Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 24)

Greetings!

We had a great class yesterday.  Beginning our class with a Quick Write, we celebrated William Shakespeare's birthday (a day late) with our own stories about "star crossed overs."  I asked them to be creative about pairing 2 unlikely candidates.  If this particular Quick Write didn't inspire, the students were also given the choice of writing about Batman (75th anniversary) or Earth Day (40th anniversary).

Our Words of the Day came from a book of common sayings and their origins.  The phrases we looked at this week were:

"Great Scott!" -- an exclamation taken from Winfield Scott, a general of the Mexican War and an arrogant, pompous presidential candidate opposing Franklin Pierce.

"Hat in the ring" -- a phrase that means to join a political race, taken from Ringstrasse, a city center in Vienna that was a gathering place for those politically involved in the city.  Gentlemen would be visible because of their hats.

"Hobnob" -- to socially mix with those of a higher class taken from the old English word that means "to give and receive."  People would gather at pubs and offer toasts to one another.

"Kit and Caboodle" -- the whole collection of things, taken from a set of tools/objects (kit) and personal items (fr. Dutch boodle)

Students handed in their News Story Final Drafts today, along with their self-evaluations.  I had asked the students to use the same rubric that I use to grade/score the papers.  Our next essay is a Re-Write of one of the essays that they've written for this class this year.  They might want to choose a paper that they feel needs improving or a favorite essay that they would like to work more on.

We had a a good amount of time to talk through some of our Poetry selections.  We read selections from William Shakespeare, John Donne, and John Milton.  These early British poets are not always the easiest to understand.  I appreciate that the students applied themselves to our discussion.

We're winding down our semester of classes, and part of our next two classes will be our "Poetry Jam."  Combining the ideas of a poetry slam (a competition featuring original poems) and Poetry Out Loud (a competition featuring pre-selected poems) students will read or recite poems for the class. James Stephenson set up a bracket for us to use.  I've divided the students into teams (please remember your number!).  They are to bring 1 - 2 poems next week.  We will take time for some team collaboration before starting.

We ran out of time to discuss the Reflection Paper that I would like them to write.  Next week, as the class's Quick Write, I will be asking them to take a longer time to write about what they've learned about writing and about themselves as writers this year.  I would like each student to take some time before class time to brainstorm their ideas about this topic.  If they would like, they can write some notes or compose a kind of pre-write that they can use to answer this.  I'm attaching a link to a scholarly article about the value of reflection as part of the learning process.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Essay Re-write

-- Select 1 - 2 poems

-- Reflection paper brainstorming

This week's links:

Class Notes

Improving Learning through Reflection

Poetry Out Loud

Poetry Slams

Have a beautiful weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 10)

Greetings!

Our Writing 1 Class went well this week, and I'm sure that most of the students are looking forward to having another break from CHAT classes for our Easter break.  We'll resume classes again the week following Easter/Resurrection Sunday.

The Quick Write for this week recognized Washington Irving, an early American writer whose birthday was this month.  Though most of the students were unfamiliar with his writings, I'm sure parents are familiar with his two well-known stories, "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."  Since Rip Van Winkle was a lazy man whose plan to get out of work cost him 20 years of his life, I asked the students to think about and write about their favorite getting-out-of-work strategies. I heard some very interesting ideas from this creative group of students.

Our Words of the Day were words that sound the same, spelled the same, but have different meanings:

principle (a basic belief or primary idea) & principal (the leader of a school)

capitol (the building that houses a state's or nation's legislature) & capital (the primary seat of government)  

council (an assembly of persons with a focus/goal) & counsel (wise advice)

Embedded in this discussion were some other terms related the relationships between certain types of words.  Below are some helpful definitions:

homograph -- words with the same spelling, different sound, different meaning.  E.g. The wind blows/ Wind the clock.  Lead the people to safety./ Avoid using paint with lead in it. The desert has sand./ Don't desert your friends.

homonym -- words with the same sound, same/different spelling and different meaning.  E.g. Spruce up the house./I have a spruce tree.  I will pay a fair price./ Will you go to the fair?

homophone -- words with the same sound, different spelling,and different meanings,  E.g. to/two/too.  their/they're/there

synonym -- words that mean the same.  E.g. big/large/huge/immense/colossal/sizable/massive

antonym -- words that are opposites.  E.g. hot/cold; huge/tiny; wealthy/poor

I handed back to them the Rough Drafts of the most recent essay, a News Story.  In class we discussed some of the common errors and mistakes that I found as I read them.  In addition to revising and editing their rough drafts, I also want them to fill out a self-evaluation for their essay.  These self-evaluations give them time to reflect on their own writing.  I've handed out the rubric that I use when grading the essays.  On the back side of the self-evaluation sheet, I would like them to list 5 corrections they made on their essays and explain their reason for the correction.

We're continuing to read from our Poetry book. I divided the class into 4 groups and assigned a poet to each group.  They were to select one of their poets poems to discuss and then to prepare a discussion question to share with the class. All of our selections this week were from either the Romantic or Victorian period of British literature. I loved hearing them mull over the ideas, style, and meanings found in their poems. 

About the Poetry Presentations:  I have scheduled Presentations for the last 2 classes of the semester.  (James is going to help me put this together.)  At the other school where I teach, they hold annual Poetry Out Loud competitions and have hosted a Poetry Slam.  In a Poetry Out Loud competition, students recite poetry from a pre-selected list.  Poetry Slams, on the other hand, feature original poetry.  In past years, we've done at the end of the school year what I have called a "Poetry Slam Out Loud."  Students can choose to either recited poetry from our book or recited something they have written.

Assignments for April 24:

-- Read poems by the following poets: 

     Shakespeare:  Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day? When, in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes, Let me not to the Marriage of True Minds

     Donne:  Death, Be Not Proud

     Jonson:  Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes

     Quarles:  On the World

     Carew:  The Unfading Beauty

     Milton:  On His Blindness

-- Finish Final Draft of News Story

     -- Complete Self-Evaluation and 5 Corrections

-- Be thinking about your poetry selection for our Poetry Presentations.

This week's links:

Class Notes

National Poetry Month

Poetry Out Loud

Poetry Slams

Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs

Have a great week and very blessed Easter!

Mrs. Prichard

Poetry Worksheet

Title of Poem:  _____________________________                    Author:  _________________________________

1. What is the dramatic situation of the poem? (What is taking place literally?)

2. Who is the speaker in the poem? (Or, at least, what do we know about him/her?)

3. To whom is he or she speaking? Who is the audience of the poem?

4. Where is the setting of the poem? Where is the speaker? When does it take place?

5. What is a possible theme of the poem?

6. Why does the speaker feel compelled to speak out?

7. What kinds of patterns are there in the poem? Does the poem rhyme? Does it have a particular rhythm?

8. How does the poet use language? Is it elevated or fancier language? Is it more vernacular, colloquial, or casual? Does the poet use a particular dialect or accent?

9. What is the tone (mood) of the poem at the beginning, at the end, and overall?

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 11 (April 3)

Greetings!

We had a great class this week.  The students engaged well with the discussion today.

Our Quick Write this week acknowledged the birthday on April 2 of Hans Christian Anderson, the Danish children's author. I had the students write about their favorite children's book.  If they weren't inspired about that topic, they could write about the Winder Misery Index

The Words of the Day came from my book of foreign words and phrases:  

jardiniere -- [French, female gardener]; an ornamental ceramic flowerpot or flowerpot holder

jeune premier -- [French, first young man]; an actor who takes the juvinile lead ina play or film, playing a young hero

jalapeno -- [Spanish, fr. Jalpa, Mexico];  a small, dark, green hot chili pepper

The students were to hand in the rough drafts of their for New Story Essays.  I always look forward to reading their essays and will read and correct these so that I can give them back next week.  If anyone did not hand it in, the essays can be e-mailed to me.  

We are done with our short stories and have moved on to Poetry.  Some students claim to like poetry while others really don't like it at all.  I am usually able to coincide our poetry reading with the month of April, which is National Poetry Month.  

This week we read "A Negro Speaks of River" by Langston Hughes, "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams, and"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost.  The Williams poem is one of my favorites, so we took a considerable time to discuss it.  I'm not sure that I won any fans for this poem.  I'm including it below:

The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends

upon

a red wheel 

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

For next week, the students will read more poems and fill out some worksheets.

Assignments for next week:

-- Read poems by the following poets:  William Wordsworth (p. 12); Robert Browning (p. 19); Emily Bronte (p. 24); and Gerard Manley Hopkins (p. 31)

-- Fill out the poetry worksheets:

     -- Choose 4 poems and answer the questions on one side of the worksheet for that poem.  You only need to answer 4 out of the 9 questions.

This week's blogs:

Class Notes
Poetry Worksheet

William Carlos Williams & The Red Wheelbarrow

See you next week!

Mrs. Prichard

William Carlos Williams's Red Wheelbarrow

We took a good portion of our class time to discuss one of my favorite poems in class.  Over the years, William Carlos Williams's poem, "A Red Wheelbarrow," has wiggled it's way into my head.  Every year, I do my best to get my students to join me in appreciation of this short, 8-line poem.

If you would like to explore this poem further, check out the following links:

An analysis by Craig Morgan Teicher

The Modern American Poetry association offers a variety of viewpoints.

An essay on whether the poem is simple or complex.

A dissection of this minimal masterpiece

You can even watch a video presentation that analyzes the poem.