Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 9 (March 25)

Greetings!

It was a beautiful day outside and a fun learning day inside.  

Our Quick Write this week included prompts from the students themselves:

• If you could start a business or company, what would it be?

• What kinds of hairstyles do you like or not like?

• If you could change your name, what would it be?

• What were the highs and lows of this past week?

For our Words of the Day were feline and canine inspired. One of my favorite books, The Play of Words by Richard Lederer, has fun lists of words, including words that start with "cat" and "dog." Our words included catastrophe, category, catacombs, doggerel, dogma, dog-tired, dog-fight, and dog-tags.

Students have handed in the Final Drafts of their Examples/Analogy Essays. We're now ready to start our final "from scratch" essay. (Following this essay, students will complete a re-write of an earlier written essay and a short reflection paper.) This next writing assignment is a News Story. We talked about the differences between an essay and a news story. For a news story, writers give out the broad, general information and progress to more details. Journalists are aware that readers could stop reading at any point (or not be interested enough to turn the page and finish the story.) Students can write a factual news story, a news story about some historical event, a fictional news story, a movie/theater review, or a review of something else that would be news-worthy. The rough draft and pre-write are due April 15.

Following the writing discussion, we briefly covered our two O. Henry stories: "Retrieved Reformation" and "The Pimienta Pancake." The students had some good insights and comments on the humor of these stories. Next week we will read "The Ransom of Red Chief." In the links section below are some videos and an audio version of the story. (And there's a chance we'll have a quiz next week. Just FYI.)

We continue to work on sentence patterns and sentence elements for our Grammar instruction. Last week and this week we practiced identifying direct objects and indirect objects. We worked on the worksheets during class in case there were any questions. If not finished, they are due next week.

Assignments for Next Week

• News Story Pre-Write

• Short Story:  Read The Ransom of Red Chief

• 2 Short Story Worksheets

• Grammar – Wk9:  Nouns as Direct Objects

• Grammar – Wk9:  Compound Direct Objects

• Grammar – Wk9:  Finding Indirect Object

Links for This Week

Class Notes

About the News Story

The Ransom of Red Chief (1998 version)

The Ransom of Red Chief (high school play)

The Ransom of Red Chief (audiobook)

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 8 (March 18)

 Greetings!

We are officially over half way through the Spring semester.  I don't know about you, but once we hit daylight savings time and the days get longer, the days also seem to fly by more quickly!

For the Quick Write this week students had 3 options: 

• March 18 is National Awkward Moments Day.  What is the most embarrassing or awkward situation that you’ve been in?
• March 19 is National Let’s Laugh Day.  Tell about one of the funniest experiences you’ve had. 
• Tuesday, March 16, was National Everything You Do is Right Day.  If you didn’t have to worry about making mistakes, what challenge, adventure, or risk might you take? 

We had one Word of the Day

strabismic -- fr. Greek, strabizo, "to squint" -- A visual defect in which one eye cannot focus with the other on an object because of imbalance of the eye muscles.  Often used in referenced to being cross-eyed.  (I shared that one of my daughters had a strabismus, which occurs when the eyes are not aligned so she had surgery when she was 5 to move the muscles in her eyes.)

I handed back the rough drafts of the Examples or Analogy Essays that the students had written.  As part of our writing/grammar instruction, I covered common errors in the papers.  For this round of essays, these were the topics:  amount vs. number; less vs. fewer; scared vs. afraid; the word "things;" contractions; and noun/pronoun agreement.  The final drafts are due next week.  Note:  A number of students did not get their rough drafts in on time.   I might be able to get them corrected before the next class period; if not, they will be returned next week during class.

We have read two more Short Stories:  "Makes the Whole World Kin" and "The Furnished Room."  The first story is about a burglar who makes an uncommon connection with the man he's robbing, and that is the one that we talked about.  O. Henry's stories are full of unexpected twists and endings.

For the Grammar portion of our class, we are continuing to review sentence patterns.  This week, we are "building" sentences that follow the N-V-N (S-V-DO) and N-V-N-N (S-V-IO-DO) patterns, so we discussed transitive verbs, direct objects, and indirect objects.  We had time in class to work on our worksheets.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:

• Examples/Analogy  Final Draft

• First Five/Last Five Mistakes

• Short Stories:  Read Retrieved Reformation & The Pimienta Pancake

• 2 Short Story Worksheets

• Grammar – Wk8:  Sentence Patterns N-V-N

• Grammar – Wk8: Sentence Patterns N-V-N-N

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

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

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 18)

 Greetings!

We had a delightful class today.  Our class time was quite full.

We started with a Quick Write, and today they had 5 options (4 of which came from their own ideas): Tell about a favorite memory from 2020; If you were stranded on an island, what 3 things would you like to have; explain your thoughts and ideas about socialism; describe what you would do if you had 3 days without electricity; or whatever else is on your mind.  I had a lot of homework to hand back, so they students had a lot of time to write.

Our Words of the Day came from Nina, Rachel, and Annelise today.  As I put the words on the board, I asked the class to make up definitions for the words.

griffonage -- fr. French, from Middle French grifouner to scribble (from griffon stylus, from griffe claw) + -age -- : careless handwriting : a crude or illegible scrawl.

docetism -- from medieval Latin Docetae , the name, based on Greek dokein ‘seem’ -- a belief that Jesus was human but not divine.

raconteur -- French, from raconter ‘relate, recount’ -- an excellent story teller

While the students are writing, I hand back homework, and we do a short Homework Check after the beginning of class activities.  This week, I reminded them of my late homework policy.  I give students three weeks to get assigned work in (actually, they have 4 weeks from the assigned date until I will no longer take it.)  After that extended time, assignments will be given zeros.  I also explained that while I don't have a specific day for correcting homework, I correct homework all at once and don't check and re-check Google Classroom for late assignments.  If homework is handed in on time, it will automatically be included when I correct homework.  If it is late, it could be included, or it might not be.  Most weeks, I will include scores on Track My Grades.  

Students handed in the final drafts of their Narrative Essays.  I'm really looking forward to reading these because their rough drafts were so good!  As a reminder, they should hand in their rough drafts with my marks/corrections when they hand in the final drafts.  The final drafts could be handed in during class or uploaded to the Google Classroom assignment.  The students also need to finish the First Five Mistakes form.

When we finish one paper, we start another.  For the next round of essays,  students can choose to write an Examples Essay or an Analogy Essay.  For both of these types of essays, the students should be thinking explaining one thing with one or more other things.  Students have the next two weeks to do their brainstorming and research.  The pre-writes and rough drafts should be handed in on March 11. 

We had a brief discussion about Richard Hannay and our book, The Thirty-Nine Steps.  Some of the students like the adventurous character of Mr. Hannay, and others don't like him.  I love it when a book elicits strong opinions from readers.  We will finish the book by next week.

At the end of class, we worked through our Grammar worksheet, practicing identifying and classifying prepositional phrases.  Prepositional phrases function either as adjective phrases or adverb phrases, and it can be tricky to tell what kind of phrase it is.

A reminder -- we don't have class next week ; the next time we see one another will be March 4.

Assignments for March 4

-- Examples/Analogy  Pre-Write
-- Read Ch. 9 & 10 of The 39 Steps
-- Week 6 – 3 Study Guide Questions 
-- Classifying Prep Phrases

Links for This Week

Class Notes

About Examples/Analogy Essays

Have a good weekend and a wonderful week off!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 11)

 Greetings!

We had an fun class today -- we covered a lot of material .  We started with our Quick Write.  As I told them last week, the plan was to write letters of encouragement and gratitude.  to someone.  They wrote their letters, put them in sealed envelopes, and handed them in.  If need be, they can bring the addresses next week if they forgot to bring them today.  I will mail them.

Our Words of the Day came from the class contributions:

thalassophile -- fr. Greek, thalasa, "sea" -- a lover of the sea

geminate --  fr. Latin, geminatus, "twinned, divided, equal" -- duplicated, found in pairs; something arranged in pairs

susurrate -- fr. Latin, susurare, "to hum, murmur, mumble" -- to make a whispering or humming sound

costermonger -- fr. French, costard, a large variety of apple; Old English mangare, "merchant, broker" -- a vendor of vegetables

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.  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.  In addition to their final drafts, they must fill out a form titled, "First Five Mistakes" on a Google Classroom assignment.

We had a short discussion about Richard Hannay and The Thirty-Nine Steps.  We talked about how Hannay was so quick to share his story with those he met, even though dangerous spies were on his trail.  We discussed employing a "willing suspension of disbelief."  In other words, some parts seem unbelievable, and they will remain just that -- unbelievable.  We accept it and go on.  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 centered on prepositional phrases.  These phrases function as either adjectives or adverbs.  It is important to identify them in sentences so that they can be eliminated as other sentence parts (e.g. subject, direct object, etc.)  Students have 2 sides of one worksheet to do for next week.

A note on homework:  last week with 46 rough drafts from Writing 1 and Writing 2, I only corrected student papers.  The other grammar and literature homework will be graded and entered into Track My Grades this week. Again, if you are not able to get into Track My Grades, let me know.  We discovered today that I had the wrong email entered for one student, and I was able to correct it.

Assignments for next week

• Narrative Essay Final Draft

• First Five Mistakes (GC)

• Read Ch. 7 & 8 of The 39 Steps

• Quiz:  Ch. 5 – 8 (GC)

• Ch. 7 & 8 Study Guide Questions (Extra Credit)

• Grammar – Wk4:  Prepositional Phrase Practice

• Grammar -- Wk4: Prepositional Phrases as Adj/Adv

• Remember to bring your address for your envelope.

Links for This Week

Class Notes

The Thirty-Nine Steps (Librivox)

The Thirty-Nine Steps (YouTube)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (February 4)

 Greetings!

We started our class thinking about "Gratitude."  I shared with the class that research shows that people who develop intentional habits of expressing gratitude have stronger cognitive functioning, better immune systems, and a greater degree of happiness.  For our Quick Write prompts today, students could choose from these options:  

• What is a simple pleasure that you are grateful for?
• What is something that you are looking forward to?
• Who is someone who could really use a "thank you note?"

The students had some great comments, and we decided that next week we would write some real thank you notes.  I will bring envelopes and stamps and the students are to bring addresses.  (What a great group this is!!)

Our Words of the Day came from Nina and Kaylynn:

oikofugic -- fr. Greek oiko, "house" and Latin fugere, "to flee"  -- a desire to wander or run away from home. 

lachrymose -- fr. Latin lachrymosis, "tear" -- suggest of or tending to cause tears; mournful

mammonism -- fr. Latin mamonao, "wealth" -- the greedy pursuit of riches.

For class this week, we had extras on Zoom due to the bad roads.  Unfortunately, the internet kicked me off, and I couldn't get Zoom up and running again.  I'm afraid those students attending on Zoom missed that last 1/3 of the class.

Students have handed in the Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts of their Narrative Essays.  Most of them enjoyed writing these because they could write about personal experiences.  I look forward to reading them.

We are 4 chapters into our book, The Thirty-Nine Steps, and most of the students are enjoying the story line.  Some aspects are unfamiliar because it was written for another time and place.  I reminded the students to look up unfamiliar words.  We also read some of the landscape descriptions.  Even though these aren't the most important aspects of the story, they geography and Richard Hannay's response to the weather, plants, etc. have a subtle effect on the mood of the story.

For the Grammar portion of class, we worked again on simple and compound sentences.  We took time to do a few of the sentences on each worksheet. 

Assignments for Next Week:

• Read Ch. 5 & 6 of The 39 Steps

• Week 4 – 3 Study Guide Questions

• Grammar – Subject/Verb Agreement

• Grammar – Simple Sentences (Compound Subject & Predicate)

• Grammar – Simple Sentences Review

 

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Librivox -- The Thirty-Nine Steps audiobook

YouTube -- The Thirty-Nine Steps audiobook

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature