Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 10 (March 30)

Greetings!

We covered a lot of ground today in class, and I appreciated the class's involvement.

For the Quick Write, I asked the students to convince me of something.  They could try to convince me to eat a certain food, read a book, listen to some music, take part in some activity, etc.  For this, they should consider the audience, give specific reasons, and think about what would be appealing.  I look forward to reading their persuasive Quick Writes.

Our Words of the Day (aka Latin Roots of the Day):

magnus -- Latin, great/large -- magnum, magnanimity, magnanimous, magnitude, magnet, magnificent. magnify, electromagnetic, manganese

male -- bad/evil -- malnourished, Maleficent, malefactor, malice, malicious, dismal, malady, malignant

manus -- Latin, hand -- manuscript, manual, manufacture, manage, manacle, maintain, emancipate, manifest

migr -- Latin, wander -- migraine, migration, migrate, immigrate, migratory, transmigration

I handed back their homework, which included the Final Drafts of the Jekyll/Hyde papers.  They worked hard on these.  Their next writing assignment is a News Story, and the rough draft for that is due the week after our break.  If students have any missing work, this upcoming break might be a good time to get caught up.

We started discussing our O. Henry short stories.  After some initial comments, I divided the students into small groups to discuss each story and to come up with what they thought was the "quirky" element of the story.  Following their discussions, they wrote their comments on the white board.  Many times students have great thoughts that they don't necessarily want to talk about with the whole class, but a small group is just the right size.

We still have one story left to read, but I handed out the next book, a selection of short poems, so that they have it when we are ready.

We reviewed our comma rules during the Grammar portion and made a list as a class:

• FANBOYS and compound sentences
• Complex sentences
• Direct addresses
• Lists (Oxford commas)
• Dates
• Addresses
• Appositives & Interrupters
• Introductory elements

For their homework, they are to write 2 sentences for each rule, appropriately inserting the correct commas.

Assignments for April 13:

-- Read "The Ransom of Red Chief"

-- Fill out one worksheet (front and back)

-- Comma review -- Write 2 example sentences for each bullet point.

-- News Story Rough Draft

-- News article with biased sections highlighted.

Links for this week:

Class Notes

Have a great break!

Mrs. Prichard