On Thursday when I drove up to CHAT, the back roads were ice-covered and a little treacherous. By the time classes were done, the snow had almost all melted. That's Spring in Minnesota for you!
I used two dates and two men as the prompts for this week's Quick Write. The first was March 23, 1776 when Patrick Henry proclaimed to the citizens of Richmond, Virginia, "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty of give me death!" The second date was March 25, 2228, the supposed birth date of Captain James T. Kirk, born somewhere in Iowa. This man's mission was "to boldly go where no man has gone before." I asked the students to write either about passions they would give their all to or about a life's adventure or dream.
For our Words of the Day, we had words that contained all of the vowels (a, e, i, o, and u):
armigerous -- entitled to bear heraldic arms; an armour-bearer
epuration -- purification; removing officials or politicians considered to be disloyal
inquorate -- unable to proceed due to an insufficient number of members
ossuaries -- a container or room in which the bones of dead people are placed
uvarovite -- an emerald green variety of a garnet
sequioia -- a redwood tree
Students handed in the Final Drafts of their Themes/Character Essays. They worked hard on these and should pat themselves on the backs. Writing about literature is an important skill to learn.
I introduced our next writing assignment: a News Story. Students have a wide range of topic choices for this assignment. They can choose a current event or one from the past. They could also write about an imaginary event if they are feeling creative. A current issue, a personal interest, or an ongoing controversy would make a good topic. We discussed that the organization of a news article is different from that of an essay. In an essay, you write a clear introduction that expresses the topic and your opinion (i. e. thesis statement); the points of your paper are ordered so that the least important are first and the most important are last. In a news story, the opinion of the writer is hidden and embedded in your writing; also, the most important points are given first, and the minor details are at the end of the story. (The reasoning is that in a newspaper, your readers may lose interest fairly quickly, so you want to get the most important information first.) The Pre-write for the News Story is due when we get back from break.
In the Grammar section of class we reviewed direct objects and indirect objects. Students gave some sample sentences, and we dissected the sentences, labeling the parts of speech. Since we are on the topic of Sentence Patterns, we proceeded on to Predicate Nouns and Predicate Adjectives. The four patterns we've discussed so far are:
N - V - DO (noun - verb - direct object)
N - V - IO - DO (noun - verb - indirect object - direct object)
N - LV - N (noun - linking verb - noun)
N - LV - Adj (noun - linking verb - adjective)
We took a little longer with the Writing and Grammar portion of the class; we'll discuss this week's short stories and the newly assigned on when we come back from break.
Assignments for April 7:
-- News Story Pre-Write
-- Predicate Nominative and Predicate Adjective Worksheets
-- Read "The Ransom of Red Chief"
-- Writ e 3 Discussion Questions for the short story
Links for This Week:
Class Notes
We do not have class next week! Enjoy the break, and be blessed this Easter!
Mrs. Prichard
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