We had a good day in class this week. Because it was a return-rough-drafts-week, the greater portion of our time was spent going over common mistakes, and this included lots of mini grammar lessons.
We wrote our Quick Writes about television because Sept. 7, 1927 was the date of the first transmission to a television set. We've certainly come a long way in the past 90 years!
Our Words of the Day were of Latin and French origin.
alma mater -- Latin, "nourishing mother" -- refers to the high school or college from which you graduated
cum laude -- Latin, "with praise" -- a distinction when graduating that refers to a certain grade point average. Similarly, magna cum laude means "with great praise" and summa cum laude means "with highest praise."
femme fatale -- French, "a dangerous woman" -- a stock character in film noir, in modern film or novels, this is an attractive woman who leads others into dangerous situations
esprit de corps -- French, "the spirit of the body" -- a feeling of pride or fellowship with a certain group of people.
As I mentioned, I spent the majority of class going over the Rough Drafts. My practice is to keep track of the patterns of mistakes made in these first drafts and then to address them in small grammar lessons. This week we addressed some format issues, compound sentences, contractions, comma splice sentences, and exclamation points. In the notes at the end of the rough drafts, I include a "Watch out for . . . " section where I list the 2 - 3 most prevalent mistakes. I've asked the students to start a page in their notebooks where they will keep track of these. As we progress through this year's essays, they can use this list for reminders of problem areas or to even set goals for their writing. For example, if he repeatedly has comma splice errors, on the next essay he could focus on that aspect of his sentence structure.
At the end of class, students signed up for one of the 8 Parts of Speech. We have 24 students in the class, so we have nicely divided into groups of 3. I will be sending out e-mails to the individual groups so that they have one another's contact information. Below are the groups and the dates of presentation:
Parts of Speech
I -- Interjections -- Anika, Jack, Ethan
V -- Verbs -- Mike, Joshua, Stevan
A -- Adjectives -- Owen, Bryar, Jarrett
N -- Nouns -- Emma, Corrie, Laura
C -- Conjunctions -- Sarah, Ellie P, Selah
A -- Adverbs -- Ellie T, Joey, Aiden
P -- Pronouns -- Bailey, Jacob, Blake
P -- Prepositions -- Ana, Morgan, Samantha
Dates of Presentation:
9/21 -- Conjunctions
9/28 -- Pronouns *
10/5 -- Nouns *
10/12 -- Adjectives
10/26 -- Adverbs
11/2 -- Verbs
11/9 -- Prepositions
11/16 -- Interjections
* Note: These dates have been adjusted due to students' schedules.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Final Draft of the Descriptive Essay
(Remember to bring in your rough draft to hand in with the final draft)
-- Read Chapters 3 & 4
-- No Take Home Quiz! (We will do that in class next week)
-- Parts of Speech Pre-Test
-- Work on Parts of Speech Project
-- Research and learn all you can so that you can come prepared to work in your group next week!
Links for This Week
Class Notes
Have a wonderful weekend. If you're not doing anything, join us in Northfield for the Defeat of Jesse James Days!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
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