Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 15)

Greetings!

We had a great class again!  Because our class followed Valentine's Day, for the Quick Write I had the students write the annual "Literary Love Letter."  They could write to an author, a character, a part of speech, a punctuation, etc.  Below are three links to letters written in past years.  I will let you know when I've gotten this year's letters posted on the blog.

Our Words of the Day were a bit of a mystery.  After setting up the classroom for the day, I went downstairs to the cafe and got a cup of coffee.  Upon returning to the room, I found three words on the board, which became our words for this week.  One student claimed responsibility for one word, by the origin of the other two are still a myster.

• Morior invictus -- Latin, "death before defeat" -- This phrase has become a motto for sports teams and heavy metal groups.
• Sputnik -- Russian, "fellow traveler" -- an artificial satellite launched by the Soviet's in 1957 
• pine cone -- While there was an insistence that the definition of this word is "tree poop," as proposed by the videos "Neature Walks,"  a pine cone is a conical or rounded woody fruit of a pine tree, with scales that open to release seeds.  This word brings up interesting information about compound words.  We all know that compound words are two nouns that are put together to make one words.  These are considered closed compounds.  However, we also have open compounds that are two words that must go together but have a space between them.

Students handed in the Final Drafts of their Narrative Essays.  With those in the homework bin, I introduced the next essay, which we have been preparing for since the beginning of the semester.  This will probably be the hardest essay that they will write all year for three reasons:  they don't have a choice about what they can write; they are writing a literary analysis, which can be challenging for some; they might not have done a thorough reading of the book, so they are not well-prepared to write the essay.  They were given two charts to be filling out as read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  One for a character and one for a theme.  For the next essay, they are to choose a character or theme to write about.  The pre-write is due when we get back from break on March 1, and the rough draft is due the following week.

We went on to our literature discussion, I'm afraid I caused a bit of confusion.  I started reading from a chapter they had not yet read and couldn't figure out why they weren't responding very much.    I realized that I had gotten ahead of myself in the schedule.  We still have a couple of chapters to the end of the book when all of the mysteries will be explained.  

Our final discussion centered on sentence patterns, N-LV-ADJ and N-LV-N patterns, to be specific.  They have 3 worksheets to do for our next class time.

Remember -- no class next week!

Assignments for Next Week

-- Themes or Character Essay Pre-Write

-- Finish The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

-- Finish the Themes and Character charts (due 3/1)

-- Finish the Vocabulary chart (due 3/2)

-- No study guide questions

-- 3 Grammar worksheets

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Writing 1 2017 Literary Love Letters

Writing 2 2017 Literary Love Letters

Writing 2 2016 Literary Love Letters

Neature Walks

Verbs Venn Diagram

N-LV-ADJ Worksheet

N-LV-N Worksheet

Linking Verb Complements Worksheet

Have a wonderful weekend and a good break!

Mrsl Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 8)

Greetings!

We had a great class this week.  I really enjoy the positive energy and attitudes in the class and the way in which they engage in the class discussions.  

Our Quick Write prompt was the same one that I used with my Northfield students this week:  "What is boring? Why? What can you do about it?"  We discussed how people don't find the same activities, places, or situations boring.  We seemed to agree that common ways of dealing with boredom are leaving the situations, making new friends in the situation, changing the situation, or, if those fail, resorting to using phones and apps.

We often to a "National Day" as part of our Quick Write prompts, but we didn't today.  For an extra credit assignment, students can look up and find the specific "days" celebrated on their birthdays.  

Our Words of the Day, chosen by Selah:

Bildungsroman -- fr. German, "building" and "novel" -- a novel about the growth and development of a young person

ex pede Herculem -- Latin, "from his foot, Hercules" -- a saying inspired by the experiment of Pythagoras where he estimated the height of Hercules by the measure of his foot.

machtpolitik -- fr. German -- a doctrine in political theory advocating the use of power and possibly physical force by a political state as they pursue their objectives.

I handed back the rough drafts of their Narrative Essays, and as is my practice, we discussed common errors found in the essays.  Before I started through my list, I asked the students to make a list on the whiteboard the topics they needed help with.  This included comma splice and run-on sentences, numbers, introductions, and conclusions.  The final drafts are due next week, and the students should also remember to bring their rough drafts to hand in with the final drafts.  In addition to the final draft, students are to fill out a half sheet titled "My First 5 Errors."  As they correct their rough drafts, I want them to pay attention to the reasons why they are making corrections.

For our literature discussion of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, we looked at Chapter 6 and Dr. Lanyon's death.  We discussed themes and characters.  For next week, students need to read two more chapters, but they don't need to do study guide questions.   However, they should continue to work on their Themes, Character, and Vocabulary Worksheets.  These are be worked on as they read their books.  It's a lot easier to than having to go back and do them afterwards.

Finally, for the Grammar section of the class we took time with prepositional phrases.  Because a prepositional phrase can never be the subject or the verb of a sentence, it can be essential to identify and isolate these phrases.  We have one worksheet to do for next week.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Extra Credit -- Find the National Days for your birthday

-- Final Draft of Narrative Essay

-- "My First 5 Errors"

-- Read Chapters 7 & 8

     No Study Guide questions required

-- Grammar:  Prepositional Phrases Worksheet

Links this Week

Class Notes

National Days Calendar

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (February 1)

Greetings!

We had a good class this week; we were able to cover our writing assignments, the literature sections, and some grammar work.  

For the Quick Write, we acknowledged Alexander Selkirk, who was left on a deserted island for 5 years.  His true story became the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.  Students were to write about 5 items that they would bring along with them.  If that prompt did not interest them, they could write about their favorite fancy desert in honor of National Baked Alaska Day.

Our Words of the Day were chosen by Joseph:

aubado -- fr. French, aube <fr. Provencal alba, a song about the parting at dawn --  a piece sung or played outdoors at dawn

in toto -- Latin, "in completeness" -- in all, completely, entirely, wholly

opere citato -- Latin, "in the work cited" -- abbreviated op. cit., this expression is used in footnotes to refer the reader to a previously cited work.

Students handed in their rough drafts of their Narrative Essays.  As I correct them, I will especially be looking for strong introductions and conclusions.  In this second semester, I enjoy seeing the progress and improvement in their writing.

During our Literature portion of the class, I had the students break into small groups to work together on the themes and character worksheets.  Few students had worked on them, so this was a great opportunity for them to discuss together these elements of the novel, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  

The Grammar section of the class focused again on primary sentence elements, identifying incomplete sentences, and prepositional phrases.  We were able to get some work done during class, but the three worksheets are all due next week.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Ch. 5 & 6

-- 4 Study Guide questions

-- Work on the following worksheets related to Jekyll/Hyde

     Vocabulary Worksheet

     Character Worksheet

     Themes Worksheet

-- Grammar Worksheet

     Sentences and Incomplete Sentences

     Sentences:  Subject/Verb Agreement

     Prepositional Phrases Used as Adjectives and Adverbs

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Alexander Selkirk 

National Baked Alaska Day

Sentences and Incomplete Sentences

Sentences:  Subject/Verb Agreement

Prepositional Phrases Used as Adjectives and Adverbs

Vocabulary Worksheet

Characters Worksheet

Themes Worksheet

If you've got a Super Bowl Party planned, have fun!  

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard