Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 6 (February 19)

Greetings!
 

It was a great day at CHAT today.  Students were were attentive and engaged with our discussion.  I'm always impressed with how they can stay focused for the 90 minute classes.

We just celebrated President's Day and February 22 is George Washington's birthday.  According to General Henry Lee, Washington was "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."  I used these details for our Quick Write and had the students write to any of our country's past presidents and ask 5 questions. 

I shared with the class about a speaker, Bob Goff, whom I heard share about his children who wrote letters to world leaders.  (You can read a review of this section of his book in this review or see an excerpt on the blog.)  As a follow up assignment, I asked the class to write a letter with three questions to some world or business leader, not a sports or Hollywood personality.

Note:  Students and parents may be interested in reading this review of Bob Goff's book and his letter writing adventure with his children.

Our Latin Roots of the Day:

equi -- L. same, equal -- English derivatives:  equal, equality, equilibrium, equitable, equity

equus -- L.  horse -- English derivatives:  equine, equestrian

ex -- out; out of -- English derivatives:  exit, excavate, exclude, extract

exter/extra -- L. out; outermost -- English derivatives:  extraterrestrial, exterior, extremity, external

We've finished our book, The Strange Adventures of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  The next writing assignment is a literary analysis of either a character or theme in the book.  In the past, some students have found this to be the hardest essay of the class, mostly because the guidelines are more defined, and the students can't write about their own topics.  The students met in small groups according to their topics for the papers in order share information and to discuss how they plan to organize their essays.

Our next book, a collection of O. Henry's short stories titled, The Gift of the Magi, was given to the class today.  If you've never read any of these short stories, borrow the book and read a couple.  They are clever and quirky.  For next week, they are to read 2 stories and fill out the worksheet for one of the stories.

We covered more comma exercises at the end of the class.  The students have a worksheet that deals with compound sentences, interrupters, and introductory elements.  We did many of the sentences in class.  The rest of the worksheet can be done as homework.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Write a letter to a world leader that includes 3 questions

-- Read the following stories:  Gift of the Magi (p. 1); After Twenty Years (p. 21)

-- Fill out the Short Story worksheet for one of the stories

-- Finish the Grammar Worksheet (13-4 and 13-5)

-- Rough Draft of the Theme or Character Essay
-- Finish the Vocabulary Chart for Jekyll/Hyde

This Week's Links

Class Notes

Be Secretly Incredible (about Bob Goff's letter writing adventure)

Background Information about O. Henry
The Gift of the Magi (audio version)
After Twenty Years (audio version)

NOTE:  We do not have class next week on February 26.  We will meet again on March 5.

Have a great two weeks!

Mrs. Prichard

Background for O. Henry

O. Henry (William Sidney Porter) is one of my favorite American writers.  Utilizing his quick wit, dexterity with vocabulary and quirky sense of plot construction, O. Henry is a master of the short story.  Although he lived a less-than-exemplary life, his colorful experiences were the "stuff" from which he got material for his stories.

Below are some links with more information on him and on his writing.
O. Henry (Wikipedia)
Brainy Quotes from his writings
Themes, Styles, and Techniques of O. Henry
Austin, TX, O. Henry Museum

Character Essay

Definition

            The purpose of a character analysis is to provide information and understanding about a character from a piece of literatures.  Writers use supporting details from the book to back up their opinions and evaluations about the character.        

Thesis Development

            Your thesis should state a stand or opinion about the character you have chosen.  Your thesis can be concerned with the character’s weaknesses or strengths, primary motivations, inner qualities, interactions with others,

Organization

            Your essay should follow the standard structure with an introduction, body, and conclusion.  In the body, the paragraphs should cover the points that you will use to support your thesis.

Tips on Prewriting

·         Survey all the details you have collected and group them in clusters that reveal some similar qualities.

·         In a single sentence, sum up what the character is like.  This summary can be the thesis or controlling idea for your entire essay.

·         Select the details that help support, explain, and illustrate your thesis.

·         Pull from your chart with material you’ve collected.  Use effective quotes and examples.

·         Plan your introduction and conclusion.

Tips on Writing the Introduction

·         The opening paragraph of your essay should introduce who this character is, briefly explaining what his/her role is in the story and why you have chosen to analyze this personality. 

·         Define your character in terms of whether he is the protagonist (hero), antagonist (villain),  supporting player or a catalyst.  A catalyst character often does not participate directly in any of the action, but instead fulfills the role of inspiring the lead character.

·         Possible information to include in your introduction:

–   Make some general comments about the subject matter of the thesis.  Give background information.

–   Mention personal experiences and attitudes you and your readers might share about the character.  Do you think other people have the same opinion about this person.

–   Include thoughts about the author.  Does his life give any clues to this character?

–   Write a few general sentences about the story.

Using Quotations

·         This type of paper requires that you use quotations from the story to support your points.  Be sure that you quote accurately and that your reason for quoting is clear.  Be careful not to use long quotes for your essay will merely repeat the words of the story.

Writing the Conclusion

·         The final paragraph should not introduce a new idea because it cannot be developed.  The conclusion should smoothly bring the reader back to the thesis of the essay.  It is the final comment you make and is your last chance to drive home your main idea

Essay Guidelines

– Due dates:  Pre-Write due February 19; Rough Draft due March 5; Final Draft due March 19.

– Essay length:  600 – 900 words (between 3 and 5 pages)

– 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

Theme Essay

Definition

The theme is the major idea the author is trying to “get across.”  The themes of a literary work are the underlying key ideas or the generalizations it communicates about life. At times, the author’s theme may not agree with your own beliefs, but even then, if it is skillfully written, the work will still have a theme that illuminates some aspects of true human experience.  A Theme Essay explores these ideas and helps the reader gain a greater understanding of the book as a whole.   

Remember that there may be various themes in any one piece of literature.  The following are ways by which a theme may be revealed:  direct statements of the author, direct statements by the characters, dramatic statements by characters, imagery, characters representing ideas, and the entire work representing ideas.

The body of the essay will center on your objective, which is (1) to define the idea, and (2) show its importance in the work.” 

Questions for Theme Analysis

–  What important idea or theme does this literary work convey? Think about the topics of some of your journal entries. What questions do the journal prompts raise about human nature?

–  What do characters do that helps illustrate this idea?

–  What do characters say that helps to illustrate this idea?

–  What events take place in the work that help to illustrate this idea?

–  Are there any recurrent images or clusters of images? Do these images support the idea or theme that you find in the work?

–  What does the narrator say that helps to illustrate this idea?

Writing your Essay

            First, pick one theme to write your analysis.  Next, you need to form your thesis statement. After deciding on a thesis, you need to form a rough outline using the provided example. You will need to provide a number of examples from the book to illustrate the theme, which will be the components of your three body paragraphs. You will need three quotes per body paragraph, so nine quotes all together. Don’t rely on the quotes to explain themselves. You need to lead into the quote, and also comment on the quote after you quote it. You need to effectively show how the quote helps to prove your point.

Essay Guidelines

– Due dates:  Pre-Write due February 19; Rough Draft due March 5;  Final Draft due March 19.

– Essay length:  600 – 800 words (between 3 and 5 pages)

– 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 5 (February 12)

Greetings!

I had another great week with all of my CHAT classes.  I'm so blessed by their hard work and vibrant personalities.

Because we were approaching Valentine's Day, the Quick Write assignment was to write a love letter to something writing or grammar related.  Some of them are willing for me to put them on the blog.  Until I get those entered, here are some from a previous year:  Literary Love Letters.

Our Words of the Day, are the following Latin roots:

bene -- L. good, well -- English derivatives:  benefit, benefactor, beneficial, benediction

brevi -- L. brief, shirt -- English derivatives:  brevity, brief, abbreviate, abbreviation

Following our beginning of class activities, we discussed the homework that was handed back.  I covered some of the common mistakes found in the comma worksheets.  We reviewed compound sentences, complex sentences (including subordinating conjunctions & dependent clauses), and series commas.  For this week'd comma unit, we looked at restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses and phrases.  As I told the students as began our adventures into commas, you must learn a lot of other grammar details in order to understand some of the comma rules.

Students handed in the Final Drafts of Narrative Essays.  With the writing classes, I have a quick turn around with the essays.  That means that the next essay was assigned  this week.  Our next essay, either a Character Essay or a Themes Essay.  (Students choose to write one or the other.)  This is one of the most challenging essays that they will write this year because it requires that they understand both the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,  and the essay process.  The charts that they were to work on as they read the book will be considered their pre-writes.    Consider these the "research" for the essay.  An outline or similar plan will also be necessary for writing a clear essay.

Speaking of of our book, we watched the Veggie Tales version of the Jekyll/Hyde story.  We will finish the book next week.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- No Grammar (We finished the worksheet in class.)

-- Finish Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde

-- No Study Guide Questions

-- Work on the PreWrite for the Character/Themes

This Week's Links:

Class Notes

Literary Love Letters

Restrictive Clauses

Themes Essay

Character Essay

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 5)

Greetings!

We had a good class this week.  The students continue to work hard on their writing, literature, and grammar topics.

Our Quick Write this week was in recognition of Charles Lindbergh's birthday, whose birthday was February 4, and his solo, trans-Atlantic flight.  This flight took 33 1/2 hours.  I asked the students to write what and whom they would take with them to survive such a long road trip.  They responded with a variety of snack ideas, activities, and companions.

Our Latin Roots for the day:

dicta/dictum -- L. to say; speak -- English derivatives:  dictionary, diction, dictator, Dictaphone

dorm/dormio -- L. to sleep -- English derivatives:  dorm room, dormitory, dormant, dormancy

duco/duct -- L. to lead -- English derivatives:  duct, abduct, conductor, introduce

I divided the class into small groups to discuss their answers to the study questions they were assigned for Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde.  I overheard some good, thoughtful discussions.  Learning to listen and discuss ideas in a group of peers is an important skill.

When I hand back rough drafts, I usually have a list of the top ten errors that appeared in their writing.  This week, after handing back the rough drafts of the Narrative Essays, I decided to go more in-depth with the use of the comma and compound sentences.  I would say the the most common error in student writing is either forgetting to put the comma in a compound sentence or inserting a comma in a sentence with a compound predicate.  

After a fairly lengthy time going over this topic, I could tell that eyes were glazing over, so I tabled the rest of the Grammar discussion for next week.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Chapters 7 & 8 of Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde

-- Be prepared to discuss the study guide questions

-- Note:  Written answers are not required this week

-- Edit the Final Draft of the Narrative Essay

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Commas & Compound Predicates

Commas & Compound Sentences

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard