Thursday, November 18, 2021

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 12 (November 18)

 

Greetings!


We had a good day in class and covered a lot of ground.

Quick Write
For today's Quick Writes, we had the following prompts:
1 -- Contribute to the list of Quick Write ideas to be used for my classes for the rest of the year.
2 -- Write about a sports mis-hap that happened to you or that you know about.
3 -- November 18 is National Princess Day and November 16, 1553, was the day that Queen Elizabeth I became the queen of England following the death of her sister, Mary.  Write about any royalty that you are especially interested in.


Homework Check
A reminder to students:  make sure you correct your grammar worksheets and show on the worksheet or the Google Classroom assignment that you're corrected it.  Also, make sure you turn in assignments that you've done on Google Classroom.  A number of assignments have been finished, but students have forgotten to turn the work in .  

Writing Discussion
Students have been assigned another essay -- a History Essay.  The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due the week after Thanksgiving break.  We did some brainstorming about topics and then some more for possible thesis statements.  Coming up with thesis statements is one of the hard parts of writing a paper.  The thesis statement is more than a topic sentence; it is a sentence that tells the reader what the topic is and what the writer's stand or opinion is.  When students are thinking about their topics, they should also be thinking about that topic's importance or significance.  I often call this the "Why should I care?" element.

Literature Discussion
We are three chapters (Staves) into A Christmas Carol.  We've read about Marley, the Ghost of Christmas Past, and the Ghost of Christmas Present.  Most of my questions concerned details about the story and not as many analysis questions.  A number of students didn't bring their books to class.  Remember to bring them next week.

Grammar
We had our last presentation for our parts of speech unit.  Today we heard from the Prepositions trio.  They had a slide presentation, a video, and a game.  Students have Prepositions worksheets and evaluation to do for homework.  They also have a review of the last 4 parts of speech before the final test.  (CAPP Review)

Assignments for December 2
Prepositions Evaluation (Google Classroom)
CAPP Review -- Conjunctions (Google Classroom)
CAPP Review -- Adverbs (Google Classroom)
CAPP Review -- Pronouns (Google Classroom)
CAPP Review -- Prepositions (Google Classroom)
Read Stave 4 of A Christmas Carol


Links for This Week
Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 12 (November 18)


Have a great Thanksgiving weekend!
Blessings!
Mrs. Prichard
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Saturday, November 13, 2021

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 11 (November 11)


 

Greetings!


We had another full class time this week.  When I first started teaching at CHAT, I didn't know how I would fill a 90 minute class.  Now I wish I could have the students for even more time because there's always more to cover.  

Quick Write
Our prompts for today:
Nov. 10 was the birthday of the US Marine Corps
Nov. 11 was Veterans/Armistice Day
Nov. 12  was National Chicken Soup for your Soul
Students could write something about the military or about something that has to do with social/mental/emotional self-care.

Words of the Day
Today's words were war-related:
military -- fr. Latin militis, "soldier" -- of or relating to war, soldiers, army
veteran -- fr. Latin, veteranus, "old, aged, experienced" -- someone who has served in the military; someone who has had long experience in an occupation/skill
armistice -- fr. Latin, arma, "weapons" and stitium, "to stand, be firm" -- a temporary halt in battles
war -- fr. PIE (Proto-Indo-European) wers, "to confuse, mix up" -- a fight carried on in battle using arms

Writing Instruction
The final drafts of the Biography Essay were due this week, and we're on to the next essay -- a History Essay.  For the Biography Essay, students were to write about the significance of a person, and for the History essay, students should discuss the significance in history and culture of an event, item, or period.  For the rest of the essays that they will write for Writing 1, students will write a Pre-Write, Rough Draft, and Final Draft.  I have the Pre-Write "due" next week because I want students to take the week to plan and research for their essays.  However, they don't have to hand in the pre-writes until they hand in the rough drafts, which will be on December 2 (3 weeks from this week.)

Literature
We didn't talk about Stave Two of A Christmas Carol today.  Next week we'll cover Staves Two and Three.

Grammar
We had a good presentation about Pronouns that also included a little "story time."  Students have pronouns homework and a pronouns evaluation to do for their Grammar homework.  Next week, our final presenation:  Prepositions.

Assignments for Next Week
First 5 Corrections (if not done)
History Essay Pre-Write (work on for 11/19 and due 12/2)
Read Stave Three of A Christmas Carol

Links for This Week
Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 11 (November 11)

Enjoy the changing of the seasons!!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
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Thursday, November 4, 2021

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 10 (November 4)

 Greetings!


We had a full day, but the we do every week!  We had some difficulties with Zoom today.  I'm not really sure what happened, but I've recorded the class and posted it on Google Classroom.  The link is at the bottom.

For today, we had a few options:
Students could write about favorite sandwiches, candy, and political activism.


Words of the Day
Autumn -- fr. Latin autumnus, "increase" -- the season of harvest between summer and winter
Equinox -- fr. Latin aequus, "equal" and nox, "night" -- the time when day and night are equal length
Cornucopia -- fr. Latin cornu, "horn" and copiae, "plenty" -- a horn-shaped container containing food, drink in endless supply
Susurrus -- fr. Latin susurrus, "humming, whispering" -- a soft murmuring or whispering sound
Hibernaculum -- fr. Latin hibernaculum, "winter residence" -- the winter quarters of a hibernating animal

Homework Check
Usually our first concern after our beginning of class activities is to check in regarding homework.  Because last week was a rough draft week for all 3 of my CHAT classes, I did not enter all of the scores for the other homework.  That will be done by next week.

Writing Discussion
I handed back their rough drafts of the Biography Essays.  We talked about these common writing errors:  the word 'things," parallel structure, using names, and writing out numbers.  Students should revise their rough drafts into final drafts. They were also given an 1/2 sheet to list their first 5 corrections on the their essays and their primary area to work on.  Those who still need to hand in their rough drafts, should send me an email as soon as they've submitted their essays on Google Classroom.

Literature Discussion
Students have read the first "Stave" of A Christmas Carol.  We did a "roll call" and listed the characters we've met so far in the book.  We also talked about the mood and tone of the book thus far.  The students came up with some good, descriptive words:  eerie, melancholy, misanthropic.  For homework, the students should read Stave Two, answer 3 discussion questions, and complete a discussion question on Google Classroom.  

Grammar
The Adverbs group gave a good presentation on Adverbs.  We watched a short video and the students had a quick game that they played.  They have a two-sided worksheet to do for homework.

Assignments for Next Week
-- Read Stave Two of A Christmas Carol

Links for This Week
-- Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 10 (November 4)

Have a wonderful weekend!  Enjoy your extra hour of sleep!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
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