Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (September 26)

Greetings!

After a few weeks of lighter-hearted Quick Writes, I chose a more serious topic for today.  Using the following quote from Mark Twain, I asked to the students to comment on the relationship of writing to truth. 

"Most writers regard the truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use."

I also chose our Words of the Day since I had forgotten my alphabet dice at home.  The words were:  jojoba (Spanish; a small shrub whose waxy substance taken from the seeds is used in shampoo products), jodhpurs (Hindi; a style of riding breeches cut wide at the hip and close fitting at the calf), and joie de vivre (French; enjoyment of life or general enthusiasm).

I handed back their first Final Drafts for this class.  They all did a very good job.  I'm excited about seeing them grow as writers.  I'm trying at new method for evaluating their papers. (As a matter of information, pre-writes, which we will start doing after this next paper, are worth 5 points; rough drafts are 10; final drafts are 40; and 5 reasons for corrections are 5.)  In the past, I gave 10 points in each of the following three areas:  content, organization, and mechanics.  I've devised an Essay Rubric for Writing 1 that looks more holistically at different areas related to the writing of the essay.  I've attached an unmarked copy for you to look at.  I've found that students will struggle in one area but will do really well in another.  This rubric also helps to show them areas where they can grow.  Today we went through each area and each level of writing (Beginning, Developing, Proficient, Exceptional).  Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

After our writing discussion, we covered some more Grammar.  Again reviewing the 8 parts of speech, we looked at Noun categories, Adjectives, Adverbs, and Prepositions.  I focused on adjectives and adverbs and the questions they answer.  Adjectives, in describing nouns, answer the following questions:  Which one?  What kind?  How many?  Adverbs answer these questions:  How?  When? Where?  To what extent?  How much? and How often?  When we look at phrases, these questions will be important to keep in mind.  (AND, they may see them on a quiz.)

Our literature discussion was brief.  The animals in Animal Farm gave us plenty to talk about:  they are as hard-working with just as little freedom as they had with Mr. Jones; the pigs are clever and take advantage of the others; the sheep are dumb; most of the other animals are not too bright; and sometimes the value of the individual doesn't count for much when the "cause" is so great.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Chapters 7 & 8 of Animal Farm

-- Answer 2 questions from the study guide for Chapters 5 & 6 and 2 for Chapters 7 & 8

     -- Choose from either the short writing questions or the discussion questions.

-- No grammar worksheets.
This week's blogs

Class Notes

Essay Rubric

Week 4:  Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Essay Rubric for Writing 1

Essay Rubric for Writing 1

Criterion	Beginning  (2 – 0)	Developing (5 – 3)	Proficient (8– 6)	Exceptional (10 - 9)
Focus:  Thesis, Introduction, Conclusion	Specific topic is unclear and no statement of an opinion or a stand. Lacks a clear introduction. No conclusion.	Thesis statement expresses the topic but not an opinion or a stand. Weak introduction that states the topic but is missing a clear thesis. The focus of the paper is unclear. Conclusion does not fully summarize the main points nor restates the thesis statement.	Thesis statement includes the topic and expresses a stand or opinion. Introduction states topic and thesis and gives direction to the paper. Conclusion reiterates main points and restates the thesis statement.	Clearly-stated, thoughtful & compelling thesis statement. Strong introduction with a thesis statement that grabs attention and directs the course of the essay. Strong conclusion that summarizes the main points and restates the thesis statement.  Satisfactorily wraps up the essay.
Content	No major points to support the thesis are included.  Few details have been used. Ideas are disconnected.	Some of the major points are covered. Some specific details are included. Lacks sufficient material to fully support thesis.	All major points are covered. Appropriate details are included with each point.	All major points are thoroughly and insightfully discussed. All points are fully supported with strong details.
Organization	Ideas are arranged randomly.  There may be no division of paragraphs.	Like ideas are grouped together, and paragraphs are present, but ideas within may not be organized logically.  Transitions may be lacking.	An apparent progression of ideas that allows the reader to move through the text without confusion. Sentences with paragraphs are organized and flow smoothly	Expresses a clear, logical sequence of ideas within paragraphs and throughout the paper. Sentences within paragraphs flow smoothly with good use of transitions.
Mechanics	Frequent errors, seriously impairs flow & meaning of paper	Errors noticeable, and occasionally detract from flow or meaning of paper	Some errors, which are minor in nature and don’t detract from overall meaning of paper	Essentially faultless; errors may result from risk-taking and do not detract from meaning of paper.

Total Score – 40 possible points

Grammar: WEEK 4 – Parts of Speech: Adjective, Adverb, and Preposition

WEEK 4 – Parts of Speech:  Adjective, Adverb, and Preposition

ADJECTIVE

Adjective:  An adjective is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies (changes, limits, describes, transforms, qualifies) a noun or pronoun.

Adjectives answer the following questions: Which one?  What kind? How many?

Which one? -- Use of demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these, those)

What kind? – General category of adjectives

How many? – Forms of numbers (definite and indefinite)

Placement:  before the noun; after the noun; after a state of being or linking verb

ADVERB

Adverb:  An adverb is a a word, phrase, or clause that modifies (changes, limits, describes, transforms, qualifies) a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

Adverbs answer the following questions:  How? When? Where? To what extent? How much?  How often?

Placement:  Adverbs of one word almost always come before the word modified.  Clauses and phrases should be placed as closely as possible to the verb is modifies.

Formation:  Adverbs can be formed by adding “-ly” to an adjective.  (e.g.  correctly, happily, sparingly)  Another way to form an adverb is to place an adjective in the following formula:  “in a _________ manner.”

PREPOSITION

Preposition:  A preposition is a word that links a noun or pronoun with some other  word or words (usually nouns or pronouns) in a sentence.

A preposition almost always precedes the noun or pronoun linked.  In other words, a noun or pronoun almost always follows a preposition and is called the “object of the preposition.”

Personal History Essay

Personal History Essay

Definition

            In a Personal Essay, the writer tells a story about a series of events.  The writer needs to explain the event(s) clearly enough for the reader to follow what happened and when it happened.  The writer also has to tell the story dramatically enough to keep the reader’s attention and interest.  Your goal should be to develop an essay that informs and/or entertains, and that impels readers to think about their own lives.

           

Organization of a Personal Essay

Just about anything in your life that interests you, amuses you, angers you, or makes you think is a possible subject for a personal essay.  Dig as deep into your experience as you can.  As you think about a topic, event, person, or place of significance, look for an emerging focus, main idea, or viewpoint.

            A personal essay is a blend of narrative (sharing some aspect of your life) and analysis (commenting upon this time).

Thesis Statements

            The thesis statement of your essay presents the subject of the narration and its significance.  Your essay should reveal your attitude or opinion about the event.  Your essay can also tell a message or lesson related to the event.

Some Helpful Tips on Writing

– Decide on the story you want to tell, and think about what the story means to you.

– What attitude would you like the reader to learn by reading your story?  What feeling or attitude would you like the reader to have about the story you are telling?

– Outline what happened first, second, third, and so on.  Don’t forget important, specific details.  Divide the action into major blocks.  Determine the logical breaks.

– Focus on the people involved in your narrative, and try to describe them accurately.

– Include the feelings you experienced at different times in you story.

– Avoid stringing together a series of events without dramatizing any of them or showing their significance.

– Avoid a list.  Make sure the events are logically connected with appropriate transitions to help the reader follow the sequence of events.

Essay Guidelines

– Due dates:  Rough Draft due September 26; Final Draft due October 10.

– Essay length:  at least 300 words (about 1 page)

– Rough drafts can be typed or hand-written, but must be double-spaced.

– Final draft format:

– Typed (if this is not possible, please let me know)

– 1 inch margins

– Name and date on the upper right hand corner

– Number the pages on the lower right hand corner

– Title centered above the text of the essay

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 4 (September 19)

Greetings!

We had a good class this week.  It was "Talk Like a Pirate Day," so our Quick Write was a story about anything pirate related.  And our Words of the Day were from a list of pirate terminology:

Ahoy!  ("Hello")

Avast!  ("Check it out.")

Aye, Aye!  ("Yes, sir!")

Beauty  (a pretty woman or a boat)

Bilge rat  (The bilge is the lowest level of the ship loaded with slimy, reeking water -- this would be an insult for a person)

Lubber  (a land lubber is a "land lover;"  someone who would not be comfortable on a boat)

Smartly  (do something quickly; not a comment on intellectual abilities)

The students handed in their Final Drafts of their Descriptive Essay along with their rough drafts and a list of 5 reasons for corrections they made.  I'll read them this week and hand them back next week.  Our next essay is a Personal History Essay.  (I've attached the hand out that I gave them that describes this assignment.)  We spent some time talking about how to write these with thesis statements.

We corrected our most recent grammar worksheet together in class.  I wanted to be sure that they understood the concept of sentence fragments.  Our next worksheet deals with a review of nouns and verbs.  

For our discussion of Animal Farm, we discussed Chapters 3 & 4.  We talked about principles of leadership, manipulative propaganda, and the work ethics of the animals.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Write the rough draft of the Personal History

-- Read Chapters 5 & 6 of Animal Farm

-- Complete the Grammar Worksheets about Nouns and Verbs

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (September 12)

Greetings!

The weather has turned, and it really is beginning to feel like fall.  Sometimes I think it's hard to settle down to school when it feels like a hot summer day.

The theme for our Quick Write this week was "Let's Cook," and I asked the students to write about a favorite food or menu or about anything that had to do with cooking. Our Words of the Day were "segno" (a sign or mark at the beginning or end of a section to be repeated) and "entrez" (a French word meaning "you may enter."  Coincidentally, it is also a Global Query Cross-Database Search System )  

We spent a larger block of time discussing the book, Animal Farm, since we had not done so the week before.  We broke into small groups in which they discussed their written answers to the discussion questions on the study guide.  As a large group, we shared our ideas about the origins of the animal's rebellion, who would make the best leader, whether the animals were unfairly prejudiced against humans, and the faults of their 10 Commandments.  They were very insightful and offered some great original ideas.

I handed back the rough drafts of the Descriptive Essays with notes and corrections.  I always learn so much from the topics that my students choose to write about.  Usually, our Grammar discussion for the day when rough drafts are returned is spent on common errors found in their essays.  Most best writing practices happen as student write.  And most grammar rules tend to "stick" when encountered while writing.

When students hand in their Final Drafts of a paper, I also want them to hand in the Rough Draft.  That allows me to see what changes they have made.  I also want them on a separate piece of paper explain the reasons behind 5 corrections they made between the rough drafts and the final drafts.  For example, if a contraction was used, the reason and correction could look like this:

1.  Changed can't to can not because contractions are not used in formal essays.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Chapters 3 & 4 of Animal Farm.  No writing assignment for the literature this week, however, they should be prepared to discuss the questions from the study guide.

-- Write the Final Draft of the Descriptive Essay.

     -- Along with the Final Draft, students should hand in their rough drafts.

-- Write out the reasons for 5 corrections.

Enjoy the beautiful Fall weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Week 2 Grammar Worksheets -- Sentence Fragments

Below is the content of the Grammar Worksheets relating to sentence fragments assigned September 5.

DIRECTIONS Determine which of the following word groups are sentence
fragments and which are complete sentences.
If the group of words is a complete sentence, write S.
If the group of words is a fragment, write F.
______ 1. If your parents think today’s fashions are weird.
______ 2. They should see the clothes people wore in the Middle Ages.
______ 3. Patterns of floral or geometric shapes popular.
______ 4. Liked clothes that were half one color and half another.
______ 5. Might have one green leg and one red leg.
______ 6. People often heavy leather belts decorated with metal and jewels.
______ 7. Edges of clothing into shapes called dagges.
______ 8. Sleeves with streamers that were two or three feet long.
______ 9. Shoes had long toes that were padded to retain their shape.
______ 10. Tights of velvet or silk.
______ 11. When clothes were edged and lined in fur.
______ 12. Layers very common in medieval clothing.
______ 13. Was a way of displaying wealth.
______ 14. The more clothes a person could afford to wear, the wealthier that person was.
______ 15. Might wear a short-sleeved tunic over a long-sleeved tunic, with a sleeveless mantle
over all.
______ 16. The usual head covering for men a hood with an attached shoulder cape and a long,
extended point, like a tail.
______ 17. Women wore a neckcloth pinned to their braids, hiding their hair.
______ 18. On top of the head, would wear a veil, a linen crown, or a small, round hat.
______ 19. In the later Middle Ages, women wore jeweled metal nets over their coiled braids.
______ 20. Current fashions a little boring in comparison.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
__________________________________________________________________


DIRECTIONS Determine which of the following word groups are sentence
fragments and which are complete sentences.
If the group of words is a complete sentence, write S.
If the group of words is a fragment, write F.
______ 1. Antarctica has the highest average elevation of the seven continents.
______ 2. No native people on Antarctica.
______ 3. Because it is too cold.
______ 4. Although scientists and other workers live in Antarctica for about a year at a time.
______ 5. These people there to study many things.
______ 6. Examine the ozone layer, sleep patterns, and fish survival in subzero temperatures.
______ 7. Ninety-five percent of Antarctica covered with ice.
______ 8. Antarctica approximately 70 percent of the world’s fresh water in its ice.
______ 9. Even though Antarctica is covered in ice and snow, it can be considered a desert.
______ 10. Adesert an area that gets very little precipitation.
______ 11. Antarctica receives only two inches of rain each year.
______ 12. Also has very high winds.
______ 13. Sometimes winds as high as 200 miles per hour.
______ 14. Many animals in the ocean around Antarctica.
______ 15. Include whales and seals.
______ 16. One type of bird found on Antarctica is the penguin.
______ 17. Antarctica so isolated that its snow and ice are very pure.
______ 18. The continent is far away from pollution.
______ 19. Amountain range across the continent.
______ 20. Antarctica’s Mount Erebus an active volcano.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Week 2 Grammar Worksheet -- Sentence Fragments.

Below are the practice exercises for finding sentence fragments.  These are a part of the homework assigned September 5.

DIRECTIONS Determine which of the following word groups are sentence
fragments and which are complete sentences.
If the group of words is a complete sentence, write S.
If the group of words is a fragment, write F.
______ 1. If your parents think today’s fashions are weird.
______ 2. They should see the clothes people wore in the Middle Ages.
______ 3. Patterns of floral or geometric shapes popular.
______ 4. Liked clothes that were half one color and half another.
______ 5. Might have one green leg and one red leg.
______ 6. People often heavy leather belts decorated with metal and jewels.
______ 7. Edges of clothing into shapes called dagges.
______ 8. Sleeves with streamers that were two or three feet long.
______ 9. Shoes had long toes that were padded to retain their shape.
______ 10. Tights of velvet or silk.
______ 11. When clothes were edged and lined in fur.
______ 12. Layers very common in medieval clothing.
______ 13. Was a way of displaying wealth.
______ 14. The more clothes a person could afford to wear, the wealthier that person was.
______ 15. Might wear a short-sleeved tunic over a long-sleeved tunic, with a sleeveless mantle
over all.
______ 16. The usual head covering for men a hood with an attached shoulder cape and a long,
extended point, like a tail.
______ 17. Women wore a neckcloth pinned to their braids, hiding their hair.
______ 18. On top of the head, would wear a veil, a linen crown, or a small, round hat.
______ 19. In the later Middle Ages, women wore jeweled metal nets over their coiled braids.
______ 20. Current fashions a little boring in comparison.

Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.
_________________________________________________________________

DIRECTIONS Determine which of the following word groups are sentence
fragments and which are complete sentences.
If the group of words is a complete sentence, write S.
If the group of words is a fragment, write F.
______ 1. Antarctica has the highest average elevation of the seven continents.
______ 2. No native people on Antarctica.
______ 3. Because it is too cold.
______ 4. Although scientists and other workers live in Antarctica for about a year at a time.
______ 5. These people there to study many things.
______ 6. Examine the ozone layer, sleep patterns, and fish survival in subzero temperatures.
______ 7. Ninety-five percent of Antarctica covered with ice.
______ 8. Antarctica approximately 70 percent of the world’s fresh water in its ice.
______ 9. Even though Antarctica is covered in ice and snow, it can be considered a desert.
______ 10. Adesert an area that gets very little precipitation.
______ 11. Antarctica receives only two inches of rain each year.
______ 12. Also has very high winds.
______ 13. Sometimes winds as high as 200 miles per hour.
______ 14. Many animals in the ocean around Antarctica.
______ 15. Include whales and seals.
______ 16. One type of bird found on Antarctica is the penguin.
______ 17. Antarctica so isolated that its snow and ice are very pure.
______ 18. The continent is far away from pollution.
______ 19. Amountain range across the continent.
______ 20. Antarctica’s Mount Erebus an active volcano.


Copyright © by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. All rights reserved.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 2 (September 5)

Greetings!

We had a good class this week.  Last week we took care of the business part of class.  This week we dove into writing and grammar instruction.

Before we began, however, we had our  Quick Write.  This week, because my town of Northfield is celebrating the Defeat of Jesse James Days, the writing prompt was "Write something with a Wild West" theme.  I'm afraid I butchered a western accent for the sake of atmosphere, but the students were pretty forgiving.  For the Word of the Day, students selected "katezenjammer" (noisy uproar and clamor) and "oxymoron"  (a comment that seems contradictory and incongruous).  Coincidentally, Writing 2 also chose "katzenjammer."

We discussed the basic parts of a paper:  introduction, body, and conclusion.  While the body of a paper is important, the introduction and conclusion are key elements that can determine the success of a paper.  They handed in the rough drafts of their Descriptive Essays.  I will hand them back with corrections and marks.  They will then make corrections and hand in their final draft on September 14.

Since we spent a lot of time during our first week going over how the class is run, we didn't get to the Grammar section of the class.  Because of this, we covered 2 weeks of grammar this week.  Firstly, we discussed the basic composition of a sentence.  I have an equation that I use for sentences:  Subject + Verb + Complete Thought = Sentence.  Common errors in forming sentences are run-on sentences, comma splices, and fragments.  For the second half of the lesson, we talked about the 8 Parts of Speech, focusing this week on Verbs.

The students had read the Introduction of Animal Farm for this week, and we'll discuss Chapters 1 and 2 next week.  This is an interesting book, and when we've gotten farther into the book, they students will have an opportunity to make some connections between literature and history.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Chapters 1 & 2 in Animal Farm

     -- Pick 2 questions from the Study Guide, one from the Discussion section and one of the Short Writing Exercises.

-- Finish the Grammar Worksheet.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard