Writing 1: Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 6 (September 30)

Greetings!

We had a full day in class today. I'm sure enjoying this group of students!

Quick Write

Today's prompt was inspired by the fact that is was on this day, September 30, in 1890 that Yosemite was named a national park. I'm afraid I gave some incorrect information. Yellowstone was the first national park, not Yosemite. For the prompt, students were to write about some "great out of doors" adventure. For responses, I heard about some close calls and some good times in nature.

Words of the Day

Vernacular -- fr. Latin verna (home-born slave) & vernaculus (domestic; native) -- "home-style language;" common language

Colloquial -- fr. Latin com (with) & loqui (to talk) -- language of a conversational style

Dialect -- fr. Greek dialektos (talk, conversation, speech) and fr. PIE -leg (to collect, gather, or pick out words) -- language specific to a particular region

Idiom -- fr. Latin idiomas (peculiarity in language) -- a figure of speech; words that have meanings other than their literal meaning

Homework Check

Usually after the beginning of class activities, I check in with the students about any homework questions. We discussed assignments on Google Classroom. I want to clarify an issue relating Google Classroom and the Grades Report that is emailed. If students are missing an assignment, it will say "missing" on Google Classroom. When I import the scores onto a Google Sheets spreadsheet using a grade book app, the missing scores are changed to zeros.

Another note about homework. I don't have a specific day that I correct homework, but the plan is to have it done and returned for the following class period. When I'm done correcting work, I will update Google Classroom to reflect both the paper homework that was handed in during class and the assignments finished on Google Classroom.

Writing Discussion

Students handed in the rough drafts of their Personal Essays. We also discussed the final drafts of their Descriptive Essays that were returned. These were graded using a rubric that takes a holistic view of the writing process. It considers the following categories: Focus, Content, Organization, Sentence Structures, and Mechanics. (For this essay, I did not grade the Focus area because I did not require an introduction, conclusion, or thesis statement.)

Next Week we will meet in small groups for Writing Circles. I've posted on Google Classroom a handout that they can fill out beforehand -- we will also have time in class. It's a short 4 question survey.

Literature Discussion

We talked again about Animal Farm and the characters of Napoleon, Boxer, Squealer, Clover, and the dogs. We covered ideas about leadership, manipulation, and propaganda. In that discussion were comments about some similarities between this book that was written in 1944 and today's culture. For next week, the students are to read chapters 9 & 10 and to take a quiz on Google Classroom.

Grammar Discussion

In class this week we had our first student presentation. We heard about Interjections from Noah, Sarah, and Peytan. They had a video that categorized interjections and an activity that had the students write sentences using words from a list of interjections. They have a worksheet that requires them to identify interjections. Remember, these worksheets must be corrected before they are handed in; students must indicate on the worksheet that it has been corrected.

As a part of the Parts of Speech project I would like students to evaluate the presentations. There is a link to the evaluation below.

Assignments for Next Week

Discussion Question -- Personal Essay (Google Classroom only)

Writing Circle Preparation

Read Chapters 9 & 10 of Animal Farm

Take Home Quiz #2 (Google Classroom only)