We had a full day in class, and it was made better by the sun shining in the windows. (We've had a number of weeks when the room feels darker because the sun is hiding behind clouds..)
I chose our Quick Write today, and used the National Days Calendar for the prompts. Today is National Frozen Yogurt Day, so students could express opinions about frozen desserts; tomorrow is National Send a Friend a Card day, and students could write a letter. Because writing letters is becoming a lost art, I've offered an incentive for them to actually send a letter. I had envelopes ready, and any student who brings it back next week addressed with a letter sealed in it will get extra credit points. (Note: Students can also mail it from their homes or hand deliver it, but they need to take a picture of it as proof.)
I also chose our Words of the Day. Today's selection were words words.
acronym -- fr. Greek, akron, "or tip" -- an abbreviation formed from the initial letters of other words and pronounced as a word (e.g. NASA, SCUBA)
aptronym -- fr. Latin, aptus, "fitting" -- a person's name that is regarded as amusingly appropriate to their occupation (e.g. a florist named Katie Gardener)
capitonym -- fr. Latin caput, "head" -- a word that changes its meaning (and sometimes pronunciation) when it is capitalized. (e.g. Concord/ concord; Polish/polish)
homonym -- fr. Greek homos, "same" -- a word spelled and pronounced like another but has a different origin and meaning (e.g. the small flying bat and the baseball bat.) Homophones are words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings, e.g. sea and see.
pseudonym -- fr. Greek pseudos, "false"-- having or using a false name, a pen name, or an alias. For example, Mark Twain was a pseudonym for Samuel Clemens.
I handed back the rough drafts of the Narrative Essays and went over common errors. A very common mistake to make with Narrative essays is to mix up verb tenses. Students often start with past tense verbs, but some where along the way they switch of present tense. We also discussed parallel structure, punctuating quotations, comma splice sentences, indenting paragraphs, and correct pronoun cases.
We are about halfway through with The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. For this week's discussion, I had students choose one of four offered themes that they felt was most prevalent in the book. They gathered in small groups to discuss where they had encountered those themes so far in their reading. When they break into small groups, I pay close attention to the quality of the comments and the interchange of ideas. Learning to have strong academic discussions is an important for academic success.
At the end of class, we started on the Grammar homework for the week. This week, we are focusing on prepositional phrases. In the simple sentences worksheets that we had done for the previous week, many students chose nouns from prepositional phrases as the subjects of the sentences, so it's important to do some review about these phrases. Students have 2 worksheets and should do both sides.
Have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
Assignments for Next Week
-- Read Chapters 7 & 8
-- No Study Guide questions
-- Narrative Essay Final Draft
-- 2 Grammar Worksheets (front and back)
Links for This Week
Class Notes
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