Writing 1: Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 1 (January 13)

Greetings!

It was good to be back in the classroom and to see everyone's smiling faces.

For our Quick Write today, students had 3 options: 1) On January 12, it was National Hot Tea Day, and students could write about their experiences with tea; 2) Yesterday, January 13, is National Stickers Day, and students could write about sticker collections or uses for stickers; and 3) Today, January 14, is National Take a Missionary out to Lunch Day, and students could write about a missionary they know.

We did not have any Words of the Day, but students can bring them to class for us to enjoy. (And get some extra credit, too.) For the rest of the semester, students can bring in interesting words for our weekly Words of the Day part of our discussion. For these words, they also need to include the etymology and a definition.

The first topic we covered was our first Writing assignment -- a Narrative Essay. I like to call a Narrative Essay a "story with a purpose." In this type of essay, students re-tell a series of events, but they are not simply telling a story. They must have a reason for telling these events to their readers. This reason could include a turning point in life, a traumatic experience that change a life, an achievement that made a significant difference, etc. The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due in 2 weeks on January 27.

Next on the agenda was our first book for the semester. This semester we will be reading a British classic that was written in 1915 -- The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. This is one of the first espionage, man-on-the-run types of books. I've taught this book to British Literature classes, and I think we'll all enjoy this book. As part of our discussion, I asked the students to write something as a Pre-Reading assignment for The 39 Steps. I had them think about what they would do if they were on the run -- either from some bad guys or some good guys (which meant they might be a bad guy.) They were to think of possible options for hiding and staying safe. This is a very creative bunch! I heard some of their ideas and look forward to reading what they wrote.

Last semester in the Grammar portion of the class we covered the Parts of Speech, and the students did amazing presentations. This semester, we will build on that knowledge and review sentence patterns. Many times when students are writing, they have comma splice sentences, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments. It's important to be firmly grounded in the elements of a sentence so that you have the vocabulary and knowledge to fix sentences that aren't quite working.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Background Information & Introduction to The 39 Steps Quiz

-- Read Ch. 1 & 2 of The 39 Steps

-- 3 Study Guide Questions

-- Start on the Narrative Essay