Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 18)

 Greetings!

We had a delightful class today.  Our class time was quite full.

We started with a Quick Write, and today they had 5 options (4 of which came from their own ideas): Tell about a favorite memory from 2020; If you were stranded on an island, what 3 things would you like to have; explain your thoughts and ideas about socialism; describe what you would do if you had 3 days without electricity; or whatever else is on your mind.  I had a lot of homework to hand back, so they students had a lot of time to write.

Our Words of the Day came from Nina, Rachel, and Annelise today.  As I put the words on the board, I asked the class to make up definitions for the words.

griffonage -- fr. French, from Middle French grifouner to scribble (from griffon stylus, from griffe claw) + -age -- : careless handwriting : a crude or illegible scrawl.

docetism -- from medieval Latin Docetae , the name, based on Greek dokein ‘seem’ -- a belief that Jesus was human but not divine.

raconteur -- French, from raconter ‘relate, recount’ -- an excellent story teller

While the students are writing, I hand back homework, and we do a short Homework Check after the beginning of class activities.  This week, I reminded them of my late homework policy.  I give students three weeks to get assigned work in (actually, they have 4 weeks from the assigned date until I will no longer take it.)  After that extended time, assignments will be given zeros.  I also explained that while I don't have a specific day for correcting homework, I correct homework all at once and don't check and re-check Google Classroom for late assignments.  If homework is handed in on time, it will automatically be included when I correct homework.  If it is late, it could be included, or it might not be.  Most weeks, I will include scores on Track My Grades.  

Students handed in the final drafts of their Narrative Essays.  I'm really looking forward to reading these because their rough drafts were so good!  As a reminder, they should hand in their rough drafts with my marks/corrections when they hand in the final drafts.  The final drafts could be handed in during class or uploaded to the Google Classroom assignment.  The students also need to finish the First Five Mistakes form.

When we finish one paper, we start another.  For the next round of essays,  students can choose to write an Examples Essay or an Analogy Essay.  For both of these types of essays, the students should be thinking explaining one thing with one or more other things.  Students have the next two weeks to do their brainstorming and research.  The pre-writes and rough drafts should be handed in on March 11. 

We had a brief discussion about Richard Hannay and our book, The Thirty-Nine Steps.  Some of the students like the adventurous character of Mr. Hannay, and others don't like him.  I love it when a book elicits strong opinions from readers.  We will finish the book by next week.

At the end of class, we worked through our Grammar worksheet, practicing identifying and classifying prepositional phrases.  Prepositional phrases function either as adjective phrases or adverb phrases, and it can be tricky to tell what kind of phrase it is.

A reminder -- we don't have class next week ; the next time we see one another will be March 4.

Assignments for March 4

-- Examples/Analogy  Pre-Write
-- Read Ch. 9 & 10 of The 39 Steps
-- Week 6 – 3 Study Guide Questions 
-- Classifying Prep Phrases

Links for This Week

Class Notes

About Examples/Analogy Essays

Have a good weekend and a wonderful week off!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 11)

 Greetings!

We had an fun class today -- we covered a lot of material .  We started with our Quick Write.  As I told them last week, the plan was to write letters of encouragement and gratitude.  to someone.  They wrote their letters, put them in sealed envelopes, and handed them in.  If need be, they can bring the addresses next week if they forgot to bring them today.  I will mail them.

Our Words of the Day came from the class contributions:

thalassophile -- fr. Greek, thalasa, "sea" -- a lover of the sea

geminate --  fr. Latin, geminatus, "twinned, divided, equal" -- duplicated, found in pairs; something arranged in pairs

susurrate -- fr. Latin, susurare, "to hum, murmur, mumble" -- to make a whispering or humming sound

costermonger -- fr. French, costard, a large variety of apple; Old English mangare, "merchant, broker" -- a vendor of vegetables

I handed back the rough drafts of the Narrative Essays.  These were very enjoyable essays to read.  Many students wrote more than they usually did, and they told interesting stories in the contexts of their essays.  As per my practice, I go over common mistakes and use these for grammar instruction.  The most common errors I found in their write had to do with punctuating dialogue, paragraph formation, comma splice sentences, and compound sentences with commas.  Students are to revise their rough drafts into final drafts for next week.  In addition to their final drafts, they must fill out a form titled, "First Five Mistakes" on a Google Classroom assignment.

We had a short discussion about Richard Hannay and The Thirty-Nine Steps.  We talked about how Hannay was so quick to share his story with those he met, even though dangerous spies were on his trail.  We discussed employing a "willing suspension of disbelief."  In other words, some parts seem unbelievable, and they will remain just that -- unbelievable.  We accept it and go on.  In the chapters that they will read for next week, the spy aspect of the story will evolve, so that by the end, there is a solution to the whole mysterious situation.  For next week, they will read Chapters 7 & 8 and take a quiz.  If they want, they can do the study guide questions for extra credit.

Our Grammar instruction centered on prepositional phrases.  These phrases function as either adjectives or adverbs.  It is important to identify them in sentences so that they can be eliminated as other sentence parts (e.g. subject, direct object, etc.)  Students have 2 sides of one worksheet to do for next week.

A note on homework:  last week with 46 rough drafts from Writing 1 and Writing 2, I only corrected student papers.  The other grammar and literature homework will be graded and entered into Track My Grades this week. Again, if you are not able to get into Track My Grades, let me know.  We discovered today that I had the wrong email entered for one student, and I was able to correct it.

Assignments for next week

• Narrative Essay Final Draft

• First Five Mistakes (GC)

• Read Ch. 7 & 8 of The 39 Steps

• Quiz:  Ch. 5 – 8 (GC)

• Ch. 7 & 8 Study Guide Questions (Extra Credit)

• Grammar – Wk4:  Prepositional Phrase Practice

• Grammar -- Wk4: Prepositional Phrases as Adj/Adv

• Remember to bring your address for your envelope.

Links for This Week

Class Notes

The Thirty-Nine Steps (Librivox)

The Thirty-Nine Steps (YouTube)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (February 4)

 Greetings!

We started our class thinking about "Gratitude."  I shared with the class that research shows that people who develop intentional habits of expressing gratitude have stronger cognitive functioning, better immune systems, and a greater degree of happiness.  For our Quick Write prompts today, students could choose from these options:  

• What is a simple pleasure that you are grateful for?
• What is something that you are looking forward to?
• Who is someone who could really use a "thank you note?"

The students had some great comments, and we decided that next week we would write some real thank you notes.  I will bring envelopes and stamps and the students are to bring addresses.  (What a great group this is!!)

Our Words of the Day came from Nina and Kaylynn:

oikofugic -- fr. Greek oiko, "house" and Latin fugere, "to flee"  -- a desire to wander or run away from home. 

lachrymose -- fr. Latin lachrymosis, "tear" -- suggest of or tending to cause tears; mournful

mammonism -- fr. Latin mamonao, "wealth" -- the greedy pursuit of riches.

For class this week, we had extras on Zoom due to the bad roads.  Unfortunately, the internet kicked me off, and I couldn't get Zoom up and running again.  I'm afraid those students attending on Zoom missed that last 1/3 of the class.

Students have handed in the Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts of their Narrative Essays.  Most of them enjoyed writing these because they could write about personal experiences.  I look forward to reading them.

We are 4 chapters into our book, The Thirty-Nine Steps, and most of the students are enjoying the story line.  Some aspects are unfamiliar because it was written for another time and place.  I reminded the students to look up unfamiliar words.  We also read some of the landscape descriptions.  Even though these aren't the most important aspects of the story, they geography and Richard Hannay's response to the weather, plants, etc. have a subtle effect on the mood of the story.

For the Grammar portion of class, we worked again on simple and compound sentences.  We took time to do a few of the sentences on each worksheet. 

Assignments for Next Week:

• Read Ch. 5 & 6 of The 39 Steps

• Week 4 – 3 Study Guide Questions

• Grammar – Subject/Verb Agreement

• Grammar – Simple Sentences (Compound Subject & Predicate)

• Grammar – Simple Sentences Review

 

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Librivox -- The Thirty-Nine Steps audiobook

YouTube -- The Thirty-Nine Steps audiobook

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature