Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 1 (August 26)

 Greetings!

We've started out our new school year well.  I'm looking forward to working with this group of students.  Below are the Class Notes for this week.  Every week I will send out notes similar to these.  I include the topics of the class and the direction of instruction.  At the bottom of each email I list the homework and links to the blog, to the Google Classroom assignments,  and to any other helpful information.

I almost always start class with a Quick Write and sometimes with a Word of the Day.  I use a variety of prompts for these short writing opportunities that give students a chance to shift into a writing mode.  These prompts are sometimes serious but usually lighthearted.  For our Words of the Day, I like to choose unusual words, words of current interest, or words with interesting backgrounds.  I especially enjoy looking at the etymologies of words and trying to figure out the journey of the word from its ancient meaning to its modern meaning.

For this week's Quick Write I asked students to respond to these 3 questions:  1) What do you need to be successful this school year?  2) What do you need from others, including me, to be successful this year? 3) What can you do for others in order to help them be successful?

We had two Words of the Day:

education -- fr. L. educare, to lead or bring out -- the act of teaching or receiving knowledge

teach -- fr. OE takn, token, to show, point out, declare -- to show or explain how to do something.  

Much of our first class of the year is spent taking care of logistics and looking at some Class Resources.  I gave the students a Class Policies handout, a syllabus, and a checklist of assignments.  These are important documents that will help us be organized with our work this year.  (Note:  Parents, please read the class policies and initial it)

In addition to an overview of the topics in the class, we discussed Google Classroom.  All of the materials and assignments will be posted on Google Classroom.  If they haven't, students need to sign in to their chatclasses email and then join the Google Classroom for Writing 1. Many students are familiar with Google Classroom, but I plan to spend a little more time explaining it next week in order to clear up any questions students might have.

A quick note about scores on Google Classroom -- if a student has handed in a paper copy of an assignment, I will record the score on Google Classroom, usually by the next class period.  A student SHOULD NOT use the "Turn In" option on the Google Classroom assignment that coincides with the paper assignment they have handed in.

We will write 4 essays this semester, and I introduced the first Writing assignment of the semester, a Descriptive Essay.  They should choose something that they would enjoy describing, using as many of the 5 senses as they can, including taste, touch, sight, sound, and smell.  They are not required to do an outline or pre-write for this essay.  (This is my chance to get a feeling for their writing styles and abilities.)

Our Literature selection for this semester is Animal Farm by George Orwell.  I will introduce the book more fully next week, but for a pre-reading exercise, students should take time to think about what qualities they think a good leader should have (not due for 2 weeks).  Students also have a short introduction to the book and a quiz on Google Classroom.

No Grammar this week -- we'll jump in with both feet next week!

Have a great weekend!!

Blessings!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

(Note:  The links will take you to the Google Classroom post for the particular assignment.  If you plan to do the paper version, you can ignore the link.  If an assignment is labeled "GC," that means that is something that must be done on Google Classroom. These are usually quizzes or questions)

Writing 1 Class Policies (signatures needed)

Descriptive Essay Rough Draft  (Please use the Google Doc template attached to this assignment.)

Pre-Reading -- What Makes a Good Leader?  (due 9/9)

Read the Introduction to Animal Farm

Quiz -- Intro to Animal Farm

Before school started assignments -- Students can still do these.

Welcome Back #1

Welcome Back #2

Links for this Week:

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 1 (August 26)

Mrs. Prichard's Guide to Technology 2021 - 2022 (on the blog)

Mrs. Prichard's Guide to Technology 2021 - 2022 (on Google Classroom)

Writing 1 Assignments Checklist

Writing 1 Syllabus

About the Descriptive Essay

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 1 (August 27)

Greetings!

We had a great first class for our 2015 school year!  This is a great group of students, and I'm looking forward to this year.

This first week of classes is about taking care of the business regarding how the class is run.  I handed out a lot of papers, which you will find attached to this e-mail, inserted into the blog and on Dropbox.  As I told the students, they have multiple ways to find assignments and handouts should they be missing any.

We began the class with a Quick Write, which we will do every week.  The purpose of the Quick Write is to get the students in a writing mood.  Most of these are light-hearted; often they are connected to a current even or something that happened on that day in history.  Today's Quick Write was to write about what they did NOT do over summer vacation.

Another key beginning-of-class activity is our Word of the Day.  This semester, we will be selecting words from my book of foreign words and phrases. Some of the words and phrases in the book are familiar, but the students will probably not be acquainted with many of them.  My goal is to expand their vocabularies and to pique their interests regarding words.  

For today, I chose the word:

aptronym -- a person's name that is peculiarly appropriate to his/her occupation or character traits.  e.g. Dr. Driller is a dentist; Felicity Foote is a dancer; Mr. Updegrave owns a funeral home.  I asked the students to try to think of a name that might fit them.

Because we will be doing a lot of large and small group discussions, it is important that we get to know one another.  I had the students participate in a short activity:  in groups of 2 or 3, they were to find 3 similarities and 3 differences and then share these with the class. 

After these beginning exercises, we got down to business with all of the handouts.  We went over, at length, my Classroom Policies for this class that included conduct, communication, and grading.  I especially talked about electronics and cell phone use in class.  More and more students have smart phones, and some find it difficult to keep them stowed away during class.  This year, if I suspect a student is using his/her phone, I will ask and then confiscate the phone if needed.  Parents will get an e-mail if this happens.  The students were in agreement with me, and I don't anticipate this being a problem with this class.

The rest of the handouts for today include: Writing 1 Syllabus, Animal Farm Introduction, Animal Farm Study Guide, Animal Farm Vocabulary Worksheet, Pre-Writing Exercises, Drafting the Essay, Descriptive Essay, Essay Rubric, Grammar:  Week 1 & 2, Animal Farm:  What Makes a Good Leader?

I gave a brief introduction to our literature selection, George Orwell's Animal Farm.  For next week, they are to read the Introduction handout and to write a short response to the question, "What Makes a Good Leader?"  On the handout, they can ignore the second set of writing assignments.

I also assigned them their first essay, a Descriptive Essay.  The handout explains that this essay is to choose a place or situation, observe carefully, and describe it using the 5 senses:  sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.  The rough draft for this is due next week.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read the Classroom Policies and have parents read and initial.

-- Read the Introduction handout for Animal Farm

-- Respond to the question, "What makes a good leader?"

-- Write the rough draft of the Descriptive Essay

Links for this week:

(Note:  Most of these links are to the blog and are copies of the handouts for the week's class and discussions.  Occasionally I will include links to other helpful or interesting web resources.)

Class Notes

Writing 1 Syllabus

Animal Farm Introduction

Animal Farm Study Guide

Animal Farm Vocabulary Worksheet

Pre-Writing Exercises

Drafting the Essay

Descriptive Essay 

Essay Rubric

Grammar:  Week 1 & 2

Animal Farm:  What Makes a Good Leader?

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard

WEEK 1 – 8 Parts of Speech

Verb

Verbs are commonly action words.  Verbs are in the following categories:

            Action, State of being, Linking, Groups of words

Verbs have voice

·  Active:  the action of the verb is performed by the subject of the sentence.

·  Passive:  the action of the verb is performed upon the subject of the sentence.

Agreement in number

            Singular subjects and singular verbs; plural subjects and plural verbs

All sentences have verbs

            Imperative sentences may appear to be missing the subject, but it is an understood “you.”

Noun

– Nouns are words, phrases or clauses that name a person, place, thing, idea, or quality.

– Categories for nouns:  common, proper, compound, collective, as adverbs, concrete, abstract, countable, non-countable, verbal nouns (gerunds),

– A noun can be used in a sentence as a: subject, direct object, indirect object, object of a preposition, predicate noun

Pronoun

– A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.  An antecedent is a word or group of words to which a pronoun refers.  If the antecedent is singular, the pronoun must be singular.  If the antecedent is plural, then the pronoun must be plural.

Adjective

– An adjective is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies (changes, limits, describes, transforms, qualifies) a noun or pronoun.

– Adjectives answer the following questions:  Which one? What kind of? and How many?

– Adjectives may be placed before the noun, after the noun, or after a state of being or linking verb.

Adverb

– An adverb is a word, phrase, or clause that modifies (changes, limits, describes, transforms, qualifies) a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

– Adverbs answer the following questions:  How? When? Where? To what extent? How much? How often?

Preposition

– A preposition is a word that links a noun or pronoun with some other word (usually a noun or a verb).

– A preposition always comes before the noun (object of the preposition)

– Prepositional phrases can be adjectival or adverbial.

Conjunction

A conjunction is a word or words used to join other words, phrases, or clauses.

            Joining words

            Joining phrases

Coordinating conjunctions:  for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so (“FANBOYS”)

Correlative conjunctions:  either … or; neither … nor; not only … but also; both … and; etc.

Adverbial conjunctions:  although, if, because, since (these join subordinate clauses)

Interjection

An interjection is a word or group of words expressing emotion or feeling.