Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (September 24)

Greetings!

We had a good, productive day in class today.  Even though this is the first class of the day, the students come in ready to work.  

I used the Pope's visit to the country for the prompt for our Quick Write.  This morning the Pope addressed the joint houses of Congress, our Representatives and Senators.  I asked the students to think about what they might want to say if they were to stand before Congress.  They could have 3 bullet points for their presentations.  Three topics, issues, concerns, encouragements, or even jokes. 

Our Words of the Day, compliments of class members:

catafalque -- fr. Italian, catafalco -- a decorated wooden framework supporting the coffin of a distinguished person during a funeral or while lying in state.

internuncio -- fr. Latin, inter (between), nuntio (messenger) -- a messenger, intermediary, go-between

jinni -- fr. Arabic, djinn (demon) -- an intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans.

I handed back a number of items which we discussed in class.  Firstly, we talked about the pre-test for the Parts of Speech unit that they had taken.  While they weren't excited about the scores, I explained that this was a test to see how much they knew BEFORE  the instruction.  For this test, the students will all receive the same participation score.

Another piece of homework that they got back were their final drafts of the Descriptive Essays.  I evaluate these in 4 areas:  Focus, Content, Organization, and Mechanics.  I'm not a very hard grader because I want to encourage them and to see them enjoy writing.

Some students also received a piece of paper that listed any missing assignments.  My plan is to give these out 2 - 3 times a semester so that students can keep on top of their homework.   I also told the students that they should keep all of their homework for this class until the end of the semester.  Sometimes an assignment gets graded but missed when I enter them in my gradebook.

Today we had our first Parts of Presentation -- Tadashi gave us an explanation of Nouns, complete with a video and worksheet.  He did a great job!  Next week: Pronouns (Jonathan G., Jeremiah)

Following the nouns presentation, I discussed thesis statements.  As I've mentioned to them, many of the papers that they probably wrote when they were younger were reports.  Writing essays requires  that they form a thesis -- that they take a stand or form an opinion about their topics.  I gave them a template that can be helpful when writing essays:

________________  is/are _______________________

because 1) ___________________, 2) ___________________, 

and 3) ___________________________.

A well-formed thesis statement gives an essay direction.

Quickly, before I dismissed for the day, we pulled out our books, Animal Farm.  This book has three horses; two of them stay faithful to the cause of Animalism while one defects back to the humans.  One reviewer of this book said that it was a case of "living well with the enemy instead suffering with comrades."  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Chapters 7 & 8

-- Answer 3 Study Guide questions

-- Fill in 3 Vocabulary Words

-- Nouns homework

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Nouns categories

Nouns video (from Writing 2)

Killer Thesis Statements

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 4 (September 17)

Greetings!

I thought I might have to swim to school yesterday.  Later in the afternoon we watched it rain so hard that the parking lot was flooded.  Hopefully all are safe and dry.

Our Quick Write today was inspired by the trivia question on the board at Caribou Coffee this morning:  Who said, "Question everything"?  (Socrates)  I gave the students a number of choices:  Write something all in questions; write a "Bucket List" of questions; respond to the quote.  As responses, students asked what the meaning of life was and something about a woodchuck!  I also showed the students a presentation by a spoken word artist, Taylor Mali, titled "Conviction."  He speaks about that trend to end sentences so that they sound like questions; he also encourages students to speak (and write) with conviction and authority.

The Words of the Day were:

contralto -- fr. Italian, contra, "against" and alto, "high" -- a the lowest vocal range for a female, between a mezzo-soprano and a tenor

emeritus -- fr. Latin, mereri, "to earn" -- an honorary degree earned upon retirement

mange-tout -- fr. French, "eat all" -- a variety of garden pea in which the pod is also edible.

Following our beginning of class activities, the students took the Pre-Test for our Parts of Speech unit.  The bulk of this test asked them to identify the various parts of speech (interjections, verbs, adjectives, nouns, conjunctions, adverbs, prepositions, and pronouns) within sentences.  This test will be our baseline that we will compare to the Post-Test that they will take after they've given their presentations.

Next week we start our Parts of Speech presentations.  Below is the schedule for each week:

Week 5 (9/24) -- Nouns (Tadashi)

Week 6 (10/1) -- Pronouns (Jonathan G., Jeremiah)

Week 7 (10/8) --  Adjectives (Brady, Daniel)

Week 8 (10/22) -- Adverbs  (Jack)

Week 9 (10/29) -- Verbs (Jonathan S., Eden)

Week 10 (11/5) -- Prepositions (William, Samuel)

Week 11 (11/12) -- Conjunctions (Greta, Ella)

Week 12 (11/19) -- Interjections (Cassie, Isabelle)

Week 13 (12/3) -- Review

Week 14 (12/10) -- Parts of Speech Test

The final drafts of the Descriptive Essay were due today.  I had forgotten to mention to the students that I also want them to hand in the corrected rough drafts along with the final drafts.  Some of them brought them, and others did not. For this essay, it's OK either way.  Going forward, I will remind them to hand in both drafts.  I like to see how they made corrections and revised their own work.

Our next essay is a Personal History Essay.  While the topic/subject for this essay is pretty close to home (themselves!), the challenging part will be to come up with a thesis statement.  In other words, they not only will tell a bit of a story, but they need to express some opinion or stand with it.  A Personal History Essay is a blend of narration and analysis -- a story with a purpose. These narratives can be about a special event, a difficult experience, a celebration, etc.   I've included on the blog a couple of videos about writing thesis statements.

For our literature discussion, I divided the class into 4 small groups to discuss one of the 4 chapters that we've read so far in Animal Farm; they were to specifically talk about the events in that chapter, the characters, and any problems or issues that arose in the chapter.  Following the small group discussion, we came together for a brief overview of Chapters 1 - 4.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Write the Rough Draft of the Personal History Essay

-- Prepare your Parts of Speech presentation

-- Read Chapters 5 & 6 of Animal Farm

-- Answer 2 Study Guide questions; fill in 3 Vocabulary words

Links for this Week:

Class Notes

Personal History Essay

Writing a Thesis video links

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Videos About Thesis Statements

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 24; Final Draft due October 8.

– 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 3 (September 10)

Greetings!

Another great class this week -- they are a smart bunch!  Our Quick Write this week was in recognition of Northfield's Defeat of Jesse James Days.  We collected a list of Western words, such as Howdy, pardner, saloon, Stetson, y'all, yeehaw, etc.  The assignment was to write something and include at least 2 of the words from our list.  They were great sports and endured my attempt at a western accent.

Our Words of the Day were chosen by classmates Jonathan, Brady, and Daniel.

jojoba -- fr. Spanish -- a small shrub or tree whose seeds are used for their oil in personal care products (i.e. shampoos, lotions, etc.)

billabong -- fr. Australian; billa (water) bong (channel) -- a small stream or channel of water beside a river

detritus -- fr. Latin; deterere (to wear away) -- waste or debris of any kind

I handed back their homework and discussed my grading.  For many of the assignments, I put on a check mark with a circle around it.  Students get full points for doing the assignments.  Worksheets and final drafts of the essays will be evaluated according to right or wrong answers and quality of work.  

After handing back the rough drafts of the Descriptive Essays, I went over Common Errors that I found in their rough drafts.  They are to keep a sheet in their notebooks with a list of the top mistakes that I find when correcting their rough drafts.  On the blog, I will include a picture that has examples of some of the marks that I make on their papers.

We spent time on our Parts of Speech projects.  For this project, students are to give a lesson to explain their assigned part of speech, possibly have the students do an activity, and have some kind of homework assignment.  In class we discussed where and how they might find information to help with this assignment.  The students then broke into their groups to plan for their presentations.  These lessons and activities are to take 10 to 20 minutes.

Next week the students will take a Pre-Test to test their knowledge before they've had the series of lessons.

Because I wanted to take extra time with this first round of rough drafts and to make sure that the students were clear on the grammar project, we did not have time for a discussion of our literature, Animal Farm.  Next week!

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Chapters 3 & 4 of Animal Farm

-- Answer 2 Study Guide Questions

-- Select & define 3 Vocabulary words

-- Work on Parts of Speech project

This Week's Links:

Class Notes

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard

Sample Editing Marks

Below is a picture of the editing symbols that I use most often when I'm editing the rough drafts of the students' essays.  I put the squiggly line under problematic words.  A word might be mispelled or the wrong word for that sentence.  For example, contractions are not allowed in essays and will get the squiggly line.  

The next symbol, the line with the loop, is used for words that should be deleted or replaced.  The upside down "v" is put in a sentence where a word or phrase needs to be added.

The double-stemmed backwards "P" is the paragraph symbol.  I put this where it would be good to start a new, indented paragraph.  Finally, the three little lines are placed under a letter that needs to be capitalized.

Parts of Speech Unit Update

Hey class!

I've gotten a couple of e-mails with questions about the Parts of Speech unit, so I thought I'd send out a group-wide e-mail.

Even though we talked about this in class last week, I feel that there may still be some confusion about the guidelines for the project and the specifics of the assignment.  So, here's what I'd like to do --- let's push the presentations out a week so that we have extra time to plan and to work in groups.  This week we will talk through any questions that students might have.

Adjusted schedule:

Week 3 -- Review Parts of Speech/Discuss assignment

Week 4 -- Parts of Speech Pre-Test
Week 5 -- Nouns (Tadashi)

Week 6 -- Pronouns (Jonathan G.)

Week 7 -- Adjectives (Brady & Daniel)

Week 8 -- Adverbs (Jack & Jeremiah)

Week 9 -- Verbs (Jonathan S. & Eden)

Week 10 -- Prepositions (William & Samuel)

Week 11 -- Conjunctions (Greta & Ella)

Week 12 -- Interjections (Cassie & Isabelle)

Week 13 -- Review

Week 14 -- Parts of Speech Post-Test

I've taught this lesson using this process at the other school where I teach, and I was excited about how students learned.  We all know that if you have to teach something, you learn it a little better.  Also, students enjoyed being taught by their classmates.

On the down side, we only see one another once a week, so we need to fit a lot in to our weekly class.  Students may not realize that they have questions about an assignment until AFTER they've left class.  Always feel free to send an e-mail to clarify anything.

See y'all on Thursday,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 2 (September 3)

Greetings!

We had a good second week of classes.  We're getting to know one another, and I'm enjoying this group of students.

Our Quick Write this week was inspired by the State Fair, also known as "The Great Minnesota Get Together."  I asked the students to either write about the fair or about some other favorite "get together."   I always tell students that if they ever draw a blank with the prompt, they can write whatever they would like.  

I had three students select our Words of the Day, directing them to choose a word that begins with the same letter as their first name.  Our words were:

tyro -- fr. Latin tiro, recruit, young soldier -- a novice or beginner

jellaba -- fr. Arabic djellaba -- a loose-fitting, long-sleeved, often hooded robe commonly worn in Egypt, Morocco, and Northern Africa.

weltanschauung -- fr. German welt, world and Anschauung, perception -- a comprehensive perception of the world.

The students are to keep a list of these words because there will be a quiz at the end of the semester to see what they can remember.

I collected homework, and we discussed any questions that they might have with any of the homework.  The rough drafts for the Descriptive Essays were due this week.  If a student is ever not able to hand in an assignment in class, they can e-mail it in.

I introduced our Parts of Speech Unit.  Students received a handout explaining the unit and a planning worksheet.  I spent this week and will do a quick review next week of the primary definitions of the 8 parts of speech (interjections, verbs, adverbs, nouns, conjunctions, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions).  Next week the students will take a brief pre-test.  The following weeks, the students will teach one another more specifics about their assigned parts of speech.  For this unit, students will do some research in order to learn more and then come up with a lesson, an activity, and homework

The Parts of Speech assignments are:

Interjections -- Cassie & Isabelle

Verbs -- Jonathan S. & Eden

Adverbs -- Jack & Jeremiah

Nouns -- Tadashi

Conjunctions -- Greta & Ella

Adjectives -- Brady & Daniel

Prepositions --  Jonathan G.

Pronouns -- William & Samuel

The students wrote a short essay, "What Makes a Good Leader?" as a precursor for our literature.  Orwell explores the theme of leadership in his book, Animal Farm.  I had intended to show a video that introduces the political and governmental background, but I couldn't get the projector to work.  (I discovered at the end of class that all of the miscellaneous cables weren't plugged into the wall.)

Another note about the book.  Some students are stronger auditory learners, and hearing the book is really helpful.  I've included on the class blog a post with links to some audio versions.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Chapters 1 & 2 of Animal Farm

-- Answer 3 Study Questions

-- Fill in 3 Vocabulary Words in the worksheet

-- Review the Parts of Speech handout

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Animal Farm Videos

Animal Farm Audio Version

Parts of Speech Unit

Parts of Speech Planning Worksheet

Parts of Speech Review (Weeks 1 & 2)

Animal Farm Study Guide

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Animal Farm Audio Versions

Some students are stronger auditory learners, and hearing the book is really helpful.  I've included on the class blog a post a link to an audio version:

Parts of Speech Planning Worksheet

Name:  ____________________________________________

Parts of Speech Project Planning Worksheet

My assigned part of speech:  _______________________________________

In your own words, define this part of speech:

What important aspects of this part of speech are important for your classmates to know?

What information do you need to find out about this part of speech?

Where can you find this information?

List the best resources that you’ve found:

Lesson Plan

Objective:  to teach my classmates about _______________________________ by explaining these key points:

1.       Main Point:  ______________________________________________________________

a.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

b.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

c.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

2.        Main Point:  ______________________________________________________________

a.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

b.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

c.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

3.        Main Point:  ______________________________________________________________

a.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

b.       Details:  ______________________________________________________________________

c.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

4.        Main Point:  ______________________________________________________________

a.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

b.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

c.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

5.        Main Point:  ______________________________________________________________

a.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

b.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

c.       Details:  _____________________________________________________________________

Parts of Speech Unit

The 8 parts of speech are the important building blocks for our sentences.  Every single word in our vocabulary falls into one of the following categories:  interjections, verbs, adjectives, nouns, conjunctions, adverbs, prepositions, or pronouns.  These are especially important to know as we learn to revise and improve our writing.

Every student is to do a project on one of the parts of speech.  For this project, students are to do some research on their assigned parts of speech and put together a lesson that includes a worksheet and an activity.  During the first two weeks of the Fall term, students will get a brief overview and explanation of each of the parts of speech.  For the next 8 weeks, presentations/lessons will be given by student(s). 

Requirements for the unit:

–   Fill out the Parts of Speech Planning Worksheet

–   Research the assigned part of speech

–   Put together a short lesson that explains the part of speech

–   Put together a worksheet for the class to practice using the part of speech

–   Have the worksheets ready the week before your presentation

Parts of Speech Unit

Week 1 – Introduction to Parts of Speech, part 1

Week 2 – Introduction to Parts of Speech, part 2

Week 3 – Parts of Speech pre-test

Week 4 – Nouns Presentation

Week 5 – Pronouns Presentation

Week 6 – Adjectives Presentation

Week 7 – Adverbs Presentation

Week 8 – Verbs Presentation

Week 9 – Prepositions Presentation

Week 10 – Conjunctions Presentation

Week 11 – Interjections Presentation

Week 12 – Review

Week 13 – Review

Week 14 – Parts of Speech Test

Animal Farm Intro Videos

George Orwell intentionally wrote this novel with Russia, Stalin, Trotsky, and socialism in mind. Below are some videos that will give some historical background to this insightful novel.