Thursday, October 12, 2017

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 8 (October 12)

Greetings!

Fall is here in full force.  Weather maps show that we are nearing peak colors, making this one of my most favorite weeks of year.

Our Quick Write this week had to do with two "National Days" -- National Savings Day and National Farmer Day.  Students could write about someting that they save or collect, something for which they are saving, or about their thoughts about farmers or farming.  

Our Words of the Day came from my book of foreign words and phrases:
chapeau -- fr. French chapeau, "hat" -- fr. Latin cappellum, "cap" -- a hat or cap
charade -- fr. French charra, "chatter" -- an absurd pretense intended to create a pleasant or respectable appearance.
charisma -- fr. Greek kharis, gift, favor, grace -- NOTE:  For extra credit, students are to bring a definition and a sentence using the word to show its meaning.

While students were writing their Quick Writes, I handed back their homework, which also included a missing homework report.  I intend to hand these out every few weeks so that students know what homework, if any, has not been turned in.  I don't want anyone to get too far behind and not feel that they can catch up. Our fall break is a great time to get caught up.  Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

I also handed back the final drafts of their Personal Essays.  These were very enjoyable to read, and the students did very well.  I graded the papers in four areas:  the Focus, which includes the introduction, thesis, and conclusion, the Content, the Organization, and the Mechanics.  In our next essays we will work on these areas, especially the introductions and conclusions.  Our next writing assignment is an Examples/Illustration Essay, and the pre-write was to be done for this week. However, students don't hand in these this week but in two weeks when they hand in their rough drafts.  

Following the quick check in about homework and our writing, we had a presentation about Adjectives from Bryar, Owen, and Jarrett that included a thorough PowerPoint presentation, some homework, and a loosely connected game of Mafia.  The slides are attached.

We are at the end of Animal Farm, and after break we will start our next book, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  Students were given their new books and an introduction to the story.   For the remaining time of our class period, the students took a short end-of-the-book test about Animal Farm.  I think that everyone finished the test, but for those who didn't, they may finish it at home.

Note:  A number of students came in late today, and when this happens, the whole class either has to wait to start or has to re-start.  Please remind your students to come to class on time.

Assignments for October 26:
-- Read handout introduction to A Christmas Carol
-- Write Examples/Illustrations Rough Draft
-- Grammar -- Adjectives Homework.
-- Animal Farm Final Test (if unfinished)
-- Extra Credit Word of the Day definition

Links for This Week
Class Notes

Have a great weekend!  Enjoy your Fall Break!
Mrs. Prichard

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