Greetings!
We had an fun class today -- as usual, we covered a lot of material. We started with our Quick Write. Here are the prompts for the day:
February 2 – World Read Aloud Day. Do you have a favorite story that was read aloud to you when you were young? Write about it.
February 4, 2004 – the day that Facebook was launched. Do you use Facebook? What are your thoughts about social media?
February 4, 1789 – the day that George Washington was elected our first president by a unanimous vote of the first electoral college. Do you have any opinions about the electoral college? Do you have opinions about what makes for a good elected leader?
Our Words of the Day came from Megan, Grace, and Ike:
hoopla-- fr. American English, earlier houp-la, exclamation accompanying quick movement (1870), perhaps borrowed from French houp-là "upsy-daisy," also a cry to dogs, horses, etc.
poppycock-- fr. American English -- trivial talk; nonsense
xertz-- fr. unknown origin; to gulp something down quickly and/or in a greedy fashion
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis -- a term for a lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust,
I handed back the rough drafts of the Narrative Essays. These were very enjoyable essays to read. Many students wrote more than they usually did, and they told interesting stories in the contexts of their essays. As per my practice, I go over common mistakes and use these for grammar instruction. This week I had them go to the white board and write their top three mistakes. The most common errors I found in their write had to do with punctuating dialogue, paragraph formation, comma splice sentences, and compound sentences with commas. Students are to revise their rough drafts into final drafts for next week. I forgot to mention in class, but there's a form on Google Classroom for them to list their first 5 mistakes. NOTE: Remember to bring your corrected rough draft to class next week to hand in with the final draft.
We had a short discussion about Richard Hannay and The Thirty-Nine Steps. We talked about what we liked and didn't like about the book. The students had some profound statements about the plot and the writing style. We watched a clip from the 2008 adaption of the book and then discussed if the Hannay in the movie was like the one we imagined. In the chapters that they will read for next week, the spy aspect of the story will evolve, so that by the end, there is a solution to the whole mysterious situation. For next week, they will read Chapters 7 & 8 and take a quiz. If they want, they can do the study guide questions for extra credit.
Our Grammar instruction included a sentence review and prepositional phrases review. We worked on it for a bit in class, and students should correct their work before handing it in.
Assignments for next week
Read Ch. 7 & 8 of The 39 Steps
Links for This Week
Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 3)
Have a great weekend!
Blessings,
Mrs. Prichard
