Writing 1: Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 8 (October 14)

Greetings!

Great class today, as always. This is a lively and engaged group of students. Writing 1 is a great part of my Thursday!

Quick Write

For today's Quick Write, I asked students to choose a topic about which they have strong opinions. It could be something light-hearted and close to home, or it could be a topic of current cultural or political interest. Then, they were to think about the perspectives of those who are on the other side of the issue. My goal is that they would take some time consider what others think. Not so that they could change their minds about their opinions, but so that they could be more understanding of those who they might view as opponents. Being able to do this is a mark of a mature, wise, and graceful thinker.

Words of the Day

stubborn -- fr, OE, stybb, "stump" -- fixed or set in an opinion; refusing to change

dogmatic -- fr. Greek, dogmatikos, "pertaining to doctrines" -- adhering only to principles or dogma

indomitable -- fr. Latin, in, "not" and domitare, "to tame" -- incapable of being subdued

inexorable -- fr. Latin, in "not" and exorabilis, "moved/persuaded by entreaty" -- not convinced or persuaded by requests or petitions.

Writing

Students handed in their Final Drafts of their Personal Essays. As soon as we complete one essay, we start the next. Our next essay is a Biography Essay. I talked about the differences between a report and an essay. In this essay, they are to make sure that they have an opinion about the person and write in a way to show the significance/importance of that person. For our previous papers, we followed a 2-step process (rough draft to final draft). For the rest of the papers we write this year, we'll follow a 3-step process: pre-write (which could include a mind map or outline) to a rough draft to a final draft. The pre-write and rough draft of the Biography Essay is due on October 28.

Literature

We've finished Animal Farm, and as a final activity, we had campaign speeches. I had the students group themselves according to the character they had chosen to write a character sketch; as a group, they put together a campaign speech -- claiming that their character would make the best leader of Animal Farm.

The next book that we'll read is Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. I gave them their books. Below I'm posting the background information and the Introduction Quiz. The quiz is not due until Nov. 4.

Grammar

We're continuing with the Parts of Speech presentations, and today we had the Nouns group. They gave a slide presentation and had a game for the students to play. They have homework to practice identifying nouns. They also have an "IVAN" review of the first 4 parts of speech that we've covered. (A reminder: students should also fill out the evaluation for the presentation.)

Fall Break

We don't have CHAT classes next week; October 20 & 21 are our Fall Break days. I hope you can find some fun outside activities to do.

Homework for October 28

Biography Pre-Write

Biography Rough Draft

Animal Farm Final (on Google Classroom)

Nouns Homework

Nouns Evaluation

IVAN Review (on Google Classroom -- due Nov. 4)