We've had a great start to our Spring semester. It's always good to see the students again after a long break.
Our agenda for the class will follow pretty much the same pattern that I've used all year. We start with a Quick Write, move on to the Words of the Day, and then into our content areas: writing, literature, and grammar. Some times we take rabbit trails or stay on one topic longer than others, but this is fairly standard for our weekly class time.
This week, our Quick Write prompts were inspired by the birthdays of two notable men. Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, and A.A. Milne was born on January 18, 1882. I asked the students to either write about some invention or community service group that they thought the world needed or to propose another childhood toy/companion similar to Winnie-the-Pooh. We had a couple of cool inventions mentioned and some story ideas.
Our Words of the Day will be coming from my book Foreign Words and Phrases. The plan is to have a different student every week choose words from this book. This week, our words were:
jeu de mots -- French [zhoe duh moh] -- a play on words
sforzando -- Italian "to show strength" -- a musical term that means to play emphatically
toupee -- French, toupet, "tuft" -- a hair piece, especially worn to hide a bald spot
The first class of the semester usually entails handing out a lot of papers, which I did. The first was a Class Policies sheet that reviews the information from the fall, but also has two new points of interest. The first new point is connected to homework. In an effort to recognize the realities of life and with concern for the best learning opportunities for the students, I'm revising my "you can hand in any late homework" to one that allows late homework only up until three weeks after the work was assigned. The other new detail concerns absences and tardys. Please read the Class Policies sheet and initial it. Also, please let me know if you are getting the e-mails.
The next handout was the Syllabus for the semester. This has the topics we'll cover and the weekly assignments. This piece of paper should have a prominent place in their folders.
Our first book of this semester if The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Students have an introduction to the book and a list of major themes that they should read before starting the book. They also have a study guide, a character analysis chart, a themes chart, and a vocabulary chart to go with the book. For next week they are to start this fascinating book with a mysterious story.
The first essay for the semester is a Narrative Essay. I explained a Narrative Essay as a kind of "story with a purpose." In this kind of essay, students "narrate" the details of some event in order get a point across. Some event has some importance and some reason for re-telling. Their essays should have a thesis, which is a statement that includes the essays topic and opinion.
For our Grammar work this semester, we will work with a variety of sentence parts, structures, and patterns. The more confident students are in the elements of correct sentences, the fewer errors they will have in their own writing.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Class Policies signature
-- Read Jekyll/Hyde, Ch. 1 & 2
-- Answer 2 Questions for Ch. 1 and 2 for Ch. 2
-- Narrative Essay Pre-Write
-- Grammar Worksheet "What is a Sentence?"
Links for This Week
Class Notes
Have a great weekend!
Mrs. Prichard
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