Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 7 (March 11)

 Greetings!

This group of kids did a great job at being flexible and engaged learners today with our distance learning day.  Before our Quick Write, we talked a little bit about the advantages and disadvantages of doing classes on Zoom.  We also talked here and there throughout the class about how to be good online students, including participating in breakout room discussions and avoiding being a passive observer.  

Below are our Quick Write prompts for the day.  Students could put their writing in the Google Classroom assignment or write it by hand and turn it in next week.  After they complete their writing, I divided them into breakout rooms, and they shared their thoughts with one another.  

• On March 11 In 1969, Levi-Strauss started selling bell-bottomed jeans. What are some fashions that you hope you never see again, and what are some of your favorite “classic” fashions that you don’t think should ever go away.
• On March 11 in 1903 Lawrence Welk was born. A band leader, he hosted The Lawrence Welk Show from 1951 to 1982. (My parents LOVED this show.) Do you have any favorite old-time TV shows that you like? How would you compare older television programs to today’s?
• On March 12 in 1789 the US Post Office was established. How would you compare the way we communicate now to the communication methods of the past? What are pros and cons for each?

When the students were finished writing, I sent them into breakout rooms to share what they had written. 

We usually do a quick Homework Check between our beginning of class activities and instruction.  Students can hand in their work for this week when they come to class next week.  With the exception of their rough drafts.  Those should be finished and put on the Google Classroom assignment for the Examples/Analogy Rough Draft.

NOTE:  Any homework that was due during Week 4 and hasn't been handed in will get a zero.  Track My Grades has been updated to reflect any work handed in by last Saturday.

Speaking of the Examples/Analogy Rough Draft, I sent the students again to breakout rooms to talk about their topics and to talk about any challenges they had with writing this essay.  This is probably the hardest essay they'll write this year.  The type of writing and organizing that they need to do is not as straight forward as the others.  A reminder:  the rough drafts should be handed in via Google Classroom.

We talked about two of our O. Henry Short Stories this morning.  O. Henry is a lovely writer -- he has a crisp, clear writing story, throws in some unusual words to spice things up, and often includes surprise twists at the end.  We'll read two more for next week.

Our Grammar lesson was a review of linking verbs and predicate complements.  Students have two worksheets on Google Classroom to practice identifying those sentence elements.  (If they need further review, there's a video in the list at the bottom for that.)

Have a great weekend.  

Blessing,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

• Short Stories:  Read Makes the Whole World Kin & The Furnished Room

• 2 Short Story Worksheets

• Grammar – Wk7:  Predicate Adjectives

• Grammar – Wk7:  Predicate Complements

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Writing 1 Spring Google Drive

Quick Write (3/12)

Sentence Patterns: N-LV-N/Adj

What is a Sentence?

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 6 (March 4)

 Greetings!

We had a full day in class this week.  Breaks are nice, but I like it when we're back together.

For our Quick Write today, the students had options that came from their own suggestions:  1) If you could teach anything, what would you teach and why? 2) What is your favorite Bible verse?  Why? 3)  Compare a friend or family member with a fictional character. and 4) Discuss the benefits/evils of video games.

Our Words of the Day came from Nina, Halle, and Rachel -- they were fun words today -- 

bombinate -- fr. Latin, bombitare, to hum -- to hum or buzz like a bee

aubade -- fr. French, auba, "dawn" -- a poem or piece of music appropriate to the dawn or early morning

fideism -- fr. Latin, fide, "faith" -- a doctrine that states that faith rather than reason is the means by which Christian truths are known

Between our beginning of class activities and instruction, we do a quick Homework Check.  Along with misc. worksheets and other homework, I handed back the final drafts of their Narrative Essays.  They did a wonderful job on this writing assignment.  During this time I also reminded them about my homework correcting practices -- I correct homework one day during the week before the next week's class.  All work that was handed in on time will get corrected, but if it was turned in late, it might not get corrected until the following week.

The students are on to their next writing assignment, which is either an Examples Essay or an Analogy Essay.  (There are some resources listed in the links below.)  We talked briefly about this writing assignment.  If students are still unclear about what they want to write, they should check the sites below.

For our literature portion of the class, we closed out our reading of The Thirty-Nine Steps.  Many people remarked that the ending was a bit unsatisfying.  With all of the build up about the race from the bad guys, the ending seemed abrupt.  Many students had ideas about what would have made it a better story.  

Our next reading selections come from a book of O. Henry Short Stories.  O. Henry is one of my favorite writers.  He tells a good story and often ends them with unexpected twists.  Our first two stories are "Gift of the Magi" and "After Twenty Years."  The students just need to read the stories, and we will discuss them next week.

For our Grammar lesson, we looked at two similar sentence structures:  N-LV-N and N-LV-Adj sentences.  Many times, when students think of verbs, they only think of action words. I have them a handout with a Venn diagram illustrating linking verbs, helping verbs, and state of being (to be) verbs.  We worked half way through the worksheets, and they should finish them for next week.

Have a great weekend!  The weather looks like it will be marvelous!!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:  

• Examples/Analogy  Pre-Write and Rough Draft

• Short Stories:  Read Gift of the Magi & After Twenty Years
  

• Wk6: Sentence Patterns (N-LV-Adj) 
  

• Wk6: Sentence Patterns (N-LV-N)

Links for This Week

Class Notes

O. Henry Short Stories (pdfs)

About the Example/Illustration Essay (including example essays from Writer's Resources)

How to Write an Examples Essay

How to Write an Analogy Essay

Examples of Analogies

Sentence Patterns -- N-LV-Adj

NAME:  ________________________________

The Equation for a Sentence:

     Subject (Noun)

     Verb

+   Complete Thought

     SENTENCE

Every complete sentence (independent clause) must have these components.  Additionally, all sentences start with capital letters and have an end punctuation mark. (i.e. period, question mark, exclamation mark.)

Predicate Nouns Sentence Pattern:  N-LV-ADJ

This sentence pattern uses a linking verb (LV) with the subject noun to an adjective in the predicate.  The linking verb acts as an equal sign (=) between the subject and the adjective in the predicate.

Exercise #1:

In the chart below, fill in the boxes with a subject noun and a predicate noun.  The two nouns should be different words/expressions for the same idea/item.  Put a single word in each box.

Subject Noun	Predicate Adjective
EX:  book	boring
EX:  movie	exciting
1.
2.
3.

Using your subject nouns and predicate adjectives from the chart above, build a sentence by adding a linking verb.  You can add adjectives if you like.  Below your sentence, write an equation with the subject and the predicate noun.  Do not add any more subject nouns, direct objects, or verbs.

EX:  The big book was boring.                                    The movie seems exciting.

         Book = boring                                                    movie = exciting

1.

2.

3.

Exercise #2:

In the chart below, fill in the boxes with a subject noun and a predicate adjective.  The adjectives should describe the noun in the box.  Put a single word or phrase in each box.

Subject Noun	Predicate Adjective
EX:  dinner	delicious
1.
2.

Using your subject nouns and predicate adjectives from the chart above, build a sentence by adding a linking verb.  Add adjectives and prepositional phrases.  Below your sentence, write an equation with the subject and the predicate noun.  Do not add any more subject nouns, direct objects, or verbs.

EX.  My dinner is delicious.

            Dinner = delicious

1.

2.

Exercise #3:

In the chart below, fill in the boxes with a subject nouns and a predicate nouns.  The two nouns should be different words/expressions for the same idea/item.  Put more than one word if the box is labelled “Compound” and put a single word if the box is labelled “Simple.” 

Compound Subject Nouns (plural)	Simple Predicate Adjective
EX:  squirrels, rabbits	frisky
1.
Simple Subject Noun	Compound Predicate Adjectives (plural)
EX: car	new, economical
2.

Using your subject nouns and a predicate nouns from the chart above, build a sentence by adding a linking verb.  Add adjectives and prepositional phrases.  Below your sentence, write an equation with the subject and the predicate noun.  Do not add any more subject nouns, direct objects, or verbs.

EX.  The happy little squirrels and rabbits seem frisky in the spring.

The cars on the lot were new and economical. 1.

2.