Even though we were on the edge of Fall Break this week, students engage well with the material and our discussions. For the Quick Write, I gave them these three National Days as options: National Bring your Teddy Bear to Work Day (10/9), National Cake Decorating Day (10/10), and National Free Thought Day (10/11). We had some great comments on favorite childhood toys, fancy birthday cakes, and conversations we have in our heads.
I used the Words of the Day part of the class for a different kind of activity. I gave them three unusual words (Gluggavedur, tidsoptimist, and dysania) and asked them to come up with definitions for at least 2 of them. We had a wide range of silly options and some that came pretty close to the real meanings. (You can follow the links to find the definitions.)
Students are in the process of writing a Biography Essay. I briefly covered a few topics: how long should a paragraph be; where should the thesis statement go; how to divide the essay into paragraphs. When we meet again, students should hand in both their pre-writes and their rough drafts.
Last week I had assigned a brief Character Sketch for one of the primary characters from Animal Farm. I told them that I had a secret plan for how we would use these. This week, I grouped the students according to the animals they chose, and they were to use what they knew about their characters to come up with a "campaign speech" for that character. I didn't give them a lot of time, so they had to think quickly as groups. They did a great job and were pretty creative. We are now officially done with Animal Farm. I gave them their next books, and their assignments include reading this online introduction about Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol and watching this short video.
The remainder of the class was spent learning from the Nouns group (Michael, Carson, James, and Ethan). They presentation included a video, a slide presentation, a Bingo activity, donuts, and homework. They did a great job, and we are looking forward the Conjunctions group on 10/24 (Maria, Gabi, Alison).
Assignments for Oct. 24
-- Read the Intro to A Christmas Carol
-- Watch the introductory video for A Christmas Carol
-- Write the Pre-Write and Rough Draft for the Biography Essay
-- Complete the Nouns Homework
This Week's Links
Class Notes
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