Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 26)

Greetings!

We might be winding down the semester, but we're still going strong and covered a lot of information today.

Our Quick Write prompt today was inspired by the fact that today was National Poem in your Pocket Day. I heard a few groans and grumblings, but they were good sports and wrote a bit of poetry.  I wrote a short diamante, which is a 7-line shape poem.  You can see some examples on this poetry site.  I look forward to reading their poems.

Our Words of the Day were connected to writing.  The following words of Greek origin are considered modes of persuasion and are also referred to as the three artistic proofs. (More explanations of these terms at this site.)

Ethos -- Greek, "nature, disposition" -- In terms of writing and logic, ethos refers to the credibility and authority of the person with the message, in other words, the ethical nature of a person. a person can express his ethos by choosing language and topics appropriate to the audience.  

Pathos -- Greek, "suffering, grief" -- In terms of writing and logic, pathos refers to an emotional appeal.  This can be done by using meaningful language emotional tone, and emotion-evolving examples.

Logos -- Greek, "word, reason" -- In terms of writing and logic, logos refers to an appeal to logic and reason.  This can be done by including facts, statistics, analogies, and citations by authorities and experts.

I did a quick check in about homework and encouraged students to check My GradeBook if they have questions about missing homework.  Here's a link for instructions for accessing the site.

Our final essay for the year is an Essay Re-Write.  This is a chance for students to rework one of their earlier essays.  I suggested to them that they choose an essay they 1) got a low grade on; 2) felt they could do better on or wanted to improve; or 3) that they enjoyed writing and want to add more.  As they are rewriting, they should look at their essays from a sentence and word choice level but also from a content consideration.  The Essay Re-Write is due next week, and students also need to hand in the original final draft of the essay they are rewriting.

For the Grammar part of our class, we had a quick quiz to check for understanding of simple, compound, and complex sentences.  We went through each sentence to identify the subjects, verbs, conjunctions, prepositional phrases, etc.  Using these sentences, I felt that some of the aspects of sentence construction and patterns were beginning to really click for most of the students.

For our Poetry discussion at the end of the class, we discussed two of the poems that were assigned for this week.  We read aloud "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron and "To My Dear Loving Husband" by Anne Bradstreet.  We talked about how the first poem, while it mentions the beauty in looks and character of someone, it was not necessarily a love poem.  In fact, one student mentioned that it could even be written about a favorite dog.  On the other hand, the Bradstreet poem is one of the sweetest poems written by a wife to her husband.

We start our Poetry Jam next week, so students should bring 2 poems that they are ready to recite in class.  A reminder:  students will get extra points for original poems and for poems that are memorized.  Next week we will divide into teams, and I will explain the  scoring.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Prepare 2 poems for the poetry jam

-- Essay Re-Write

-- Any old homework that is not overdue

Links for this week:

Class Notes 

National Poem in Your Pocket

Diamante Poetry

Ethos, Pathos, and Logos

My GradeBook Directions

Sentences Quiz

Have a great weekend.  

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 19)

Greetings!

Who thought we would have a blizzard in April?  The weather man says we should have bona fide spring weather this weekend.

We began the day with the Weekly Announcement from the CHAT directors.  They've felt that as the student body has grown, it was important to share updates, etc. with the students via notes to be read before the classes.  I understand that the notes are also sent to parents.  The notes today covered the new tardy policy and policies about being outside when the weather finally gets nice) and dress code.

I offered 2 prompts for our Quick Write.  Firstly, today is the anniversary of the first battle of the Revolutionary War, the battle of Lexington and Concord, which was known for its "shot heard round the world."  For this prompt, students could write about what makes the United States special and unique. The second prompt was inspired by Barbara Bush who died on Tuesday, April 17.  I asked the students to write about a special older "grandma" type of woman in their lives.  I heard good thoughts from the students about each prompt.

Our Words of the Day:

chagrin -- French, chagrin, "rough skin" -- the feeling of distress from being humiliated or embarrassed

chaise -- French, chaise, "chair" -- a small horse-drawn carriage for one or two people

chalet -- Old French, chasel, "farmstead" -- a wooden house or cottage with overhanging eaves, often found in Switzerland

chamois -- French, the chamois antelope -- a pliable leather-like cloth

Following our beginning of class activities, we discussed the Rough Drafts of the News Stories.  The class did a great job on these.  Some of them were quite creative and humorous.  Students help develop the list of topics for us to discuss.  I asked them to look over their essays and find something from the corrections and my notes in the margins.  From the list that the students wrote, we discussed common errors found in the essays.  For next week, the Final Drafts are due. 

For our Poetry discussion, I divided the class into small groups and selected four of the poems for them to discuss as a group.  In their groups, they were to identify the story of/behind the poem, the message/meaning of the poem, the mood of the poem, and the uniqueness of the poem.  I heard thoughtful and lively discussions.  

Assignments for Next Week

-- Finish the Final Draft of the News Story

-- Read the following poems:  "Death be not Proud" (Donne, p. 2), "On His Blindness" (Milton), "To My Dear and Loving Husband" (Bradstreet, 6), "She Walks in Beauty" (Byron, 16)

-- For 2 poems, write about the story, message, mood, and uniqueness.

-- No grammar

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Have a great weekend.  the weather should be pretty nice!  

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 11 (April 12)

Greetings!

We had a very good day in class.  I started the class time with a "public service announcement" about getting to class in time. For the most part, this has been a very punctual class, especially since then know that they will lose the Quick Write points if they are not in class on time.  However, in a conversation with the directors of CHAT, I heard that a number of other tutors have been having difficulties with high school and middle school students coming in up to 10 minutes late.  My appeal to this group of great students was to remind them how important it is to be on time and to encourage them to continue to be good role models.

We had three options for the Quick Write today.  Wednesday was National Siblings Day, so they could write about their siblings.  Another prompt was to write about what makes them or their families unique.  (A recent article that I read about appreciating diversity stated that understanding and enjoying your own personal uniqueness is a good step towards doing the same for others.)  And finally, students could try to write from an opposite perspective regarding something that they value or believe.  For example, if I were to be very "pro" some new legislation, I would try to write as if I were very "con."  The students did some great thinking and writing!

Our Words of the Day were "E" words:

El Dorado -- fr. Spanish, "the gilded place" -- a mythical city that is made of gold

ellipses -- fr. Greek elliepsis, "to leave out" -- the omission of words in a quote signified by three periods or asterisks with spaces in between

El Nino -- fr. Spanish, literally "the Christ child" -- a warm ocean current that develops in late December that can cause catastrophic weather conditions

Elysium -- fr.Greek, elysion, "plains"   -- the place for the blessed when they are dead; a state or condition of contentment

The rough drafts of the News Story was due this week.  As students were handing them in, we talked about how this assignment was different.  Many of the students enjoyed the opportunity to be creative in their writing.  Because I've heard of their topics, I'm excited to read these stories, including those that are "top secret."  I will return the rough drafts next week, and the final drafts are due April 26.  This is their last original essay.  The final writing assignment is a rewrite of an earlier essay.

For the literature discussion, I divided the class into 4 groups and had them illustrate 4 of our poems:  Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," William Carlos Williams's "the Red Wheel Barrow" and Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods in a Snowy Evening" and "Fire and Ice."  They had two directives:  they had to try to include the meaning of the poem and everyone had to have a hand in the drawing.  They were incredibly focused and animated as they drew.  When they were done, each group got up to read the poem and to talk about their illustration.

Because we took more time on the literature, we didn't have a grammar discussion this week.  The assigned worksheets about compound sentences have good explanations and directions, so they should be OK.  If a student has trouble, please contact me.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read poetry by William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Browning, Gerard Manly Hopkins, and Emily Bronte

-- Two Grammar Worksheets

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Illustrated Poems

Week 9 Compound Sentences

Week 10 Compound Sentences

Writing 1's Illustrated Poems

Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

I’ve known rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

William Carlos Williams's "The Red Wheel Barrow"

so much depends

upon

a red wheel

barrow

glazed with rain

water

beside the white

chickens

Robert Frost's "Fire and Ice"

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Whose woods these are I think I know.   

His house is in the village though;   

He will not see me stopping here   

To watch his woods fill up with snow.   

My little horse must think it queer   

To stop without a farmhouse near   

Between the woods and frozen lake   

The darkest evening of the year.   

He gives his harness bells a shake   

To ask if there is some mistake.   

The only other sound’s the sweep   

Of easy wind and downy flake.   

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   

But I have promises to keep,   

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 10 (April 5)

Greetings!

It might not feel like it as you look at the weather forecast for this weekend, but it is spring, and we are beginning the homestretch for the semester.  We are two-thirds of the way through!

For the Quick Write, I gave the students these options as prompts:  National Burrito Day, National Deep Dish Pizza Day, or Prompt #14 from Toastmasters -- What is the difference between existing and living.  We had some great comments for all three prompts, and at the end of our discussion, I asked students to list three things in their lives that make life worth living.  I'm looking forward to reading what they wrote.

Last week we had "Z" words, and this week our Words of the Day were "H" words.  

hippodrome -- fr. Greek hippo, "horse" -- an oval shaped race course for horse or chariot races

hollandaise -- fr. French sauce hollandaise, "Dutch sauce" -- a rich sauce made of butter, egg yolks, lemon juice, and sometimes herbs or spices

hombre -- fr. Spanish hombre, "man"; from Latin hominem, "man" -- a casual term for man or guy

hoi polloi -- fr. Greek, hoi polloi, "the many" -- the common man

I handed back homework, and we had a brief discussion about the e-mails that I sent out this week.  If students have any homework that has been graded but they see that it is not on the online grade book, they should hand it in again.  I had a student in Writing 2 who had done two assignments on one piece of paper, but I hadn't seen the second assignment on the back.  If a student is ever absent, all of the homework can be found in these places: attachments in the weekly class notes, copies on the class blog, and with a link to the document on Google drive.  

We had a brief discussion about the next writing assignment:  a News Story.  I reiterated that these can be actual or imaginary events; they can be current or historical events; they can be prominent or every day events.  Unlike an essay, they don't necessarily have the same kind of introduction, conclusion, or organizational structures.  Students should feel free to read a couple of newspaper stories for examples.  The rough draft is due next week.

We have reached the end of our O. Henry short stories unit, and the majority of the students have said that our last story, Tthe Ransom of Red Chief" was their favorite.  Ebeneezer Dorsett's son is the kind of kid you can hardly fathom even exists, and the two criminals are a bit bumbling.  As with all of the stories we've read, the end is quirky.  The class did a great job in our discussions.

I've given them the next book, which is our poetry for the year.  Below is the list of poets from the book that they should read for next week.  They should read all of the poems by each author.  There will be a quiz next week, so read them all!

For the grammar section of our class, we went over a worksheet from the previous class time that a number of students seemed to have a hard time with.  We went sentence by sentence, isolating the prepositional phrases and identifying them as adverb phrases or adjective phrases.  When sentences get more complicated, one of the first strategies for figuring out all of the various elements is to eliminate the prepositional phrases.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read the poetry of the following authors:  Hughes (p. 51), William (p. 48), Frost (p. 44)

-- No Poetry Analysis Worksheets

-- News Story Rough Draft

-- No Grammar Worksheets

Links for this week

Class Notes

News Story handout

Spring Technology Reminder

Have a great weekend!  Build one last snowman!!

Mrs. Prichard