Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 2 (January 28)

 Greetings!

We started today with a Quick Write using prompt options that they had written:

1. Does water have flavor?
2. Do you have any family traditions or quirky things that only your family does?
3. What is your favorite room in your house?

Our Word of the Day was brought to us by Nina:

geloscopy -- fr. Greek gelos, "laughter" and scopein, "to examine" -- fortune telling by examining laughter.

[Note:  I reminded the students that they can bring 1 word each week for extra credit as long as they have the etymology and definition.]

The usual Agenda for the class time is to do these beginning of class activities and then most of the time we cover these topics in this order:  Writing assignments/instruction, Literature discussion, and Grammar instruction/work.  My plan is to give the last 10 - 15 minutes of every class to working on Grammar assignments so that if students have questions, they can ask them right in class. 

For our Writing discussion, I checked in with them about the progress of their Narrative Essays.  The Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts are due next week.  Students were reminded that a Narrative Essay is kind of like a "story with a purpose."  

The class has read the first 2 chapters of our book, The Thirty-Nine Steps.  I divided the class into 3 groups to discuss the overall plot development so far, points of confusion, and top traits or our main character, Richard Hannay.  As a class we agreed that some points were confusing simply because we skimmed rather than read carefully some sections.  Another challenge in reading this book is  that students are unfamiliar with the historical places and names, with some of the expressions, and with some of the vocabulary.  For example, Richard Hannay mentions the "veld" quite often.   Knowing the definition of the word would make a world of difference in their understanding of the book.  So here's some advice -- look up words that you don't know!

The last part of class was for Grammar instruction.  Today, I did a short lesson on simple and compound subjects and predicates.  Then the students had time to work on the worksheets and ask questions.  Some of them got a lot of work done during that time.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Homework for Next Week:

Narrative Essay Rough Draft & Pre-Write
Read Ch. 3 & 4 of The 39 Steps
Quiz:  Ch. 1 – 4 (Google Classroom)

Ch. 3 & 4 Study Guide Questions (Extra Credit)

Simple Sentences (Compound Subjects)

Simple Sentences (Compound Predicates)

Sentences: Finding the Complete Subjects and Complete Predicate

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Track My Grades

Spring Writing 1 Syllabus

Spring Writing 1 Assignments Checklist

The Thirty-Nine Steps audio book on YouTube

The Thirty-Nine Steps audio book on Librivox

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 1 (January 21)

 Greetings!

It was good to be back in the classroom and to see everyone's faces (at least I'm sure there were faces behind the masks.)

For our Quick Write today, I asked the students to write something that connected with their Pre-Reading assignment for The 39 Steps.  I had think about what they would do if they were on the run -- either from some bad guys or some good guys (which meant they might be a bad guy.)  They were to think of possible options for hiding and staying safe.  This is a very creative bunch!  I heard some of their ideas and look forward to reading what they wrote.

For our Words of the Day, I had for them some words for those small "thingamajigs" or "whatchamacallits."  

meme -- fr. Greek mimeme; to imitate -- a digital image combined with text to express a cultural comment.
pintle -- the pin or bolt that is used in hinge.
ferrule -- the metal cap on the end of an umbrella
aglet -- the cover of the end of a shoe lace

For the rest of the semester, students can bring in interesting words for our weekly Words of the Day part of our discussion.  Here's how it will go:  Students can bring in 1 word a week written on a note card, Post-it note, or small piece of paper; we'll put them in the Homework Bin and randomly pull a few out.  For these words, they also need to include the etymology and a definition.  Students will get extra credit for bringing a word in, whether or not we use it that day.

Before we dug into our new topics for the semester, I quickly reviewed some of the basics, including Google Classroom and Track My Grades.  As last semester, all assignments will be posted in Google Classroom.  With the exception of our essays and a few online quizzes, students can hand in their homework when they come to class.  However, last semester some students preferred to do them on Google Classroom.  Either way will work, but students MUST remember to only hand in their homework in one place -- EITHER during class OR via Google Classroom.  Not both.  Note:  For those who have been trying to get onto Google Classroom, the site had been down for a couple days.  It's up and running and at its regular speed. 

Last semester I used a set of grade sheets that I built out of Google Sheets, but it didn't quite do everything I wanted it to do, so this semester I'm using Trackmygrades.com.  You should have received an invitation (and I will send another following this email).  To log in, you will need your chatclasses.com email and the 4-digit password that they have assigned you.  The best way to differentiate Google Classroom and Track My Grades is this:  Google Classroom will give you the specifics of an assignment and will tell you if you are missing any work; Track My Grades will tell you the scores for the work that has been handed in.  

The first topic we covered was our first Writing assignment -- a Narrative Essay.  I like to call a Narrative Essay a "story with a purpose."  In this type of essay, students re-tell a series of events, but they are not simply telling a story.  They must have a reason for telling these events to their readers.  This reason could include a turning point in life, a traumatic experience that change a life, an achievement that made a significant difference, etc.  The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due February 4.

Next on the agenda was our first book for the semester.  For years I've been teaching The Strange Adventures of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and this year I wanted a change.  Instead, we will be reading another British classic that was written in 1915 -- The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.  This is one of the first espionage, man-on-the-run types of books.  I've taught this book to British Literature classes, and I think we'll all enjoy this book.

Last semester in the Grammar portion of the class we covered the Parts of Speech, and the students did amazing presentations.  This semester, we will build on that knowledge and review sentence patterns.  Many times when students are writing, they have comma splice sentences, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments.  It's important to be firmly grounded in the elements of a sentence so that you have the vocabulary and knowledge to fix sentences that aren't quite working.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

Narrative Essay Pre-Write

Intro to The 39 Steps Quiz (GC)
Read Ch. 1 & 2 of The 39 Steps
Week 2 – 3 Study Guide Questions
Grammar – Wk1:  What is a Sentence? 

Grammar – Wk1:  Sentence Patterns N-V

Links for This Week

Writing 1 Assignments Checklist

Writing 1 Spring Syllabus

Spring Writing 1 Students Google Drive folder

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 1 (January 21)