What a great first day! It's always good to see everyone after a long break. We've added a few more to our numbers, making this a fairly large class.
As always, we began the class with a Quick Write. For this week I asked the students to write a letter to themselves. Starting with "Dear Future Me,' they could write about goals, interests, or questions. Rather than hand them in, they are to go to the Future Me website, type in their letters, and set the letters to be sent to them on January 1, 2021.
We will continue doing Words of the Day at the beginning of class. This semester, I will focus on foreign words and phrases; unusual expressions, and Latin roots. There will be a test at the end of the semester. Today's words were for those little bits and pieces that we might simply call "thingamajigs" or "whatchamacallits."
meme -- fr. Greek mimeme; to imitate -- a digital image combined with text to express a cultural comment.
pintle -- the pin or bolt that is used in hinge.
ferrule -- the metal cap on the end of an umbrella
aglet -- the cover of the end of a shoe lace
Students were given a shortened version of the Class Policies that they should have you read and sign. Reminders of class expectations is a good way to start a fresh semester. I also made some brief comments about having a good system for keeping track of homework and for planning time wisely so that assignments get done.
Our first Literature selection for the semester is Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This Victorian novel has interesting characters, thought-provoking themes, and an unusual plot. Students were given an introduction, a study guide, a character analysis worksheet, a themes worksheet, and a list of major themes. Every week students will read two chapters and answer a certain number of questions. Our second writing assignment will be an essay that analyzes either a character or theme of the book, so while they are reading, they should be building these charts so that the paper is easier to write.
The first essay for this semester is a Narrative Essay. Narrative essays retell a sequence of events in order to explain something. As with all essays, these should have a thesis statement that expresses the topic and opinion. I often say that this essay is a "story with a purpose" but it is not a creative writing or piece of fiction.The students should begin work this week, and the pre-write and rough draft are due in two weeks.
Our Grammar focus for this semester will be sentence patterns and sentence structures. Knowing how sentences are built will help students correct and edit their papers more accurately. We had time in class to work on the worksheet.
Finally, a note about our class culture. I enjoy a lively class and encourage discussion and camaraderie among the students. With 26 students in the class, we will probably break into small groups more often so that each student has an opportunity for his/her voice to be heard. I will also be "cracking down" on side conversations and off-topic chatter.
Have a great weekend! Enjoy the snow!
Mrs. Prichard
Assignments for Next Week
-- Read the Introduction to Jekyll/Hyde
-- Read Ch. 1 and 2 of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
-- Answer 4 Study Guide questions
-- Narrative Essay Pre-Write
-- Letter to Future Me
-- Grammar -- "What is a Sentence?"
-- Extra Credit
-- What are aglest if they are metal tipped? or the ties of a sweatshirt?
-- On the bottom half of the grammar worksheet, put prepositional phrases between parentheses.
Links for This Week
Class Notes
My GradeBook Instructions
No comments:
Post a Comment