Writing 1 -- Grades are Ready!

 Dear Parents & Students,

I've just finished calculating the grades for the first semester.  Please remember that I am a “tutor,” and these are suggested grades for you as homeschooling families to consider.

Before I send the grades, let me share my thoughts about them.  As I homeschooled, I didn't give my children grades because I felt that grades were far too subjective.  Learning to write well is a process, and I am more concerned that my students stay engaged in the process than I am in the final products.

Letter grades are a funny thing.  For some students, it becomes the only motivation for doing well.  For some, it becomes a measure of their worth as a person or as an academic learner.  I personally don't like these "side effects" of the grading system.  On the other hand, grades can be a valid reward for working hard, being diligent, and understanding the materials.  Incentives and consequences are a part of life; God uses them, too.

When teaching students to be good writers, I give a lot of consideration for growth and improvement. Each student has a starting place; over time I look for him or her to learn the mechanics of grammar, good writing techniques, and analytical thinking skills; they then move on from that original starting place.

For this class, I gave points for attendance, participation, short assignments and longer papers.   I tend to be an "easy grader" and like to see my students encouraged to do their best.  Becoming a good writer is hard work, and too often students are discouraged before they’ve given themselves a chance to succeed.

To find your student’s grade for the semester, go to your GradeSheets and then to the last tab labelled “Reports.”  You will see percentages and grades for each category; the categories are weighted in the following way: 15% for Quick Writes & Misc; 30% for Writing; 28% for Literature; and 27% for Grammar.  After the grades for categories is a weighted percentage and a cumulative percentage (compiled apart from the weighted percentages) and a Suggested Final Grade.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

Blessings,

Tammy Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 17)

Greetings!

We celebrated our final class with a "Christmas party" that included an "Ugly Christmas Sweater Design" contest and a Jeopardy game.  They were pretty intent on their designing and coloring.  When they were finished, they voted on the best/worst sweater design.  

After our drawing and coloring, we had a Final Exam for A Christmas Carol in the form for a game.  In order to form teams, students were given names of songs that they had to hum in order for them to find their teammates.  Watching them walk around the classroom while humming was delightful! There were 20 questions which they answered or tried to answer; when they got the wrong answer, they lost points.  It was a fairly competitive game/test.  (By the way, research also indicates that using game-based learning strategies increases recall, retention, and cognitive growth.  So while we were having fun, we were still intellectually engaged in our topics.) 

We closed out our time together playing a Mad Libs game using the Night Before Christmas.  This was a good game to follow our Parts of Speech unit.

Students handed in their final drafts of their History Essays.  I will go over the essays and any other homework that was handed; my goal is to have final grades out soon.  I mentioned to the class that I will take any homework today (until 11:59 p.m.) for full points value; I will also take work until Saturday, but for 1/2 point values.  As I told students, I've carefully gone through all of the Google Classroom assignments, so students need to contact me if they finish any assignments in Google Classroom.

Links for this week:

Class Notes (with pictures)

Ugly Christmas Sweater

Learning and Reflection article

A Christmas Carol Final Exam slides

Night Before Christmas Mad Lib

Game-Based Learning

I've enjoyed this group of students.  Each one is uniquely gifted for the plans that God has for him/her.  Have a blessed Christmas!!

Blessings, 

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 14 (December 10)

 Greetings!

Every Thursday this semester it's been delightful to see the smiling faces of this class.  I love this place in the school year when we've gotten to know one another and have a productive learning community.

We started class with a Quick Write, using these prompts that came from their list of suggestions:

Option 1: What is your favorite restaurant? Why? What do you like to order there? Option 2: What is your least favorite kind of music? Why don’t you like it? Option 3: What is the most generous thing you’ve done? Would you do it again? Why?  

Our Words of the Day were winter-related words:

solstice -- from Latin solstitium, from sol, "sun" and sistere, "stopped, stationary" --  the time or date at which the sun reaches its maximum or minimum declination, marked by the longest (June 21) and shortest (Dec. 22) days.

hibernate -- from Latin hibernare, from hiberna ‘winter quarters’, from hibernus ‘wintry’ -- when a plant or animal spends the winter in a dormant state.

apricity -- from Latin apricus, "having lots of sunshine" or "warmed by the sun" -- the warmth of the sun (We talked about how cats are especially good at finding that one sunny spot in the house.)

subnivean -- from Latin sub, "under" and nives, "snow" -- the area between the surface of the ground and the bottom of the snowpack.

The Rough Drafts of their History Essays were handed back, and I commented on how much I enjoy teaching writing because I get to learn about so many topics from their essays.  I covered some common writing issues/errors, including writing dates and numbers and correcting comma splice sentences.  The Final Drafts are due next week.

We've finished A Christmas Carol and had a very productive and insightful conversation comparing Animal Farm and A Christmas Carol.  The focus of the conversation was how satisfying or unsatisfying the endings of the books were; this led us to talk about the author's intent.  This is a smart bunch!  We ended our class with mini-book project activities.  The class divided into 4 groups for the following activities:  comic strip panel creation, found poetry writing, scene creating, and dialogue writing.  We'll continue that work in class next week as part of our Christmas "party" fun.

Speaking of next week, I like to spend that last week before Christmas doing fun stuff.  We can't have food in the classroom, but we can set up a table in the hallway for treats and eat out there.  Students are invited to bring goodies.  

Since we're almost at the end of the semester, students should finish up any work they have not done.  In the assignments list, I've included a couple past assignments in case students have forgotten to do them.  All assignments are on Google Classroom in case students no longer have the paper version.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:

History Final Draft

Top 10 Movies Question  (Extra Credit)

Parts of Speech Post Test

Presentation Self-Evaluation

This Week's Links

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 14 (December 10) 

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 13 (December 3)

 Greetings!

It's hard to believe that we're in December already and that there are only 2 weeks left.  I feel like I'm just getting to know the students, so I'm already looking forward to working with them again next semester!

For our Quick Write, I chose from the long list of ideas that the students put together.  Here are the prompts for this week:

• Option 1: What do you play as a sport? Why do you play it and how does it impact your life?
• Option 2: What instrument do you play? Why do you play it and how does it impact your life?
• Option 3: If you could go back and re-do something, what would it be?

After the Quick Writes we enjoyed some more obscure, Christmas-related words for our Words of the Day:

natal -- fr. Latin natus, "pertaining to one's birth" -- often this word is used to describe the star that appeared over Bethlehem, i.e. Jesus' natal star  [Note:  nativity also comes from the same root.]

epiphany -- fr. Greek epiphainein, "to reveal" -- a festival, manifestation, or commemoration; traditionally, Epiphany is on January 6 and is a celebration of the the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi (Matthew 2:1–12).

poinsettia -- fr. John Poinsett, an ambassador to Mexico who brought this plant to the attention of botanists -- a plant of large green leaves and large red blossoms that is used to decorate at Christmas.

wassail -- fr. Old Norse, ves heill, "be well/healthy" -- a greeting of good cheer; also hot mulled cider, drunk traditionally as an integral part of wassailing, a Medieval Christmastide English  ritual intended to ensure a good cider apple harvest the following year.

swaddling -- fr. Middle English, swathlen, to bind with clothes -- longs strips of cloth used to wrap or bind.  Jesus was "laid in swaddling clothes."

Note:  For the Spring semester, I've encouraged students to bring in unusual or interesting words that they find.

Following our beginning of class activity, we had a thoughtful discussion about the role of grammar instruction.  I had read a study about teaching grammar in 3 different ways:  through direct instruction, in the context of student writing, and in the context of reading quality material.  In this study, students in the writing-only and reading-only groups scored higher on a post-test.  For that reason, I like to incorporate as much of my grammar instruction with the students' own papers and with the literature we read.  Since we have been focusing on the parts of speech, we combined that knowledge with our current reading, A Christmas Carol.  In small groups, students took the first 3 sentences of Stave Four and identified what part of speech each word in the sentence was.  Next week when I hand back their rough drafts, we'll have another chance to have a grammar discussion.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Quick Write (if absent on 12/3)

-- Read Stave 5 of A Christmas Carol

-- Stave 5 -- 3 Study Guide Questions

-- EXTRA CREDIT QUESTION -- Watch Christmas clips & respond (GC)

-- Parts of Speech Post Test  (students have this in their packet, but there's also a copy on Google Classroom)

-- Parts of Speech Presentation Self Evaluation 

-- Discussion Question (History Essay) GC

-- Discussion Question (Biography Essay) GC (if not done)

Links for This Week

Class Notes Blog Post 12/3

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Thanksgiving Thoughts -- Grades & Grace

 Happy Saturday!!

I want to give a quick update on the grades for this semester.  We have only 3 weeks left before the end of the term, and I want to commend the students for their hard work.  As homeschoolers your schedules are not as disrupted as those of public or private schools, but this year has been far from normal.  Using Google Classroom and attending classes via Zoom has been both a benefit for distance learning but also a challenge for keeping work and grades organized.  I've just finished triple checking my folder of handed in homework, my paper grade book, Google Classroom, the GradeSheets, and a few stray emails, and I believe everything is 90% accurate.  Here are some notes about grades:

• If you can't find the link to your student's individual GradeSheets, send me an email and I will re-send a link.  (Search in your Inbox for "GradeSheets" first)
• On the GradeSheets, any homework that has not been handed in is marked M, which averages into the score as a zero.  Because we have just finished Week 12, I am not accepting any homework that was due before Week 8 (October 22).  
• On the GradeSheets, each assignment has a link to the Google Classroom assignment.
• If a student has handed in some homework that I've missed, please let me know.

As we head into our Thanksgiving break, I think that it's an important time for some self-care. I have heard Christians say that we should have joy during this time, and I always want to jump in and interrupt and correct them.  As Christians we are faced with the same challenges of this pandemic, the election chaos, and economic situation, BUT WE GET TO HAVE JOY. God has abundant grace, compassion, peace, and comfort for us; these difficult times give us lots of opportunities to learn how to access and take hold of what God has for us.  (For example,I know that God gives grace and comfort, but pretending that I'm NOT sad because I won't see my children at Thanksgiving and Christmas because they can't travel is just plain silly. Instead, I need a little bit more of a peaceful quiet time to soak in that grace.)

As I tell my students, you got that little sermonette free of charge.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Blessings on your family time whether it's face to face or virtual.    

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 12 (November 19)

 Greetings!

We had a great class today.  Students have worked hard this semester, and it shows in their attitudes and the quality of their work!

For our Quick Write today, I had students come up with some ideas for our weekly Quick Writes.  By now, they have an idea of what works for a good Quick Write, so it will be good to have ideas from them.  Usually, I type up a numbered list and students choose random numbers every week.

We covered 3 Latin roots in our Words of the Day. As I explained to the students, having some background knowledge about Latin roots will help them decode unfamiliar words that they might encounter in their academic careers.

ambi - Latin, ambiguu, having double meaning or both -- derivatives:  ambidextrous, ambiguous, ambidexterity

aud - Latin, audire, to hear -- derivatives:  auditory, audio, audience, auditorium.  (by the way, audacious comes from audacia, boldness)

aqua -- Latin, aqua, water --  derivatives:  aquatic, aquarium. aqueduct, aquifer

While the students are busily writing their Quick Writes, I hand back their homework.  Following our beginning of class activities, we discuss the homework.  This week I handed back their final drafts of the Biography Essays.  They've done a wonderful job writing!  I'm waiting for a few students to give me their rough drafts with my corrections before correcting their final drafts.  I've asked students to hand in their rough drafts when they hand in their final drafts.  I like to compare their drafts so that I can see what improvements they've made.  

We briefly talked about the History Essay. They should hand in the Pre-Write and Rough Draft for this essay on December 3 (our week after Thanksgiving Weekend.)  We talked about the length and focus of the papers.  They can write about an event or about the history of something.  I think they already have some good ideas in their heads. 

For the Literature portion of the class, we had two short activities:  a brief section of video from The Muppets Christmas Carol about the Ghost of Christmas Present and a discussion about aspects of Christmas that are non-negotiables and those that we could/should do without.  Most students say that certain foods and family are the non-negotiables; Santa and commercialism can go.

Finally, in the Grammar portion of the class, we had our last part of speech presentation -- this one about presentations.  Elijah and Cyprian had a good slide presentation about prepositions and a fun game for the students.  I told them all that this class has given the best presentations on these parts of speech that I've seen -- they were all full of complete explanations and fun activities.  They should all be proud of the work they've done!

Finally, I encouraged the students to check their GradeSheets to make sure that what I have recorded is accurate and to see if they are missing any homework.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving week!  Be blessed!!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Week 13 (12/3)

-- Quick Write for 11/19

-- History Essay Pre-Write and Rough Draft

-- Discussion Question for History Essay

-- Read Stave 3

-- Stave 3 Study Guide Questions

-- Discussion Question -- Favorite Christmas Food

-- Prepositions Homework

-- Prepositions Evaluation

-- CAPP Review

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 10 (November 12)

 Greetings!

We had a good class this week.  We had a few more in our Zoom class, reminding me of what a blessing it is to have Zoom as an option these days!

For our Quick Write we used these 3 prompts:

• What would you do if you were locked inside your favorite department store overnight?

• What would you do if you woke up one morning to find yourself invisible? 

• What would you do if you were able to communicate with animals?

Our Words of the Day followed a Latin root theme of omni, which means "all."

omnibenevolence -- Latin, omni, "all," bene, "good," and volo, "to be willing; have the power to do" -- Unlimited kindness and generosity

omnia vincit amor -- Latin -- love conquers all

omniarch -- Latin, omni, "all" and arch, "lead, command" -- the ruler of everything

omnific -- Latin, omni, "all" and facere, "to make, to do," -- capable of doing everything

Students handed in their final drafts of their Biography Essays, so it was time to introduce the next essay, which is a History Essay. We talked at length about the challenge of composing a strong thesis statement for this essay. Many times students write reports with facts and details, but write with a stand or opinion to direct the focus of the paper. Their Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due December 13.

We are two "staves" into our book, A Christmas Carol, and we took time to read from the beginning. I think this book has one of the best openings of all books: "Marley was dead to begin with ...."

We saved the last 30 minutes for our Grammar presentation on Pronouns. Tate and Becca had good, complete slides and explanations. They had made homework, so this worksheet is required and the one I made is for Extra Credit.

Great job this week! Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read Stave 3

-- Answer 3 Study Guide Questions

-- ACC Discussion Questions

-- Start on Pre-Write and Rough Draft of History Essay

-- Pronouns Evaluation

-- Pronoun Homework from Tate & Becca

-- Pronoun Homework (Extra Credit)

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Quick Write 11/12

About the History Essay

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 10 (November 5)

 Greetings!

I can't believe that we're 2/3 of the way through this first semester.  At the beginning of the year, I think many of us were uncertain about how school would go, but the students have been amazing.  Working with Google Classroom, attending class via Zoom when necessary, and wearing masks has not daunted this great group of students. Pat yourselves on the back and thank God for his abundant grace!

I gave a plethora of options for the Quick Write today. 1) Nov. 5, 1605 is Guy Fawkes Day in England, which commemorates the plot to blow up parliament, the king, and his family. 2) Nov. 5, 1872 is the day that Susan B. Anthony was arrested for voting (it was not yet legal for women to vote); 3) Nov. 5, 1935 is the day Parker Bros. launched the Monopoly game; 4) Thursday was National Donut Day; and finally, 5) Thursday was National Men Make Dinner Day.  Students could write about violence vs. civil discourse, women in politics, board games, donuts, or men who cook.

Our Words of the Day were common Latin abbreviations, some I often use in notes to students and others students might encounter in their reading:

i.e. -- Latin id est, "that is"-- this signals an expansion on a comment.  (Make sure you do your homework, i.e. your rough draft and worksheets.)

e.g. -- Latin, exempli gratia, "for the sake of example" -- this signals possible examples.  (You must create a project, e.g. an activity, artwork, or game.)

c.f. -- Latin, conferro, "to compare with" -- this is often used in reference materials as a shortcut to point out comparisons

n.b. -- Latin, nota bene, "note well" or "a good note" -- used to draw attention to a side, related comment.

Rough drafts of the Biography Essays were handed back, so it was time for me to discuss common errors found in the essays.  I especially took time to go over the introductions.  Personally, I think one of the hardest and yet most important aspects of writing an essay is developing a strong thesis statement and giving a clear road map/plan of development.  By the end of an introduction, the reader should know not only the topic, but should know the driving idea (the thesis tells why it's important) and where the essay is headed (the road map tells what subtopics will be covered to support the thesis.)  Strong thesis statements elevate a paper from a report with some details to an essay with a strong purpose.  The Final Drafts are due next week.

Following our discussion of the Grammar topics related to the essays, the students broke into small groups to discuss some sample introductions. They worked together to find the hooks, thesis statements, and road maps.

The last portion of the class was our Adverbs presentation from Grace and Kaylynn.  They did theirs in a mock news type format and then had a game for the students to play.  (n.n. Grace and Kaylynn had homework for the students to do, so the Adverbs homework from me that is in their packets and on Google Classroom will be extra credit.)  All of the presentations so far have been engaging, well-organized, and very informative.  Well-done, students!

A quick note about Google Classroom -- I have rearranged the assignments in the category so that the newest assignment is at the top of the list and the assignments are now in order from the newest to the oldest.  (This should save some time for students because they won't have to scroll through the whole list.)  And a reminder -- if you go into Google Classroom from another gmail account, you will not be able to answer discussion questions, fill out quizzes, or turn in homework.  If you're not sure if you are in the right account, look in the upper right hand corner of the screen where the settings and Google apps icon are.  Hover your cursor over the small circle to the right.  This will tell you what account you're in.  

Have a wonderful weekend!  Enjoy this great fall weather, Rumor has it that winter is coming!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read Stave Two of A Christmas Carol

-- 3 Study Guide Questions

-- Discussion Question for ACC

-- Biography Final Draft

-- Discussion Question about Biography Essay (GC)

-- Adverbs Homework from Grace and Kaylynn

-- Adverbs Evaluation only (GC)

-- Adverbs Homework (Extra Credit) 

-- Presentation Self Evaluation (for those who have done their presentations)

Links for this Week

Class Notes (11/15)

Fall Writing 1 Google Drive folder

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 9 (October 29)

Greetings!

We had a full class today, covering all of our topics:  Writing, Literature, and Grammar

We started the class with our Quick Write, For today's prompts, they had 3 options:  They could write about National Chocolate Day (10/28), about National  Cat Day, or about something that refreshes them.  The best advice I got when I first started homeschooling was to figure out what was refreshing and to do it often.   I talked a bit about the fact that because these days are challenging, we all need to figure out how to keep balanced and at peace.  As an addendum to this topic, I referenced an article about the benefits of science. 

Our Words of the Day

biblioklept -- fr. Greek biblio, "book" and klept, "thief" -- someone who steals books

psephology -- fr. Greek I, "small stone" -- the study of elections, taken from the ancient practice of dropping pebbles or small stones in order to cast a vote.

sophomoric -- fr. Greek sophos, "wise" and moros, "foolish" -- conceited and overconfident of knowledge but poorly informed and immature

After our beginning of the class activities, we had a quick check in regarding homework.  I handed back homework and fielded questions about homework.  The pre-writes and rough drafts of their Biography Essays were due today.  For students who have not finished their essays, they should finish them by the end of the weekend.  If their rough drafts are much later than that, they might not get them back next Thursday.  I will be sending out Midterm grades before next week's class.

As I said, the Rough Drafts of the Biography Essays were due today.  Students don't have a writing assignment for next week, but next week in class we'll be going through the introductions in writing circles.  Note: I'll make copies of their introductions to bring to class.

We have finished Animal Farm, and are on to the next book, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  I gave a short introduction to the book; students should read the printed introduction and take the short quiz.  They were given their books at the beginning of the semester and should read Stave One and answer 3 Study Guide Questions.  For your information, Charles Dickens named his chapters "Staves," the plural of staff, to tie in with the music theme of "carol."

We had a presentation about Conjunctions today from our 2 Zoom students, Rachel and Julia.  They did a good job planning and executing a presentation all as distance learning students.  They had a video, a game, and homework.  

By next week, I will have midterm grades for students.  If they have any missing work, they should get it in.  

Have a good weekend.  Who knows, the snow might be gone fairly soon, and we'll have fall again.

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Finish Pre-Write & Rough Draft if it has not been handed in on 10/29

-- Read the Introduction to A Christmas Carol

-- Introduction to A Christmas Carol Quiz

-- 3 Study Guide Questions

-- Conjunctions Homework (from Rachel & Julia)

-- Conjunctions Homework (GC)

-- Conjunctions Evaluation (GC)

-- IVAN Review (if not done)

Links for This Week

Class Notes (10/29)

Quick Write (10/29)

The Hidden Benefits of Silence

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 8 (October 22)

 Greetings!

We had a good time in class this week.  This is a good group of students, and I always enjoy the time I have with them in class.

As many of you know, the church has expressed that students must wear masks in the hallways, common areas, and classrooms.  If students are exempt, parents must communicate with Laura Johnson, who will communicate with tutors.  Some teachers allow students to snack and/or drink in their classrooms, but the church doesn't allow food in the clubhouse, which is the room where my writing classes take place. (They can have water.)  This week a few students were snacking, and I let it go.  Next week, only water.    I know that some students are not happy with having to wear masks in class, but they all had great attitudes and seemed willing to bless the church and its leadership.  

Our Quick Write today had 3 options.  First, October is German-American Heritage Month, so I gave students the option to write about their family heritages.  Secondly, on October 22, 1938, Chester Carlson invented the first photocopier.  He presented it to IBM, RCA, and Kodak, but they rejected it because they didn't see the value in a machine that only made copies.  I asked the students to write about their favorite gadget/inventions or about something that they felt needed inventing.  And, as always, students could write about anything else that was on their minds.

We had 2 Words of the Day:  

preposition -- fr. Latin, prae, "before" and positus, "put or placed" -- the word placed before a noun or pronoun to establish a connection to another noun or a verb.

conjunction -- fr. Latin con, "with," and juncto, "to join together" -- the word used to join other words, phrases, or clauses.

For our Writing portion of the class, we discussed various ways that they might put together a pre-write for their Biography Essay.  We discussed mind maps and outlines.  Students can do one or the other, or even both.  Here are 2 documents that might be helpful:  Prewriting Strategies and Pre-Write Tools.  Another important aspect of the Biography Essay that I mentioned last week is that it should not simply be a retelling of details, but the students should have an opinion or take a stand on their topics.  The whole of their essays should be in support of this stand.

For our Literature section, we partially closed out our book, Animal Farm. Their assignment for this week was to write a character sketch about one of the characters from the book.  Using this information that they had compiled, the students were grouped together to come up with a "campaign speech" for their characters.  We heard 3 good speeches promoting Boxer, Mollie, and Squealer for president of Animal Farm.  Their final assignment for the book is to finish a final exam for the book.

Next week we will be starting our next book:  A Christmas Carol.  Please bring it to class.

We had another good presentation by students for our Parts of Speech unit.  Halle and Eden had a good presentation that explained the types of Nouns.  They followed their explanation with a game that included writing sentences on the white board.  The homework is in their packets or on Google Classroom.  Also on Google classroom is the evaluation for the presentation.

Have a great weekend.  Peace to your homes!

Mrs Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Animal Farm Final (GC)

-- Biography Pre-Write

-- Biography Rough Draft

-- Nouns Homework

-- Nouns Evaluation

-- IVAN Review

-- Discussion Question for Biog. Essay

Links for This Week

Class Notes

About the Biography Essay

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 7 (October 15)

 Greetings!

This would have been our fall break, so I feel that we should all get a merit badge for having a good class this week.  For our Quick Write, I asked students to write about a strong opinion that they have.  Then, they were to give three specific points about that opinion.  Following that, they were to think about what the other side might think.  The goal of this Quick Write was to encourage the students to think about how others think about the same topics.  As I told them, being able to actively listen to others while trying to understand their perspectives is a sign of maturity.  In this day and age, God needs us to value those around us, whether we agree with their strong opinions or not.  (By the way, one of the most controversial topics for all classes today was "Does pineapple belong on pizza?")

We had a short Words of the Day portion of class.  Here are our words:

comma -- fr. Latin, comma, and Greek komma, which means a "piece which is cut off." --   The comma is that little bit of punctuation that separates parts of a sentence.

noun -- fr. Latin nomen, "name" -- The noun is the part of speech that names a person, place, things, or ideas.

veb -- fr. Latin verbum, "word" -- The verb is the part of speech that communicates action or state of being.

Students handed in their Final Drafts of their Personal Essays.  Now, it's time for the next essay, which is a Biography Essay.  For the rest of the year, students will be doing a 3-step process that includes a pre-write, a rough draft, and a final draft.  The pre-write is any kind of composing that shows brainstorming of ideas and organization.  This can include a formal or informal outline, a mind map, or a digital brainstorming file.  (I have a document in the links below that further expounds on pre-write tools and gives links to some interesting web platforms for making a digital outline or mind map.)  I don't require the students to hand in their pre-writes until they hand in their rough drafts.  Note: Students should work on the gathering and organizing of their information during this next week (in other words, prepare the pre-write) so that the following week they are ready to write the rough draft.

I have 3 short writing-related assignments:  Writing Goals (in preparation for a future writing circle), Discussion Question for the Personal Essay, and a Discussion Question for the Biography Essay.  The Discussion Question for the Biography Question includes instructions to respond to a classmate's comment.

We have finished Animal Farm, and many of the students were surprised at the ending and even a little disappointed.  We will talk more about the book and the characters next week.  To prepare for next week, students are to complete a Character Sketch for one of the characters in the book.  This writing should include 3 strengths, 3 weaknesses, and a one sentence summary of the chosen character.

For the Grammar portion of the class, Rachel and Nina gave a great presentation on Adjectives.  Their activity was "Adjectives Battleship" that played like a 20 questions game, and students could only use adjectives.  For homework, students have a 2-sided sheet in their packets, OR they can do the worksheets on Google Classroom.  I also have for them an Adjectives Evaluation.

Have a wonderful weekend!  Take some time to do something that refreshes and rejuvenates you!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

PS.  I will be away from my computer until Sunday night, so if you have any questions, I will not get to them until Monday.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Quick Write 10/15

-- Biography Pre-Write

-- Writing Circle:  Writing Goals

-- Discussion Question for the Personal Essay  (GC)

-- Discussion Question for the Biography Essay  (GC)

-- Animal Farm Character Sketch

-- Adjectives Evaluation

-- Adjectives Homework

Links for This Week

Class Notes

About the Biography Essay

Pre-Write Tools

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 6 (October 8)

 Greetings!

We had a good day in class yesterday.  We started with a Quick Write.  The two prompts for today were inspired by two October 8 events.  In the year 876, Charles the Bald was defeated in the Battle of Andernach.  I was struck by the unusual nickname, so nicknames were the topic of one option.  Also on October 8, 1871, was the Great Chicago Fire.  I asked students to write about fires, especially if they had a fun fire-related story.

Following our Quick Write, we looked over the rough drafts of the Personal Essays that I had handed back.  As is my custom, I use their own writing to explore grammar issues with which they are struggling.  For this round of essays, we discussed introductions and conclusions, comma splice sentences, the Oxford comma, and parallel structure.  I also gave a brief explanation of my editing marks.  (Here's an old blog post with explanations and pictures pertaining to the marks that I make.)  Their Final Drafts of the Personal Essay is due next week.

We had our second parts of speech presentation today.  Lilia and Danica gave a great teaching on verbs that included writing sentences with action verbs and state of being verbs.  For the students' Grammar homework, they should do both sides of the Verbs worksheet and fill out the evaluation on Google Classroom.  (If they have completed the paper worksheet, they do not need to do the worksheet on Classroom, but they DO need to do the evaluation on Google Classroom.  Here's the link to this assignment.)  Note:  Even though I've asked students to NOT turn in an assignment on Google Classroom if they have done the paper version, for this assignment that also

Next week for our Animal Farm discussion, I will divide the students into small groups to discuss Animal Farm.

A note about Google Classroom:  I've reminded students that they should NOT turn in an assignment on Google Classroom if they have already turned in the paper copy.  Doing so causes some confusion for me when I'm grading assignments.  In the future, I will deduct points from their assignments if they unnecessarily turn in their assignments to Google Classroom. 

Have a wonderful weekend.  The weather should be perfect for enjoying the fall colors!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Final Drafts of the Personal Essay

-- Read Chapters 9 & 10 of Animal Farm

-- Take Home Quiz #2

-- Verbs Worksheets 

-- Verbs presentation evaluation (GC)

-- Adjectives presentation (Rachel & Nina)

Links for This Week

Class Notes 10/8

A quick note about the blog post:  The blog post includes the same information that is in this email, but I do not include links to either assignments or documents specific to this class due to security concerns.  If you're looking at the blog for assignments and need a link, use the date of the blog post to find the email with the links.  

Student Notes 10/8

Fall Writing 1 folder

Quick Write 10/8

Sample Editing Marks

Charles the Bald

Great Chicago Fire

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (October 1)

 Greetings!

We had a good, productive day yesterday.  We started with a Quick Write.  For today's prompts, I used the facts that October 1, 1908  was the day that Ford manufacturing rolled the Model T off its production line and that October 2, 1950 was the day that the first Peanuts comic was published.  Some students also mentioned that Tuesday was National Coffee Day.  Many students wrote about car-related stories.  Some haven't seen any of the Charlie Brown specials, so here's a link to the Christmas Special.

Following our Quick Write, I usually do a Homework Check (I use the time while they're doing the Quick Write to pass back work.)  Today I took time to go over the Final Drafts of their essays. The rubric that I use for evaluating their essays consider 5 categories:  Focus, Content, Organization,  Sentence Structures, and Mechanics.  This allows me to give more holistic grades for the papers they write.  As I noted with the students, the Focus section that includes the thesis statement, introduction, and conclusion is often the category that has the lowest scores.  I'm especially "picky" on that section because the quality of the introduction and conclusion can determine the overall quality of a paper.  

Students have handed in the rough drafts of their Personal Essays, and I will hand them back next week. These papers can be turned in via the Google Classroom assignment.

We spent more time talking about some of the characters we've met in Animal Farm.  The students seem to have formed some specific opinions about Napoleon, Snowball, Boxer, etc., which means 2 things:  George Orwell has done some good writing and the students have done some careful reading.  As discussion progressed, we used some Accountable Talk practices in which students responded to comments made by their classmates with such comments as "I agree, and ..." or "I agree, but ..." or I disagree because ..."  Learning to have good, academic discussions is an important part of academic growth.

Finally, we spent the last third of the class in our Grammar unit and the Parts of Speech.  Anthony and Annalise did a great job of explaining Interjections.  They had a PowerPoint, activities, homework, and even some candy.  As I told the students, the homework that Anthony and Annalise is required, and the homework that is in the packet I gave them is Extra Credit.  Listed on the same assignment as the now extra credit worksheets is a short form to evaluate the Interjections Evaluation.  Students will fill out a form for each pair of presenters.  This evaluation has more to do with how much the students learned than with the quality of the presentation.  

Have a great weekend. Enjoy the beautiful fall colors (before that all need to be raked up!)

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read Ch. 7 & 8

-- 3 Reader Responses

-- Interjections Homework from Anthony & Annalise

-- Extra Credit Interjections Worksheets

-- Interjections Presentation Evaluation (GC)

Links for this Week

Class Notes

October 1, 1908   & October 2, 1950  Days in history

Charlie Brown Christmas Special

Writing 1 Google Drive folder

Personal Essay Rough Draft assignment

Interjections Slide Presentation

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (Sept. 17)

 Greetings!

We had a great class yesterday.  This is a good, conscientious group of students.

We started with a Quick Write.  For today's prompt, I offered them 2 options.  September 15 was Agatha Christie's birthday, and she is known as the "queen of mysteries" with over 80 books to her name.  She also wrote the world's longest running play, The Mousetrap.  Students could write their opinions about mysteries, a mysterious event, or an original mystery.  The other option was related to National Apple Dumpling Day (Sept. 17).  Baked apple goods seem to be the quintessential fall food.  Students could write about apples or some other favorite fall food.  (And, as always, they can always choose the third, "Whatever" option and write on something completely different.)

Following our Quick Write, I went over some Google Classroom "Protocols," hopefully clarifying questions that students have had.

• 99.9% of your assignments are on Google Classroom (GC)
• You can hand in work on GC or in class but NOT BOTH
• If you do the assignment on Google Classroom, remember to "Turn In"  (button in the upper right corner of the window.)
• If you have handed in an assignment during class (the paper version), please the Google Classroom assignment alone.  I will assign a grade and return in.
• Some assignments can ONLY be done on Google Classroom. When that is the case, those homework assignments will be designated (GC)
• For the Final Drafts of your essays, follow these steps IN ORDER:
• Open your Rough Draft document, select/highlight all of the content (Ctrl-A) and copy it (Ctrl-C)
• Open the Google Classroom assignment for the Final Draft and then open the document/template.
• Paste the contents of the Rough Draft onto this document.
• Make corrections and revisions. (DO NOT MAKE CORRECTIONS WHILE IT IS STILL IN THE ROUGH DRAFT DOCUMENT!)
• Turn it in!

This week, students were to take notes of class, and these notes are due in class next week.  Sometimes when we are covering a significant amount of content, I will have students take notes and then turn in copies of those notes.  Students can hand in the paper copies of their notes next week OR upload copies to the Google Classroom assignment.  

I handed back their Rough Drafts of their Descriptive Essays.  I believe that students learn grammar best in the context of their own writing, so I like to take a generous amount of time to go over common mistakes and for them to ask questions from their own mistakes.  I had the students write on post it notes either the error most-corrected on their rough drafts or a grammar issue that they didn't understand.  After they brought these up to the white board, I covered those areas that seemed to need the most attention.  This week, those areas included contractions, the use of numbers, capital letters, and commas with compound sentences.

For the Final Drafts of these essays, students should submit them via Google Classroom (see the notes about the protocols.)  They should also bring to class on Sept. 24 their rough drafts with my corrections.

We talked very little about our book, Animal Farm.  For next week, students are to read Chapters 3 & 4 and take the Quiz. (GC)  I had forgotten to add links for audio book versions last week, so those are in the "Links" list at the bottom of the email.

We are preparing for the Parts of Speech projects, and next week we will take a large amount of time for students to connect with their partners.  Before next week, students should take the Parts of Speech Pre-Test.  This test has been posted on Google Classroom, and students can print it and bring the completed test to class, print it and then upload the completed test to the Google Classroom assignment, or complete the test using a tablet or other touch device.  

Below are the student "teachers" and the parts of speech:

Interjections -- Anthony, Annelise

Verbs -- Danica, Lilia 

Adjectives -- Rachael, Nina

Nouns -- Halle, Eden 

Conjunctions -- Julia, Rachel

Adverbs -- Kaylynn, Grace 

Pronouns -- Tate, Rebecca 

Prepositions -- Elijah, Cyprian

Have a wonderful weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Final Draft of Descriptive Essay (GC)

-- Remember to bring the rough draft to class on 9/24

-- Read Ch. 3 & 4 of Animal Farm

-- Take Home Quiz (GC)

-- Parts of Speech Pre-Test (GC)

Links for This Week

Fall Writing 1 Google Drive Folder

Class Notes 9/17

Animal Farm Audioversions

     Youtube version

     Youtube version (with a British accent.)

     Audible (paid subscription)

Writing 1 -- Homework & Google Classroom

 Greetings!

A couple notes about handing homework, Google Classroom, and the Grades page on Classroom:

• Students DO NOT need to do an assignment both on paper and in Google Classroom.
• Most homework assignments can be handed in during class.  
• If a student hands an assignment in class, they DO NOT need to do anything with the Google Classroom assignment
• I will mark those assignments as done and return them with a score AFTER I've corrected the paper versions
• If a student does the assignment on Google Classroom, they DO NOT need to hand in a paper version
• Some assignments can ONLY be done on Google Classroom (e.g. quizzes, discussion questions)
• I will designate these assignments as (GC) and include a link to the assignment
• Some students have handed in homework using the Rocketbook app and uploading it to the Google Classroom assignment.  When they do that, they DO NOT need to hand it in again in class.
• When I grade some homework on Google Classroom, I use my Samsung tablet
• I can "write" on the document, and it saves as a pdf and attaches to the assignment, which students will see with their returned work.
• I'm experimenting to figure out the best way to correct rough drafts.  I've done it with pen and paper for years, but I'm going to do one set with my tablet, and then one set comments in Google Docs.  Students can give feedback about what works best for them.
• The gradebook for Google Classroom is not the greatest format for communicating with students their scores.  
• If students see a score but the comment "not turned in," it's because they turned the work in during class.  I have updated the score to match the one on paper.
• Some students don't like seeing the "Missing" when they know they have turned in their work.  They need to be patient for me to correct the material handed in during class.  
• PLEASE DON'T TURN IN A BLANK ASSIGNMENT to get rid of the "Missing" designation.  I will take care of that.
• The best place to check on grades is on your student's personal Gradesheets.  This document will be updated every other week.

I apologize for confusion or challenges with Google Classroom.  Learning new systems always takes a bit of time, and my hope is that over the course of the semester we will all find the benefit of having this online repository for all of our assignments and resources that enables us to not only stay on top of our work (i.e. not lose stuff) and to participate digitally if we can't be face to face.

If you need your link to your Google Gradesheets, please let me know.  

One other tip -- an idea that has been helpful for me:

Since I'm online so much these days, often with multiple tabs open every day, I've started bookmarking and organizing those bookmarks to be more efficient. Students should consider bookmarking their chatclasses.com email, Google Classroom, and their Gradesheets.  Here's a link for how to create bookmarks and how to create folders of bookmarks.  (I have a folder called CHAT Stuff, and when I right click on the folder, all of the tabs open.)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 2 (Sept. 10)

 Greetings!

We had a great class yesterday.  These students are coming in with a readiness to learn and are encouraging a positive perspective for one another.

Our Quick Write today was from the National Days Calendar.  Yesterday was National Swap Ideas Day, in which people are encouraged to share their ideas and creativity with one another.  I asked them to write about any big, outside-the-box ideas they've done or had.  They could also write about whether or not they are creative.  I've just finished reading their Quick Writes, and this class has a wonderful variety of creative and practical students!

This week students handed in their first paper assignment of the year, their Descriptive Essay Rough Drafts.  I'm looking forward to reading them.  My procedure with student papers is to go through and correct them after they're handed in and then hand them back the next week.  Students are to take that following week to make revisions.  

Last week for the Literature portion of the class, we started Animal Farm with an  introduction and a quiz on Google Classroom.  Before they start reading the book, I would like them to write a short response to the question, "What makes a good leader?"  (This assignment is attached to this email  and on Google Classroom.)  For next week, they also need to give a short response to a discussion question and 3 Reader Responses.  We talked in class about the study guide questions that are listed per chapter and also the ala carte options if students would like more creative opportunities to respond to their reading.  NOTE:  These reader responses can be done on paper and handed in during next week's class time OR they can be done on the Google Classroom assignment.  Students DO NOT need to do it both ways.

For the final third of the class time, we talked about the Grammar projects that we will be doing this semester.  During the Fall semester, we study the 8 Parts of Speech, and the students themselves do the teaching on these topics.  As the teachers, students will need to do some research so that they have a firm grasp of their chosen part of speech; they will then prepare a teaching/presentation about this part of speech that also includes some kind of activity that helps the students further understand and remember what was taught.  In the past I've also required that students assign homework, but this year I put together homework because I didn't know if we would be face to face or online.  As they start their research, they should use the Checklist and the Planning sheet (we'll talk more about those resources next week.)

Below are the student "teachers" and the parts of speech:

Interjections -- Anthony, Annelise

Verbs -- Danica, Lilia 

Adjectives -- Rachael, Nina

Nouns -- Halle, Eden 

Conjunctions -- Julia, Rachel

Adverbs -- Kaylynn, Grace 

Pronouns -- Tate, Rebecca 

Prepositions -- Elijah, Cyprian

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

This Week's Homework

-- Read Chapters 1 & 2 of Animal Farm

-- Write a response to "What makes a good leader?"

-- Take the Intro to Animal Farm Quiz (if you haven't)

-- Give your top 3 leader characteristics on the Discussion Board

-- Week 3 Reader Responses

-- Start researching your part of speech 

This Week's Links

Class Notes -- Week 2 (Sept. 10)

National Days Calendar.  

National Swap Ideas Day