Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 13 (April 21)

 Greetings!

We had a wonderful day in class.  We started the class period with a Quick Write, and here are the prompts:

• Today, April 21, is National Kindergarten Day.  What is something that you remember from your kindergarten days, when you were about 5 years old?  Can you remember toys you played with or activities you liked to do?  
• Today, April 21, is World Creativity and Innovation Day.  How do you like to express your creativity?  In what ways do you like to think outside the box?
• Saturday, April 23, is World Book Day.  What books would you recommend that others read?  Write convincing comments.
• Saturday, April 23, is also National Shakespeare Day and National Talk Like Shakespeare Day.  Write anything but put it in language that soundeth liketh the Bard of Avon hath verily penned it.

The Final Drafts of the News Stories were due today, and I introduced the next writing assignment, which is an Essay Re-Write.  For this essay, students can choose any essay they have written this year for Writing 1, or they can choose an essay that they've written for another class.  They should take a one of their final drafts and look for ways to improve it.  I often suggest that students choose the essay that they got the worst grade on or that they want to spend some more time on. This writing assignment is due next week, and students should hand in the original along with the re-write.  (Note:  This isn't our regular pre-write to rough draft to final draft process.)

For our Literature portion of the class, we spend some of our time talking about one of my favorite poems by William Carlos Williams, "A Red Wheelbarrow."  After our discussion, I explained our Poetry Jam, which we will have for the next 2 weeks.  The class has been divided into teams, and those teams will compete in a group by reciting poetry.  (It looks like we might have some guest "judges" for the day.)  Each student should bring in 2 poems next week for the first round of the Poetry Jam.  

Here are the teams, I think.  (I forgot to take a picture of the board, so these teams might not be correct)

Team 1: "The Purple Cows" -- Megan B, Sarah H, Jaedyn M, Charissa Q, Peytan K, Evan M

Team 2:  "Marmalade" -- Noah B, Phoebe H, Ava N, Liam S, Elian W, Landon M

Team 3:  "Not Fast, Not Furious" -- Johnny D, Ike J, Joren O, Katelyn S, Lauren M, Will W, Grace R

Team 4:  "Turtle" -- Molly H, Chase M, Carmella P, James V, Estelle K, Rhyann R

Finally, to conclude our Grammar for the year, I have a Final Sentence Patterns Test that they will take next week.  For this week, they have a review sheet that they should complete and then correct. (The Key is on the Google Classroom assignment.)  Correcting their own work will further help them review and will be much more beneficial than waiting a week to see if they got the answers right.  

We have a couple fun weeks planned to finish out our year, so let's make sure you get caught up on any late work.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Bring 2 poems for your contribution to the Poetry Jam (Here is the scoring information)

-- Complete the Essay Re-Write

-- Complete the Sentence Patterns Review sheet and correct it. (Bring the corrected version to class)

Links for This Week

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 12 (April 21)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard