Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 9 (March 22)

Greetings!

We had a full class and great discussions yesterday.  They've worked hard this semester, and their spring break is well-deserved!

For our Quick Write today, they could choose from three options:

1.  The first day of spring was this week and next week is Spring Break.  Any plans?

2.  Yesterday was National Common Courtesy Day.  What can they do to increase the levels of politeness and respect in the world around them.

3.  Yesterday was National French Bread Day.  What would they do with a good loaf of French bread?

We had some great comments about lack of respect that we see in the world today.  And while the students might not say anything to you, they realized that parents who are intentional and diligent in training towards respect, courtesy, and honor should be thanked because these characteristics are really needed.

Our Words of the Day came from the last page of my book of foreign words and phrases:

zollverein -- German, Zoll, "toll or customs" and verein, "union" -- a tariff applied to a trade agreement

zaftig -- German, zaft, "juice" to Yiddish, zaftik, "plump" -- a pleasantly rounded woman

zither -- Greek cithara -- a stringed instrument having 30 - 40 strings over a shallow horizontal soundboard and played with pick and fingers

zombie -- West African, zumbi -- the undead; a person who appears lifeless

As I promised last week, we had a Quiz today with questions about their assigned short stories for today, "The Pimienta Pancakes" and "Retrieved Reformation."  If they had read their stories, the questions were pretty easy.  On the other hand, if they had not done the reading, they would not have been able to answer them.  I don't do quizzes like this very often -- just often enough to keep them on their toes.  When we finished the quiz, we discussed the stories.  With each new O. Henry story, students are learning to be on the lookout for something quirky.  Our final story is "The Ransom of Red Chief."  Some students already know this story, and if they have seen Disney's No Deposit, No Return with Don Knotts they will have an idea of the plot.  

The literary analysis essays have been handed in, and we're onto our last "from scratch" essay of the year -- a News Story.  We talked at length how these are arranged a little differently than an essay.  In essays, the introduction gives clear direction with thesis statement, a "road map," and a hook.  The conclusion wraps of the essay with a reiterated thesis statement, a summary, and some parting thoughts.  A news story, on the other hand, starts with the primary, most important major details and then fills in other details throughout the article.  The conclusion might sum up the details and give final thoughts, but does not have the same importance as it does in an essay.  This is in part because journalists know that they have to get the most important information in at the beginning because they don't know if their readers will read through to the end of an article.  We also discussed some topic ideas.  They can choose a "not real" event to write about.  Students often enjoy this assignment because it allows them the opportunity to be a little creative.

For our Grammar work, we did some more work with compound sentences and coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS).  We worked on them in class so that they could ask questions.  We've gone over this material, but it takes a while for it to fully stick in our heads so that it makes a difference in our writing.

Assignments for April 5

-- News Story Pre-Write

-- Read "The Ransom of Red Chief"

-- Write 3 Discussion Questions for the story

-- 2 Grammar Worksheets

   -- FANBOYS

  -- Compound Sentences Exercises

Links for This Week

Class Notes

News Story

The Ransom of Red Chief (1998 version)

The Ransom of Red Chief (high school play)

The Ransom of Red Chief (audiobook)

FANBOYS Worksheet

Compound Sentences Exercises

Have a WONDERFUL Spring Break!

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 April 5; Rough Draft due April 12;  Final Draft due April 26

– 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 15)

Greetings!

We had another good class.  This is such a friendly group of students, and they interact well with each other and with our discussion topics.

I gave the students four ideas for Quick Writes.  Firstly, it was the Ides of March (3/15), which is the date that the Roman Senators killed Julius Caesar, so they could write about something political.  Wednesday was Pi Day (3/14), so they could write about something mathematical.  I also gave them a prompt from one of my creative writing books:  "Eva looked at the egg in her hand.  There was nothing left for her to do but contact the FBI."  And finally, if nothing inspired them with these prompts, they could draw a picture of a flower yawning.  I had quite a variety of creative responses!

Our Words of the Day came from one of our short stories by O. Henry.  Instead of looking the words up, we looked at the context of the words to determine the definitions.

decorum -- referring to behavior that is in good taste and appropriate

matrimonial -- related to marriage or married people

poultice -- a soft packet of herbs, etc. applied to the body to relieve inflammation

I handed back the Rough Drafts of their literary analysis of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  I've told them that this is probably the most challenging writing assignment of the year, and they have done a wonderful job.  As I do when I hand back rough drafts, we went over common errors that I found in their papers.  We talked about commas, compound sentences, and contractions.  We also went over how to incorporate quoted material into an essay and whether a paraphrase should be used instead of a direct quote.

The next item on our agenda was to discuss our Short Stories.  (I hope the students are enjoying the O. Henry stories as much as I am!)  This week, we discussed "Makes the Whole World Kin" that is a quirky story about a burglar and rheumatism. O. Henry writes stories with quirky endings, and this one is a favorite of mine.  This class has done a great job keeping up with the reading assignments, but I did warn them that next week they could have a pop quiz.  Just sayin' . . .

For the grammar section, our lesson today was identifying prepositional phrases and then determining if they are adjective phrases or adverbial phrases.  They have one worksheet to  do.

A note about absences and homework:  When students are absent due to an illness, travel, or some other activity, it is up to them to find out what they are missing.  All missing worksheets can be found in at least one of the following places:  attached to the class notes, a shared Google document (f it's a pdf), or as a blog post (if it's a Word doc).  The content of the class and homework assignments can be found in the class notes e-mail, the related blog post, and the syllabus.  They can always check with me if something is unclear, but they should also check these other resources.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Retrieved Reformation (p. 49); The Pimenta Pancakes (p. 29) 

-- Complete one worksheet (front and back)

-- Finish Final Drafts

-- 1 Grammar worksheet

Links for this Week:

Class Notes

Classifying Prepositions

Short Story Worksheet

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 7 (March 8)

Greetings!

We had a productive class today.  The students were alert and engaged in our work and discussions!

I took our Quick Write prompts from a list of table topic prompts that Toastmasters uses.  Our prompts:  #27.  Would you break the law to save a loved one?  and #15.  If not now, when?  We discussed what it might look like to stand up and talk off the cuff on one of these topics.

Because of a couple of conversations at the beginning of class, we got started a little late, so we didn't take time for Words of the Day.  Next week.

Students have handed in the rough drafts of their literary analysis of a Theme or Character of The Strange Adventures of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Writing papers that analyze a piece of literature via one of its literary elements is great practice, but it is also hard work.  They should pat themselves on the back for working so hard.  I will hand them back next week.

We had some great discussion time about our two short stories by O. Henry this week.  The whole class was engaged in our discussion, adding good comments and insights about the stories.  Our two stories for next week are two of my favorites.  In truth, all of O. Henry's stories are in my list of favorites.

We worked on sentence patterns again during our Grammar section. We worked on building sentences according to N-LV-N, N-LV-Adj, N-V-DO, and N-V-IO-DO patterns in addition to the worksheets that call on students to identify sentence parts.  Many students finished at least one of the worksheets in class.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read "Makes the Whole World Kin" and "The Furnished Room"

-- Fill out the Short Story Worksheet, both sides

-- Grammar Worksheets

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Sentence Complements Worksheet

Finding Direct Objects

Finding Indirect Objects

Have a great weekend.  Spring is just around the corner, so enjoy your winter activities while you can!

Mrs. Prichard

Sentence Complements

Name:  _____________________________________

Part I – Identifying Direct and Indirect Objects

Underline and label the direct objects and the indirect objects.

1.     John Updike has written many novels, short stories, poems, and essays.

2.     Janet read me one of his short stories.

3.     Mrs. Smith showed us Updike's list of greatest authors.

4.     We gave his choices our full attention.

5.     His choices included Homer, Proust, and Shakespeare.

6.     Updike places William Shakespeare at the top of his list of favorite authors.

7.     Many would commend him for that choice.

8.     Shakespeare's genius for words changed the English language.

9.     His plots captivate readers.

10.                        His themes include human wisdom and folly, joy and sorrow, love and revenge.

Part II – Identifying Predicate Nouns and Predicate Adjective

Underline the subject once and the linking verb twice.  Label.  Circle and label the predicate noun or predicate adjectives

1.     The roses smell fresh and fragrant.

2.     Joan is both a great gardener and landscape architect.

3.     We feel cheerful in this well-designed space.

4.     Two common shade plants are hydrangeas and hostas.

5.     Fresh, edible flowers look spectacular on a salad or cake.

Part III – Mixing it Up!

In each sentence below, identify the italicized word or words. After the sentence, write DO (direct object), IO (indirect object), PA (predicate adjective), or PN (predicate noun), depending on what the italicized word is in the sentence.

1.     Many people use their hands in conversation.

2.     At times, such gestures may seem silly or unnecessary.

3.     At other times, such gestures appear meaningful.

4.     Patrick read me an article on a recent scientific study about using hands during speech.

5. People in the study were either blind or sighted.

Class Notes -- Week 6 (March 1)

Greetings!

We had a great class yesterday.  The room has been set up in rows instead of the U-shape that I started the year with.  A number of students said that they prefer the U-shape, so we began the class by rearranging the tables and chairs.

Our Quick Write prompts came from the National Days for March 1:  National Peanut Butter Lovers/ Minnesota/ Pig/ Horse Protection/ and "Dadgum that's Good" Day.  The other option was inspired by the March 2 birthday of Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss).

Our Words of the Day were not from my book of foreign words and phrases but are words from "The Gift of the Magi," our next literature assignment.

parsimony -- Latin, parcere, "to be sparing" -- to be extremely unwilling to spend money or to part with resources

mendicancy -- Latin, mendicare, to beg -- the practice of begging

meretricious -- Latin, merere, "to earn, gain, or deserve" -- describing something that has a good outward appearance but little inward value.

After our beginning of class activities, we looked over the homework that I had handed back. One piece was of particular interest -- the list of finished and/or missing assignments with scores. If an assignment had a zero, it is too late to hand it in unless a student had been absent due to an illness. If an assignment hasn't been handed in but is still within the allowed time, I wrote the "last chance date" on it.  As of yesterday, My GradeBook was up to date with all assignments.  If you have any questions about scores or homework, please don't hesitate to send an e-mail.

We talked at length about their next essays, their Literary Analysis of a theme or character from our book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  As I've told them, this is probably the hardest paper they will write all year.  We discussed ways to organize the essay and to develop a thesis statement.  

We've finished one book and are headed into our next, a series of short stories by O. Henry.  For next week, we will read two, "The Gift of the Magi" and "After Twenty Years."  They are to read the stories and write on the worksheet that I gave them three questions that come to mind that we can use for classroom discussion.

For Grammar, we worked again on sentence patterns with linking verbs, predicate nouns, predicate adjectives, and direct objects. They have one worksheet to do.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read "Gift of the Magi" (p. 1) and "After Twenty Years" (p. 21)

-- Complete Worksheet with 2 discussion questions

-- Rough Draft of Themes or Character Essay

-- Complete Themes, Character, and Vocabulary Handouts

-- Sentence Patterns Practice Worksheet

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Short Stories (3 Questions) Worksheet

Sentence Patterns Worksheet

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Short Stories Worksheet (Discussion Questions)

Story Title:  _______________________________

Author:  ___________________________________

As you read, jot down 3 discussion questions that come to mind.

1.

2.

3.

SENTENCE PATTERNS PRACTICE

SENTENCE PATTERNS PRACTICE

N-LV-N, N-LV-Adj, N-V-N

N-LV-N and N-LV-Adj Practice

In each of the sentences below

Underline the subject and label it “S”

Underline the linking verb twice and label it “LV”

Underline the predicate noun and label it “PN”

Underline the predicate adjective and label it “PAdj”

            Note:  A sentence will have either a predicate noun or a predicate adjective, but not both.  Don’t mistake adjectives that modify predicate nouns as predicate adjectives.

1.     Mr. Jackson is a librarian at Smith County Library.

2.     He is very patient, especially with young children.

3.     He is also a source of great stories.

4.     The children seem appreciative of his help.

5.     This red sweater is the one from the store.

6.     It feels soft and cozy.

7.     The squirrels in the yard seem tame.

8.     The lake looks very calm in the moonlight.

9.     The book on sale is A Tale of Two Cities.

10.            He will be a member of the band this year.

N-V-N  Practice

In each of the sentences below

Underline the subject and label it “S”

Underline the linking verb twice and label it “V”

Underline the direct object and label it “DO”

1.     Our dog chased a squirrel out of the yard.

2.     Janet likes carrot juice with her lunch.

3.     Mark Twain published many books in his lifetime.

4.     Our family ate dinner at the new restaurant.

5.     We visited Aunt Betty in New York last year.

6.     I brought five DVDs to my cousin’s house.

7.     James Bond drove an Aston Martin.

8.     Jacques is delivering newspapers to his neighbors.

9.     We saw the Northern Lights in the sky.

10.            Peter gave me a baseball, a bat, and a jersey for my birthday.