Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 15 (May 5)

 Greetings!

We had a marvelous final day of Writing 1 at CHAT for the 2021-22 school year.  Every year when we get to this last week, I have a plethora of mixed perceptions and feelings.  We cover so much over the course of the year, that our heads are full; but the weeks go by so quickly that it seems hard to think that we're at the end.  For me this year, it's so much more bittersweet since it's my last CHAT class ever.  I'm grateful to have had this awesome class who made this such an awesome year!

We, as always, started with a Quick Write. I use a lot of story generator websites for my creative writing classes, so we used one this week.  The students had options of a first line, a random plot situation, characters, situations, and themes.  They could put them together any way they wanted to come up with a short story.  For our Words of the Day, we did not have phobiaphobia, but we were bumfuzzled about the biblioklept who disrupted our calm, halcyon vibe.  

Before Round 2 of the Poetry Jam, we had a short, "parts of speech" oriented game.  Our family calls the game "Bowls," but others know it as "Fishbowl."  (Here's a link to a description.)  Students wrote nouns and verbs on small slips of paper, and then they took turns as teams with trying to make their team say the words.  Round 1 was link Catch Phrase; Round 2 was Charades; and Round 3 students could only give a one-word clue.  Needless to say, lots of laughter ensued.

Our guest judge, Levi Martens, came in for Round 2 of the Poetry Jam.  I must admit that this is one of my favorite parts of the whole year.  Some students love poetry, some tolerate, and some can't stand it.  That said, everyone is a great sport about standing up and reading/reciting a piece of poetry for their class mates.  And some even confess to liking it just a little bit more.  We had our individual finalists perform first, and then all of the teams recited again.  We had a number or original poems and memorized poems.

And the winners were . . . 

Team Scores	Round 2
1st Place	Turtles 17.83
2nd Place	Fast/Furious 17.53
3rd Place	Marmalade 14.5
4th Place	Purple Cow 14.5
Individual Scores	Round 2
1st Place	Noah
2nd Place	Ike
3rd Place	Katelyn
4th Place	Megan

Now, for the nuts and bolts for finishing up the class.  Students can hand in any homework until Saturday morning midnight.  (8:00 am, to be exact.)  All of the remaining homework for the class can be handed in (and returned) via Google Classroom.  In the busyness and fun of our class yesterday, I forgot to hand back some homework.  Most of it included minor worksheets and Quick Writes, and those scores have been entered on Google Classroom.  I will be sending out grades sometime next week.  If for some reason that won't work, please contact me.  Look for 2 emails from me:  one the explains how I grade and then the grades themselves.  

This has been a great year with these students.  They're bright and engaging, and they've worked hard this year. I will miss working with them next year but have complete confidence that Mrs. Gonsalves will be the perfect fit for Writing 2!

Blessings!

Mrs. Prichard