Spring Writing 1 Technology

Greetings!

Welcome to the second semester of Writing 1 at CHAT.  ("Spring Semester" is a little hard to say when we have 2 inches of fresh snow on the ground!)

I had a great first semester with these wonderful students and am looking forward to getting back in the classroom.  I have a fresh pile of books and handouts to fuel our learning.  Students should bring to class a folder to keep track of their work and paper/pens/pencils for in class work.  Students will not need a laptop or other device for this class; if one is needed for any reason, parents should contact me before the class.  Otherwise, all devices should be put away during class.

If you are continuing from the first semester, you already know that I will send out regular emails to help us all stay connected with the classroom contact, assignments, class handouts, and any other information I feel is helpful to the class.  For those who are new to Writing 1, let me introduce you to my online resources:

Class Updates: Following our classes, I will send out an email that explains what we covered and class and what the assignments are.  Occasionally I will include links to interesting or pertinent sites that connect to our class discussions.  Any handouts from the class will be attached to these emails. Double check to make sure these emails are making it to your Inbox and not the Junk/Spam folder.

Writing 1 Blog:  The Weekly Class Updates and any other email messages will be posted on this site.  If you need to see a number of the updates at once, this is an efficient way to do it.  Copies of handouts, including links to pdfs on Google Drive, will also be posted.  Photos, images, videos, and links to other related websites will appear on this site.  If you're curious, you can peruse the blog for past posts in order to get a feeling for what to expect this year.  (Follow this link for this message!)

Google Drive:  This is an online storage site, and I have folders with all of the documents that I use in a larger folder labeled 2020 CHAT Writing 1 Spring Student.  If a student loses something handed out in class, this is another place to find it.  Most of the documents are as pdfs, but there are a few Word documents and Google docs mixed in. (Note:  This is a new folder and not the same one that I used for Writing 1 Fall.)

My GradeBook:  This is the online grade book that I will be using this year.  I've used it for a couple of years now, and it is pretty straightforward.  I also use an old-fashioned paper grade book that is up to date with every assignment, but it may take a week or so to get the grades onto this site.  That said, it should be a pretty accurate picture of what homework is missing and of ongoing scores for work handed in.  (Note:  You will be getting another email with specific instructions about signing in to the class.)

These resources have helped solve some of these problems:

If a student isn't sure of an assignment, he/sh can check

-- the syllabus that was handed out

-- the Class Update

-- the Writing 1 blog

-- the list of assignments on My GradeBook

If a student is missing something that I handed out, he/she can find it

-- as an attachment to a Class Update

-- on the Writing 1 blog

-- in the appropriate folder on Google Drive

-- follow the link in My GradeBook to the Google folder with the assignment

If you have questions about grades or missing homework, you can

-- check My GradeBook

-- send me a personal e-mail.

Thank you for entrusting your children to my teaching.  I'll do my best to communicate with you, and feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Tammy Prichard

Grades, Percentages, and Scores!

Greetings!

In addition to my earlier comments about grades in general, I want to clarify how I have scored and graded my students this semester.  Firstly, I've divided the work done in the class into categories:  Assignments, Writing, Grammar, and Literature.  Each category is somewhat self-explanatory, except for perhaps the "Assignments" section.  This is where I put our Quick Writes, vocabulary work, and any other class participation scores.

For the past two years I've been using My GradeBook, an online grade book.  With this program, I can assign a category to each assignment, for example, Writing, Literature, Grammar, Assignments (in-class work.)  My GradeBook figures percentages for total scores and for scores within each of these categories. 

However, the four categories used for Writing 1 did not have the same number of assignments, so a straight averaging of the scores does not give an accurate total percentage/grade.  For example, the Assignments category had 16 scores, and 15 of them were small, 5-point Quick Writes.  Writing section had fewer assignments, but the scores were higher per assignment.

Though the categories are not exactly even, I feel that dividing the scores like this is helpful because it helps parent, students, and teacher have a better picture of the work done in the semester.  For example, if a student scores 100% on this Assignments section, I know that he showed up and participated well in class.  A low score in the Literature section is most likely a sign of a significant number of missing assignments.  Likewise, a low score in grammar could be because assignments were not handed in, or it could be a lack of knowledge in this area. As it is with all homework assignments for any subject area, the scores reflect a mix of quantity and quality. 

When you get the grades, you should see a small table like this:

Assignments		Grammar		Literature		Writing		Combined
Grade	%	Grade	%	Grade	%	Grade	%	Grade	%

I hope I haven't further confused the grading for this class.  Working with students to help them develop into first-rate thinkers and writers is my  primary goal.  Points, scores, percentages, and grades are only small parts in the learning process.

Blessings to all of you,
Tammy Prichard

Writing 1A Class Notes -- Week 7 (Oct. 3)

Greetings!

Our Quick Write for today was this prompt:  If you could learn anything from anyone, what would it be and from whom would it be?  The purpose of this prompt was to cause students to look inward, forward, and outward. In life, it helps when we can identify what we want to learn for the sake of our futures; then we need to engage in the world around us to find mentors and teachers.  They shared both practical ideas and more abstract, personal growth ideas.

The Words of the Day were taken from our book, Animal Farm:

taciturn -- adjective; fr. Latin taciturnus, wordless, noiseless -- to be reserved and uncommunicative in speech; saying little

morose -- adjective, fr. Latin morosus, peevish -- sullen, ill-tempered

infanticide -- noun, fr. Latin, infanticidium, infant -- the killing of children under a year old

spinney -- noun, fr. Latin, spinetum, thicket  -- a small area of trees or bushes

This week the class handed in their final drafts of their Personal Essays, along with their rough drafts, so it was time to assign another essay.  This time, they are to write a Biographical Essay.  We took a bit of time to talk about the difference between a report and a thesis-driven essay.  In a report, a student would give details and information, but in a thesis-driven essay, a student needs to take a stand or form an opinion and then chose details to support that opinion.  As I explained, it might help to think about what parts of a person's background were especially formative or what kind of impact that person has had on the world.  

During our discussion of the essay, I also explained the new stage of the writing process that we will be using for this and the rest of our essays.  In addition to a rough draft and final draft, students are to do a Pre-Write for their essays.  This can look like a mind map or an outline, and the goal of a pre-write is to facilitate brainstorming and organizing. (Here is a link with a picture of a mind map.)  This will give them an extra week to plan, research, and organize their essays.   (In fact, for this essay, they have the extra week of fall break.)

For our Grammar portion of the class, we had an excellent presentation about Adjectives from Josie,  Gabbie P, and Nalani.  They had a helpful video, a detailed slide presentation, an in class activity, and homework.  Next week we will have the Nouns presentation from Ethan, Carson, Michael, and James.  

Finally, for the Literature Discussion, the students broke into their literature circles and shared whatever they had prepared for their roles.  I circulated among the groups to listen to their discussions, and I heard many thoughtful and insightful comments.  One aspect of group discussions is that they often trigger fresh ideas.  We have now finished Animal Farm, and for next week students are to complete the final exam.  In addition to that, they are to prepare for a discussion about the characters in the book.  To do this, they are to choose one character and list 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses of this character. Then, they are to write a sentence that gives a full understanding of the character. 

A note about My GradeBook:  I worked with a couple of students and discovered that they were putting the class code where the password should go.  If you are having difficulties, remember that the temporary user name (until you change the primary log in) is the class code, and your student's first name and last initial (unless I've had to change it for you) is the password.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Take Final Exam for Animal Farm

-- Prepare Character Sketch (choose a character and list 3 strengths/3 weaknesses; write a sentence that encompasses that character's qualities)

-- Adjectives Homework

-- Pre-Write for Biographical Essay

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Student Notes (Rocketbook)

Adjectives Video

Adjectives Slide Presentation

Mind Map Image

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard