We are off to a good start here in Writing 1. One aspect I noticed last week is that it is hard to enter into class discussions when you don't know your classmates very well, so we did the Quick Write this week in a collaborative manner. After putting the students into small groups, I asked them to make lists about their favorite parts of the State Fair or about their favorite "fair food." They were then to share their lists with one another; when we came together as a whole class, they were to share what someone in their group had said. They did really well with this activity.
Our Words of the Day:
fils -- (fr. French -- son); sometimes used after a name with a meaning of Jr.
kop -- (fr. Afrikaans -- head); a prominent isolated hill or plateau in southern Africa
shako -- (fr. Hungarian csakos - peaked); a military cap in the form of a cylinder or cone, with a visor and a plume or pompon
Following our beginning activities, we discussed the Essay assignment. I handed out the rubric that I use to evaluate their final drafts. Rough drafts can be really polished or really rough, and all students get the same score for their assignments. The final drafts are the papers that I evaluate for quality. Students handed in the rough drafts of their Description Essays, which I will correct and hand back next week. We discussed ways that homework can be handed in: 1) put in the homework bin during class time when it's due; 2) emailed as an attachment; 3) shared as a Google doc; 4) brought to class the week after it's due.
Students were also given handouts about Drafting the Essay and PreWriting Strategies.
During the Grammar section of class this week, I introduced the Parts of Speech unit. Every word in our language falls into one of the categories of words -- one of the 8 parts of speech: interjections, verbs, adjectives, nouns, conjunctions, adverbs, pronouns, and prepositions. For this unit, students will work in small groups to teach themselves about their chosen part of speech. Then, each group will be the teachers of that part of speech. They will explain that category of words, do an activity, and give homework to the class. I have them a handout with an overview, an explanation of the unit, and a planning sheet. We will do some review the next two weeks.
Here are the group assignments:
Interjections: Gabriel, Benjamin, Yoshi, Sam
Verbs: Kayla, Audrey, Caitlyn, Macy
Adjectives: Dillon, David, Sofia, Zoe
Nouns: Bryce, Corrine, Emily , Isabella
Conjunctions: Mrs. Prichard
Adverbs: Timothy, Daniel
Prepositions: Cally, Hayley, Julia
Pronouns: Linnea, Jade, Christanna
At the end of class, we briefly talked about their short writing assignment about the qualities of a good leader. They had a great list: confident, honest, integral, the ability to respectfully disagree, accountable, smart, patient, nice/kind, and enthusiastic.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Chapters 1 & 2
-- Answer 3 Study Guide questions
-- Find and define 3 Vocabulary Words
-- Begin research for your part of speech
-- Extra Credit: Bring a pun about food to class
Links for this Week:
Class Notes
Enjoy this beautiful weekend!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
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