Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 10 (March 26)

Greetings!

We had a good class today.  Sometimes we have a lot of discussion, and other times the format is more instructional.  Today we had a good mix.

Our Quick Write for the day initially stumped the students.  First, I gave the birth date of March 26, 2228.  I added the clue that the place in which this person will be born is a small town in Iowa.  Then, I wrote Gene Roddenberry on the board.  Older persons will by now know that I'm referring to Star Trek's Captain James T. Kirk.  Today, supposedly, is his birthday.  I asked the students to write a science fiction-related Quick Write.

Our Latin Roots for the Day:

junct -- L. to join; together -- English derivatives:  conjunction, junction, join, joint, conjoined, conjugation

-ject -- L. to throw (from jacere) -- English derivatives:  inject, interject, subject, object, reject, project, dejected, adjective; also jet and javelin have the same roots.

Our next writing assignment is a News Story. We took some time to discuss possible topics for this paper.  While not giving many specific topics, we looked at categories of suitable topics for ideas.  For example, current events or controversies, media or entertainment topics or reviews, sports events or figures, news-worthy happenings in their own communities, etc.  It was asked if a news story could be written about something fictional.  IF it is written with sufficient detail and information similar to that of a bona fide news article would contain, then it would be OK.  The rough draft of this paper is due after our Easter Break.

We read our final selection of the book of O. Henry Short Stories.  While some of the students enjoyed these stories, others were not as thrilled.  O. Henry is quirky, and his vocabulary is a mix of every day verbiage and unusual words that you rarely hear.  We read "The Ransom of Red Chief" for today.  For example, in the first two paragraphs, we encountered these words:  philoprogenitiveness and undeleterious.

Our next literature selection is a book of Poetry.  Below I will list the poems that the students are to read.  

We finished the class with a Grammar worksheet.  We've finished with commas and are working with other bits of punctuation.  Today's worksheets dealt with italics and punctuating direct quotes.  I gave the students 2 worksheets, and only one is due.  (14-1 and 14-2)

Assignments for April 9

-- Write the Rough Draft of the News Story

-- Read the following poems:

     Langston Hughes:  The Negro Speaks of Rivers (p. 53)

     William Carlos Williams:  The Red Wheel Barrow (p. 48)

     Robert Frost:  Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Fire and Ice, The Road Not Taken, Acquainted with the Night (p. 44-45)

-- Finish The Grammar Worksheets (14-1 and 14-2)

This Week's Links:

Class Notes

Hallmark Movie:  The Ransom of Red Chief

No Deposit, No Return (trailer)

See you all in two weeks!

Have a blessed Easter!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 9 (March 19)

Greetings!

We had a great class this week.  We began with our Quick Write, which noted the birthday this month of Johann Sebastian Bach.  I asked the students to write about the importance of music in their lives.  We came up with a number of words to describe the value of music for us:  meaningful, emotional, educational, inspirational, energizing, etc.

Our Latin Roots of the Day were:

ign -- L. fire, to burn -- English derivatives:  ignite, ignition, igneous, ignitable

inter -- L. between -- English derivatives:  interstate, interstellar, intergalactic, interrupt

The students were to bring their Letters to World Leaders to class this week, along with mailing addresses.  I supplied the envelopes and will mail them this next week.  I'm really curious and excited to see what kind of responses they get.  For those who didn't have their letters ready this week, they can bring them the next.

The Final Drafts of the Character or Theme Essays were due this week.  I had given them rubrics that I will use to evaluate the essays, but didn't make it clear that they were to do a self-evaluation.  We took some time for them to do this before handing them in.  I clarified with them that  they aren't grading themselves, but reflecting on the work they did.  I will correct them, as usual, and will use this rubric to evaluate the papers.  I find that I'm often a harder grader when I use the rubrics because of the clear guidelines and definitions for each category.

As soon as one essay is finished, we progress to the next, which is a News Story.  For this paper, students can choose current events or topics of interest.  In class, we talked about the differences between an essay with a thesis and a news story.  In an essay, carefully crafted introductions state the thesis, give background information, and outline the course of the paper.  When writing a news story, introductions and conclusions don't have the same importance.  In a news story, the most important information is given first, while the lesser details follow.  The Pre-Write should be done next week, and the Rough Draft is due the week after our Easter Break.

The focus for our Grammar study this week was use of the semicolon and the colon.  Many students mistakenly use one with the other was required.  Below are some links to videos the further explain correct usage of these punctuation marks.  We finished our worksheet in class, so no Grammar homework this week.

Finally, we talked about the short stories for the week.  O. Henry's stories have unusual plots and endings.  The story, "A Retrieved Reformation," has been used a number of times for short films.  If you look for it on Youtube, you will also find a number of high school literature projects.  Next week's story is my favorite, The Ransom of Red Chief."

Assignments for Next Week:

-- News Story Pre-Write

-- If not finished, Letter to World Leader

-- NO Grammar Worksheets

-- Read "The Ransom of Red Chief."  

Links for this Week:

Class Notes

News Story

How to Use a Semicolon

Flash Grammar Lesson:  Semicolon

Punctuation:  Colon

Basic Punctuation:  Colon

Have a marvelous weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

News Story

Definition

            In a News Story, you learn as much as you can about a subject and present your findings in a way that makes sense and holds your reader attention.  Your story can be a report of an event, an interview, or a compiled report on an issue.

Gathering Information

You can consult a variety of sources about a timely, interesting topic.  Your sources may include books, articles, internet sources, interviews, etc.  Your goal is to bring together this information into a unified report that informs and/or entertains your readers.

Two steps:

• Collecting – Consult a number of sources, taking careful notes about your subject.  Be careful to be accurate with facts, figures, and quotations.
• Assessing – Come to some conclusion about the significance of the information you collected.  Let that conclusions be the thesis of your paper.  Then plan your report, selecting and arranging the facts to support this focus.     

Thesis Development

            Your thesis will be the ideas you’ve formed after collecting material.  The thesis may be about the value of the subject, the impact it has on society, the causes and effects related to it, the significance to others, etc. 

Organization

            A News Story can be organized in a number of ways.  If it is of an event, a chronological format can be used.  If this plan is used, the writer should continue to draw the reader’s attention not only to the progression of events, but also to the manner in which they support the thesis.  Sometimes a News Story is about various people, and separate paragraphs can be devoted to each person.  If an issue is discussed, the writer will need to break it into its primary components.         

Essay Guidelines

– Due dates:  Pre-Write due March 26; Rough Draft due April 9;  Final Draft due April 23

– Essay length:  500 – 700 words (between 2 and 4 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 8 (March 12)

Greetings!

We had a good class today  We had some good discussions and I feel that they did some good thinking about writing, grammar and literature.

Our Quick Write was a recognition that this Saturday is Pi Day.  In fact, this Pi Day has been called "epic" or "ultimate" because at 9:26.53, the date and time will represent the first 10 digits of pi:  3.141592653.  The students could choose to write either a math-related or pie-related Quick Write.

Our Latin Roots for the Day were:

grad, gred, gress -- L. step, walk, move forward -- English derivatives:  graduate, grade, gradual, ingredient, progress, aggressive, digress

gravi -- L. heavy, weight -- English derivatives:  gravity, gravitate, engrave, grave, aggravate

Following our beginning of class activities, we discussed the homework that I had handed back, beginning with the Letters to World Leaders that the students had written.  I spoke to them about some content issues.  It's important that they give a good introduction and conclusion.  Additionally, I gave them a handout illustrating the correct way to format a formal/business letter.  The sample shows block paragraphs, but they can do indented paragraphs if they'd like.  A clean-looking letter is one way that we can show respect and honor to the recipients of our well-written missives.  Next week, we will address the letters and I will mail them.

As is my custom, when I hand back the corrected Rough Drafts, I take time to go over common errors.  I asked them to read through their own essays and find errors that they would like discussed.  In turn, I brought up some that were found in a number of essays.  The Final Drafts of the Theme or Character Essays are due next week. 

We did not have a lot of time for discussing the Short Stories this week.  Next week we will go through the stories read for last week and the ones assigned for next week. 

At the end of the class we worked together on a Grammar worksheet focused on end punctuation and periods used in abbreviations.  The students had time to finish them before the leaving for the week.

Note:  Some students handed in their rough drafts of their papers or letters either in class or via e-mail last week.  I will have those corrected and returned over the weekend.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Finish Final Drafts of Theme/Character Essays

-- Finish the Letter to a World Leader

-- Find and bring to class the address for the letter.

-- Read "Retrieved Reformation" (p. 49) and "The Pimienta Pancake" (p. 29)

Links this Week:

Class Notes

A Retrieved Reformation -- audio version

The Pimienta Pancakes

It's amazing outside!  Enjoy your weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 7 (March 5)

Greetings!

The weather people say that Thursday was, most likely, our last really cold day. It's March and we're half way through the second semester at CHAT -- it could be that Spring is really on its way!

Our Quick Write this week celebrated two events:  March 4 was National Grammar Day and March 5 was the day the Hula Hoop was invented.  Students could write about either topic or about a favorite toy from their childhoods.

Our Latin Roots of the Day were:

finis -- L. end -- English derivatives:  finish, finite, final, finality, infinitive, infinity,  infinite, define, definition

fort -- L. strong -- English derivatives:  fort, fortress, fortitude, fortify, force

fug/fugi -- L. to flee, flight -- English derivatives:  fugitive, refuge, refugee

We had a lot of homework to hand in this week:  Quick Writes, Comma worksheet, rough draft, pre-write, letters to world leaders, and short story worksheets.  We shared in class about our letters to world leaders and each student shared about the person to whom his/her letter had been written.  A few students forgot this part of the homework, but they can hand them in next week.  The letters they handed in are the rough drafts.  I'll go over them to check for mechanics and possible content suggestions.  I'll hand them back next week and the following week I will bring envelopes for them to address.

We discussed our O. Henry Short Stories assigned for this week.  Many were familiear with "The Gift of the Magi."  Focus on the Family has a delightful story on its Adventures in Odyssey series, "Gifts for Madge and Guy."  Our other story, "After Twenty Years," was a typical O. Henry story -- interesting characters, colorful vocabulary, and a surprise ending.  While O. Henry's writing style is not overly complicated, we found that some sentences needed a little more work to unpack the meanings.  We'll read two more stories for next week.

The Rough Drafts of the Character or Theme Essays were handed in this week.  This is probably the hardest essay for some of the students.  For all of our other essays, students can choose the topic to fit the type of essay.  For this one, they are given narrower parameters.  Some students love to "unpack" and analyze literature; others do not. I know that they've worked hard on these essays, and I look forward to reading them this week.

Our final activity of the day was another comma-related grammar worksheet.  This week we looked at commas used in dates and addresses. We did most of the worksheet as a group, and they finished it before leaving class.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read the following stories:  "Makes the Whole World Kin" (p. 85); "The Furnished Room" (p. 23)

-- For each story, fill out one side of the short story worksheet (Ask 5 Questions)

-- No grammar worksheets  (worksheet attached if you were absent)

-- No essay assignments

-- Finish the Letter to a World Leader, if not already handed in

-- Finish the Vocabulary worksheet for Jekyll/Hyde, if not already handed in

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Short Stories Worksheet (Ask 5)

Background of O. Henry

Comma Review Website

The Furnished Room audio

Makes the Whole World Kin audio

Enjoy the weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Short Stories Worksheet (Ask 5 Questions)

Short Stories Worksheet

Story Title:  _______________________________

Author:  ___________________________________

As you read, jot down 5 questions that come to mind.

 1.

2.

  

3.

4.

5.