Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (Sept. 25)

Greetings!

We had a great class this week.  Students were engaged and we covered a lot of material.  

Our Quick Write the morning was in honor of tomorrow's birthday of Johnny Chapman, aka Johnny Appleseed, who was born in 1744.  The students could either write about their favorite way to eat apples OR they could make up a story about someone's seed-sowing adventure.  This theme also seemed appropriate considering the fall season.

Below are the Words of the Day, taken from my foreign words and phrases book:

Cappuccino -- fr. Italian, Capuchin, an order of monks who wore light brown habits -- a coffee drink made from espresso, steamed milk, and foam

Carabiner -- fr. German, Karabinerhaken, carbine hook -- a metal ring with a spring catch used by mountain climbers

Carafe -- fr. Arabic, gharrafah, a drinking vessel -- a wide-mouthed glass or metal bottle for serving beverages

Carousel -- fr. French, carrousel, a knight's tournament -- a rotating platform carnival ride with horses as seats.

We had a few questions arise during our Words discussion.  Is Capuchin also the name of a monkey?  What exactly is a Karabinerhaken? And what is the difference between a merry-go-round and a carousel?  We solved the last question -- a carousel can only have horses, while a merry-go-round can use other animals for the seats of the ride.

I handed back a number of papers, including study guide questions, Quick Writes, grammar worksheets, and the Final Drafts of their Descriptive Essays.  I used a rubric for the essays.  If you look at it (attached to this e-mail) you'll see that the papers were evaluated in four areas (Focus, Content, Organization, and Mechanics) and at four levels (Beginning Developing, Proficient, and Advanced)  Since this was our first paper of the year and almost half of the students are new to my way of grading, I was generous in my scores.  To be honest, scores don't mean a lot when writing because so much of the evaluation is subjective.  What's most important is that students are learning and using skills in order to grow with each writing assignment.

After talking through the rubric, I took time to discuss the Focus section, in particular the thesis, introduction, and conclusion.  We reviewed my equation for the thesis statement and talked about the elements that need to be included in the intros and conclusions.  This is somewhat familiar material for the students, but review never hurts.

I had accidentally given the students in Writing 2 the Grammar worksheets that I had set out for Writing 1, rather than their own pile for Writing 2.  Although we didn't have any new worksheets, we were able to clean out our folders with some older worksheets.  We've had a couple of class sessions during which I handed out grammar sheets at the beginning of the class, but put that lesson on hold because we covered other material in the class.  The Verbs worksheet was due this week; the Parts of Speech worksheet is due next week (10/2) and the Nouns/Pronouns sheet is due in two weeks (10/9).

For our Animal Farm discussion, we discussed the kinds of leaders we were discovering in the book as compared to our initial essays, "What Makes a Good Leader."  We also noted that while some leaders seemed to lead in a strong manner, they didn't always lead towards good.  If they are behind in their reading, this is a good week to catch up.  We will have a quiz on the book in two weeks.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Ch. VI & VIII

-- Write out answers to 3 Study Guide questions and do 3 vocabulary words.

-- Complete the Parts of Speech Worksheet

This Week's Blogs:

Class Notes

Essay Rubric for Writing 1

Have a great weekend.  The weather is supposed to be wonderful.  Enjoy!

Mrs. Prichard

Essay Rubric for Writing 1

Essay Rubric for Writing 1

Criterion	Beginning  (2 – 0)	Developing (5 – 3)	Proficient (8– 6)	Advanced (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

Nouns & Pronouns and Agreement

Parts of Speech:  Noun

NOUNS

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, idea, or quality.

Categories for nouns:

Common

Proper

Compound

Collective

As adverbs

Concrete

Abstract

Countable

Non-countable

Verbal nouns (gerunds)

Nouns fill the following places in sentences: 

Subject

Direct object

Indirect object

Object of a preposition

Predicate Noun

PRONOUNS

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.  An antecedent is a word or group of words to which a pronoun refers.  If the antecedent is singular, the pronoun must be singular.  If the antecedent is plural, then the pronoun must be plural.

           

Various types of pronouns

Personal

            Subjective case

            Objective case

            Possessive case

Reflexive or intensive

Demonstrative

Relative

Interrogative

Extended

Indefinite

Agreement:  Pronoun-Antecedent

The rules for agreement are simple, but need emphasizing because breaking them often goes unnoticed.  Simply, every verb must agree with its subject in number (singular or plural); every pronoun must agree with its antecedent in number (singular or plural).

PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT AGREEMENT

Pronouns must agree with their antecedents in both number and gender.  Also, pronouns should be placed as closely as possible to the antecedent.

Special Problems of Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

1.  The indefinite pronouns listed under No. 5 (above) need a singular pronoun.

Examples:

Anyone can succeed if she tries.

Everyone brought a gift for his writing teacher.

Someone should admit his unwillingness to excel in grammar.

2.  Plural indefinite pronouns require plural pronouns.

Examples:

Several of the participants quit because they were tired.

A few in the front row had paid significant amounts for their tickets.

I kept my seat on the bus, but others had to change theirs.

3.  Those indefinite pronouns that are either singular or plurl take singular or plural pronouns accordingly.

Examples:

Some of the dog’s leash twisted itself around the clothesline.

None of the students had their pencils with them and were scolded by their teacher.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 4 (Sept. 18)

Greetings!

We had a full class this week. I'm always amazed at how quickly that hour and a half goes.  Ideally, I try to divide the class into three equal sections:  writing, literature, and grammar.  Some days we concentrate more on one area than the other, and the time is always full and productive.

Every year, it seems that this is about the time that I send out to Writing 1 parents and students a reminder about classroom decorum and my expectations for our time together.  One of my aims for all of my classes is to offer the opportunity to engage in collaborative learning in which students can hear and learn from one another.  I've loved the way that the CHAT students have seemed eager to learn.

That being said, I am finding that because I encourage a lot of group discussion and interaction with our topics, I take the risk of giving too much room for talking.  While students are glad to be in a class with one another, it's important for them to remember that they are in the class to learn.  Side conversations not only keep students from engaging with the discussion at hand, but it is very distracting for the the rest of the class.  Rather than becoming a cohesive group learning together, I find that students can become disconnected and inattentive.  This is a large class with a range of ages, so it may be that we will all need to work extra hard to make this work well.  Also, a seating chart next week may help.

Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, on to the Class Notes .....

Because Wednesday was William Carlos Williams' birthday (and I realize that I am one of the few in the world who even noticed/cared), we commemorated the day with a salute to his poem, "The Red Wheel Barrow."  For the Quick Write, I asked the students to think of a common, everyday item and then to write a poem about it.  A couple of students shared their poetry with the class; those who didn't want to recite their poems had the option to have it added to the class blog.  I'll type those in this weekend.

Our Words of the Day were all "m" words.  Often I will ask a student to open my foreign words and phrases book at a random page, close his/her eyes and point to a word.  I then use that word and whatever words that are on the page the seem appropriate.  This week's words were:

Moron (chosen at random by a student):  (fr. Greek moron, foolish) a person who is notable stupid and lacking in good judgment.  Note:  We had a good conversation about the inappropriateness of ever using this word.

Motif:  (fr. French, motiv, serving to move) a recurring subject, theme, or idea in literature, music, visual art or speeches

morituri te salutant:  (fr. Latin, those about to die salute you)  These are words addressed to the emperor by gladiators upon entering the arena.

Students handed in their final draft of their Descriptive Essays.  I will have them corrected and ready to hand back next week.  Some of the students forgot their rough drafts.  I like to have the rough drafts to look at while I correct the papers.  I'm able to see what changes a student has made and how carefully they've revised the papers.  If it's possible to scan in the rough draft and e-mail it to me, that would be great.  If not, that's OK.  I can still grade the papers.

Our next essay is  Personal Essay.  The handout says "Personal History Essay," but if a student has some other topic related to their personal histories, that would also work.  We discussed ways of writing these essays with thesis statements since they are to include opinions/stands in their papers.  The rough drafts are due next week.

We've read through Chapter IV of Animal Farm.  At this point, "the honeymoon is over;" not only has the real work of the farm picked up, but the real, and not very virtuous, natures of the some of the leaders are coming to the surface.  The characters and personalities of each of the animal types are also emerging.  I've included below some interesting links with information about the characters.  For next week, students need to read the next 2 chapters, answer 2 questions from the study guide, and choose 3 vocabulary words.  One student commented that last week's reading selection didn't have any unfamiliar words.  When that happens, students should choose unusual or interesting words.

The students were given a packet, Week 3 -- Parts of Speech:  Verb:  to use for our Grammar discussion.  We discussed action, state of being, and linking verbs along with active and passive tense.  They need to complete the worksheets stapled with this packet.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Write the rough draft of the Personal History Essay

-- Read Chapters V & VI of Animal Farm

-- Choose 2 study guide questions and 3 vocabulary words.

-- Complete the worksheets on Verbs

This week's blogs

Class Notes

About William  Carlos Williams

More About William Carlos Williams

Character Map for Animal Farm

Comparison of characters with Russian Revolution persons

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (Sept. 11)

Greetings!

Today was a good day in class.  Since it is 9/11, I had the students write a short Quick Write titled "Patriot Day."  In 2009, September 11 was named Patriot Day as a means of memorial and as an encouragement to Americans to offer volunteer service to others.  I asked the students to write about some way they give service or would like to give service to others.  I appreciated the comments that they shared.

Because today was "Patriot Day," I chose for our Words of the Day some words from the same Latin root. 

-- pater (fr. Latin, pater)  father

-- paternoster (fr. Latin, pater, father; noster, our) the "Our Father;" the Lord's Prayer

-- patron (fr. Latin, patronus, defender) a person who gives money and support to an artist, organization, etc.

-- pax vobiscum (fr. Latin pax, peace; vobiscum, be with you) "peace be with you"
Remember:  These words from the novel will be part of an end of the semester test.

We took most of the class to discuss their rough drafts.  One of my strategies is to go over these and to discuss the most common errors.  I feel that students can learn more about grammar and writing as they write and make mistakes than they can from worksheets.  We talked about commas, compound sentences, pronoun/noun agreement, formatting, "There is/are" sentence structures, and avoiding the word "things."  For next week, they are to revise/edit/correct their rough drafts and make them final drafts.  I gave them a half-sheet on which they are to list their first 5 errors and then the area that they would like to work on for their next paper.

Although we spent most of the time talking about the rough drafts, we were able to take the last few minutes to talk about Animal Farm.  We discussed the events that transpired in the first two chapters of the book.  The animals have rebelled against Mr. Jones and have taken over the farm.  We'll continue to read to find out how well they are able to do.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Ch. 3 & 4 of Animal Farm
-- Choose 2 Study Questions & 3 Vocabulary Words
-- Correct and revise rough drafts.

-- Complete the half sheet about errors, etc.

This Week's Blog

Have a great weekend!Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 & Dropbox

Greetings!

I have added all of the e-mails for Writing 1 to the Dropbox account, and you should already have an invitation in your e-mail Inbox that gives you a link to the files.  You can access these files without downloading Dropbox to your computer and without setting up an account.  (I've used Dropbox for cloud storage for quite a  while, and I've been really happy with it.)

When students were missing worksheets or handouts during that first year that I taught at CHAT, they had to wait a week to get new ones, often causing assignments to be 2 weeks late.  While using regular e-mails, Dropbox, and the blog may be more than some families need, it seems that in the course of the year, and handful of students or parents accesses each of these resources on a regular basis.  Feel free to use what works for you and ignore the rest.

I'm busy reading rough drafts of our first essay.  This is a thoughtful bunch of students.

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard 

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 2 (Sept. 4)

Greetings!

(Firstly, my apologies for the lateness of this update.  Our family had neither phone nor internet connections until Sunday afternoon.  We survived quite well without them, but some work items were delayed.)

We had a good, productive day in class this week.  The prompt for our Quick Write was inspired by the 50^th anniversary of Gilligan’s Island (one of my favorite childhood TV shows.)  The students were to write about being stranded somewhere.  We had some students in some unusual places, including a time machine. 

Our Words of the Day came from my book on foreign words and phrases.  This book has a great variety of common and less common words.  One of my goals for this class is to increase the vocabulary of my students.  Below are the words for this week:

-- Concessionaire -- a person or group who has the right to sell something.

-- Concierge -- (fr. Latin; conservus, fellow slave)  an employee of a hotel or apartment building who serves the guests with help and information

-- concour d’elegance -- a parade of prestigious vehicles that is judged and rated

Students handed in their Descriptive Essays.  I will go over these and hand them back next week.  I am fairly thorough with my marks and comments on these rough crafts.  Much of the learning about writing comes as students revise and correct their rough drafts for the final drafts.

We began our discussions about Animal Farm.  The students were to read the introduction/preface written by C.M. Woodhouse. (I promised them that the rest of the book is not as complicated or boring.)  While the book is a fascinating study of leadership, politics, and economics, the historical setting for this book is important. While Orwell supported socialism, he disliked communism.  Additionally, we discussed how the story might be a “fairy story,” as Orwell designated it.  We also listed those qualities in a leader which we thought were important.

We discussed the Grammar lesson from Week 1:  The 8 parts of Speech  These parts of speech are:  Nouns, Verbs, Pronouns, Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions, Prepositions, Interjections.  They have a worksheet to do for this week.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Chapters 1 & 2

 -- Write out answers to 3 Study Questions and choose 3 vocabulary words

-- Grammar worksheet:  8 Parts of Speech

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard