Greetings!
We had a good, productive day yesterday. We started with a Quick Write. For today's prompts, I used the facts that October 1, 1908 was the day that Ford manufacturing rolled the Model T off its production line and that October 2, 1950 was the day that the first Peanuts comic was published. Some students also mentioned that Tuesday was National Coffee Day. Many students wrote about car-related stories. Some haven't seen any of the Charlie Brown specials, so here's a link to the Christmas Special.
Following our Quick Write, I usually do a Homework Check (I use the time while they're doing the Quick Write to pass back work.) Today I took time to go over the Final Drafts of their essays. The rubric that I use for evaluating their essays consider 5 categories: Focus, Content, Organization, Sentence Structures, and Mechanics. This allows me to give more holistic grades for the papers they write. As I noted with the students, the Focus section that includes the thesis statement, introduction, and conclusion is often the category that has the lowest scores. I'm especially "picky" on that section because the quality of the introduction and conclusion can determine the overall quality of a paper.
Students have handed in the rough drafts of their Personal Essays, and I will hand them back next week. These papers can be turned in via the Google Classroom assignment.
We spent more time talking about some of the characters we've met in Animal Farm. The students seem to have formed some specific opinions about Napoleon, Snowball, Boxer, etc., which means 2 things: George Orwell has done some good writing and the students have done some careful reading. As discussion progressed, we used some Accountable Talk practices in which students responded to comments made by their classmates with such comments as "I agree, and ..." or "I agree, but ..." or I disagree because ..." Learning to have good, academic discussions is an important part of academic growth.
Finally, we spent the last third of the class in our Grammar unit and the Parts of Speech. Anthony and Annalise did a great job of explaining Interjections. They had a PowerPoint, activities, homework, and even some candy. As I told the students, the homework that Anthony and Annalise is required, and the homework that is in the packet I gave them is Extra Credit. Listed on the same assignment as the now extra credit worksheets is a short form to evaluate the Interjections Evaluation. Students will fill out a form for each pair of presenters. This evaluation has more to do with how much the students learned than with the quality of the presentation.
Have a great weekend. Enjoy the beautiful fall colors (before that all need to be raked up!)
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
Assignments for Next Week
-- Read Ch. 7 & 8
-- 3 Reader Responses
-- Interjections Homework from Anthony & Annalise
-- Extra Credit Interjections Worksheets
-- Interjections Presentation Evaluation (GC)
Links for this Week
Personal Essay Rough Draft assignment
Interjections Slide Presentation
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