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

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 14 (April 29)

 Greetings!

We had a wonderful day in class.  We started the class period with a Quick Write, and today's prompt was connected with the fact that it is National Poem in Your Pocket Day.  I gave the students a sheet of paper with an extra large pocket outline. They were to write a poem within the lines of that pocket.  They could write originals or copy one from our poetry book.  (Note:  We also watched one of my favorite spoken word artists, Harry Baker, for some inspiration.)

This week was our penultimate class for the year -- the one before the last one!  We had fun during class, which can be a very good thing, especially since, according to research, "humor activates the brain's dopamine reward system, stimulating goal-oriented motivation and long-term memory, which means that humor can improve retention in students of all ages.? (Edutopia, 2015)

The Essay Re-Write was due this week, and their final writing assignment, a Reflection Paper, is due next week.   For this paper, they are to write about what they learned this year, what they learned about themselves this year, and what did and didn't work well this year.  At the bottom of this email is a link to an article about the value of reflection as a part of learning.

Last week, students took home, completed, and then corrected their Spring Grammar Review.  This week, they have the Sentence Patterns Final Test to take home, complete, and then correct.  They should use different colored pens/pencils for correcting their work and be sure to make their marks clearly.  I will figure the final scores for their tests.  The test and the answer key are posted on Google Classroom.  If for some reason they are not able to access Google Classroom, they should still take the test and bring it to class.  I will then correct it.

And, finally, it was time in class for the Poetry Jam, 2022!  The class was divided into 4 teams and took turns coming up to the front to recite their chosen poems.  We had Levi Martens as a visiting judge.  I loved listening to all of their poems (and heard a number of my favorites.) 

As I said in an email on Thursday, we two 2-way ties, so it makes sense for all of the teams to recite!  Therefore, for the Final Round of Poetry Jam 2021, EVERYONE  should each bring another poem to recite.  The individual finalists (Katelyn S, Noah B, Ike J, and Megan B) will present separately, and their scores will be added to the team scores   We'll finish our year with a "Party," and I'll set up a table in the hallway with some snacks.  (Students can bring some if they'd like.)

Next week is the final week, and I've told students that I will accept homework until Saturday, May 7 at 7:00 AM.  My experience is that once the CHAT classes are done, students really lose momentum for completing late homework.  My plan is to get final grades out within the week.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Any old homework

-- Essay Re-Write

-- Sentence Patterns Final Test

-- The Reflection Paper

-- Bring a poem -- EVERYONE!

Links for this Week:

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 14 (April 29)

The Value of Reflection Papers

Harry Baker:  99 Problems but Maths Ain't One & Dinosaur Love

See you next week!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 21)

 Greetings!

We had a wonderful day in class.  We started the class period with a Quick Write, and here are the prompts:

• Today, April 21, is National Kindergarten Day.  What is something that you remember from your kindergarten days, when you were about 5 years old?  Can you remember toys you played with or activities you liked to do?  
• Today, April 21, is World Creativity and Innovation Day.  How do you like to express your creativity?  In what ways do you like to think outside the box?
• Saturday, April 23, is World Book Day.  What books would you recommend that others read?  Write convincing comments.
• Saturday, April 23, is also National Shakespeare Day and National Talk Like Shakespeare Day.  Write anything but put it in language that soundeth liketh the Bard of Avon hath verily penned it.

The Final Drafts of the News Stories were due today, and I introduced the next writing assignment, which is an Essay Re-Write.  For this essay, students can choose any essay they have written this year for Writing 1, or they can choose an essay that they've written for another class.  They should take a one of their final drafts and look for ways to improve it.  I often suggest that students choose the essay that they got the worst grade on or that they want to spend some more time on. This writing assignment is due next week, and students should hand in the original along with the re-write.  (Note:  This isn't our regular pre-write to rough draft to final draft process.)

For our Literature portion of the class, we spend some of our time talking about one of my favorite poems by William Carlos Williams, "A Red Wheelbarrow."  After our discussion, I explained our Poetry Jam, which we will have for the next 2 weeks.  The class has been divided into teams, and those teams will compete in a group by reciting poetry.  (It looks like we might have some guest "judges" for the day.)  Each student should bring in 2 poems next week for the first round of the Poetry Jam.  

Here are the teams, I think.  (I forgot to take a picture of the board, so these teams might not be correct)

Team 1: "The Purple Cows" -- Megan B, Sarah H, Jaedyn M, Charissa Q, Peytan K, Evan M

Team 2:  "Marmalade" -- Noah B, Phoebe H, Ava N, Liam S, Elian W, Landon M

Team 3:  "Not Fast, Not Furious" -- Johnny D, Ike J, Joren O, Katelyn S, Lauren M, Will W, Grace R

Team 4:  "Turtle" -- Molly H, Chase M, Carmella P, James V, Estelle K, Rhyann R

Finally, to conclude our Grammar for the year, I have a Final Sentence Patterns Test that they will take next week.  For this week, they have a review sheet that they should complete and then correct. (The Key is on the Google Classroom assignment.)  Correcting their own work will further help them review and will be much more beneficial than waiting a week to see if they got the answers right.  

We have a couple fun weeks planned to finish out our year, so let's make sure you get caught up on any late work.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Bring 2 poems for your contribution to the Poetry Jam (Here is the scoring information)

-- Complete the Essay Re-Write

-- Complete the Sentence Patterns Review sheet and correct it. (Bring the corrected version to class)

Links for This Week

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 21)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 7)

 Greetings!

As always, we had a good class today.  This is a lively class (who sometimes need reigning in ), but they are always reading to learn.  

For our Quick Write this week, they had 4 options:

• On April 6, 1917, the United States officially entered World War 1.  What do you know about either of the World Wars?  What are your thoughts about the US’s involvement in conflicts in other parts of the world?

• On April 6, 1896, the first modern Olympic games were held.  Do you have a favorite Olympic sport?  What are your thoughts about the Olympics?  About amateur and professional sports?

• On April 9, 1959, NASA introduced the first astronauts.  What do you think about America’s space program?  Do you keep up with current developments?  Do you think we should continue to explore space?

Our Words of the Day came from Grace, Ike, and Megan:

phosphene -- fr. Greek phos, "light," phainein, "to show" -- a ring or spot of light produced by pressure on the eyeball or direct stimulation of the visual system

erinaceous -- fr. Latin erinaceus, "hedgehog" -- of or relating to hedgehogs

arachibutyrophobia -- the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth

After our beginning of class activities, we talked through common errors found in the rough drafts of their News Stories. Students put on the white board the issues that I marked on their papers. These ranged from using capital letters and italics to comma splice sentences to parallel structure. Their Final Drafts of the News Story is due April 21. For those who got their rough drafts in late, I will go over them by this weekend and will let students know when they are ready to revise.

I introduced our Poetry Jam, a poetry recitation & competition that will be held the last 2 weeks of the semester (Weeks 14 & 15). In order to get ready for that, we watched 3 poetry presentations; two were from Harry Baker, a national and world slam poetry champion and Bella Callery, a 2019 national champion for Poetry Out Loud (who happens to be a graduate from the charter school in Northfield where I teach) These and some others are posted on Google Classroom, link below.

We skipped our grammar lesson (it would have been a review of compound sentences) in order to play "Dead Fish." For the past two weeks they have been requesting to play this game that I usually play with pre-school kids. For this game, they have to lay completely still as dead fish; if I see any movement, they are out of the game.

NOTE: I will correct the Grammar assignments, so no KEYs were given.

Be blessed this weekend! Happy Easter!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:

• Poetry:  Whitman (p. 25), Dickenson (p. 27), Burgess (p. 39), Frost (p. 44), Sandburg (p. 46), Williams (p. 48), Hughes (p. 53)

Note: All of the poems are in the book and can also be found on this Google Classroom post: Week 13 Poetry

• 2 Poetry Responses

• News Story Final Draft

• Grammar – Wk12:  Writing Compound Sentences

• Grammar – Wk12:  Simple or Compound Sentences

Links for This Week

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 7)

Sample Spoken Word Videos

Dead Fish

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 11 (March 31)

  Greetings!

We had a lovely class this week.  One aspect that I especially enjoy with this Writing 1 class is that they all get along well and participate in a harmonious way.  We have good, productive conversations.

For our Quick Writes, here were their options:

• Wednesday (3/30) was National I am in Control Day.  What areas of your life do you feel like you are in control of?  What would you like to be more in control of?  What would you like to NOT be in control of?

• Thursday (3/31) is National Taters Day.  What is your favorite way to eat potatoes?  Or you could list all of the ways that you can think of to fix potatoes.

• Friday (4/1) is April Fool’s Day.  What is the best prank that you have ever done or heard of?  Or what prank would you like to pull?

• Sunday (4/3) is World Party Day.  If you didn’t have to worry about the expense, what kind of party would you like to throw?  Describe it in detail.

We had some unusual Words of the Day:

jentacular -- fr. Latin ientaculum "breakfast" -- of or pertaining to breakfast

everywhen -- always and at all times

They have handed in the rough drafts of their News Stories.  I'm looking forward to reading them; a number of students said that that they had added more creative and imaginative elements to their writing, and some chose to write about some "fantastical" events.  As table groups, I asked students to talk with one another about their topics and why they chose them.  

We are now reading poetry for our Literature portion of the class. Some students like poetry, but many aren't that crazy about it.  For our first poetry discussion, I did Jigsaw groups again.  The students were first in groups that discussed one of the assignment poems.  Then I remixed the groups so that a group had a representative for each of the poems.  From both groups I heard some thoughtful comments about both the surface and deeper meanings of the poetry.  Well done, class!

The class has their new poetry books, and they should read the poems of the poets listed below.  For their homework, they need to respond to 2 poems, and the have some options:  

1.  Fill out a Poetry Worksheet for one or both

2.  Write a paragraph about the poem(s) that analyzes the poem; discuss what you think it means and why you like or don't like it.

3.  Instead of writing a paragraph, record a video commentary about the poem.  Youtube LiveStream or some other app on a device is OK as long as it can be seen by me.

4.  Do a piece of art that connects with the content and meaning of the poem.  

5.  Make a video of your recitation of the poem.

6.  Do some kind of movement (creative dance or acting out) that relates to the poem.

For our Grammar section of the class, we had a special lesson on the semicolon.  Most people (students and adults alike) are confused about the bit of punctuation; they use it as a comma or as a colon.  I use the Reese's peanut butter cups as an object lesson.  Ask your students about how the semicolon is like this candy.

we worked on 2 worksheets for the students to practice putting commas in compound sentences.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:

• News Story Pre-Write

• News Story Rough Draft

• Why this News Topic?

• Poetry:  Wordsworth (p. 12); Keats (p. 17), Browning (p. 19); Carroll (p. 29); Hopkins (p. 31), Henley (p. 33)

• Week 12 Poetry (pdfs on Google Classroom)

• 2 Poetry Responses

• Grammar – Wk11:  Compound FANBOYS

• Grammar – Wk11:  Compound Sentences & Commas

• Note:  Students were not given the KEY in class (I had printer problems), so the KEY is attached to this assignment.  If they finished the work in class, I will correct it.  If not, they are to use the KEY on Google Classroom.

Links for this Week

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 11 (March 31)

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 10 (March 31)

Greetings!

Another great day!!

Here are our prompts for the Quick Writes:

Prompt #1
On March 24, 1603, Elizabeth I died and King James I was crowned the King of England, and on March 25, 1306, Robert the Bruce was crowned King of Scotland.  How much do you know about the history and rule of other countries?  Is this important knowledge for us to have?  Why?

Prompt #2
On March 26, 1874, American poet Robert Frost, much admired for his depictions of rural New England life and his realistic verse portraying ordinary people, was born in San Francisco.  What are your thoughts about poetry?  Do you like to read it and do you think it’s an important part of our culture?

Prompt #3
Next Week is National Cleaning Week.  How would you describe your cleaning style?  Do you do fall or spring cleaning at your house?  Write about anything cleaning-related.

  

Our Words of the Day from Grace, Megan, Chase, and Ike

anatadaephobia--  the fear that somehow, somewhere, a duck is watching you

cachinnate-- to laugh loudly

venustraphobia-- the fear of beautiful women

boanthropy -- a type of insanity in which people think they are cows

We had a brief check in on their News Stories; the rough drafts are due on March 31.  Some students have given this some thought, and others have waited until next week to work on it.  I reminded them that they could do a news article on a current event, a past event, or even a fictional event.  They could also do a review of some kind.

We had a discussion about our short story "The Ransom of Red Chief" this week.  We agreed that the story was both funny (a boy so bad and mischievous that his family didn't want him back from the kidnappers) and sad (for the same reason).

We are finished with our Short Stories and are now onto Poetry.  To kick off our poetry unit, we played the game Poetry for Neanderthals.  In this game, students give one-word, one-syllable  clues to get their teammates to guess a word.  If they use multi-syllabic words, they get bonked on the head with an inflated club.  (We hit the table instead of one another.)

Class -- please note this next information -- it was not discussed in class

After the students read all of the poems, they are to choose 2 poems to respond to.  They need to respond to 2 poems, and here are their options:

1.  Fill out a Poetry Worksheet for one or both

2.  Write a paragraph about the poem(s) that analyzes the poem; discuss what you think it means and why you like or don't like it.

3.  Instead of writing a paragraph, record a video commentary about the poem.  Youtube LiveStream or some other app on a device is OK as long as it can be seen by me.

4.  Do a piece of art that connects with the content and meaning of the poem.  

5.  Make a video of your recitation of the poem.

Finally, for our Grammar portion of the class, I gave some worksheets for continued practice in identifying sentence elements for the various sentence patterns that have been covered this semester.  

Assignments for Week 11 (April 15)

-- News Story Pre-Write

-- News Story Rough Draft

-- Answer the Question:  Why this Topic?

-- Read Week 11 Poetry 

-- Poetry Response (2 Poems)

-- Complements Worksheet (John Updike)

-- Sentence Patterns (Mr. Jackson)

-- Sentence Patterns Practice (Four bakers)

Links for this Week:  

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 10 (March 24)

Zoom Recording (3/24/2022)

Poetry for Neanderthals

Week 11 Poetry Readings

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 9 (March

Greetings!

We are definitely heading into spring.  I saw some students in shorts and lighter-weight jackets as opposed to the heavier winter apparel.  

Here were the prompts for today’s Quick Write:

• How do you define success?  What would success look like to you in your future?

• What qualities do you see in yourself that you also see in other family members?  How are you alike or not like someone you’re related to?

• Who is someone you admire? Why do you admire this person?  What qualities does this person have that you would like to have?

• What fictional character would you like to meet?  Why? What would you do or talk about?

For our Words of the Day came from our students:

salubrious -- fr. Latin salubris, "promoting health; healthful" -- favorable to health & well-being

androphobia -- fr. Greek andros, "man/men" and phobia "fear" -- a morbid fear of men

snollygoster -- origin attributed to H.W.J. Ham, a member of the 1893 Georgia Legislature -- a shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician

Students have handed in the Final Drafts of their Examples/Analogy Essays. We're now ready to start our final "from scratch" essay. (Following this essay, students will complete a re-write of an earlier written essay and a short reflection paper.) This next writing assignment is a News Story. We talked about the differences between an essay and a news story. For a news story, writers give out the broad, general information and progress to more details. Journalists are aware that readers could stop reading at any point (or not be interested enough to turn the page and finish the story.) Students can write a factual news story, a news story about some historical event, a fictional news story, a movie/theater review, or a review of something else that would be news-worthy. The rough draft and pre-write are due in 2 weeks on March 31.

After I introduced the next writing assignment, we took some time for a "Jigsaw" activity. In this type of small group work, students are grouped and each group has it's own discussion topic. After they've fully discussed that topic, they are regrouped so that the new groups have someone from each of the specific topics. The overall focus of these small groups was to come up with ideas for overcoming obstacles when writing.

We did not take time to discuss O. Henry's stories, "Retrieved Reformation" and "The Pimienta Pancake." Next week we will read "The Ransom of Red Chief" and discuss all three stories. Instead of a short story worksheet, I've assigned a quiz. I had planned to do this in class, but have posted it in Google Classroom as a form. (Note: this is a closed book quiz.) In the links section below are some videos and an audio version of the story.

We continue to work on sentence patterns and sentence elements for our Grammar instruction. Last week and this week we practiced identifying direct objects and indirect objects. Their worksheets for this week are again on direct and indirect objects.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

• News Story Pre-Write (due 3/31) (Note: this assignment has the chart that was handed out in class.)

• Short Story:  Read The Ransom of Red Chief

• The Ransom of Red Chief Quiz

• Grammar – Wk9:  Nouns as Direct Objects

• Grammar – Wk9:  Compound Direct Objects

• Grammar – Wk9:  Finding Indirect Object

Links for This Week

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 9 (March 17)

About the News Story

The Ransom of Red Chief (audiobook & pdf)