We had a good class time this week. They usually come to class with lots of energy!
For the Quick Write prompt this week I asked students to give me a list of at least 10 prompt ideas. We've had 11 weeks of writing these quick writes so they have an idea about the types of prompts they like. I will take those prompts and use them for most of our Quick Writes for the rest of the year. I had each student share one of his/her ideas. I'm looking forward to using their ideas throughout the year.
Our Words of the Day (click here to see these words)
cattywampus -- 19th century slang; askew or disarrayed
bumfuzzle -- to confuse, perplex, or fluster
gardyloo -- an interjection yelled before throwing slops out the window; possibly from the French phrase garde a l'eau ("Attention! Water!")
The class has been assigned a History Essay, and the rough draft and pre-writes are due next week. Writing a clear thesis statement that includes the topic and the writer's stand on that topic can be really difficult. Thesis statements are different from topic sentences in that they are meant to give purpose and to direct the focus of the paper. We reviewed the elements of the introduction and did some brainstorming how to come up with that elusive thesis statement. Along with the rough drafts and pre-writes, I want students to fill out the rough draft rubric. This rubric can serve as a checklist for students to determine the strength of their introductions, conclusions, content, and organization.
We have just finished reading Stave Three of A Christmas Carol. In this stave, the Ghost of Christmas comes and takes Scrooge to visit his family and Tiny Tim. I had the class divide into small groups to discuss some questions related to the purpose of Charles Dickens' writing and the changes in Scrooge. Before doing this, we discussed how to have good academic discussions using specific Talking Stems. (see the Student Notes and Whiteboard Scan for examples of these Talking Stems.) Strong academic conversations help students to learn to analyze and think critically "on their feet."
Next week we will read about the Ghost of Christmas Future. (There might be a quiz, so they should get caught up on their reading.)
Our Grammar portion of the class was a presentation of Prepositions by Leighton, Levi, and Logan. We had a video, and in class activity, and homework. We're nearing the end of this unit will start reviewing.
Assignments for Next Week
-- Rough Draft & Pre-write of History Essay
-- Rough Draft Rubric (self-evaluation)
-- Read Stave Four
-- 3 Study Guide Questions & 4 Vocabulary Words
-- Preposition Homework
-- Parts of Speech Review Packet
Links for This Week
Class Notes
Parts of Speech Review Packet (pdf on Drive)
Have a beautiful weekend!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
No comments:
Post a Comment