
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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