Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 10)

Greetings!

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

We started with a Quick Write, and these were our prompts:  

• Ask me (Mrs. Prichard) 3 questions, and I will answer at least one of them.
• Tell me something you've not told anyone.
• Write about keeping a secret or planning a surprise.
• Tell about something mysterious that has happened to you
• Whatever . . . 

Our Words of the Day came from Ike, Megan, and Grace.  

kalopsia -- fr. Greek; the state in which everyone and everything seems beautiful

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious -- extraordinarily good

peladophobia -- fear of bald people

We are now in Week 5, so students need to check in on their homework. 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.  According to my late homework policy, any assignments due on Week 2 is now overdue.  You will be getting a Grades Report sometime over the weekend.  

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 should be handed in to the Google Classroom assignment. 

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 3.

Our discussion about our book, The Thirty-Nine Steps included some creative brainstorming.  Using a game called Storymaster, which had cards with random characters and situations, the students were to create an ending for our spy novel.  I love it when a book elicits creative thinking from readers.  We will finish the book by next week.

At the end of class, I talked 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.

Next week my son Ryan Prichard will be subbing for me.  I will Zoom in for part of the class and he will take charge of the rest.  

Assignments for March 4

-- Examples/Analogy  Pre-Write

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

-- Prepositional Phrases -- Adj or Adv

Links for This Week

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 10)

About Examples/Analogy Essays

Have a good weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

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

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

• Narrative Essay Final Draft

• First Five Mistakes (on Google Classroom)

• Read Ch. 7 & 8 of The 39 Steps
  

• Quiz:  Ch. 5 – 8 (GC)

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

• Grammar – Wk4:  Simple Sentence Review

• Grammar -- Wk4: Finding Prepositional Phrases

Links for This Week

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

The 39 Steps (Scene 1)

The Thirty-Nine Steps (Librivox)

The Thirty-Nine Steps (YouTube)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (January 27)

 Greetings!

This week's Quick Write prompts were taken from the list that the students in Writing 1 and Writing 2 contributed to last fall.  Here are the prompts for today’s Quick Write:

• What is a favorite childhood memory?

• What is one of the best days of your life?

• What was a highlight of your week?

• Whatever …..

Our Words of the Day came from Megan, Ike, and Grace:  and Kaylynn:

hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia  -- an extension of sesquipedalian (long words) with monstrum (“monster”) and hippopotamus (intended to exaggerate the length) and phobia -- the fear of long words

defenestration -- fr. Latin de, "down from" and fenestra, "window" -- to throw someone out of the window

kakorrhaphiophobia-- fr. Greek, kakos, "bad and evil," and phobia, "fear" --  a fear of failure

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.  I divided the class into small groups to discuss these 2 questions:  Was Hannay a good or bad spy? and Why does he keep telling his story to people?

For the Grammar portion of class, we worked again on simple and compound sentences.  We reviewed the basic elements of a sentence (subject + verb + complete thought).  Many times students write sentence fragments and run-on sentences and comma splice sentences because they don't have a strong sense for these sentence elements.  We took time to do a few of the sentences on each worksheet.  [Note:  Remember to correct your grammar worksheets and to clearly mark that they've been corrected.]

Assignments for Next Week:

• No writing -- I'm correcting rough drafts this week

• Read Ch. 5 & 6 of The 39 Steps

• Week 4 – 3 Study Guide Questions

• Grammar – Compound Subject

• Grammar – Compound Predicate

• Grammar – Compound Subject & Predicate

 

Links for This Week

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (January 27)

The Thirty Nine Steps audiobooks

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 2 (January 20)

 Greetings!

We started today with a Quick Write using prompt options that they had written:

1. What are some of your pet peeves?
2. What do you do that annoys others, either accidentally or intentionally?
3. What is the grossest thing you've ever eaten?
4. What is the best/worst part of your hous?
5. Whatever????

Our Words of the Day were brought to use by Liam and Grace:  

bork:  obstruct (someone, especially a candidate for public office) by systematically defaming or vilifying them.  (taken from the nomination experience of Robert Bork)

sesquipedalian:  fr. Latin sesquipedalis, a foot and a half --  characterized by long words or long-windedness

The usual Agenda for the class time is to do these beginning of class activities and then most of the time we cover these topics in this order:  Writing assignments/instruction, Literature discussion, and Grammar instruction/work.  

For our Writing discussion, I checked in with them about the progress of their Narrative Essays.  The Pre-Writes and Rough Drafts are due next week.  Students were reminded that a Narrative Essay is kind of like a "story with a purpose."  

The class has read the first 2 chapters of our book, The Thirty-Nine Steps.  We talked about some points in chapters 1 and 2.  Then I divided the class into 4 groups, and they played the game "Enter the Mystery Mansion."  Students were given cards with pictures, and as a group, they were to compose a mystery and/or spy story.  When they were done, they retold their stories for the Zoom portion of the class.  They were quite creative!

The last part of class was for Grammar instruction.  Today, I did a short lesson on simple and compound subjects and predicates.  Students got their worksheets at the end of class.  Remember, they should be corrected before they are turned in!

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Homework for Next Week:

Narrative Essay Pre-Write

Narrative Essay Rough Draft

Read Ch. 3 & 4 of The 39 Steps

Quiz:  Ch. 1 – 4 (Google Classroom)

Ch. 3 & 4 Study Guide Questions (Extra Credit)

Subject/Verb Agreement

Sentences: Finding the Complete Subjects and Complete Predicate

Links for this Week

Class Notes

The Thirty-Nine Steps audio book on YouTube

The Thirty-Nine Steps audio book on Librivox

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 1 (January 13)

 Greetings!

It was good to be back in the classroom and to see everyone's smiling faces.  

For our Quick Write today, students had 3 options:  1) On January 12, it was National Hot Tea Day, and students could write about their experiences with tea; 2) Yesterday, January 13, is National Stickers Day, and students could write about sticker collections or uses for stickers; and 3) Today, January 14, is National Take a Missionary out to Lunch Day, and students could write about a missionary they know.   

We did not have any Words of the Day, but students can bring them to class for us to enjoy.  (And get some extra credit, too.)  For the rest of the semester, students can bring in interesting words for our weekly Words of the Day part of our discussion.  For these words, they also need to include the etymology and a definition.  

The first topic we covered was our first Writing assignment -- a Narrative Essay.  I like to call a Narrative Essay a "story with a purpose."  In this type of essay, students re-tell a series of events, but they are not simply telling a story.  They must have a reason for telling these events to their readers.  This reason could include a turning point in life, a traumatic experience that change a life, an achievement that made a significant difference, etc.  The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due in 2 weeks on January 27.

Next on the agenda was our first book for the semester.  This semester we will be reading a British classic that was written in 1915 -- The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.  This is one of the first espionage, man-on-the-run types of books.  I've taught this book to British Literature classes, and I think we'll all enjoy this book.  As part of our discussion, I asked the students to write something as a Pre-Reading assignment for The 39 Steps.  I had them think about what they would do if they were on the run -- either from some bad guys or some good guys (which meant they might be a bad guy.)  They were to think of possible options for hiding and staying safe.  This is a very creative bunch!  I heard some of their ideas and look forward to reading what they wrote.

Last semester in the Grammar portion of the class we covered the Parts of Speech, and the students did amazing presentations.  This semester, we will build on that knowledge and review sentence patterns.  Many times when students are writing, they have comma splice sentences, run-on sentences, and sentence fragments.  It's important to be firmly grounded in the elements of a sentence so that you have the vocabulary and knowledge to fix sentences that aren't quite working.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week

-- Background Information & Introduction to The 39 Steps Quiz

-- Read Ch. 1 & 2 of The 39 Steps

-- 3 Study Guide Questions

-- Start on the Narrative Essay

-- Narrative Essay Pre-Write & Rough Draft

-- Grammar – Wk1:  What is a Sentence? 

-- Grammar – Wk1:  Sentence Patterns N-V

Links for This Week

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 1 (January 13)

Zoom Recording for 1/13

Writing 1 Syllabus

Writing 1 Assignments Checklist

Homework & Late Guidelines

The 39 Steps audiobook

About the Narrative Essay

Basic Sentence Patterns

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 1 -- Fall 2021 Grades are Coming!

 Dear CHAT Writing 1 Students & Parents,

I've just finished calculating the grades for the Fall semester, and you will be finding them in your inbox by the end of the day.  As tutors, these are suggested grades for you as homeschooling families to consider.

For those who are new to my classes, let me share my thoughts on grades.  As I homeschooled my own children, I didn't give them grades.  I felt that grades were far too subjective, coming from their mother.  Instead, I taught my own children for mastery, and we didn't proceed with a topic until they were ready, no matter how long that took.  In a class setting, knowing where each student is with regards to his/her understanding of a topic is not always possible, so any grade given is not a complete representation of what the student learned or accomplished this year.

Letter grades are a funny thing.  For some students, it becomes the only motivation for doing well.  For some, it becomes a measure of their worth as a person or as an academic learner.  I personally don't like these "side effects" of the grading system.  On the other hand, grades can be a valid reflection and reward for working hard, being diligent, and understanding the materials.

When teaching students to be good writers, I give a lot of consideration for growth and improvement. Each student has a starting place; over time I look for him or her to learn the mechanics of grammar, good writing techniques, and analytical thinking skills.

For this class, I gave points for attendance, participation, short assignments, literature assignments, grammar exercises, and longer essays. (I tend to be an "easy grader" and like to see my students encouraged to do their best.)  The final drafts of the essay assignments were graded using a rubric that divided the papers into the following categories:  focus, content, organization, and mechanics.  

The scores for class work is divided into the following categories:  Assignments (Quick Writes and in class activities), Writing, Literature, and Grammar.  A student may have been strong in one area and not in another, and this will be reflected in these categories.  These scores are also weighted; in other words, not all of the categories have the same importance. The Quick Write points are worth are 15% of the total grade, the Writing assignments are 30%, the Literature homework is 28%, and the Grammar work is 27%.

The grade breakdowns for Writing 1 are as follows:

98% - 100% (A+), 93% - 97% (A), 90% - 92% (A-),

87% - 89% (B+), 83% - 86% (B), 80 % - 82% (B-),

77% - 77% (C+), 73% - 76% (C), 70% - 72% (C-),

67% - 69% (D+), 63% - 66% (D), 60% - 62% (D-),

55% - 59% (Pass), 50% - 54% (Fail); 0% - 49% (Incomplete)

Each student (and parents) will receive an e-mail with percentages and a suggested overall grade for this semester.  I’ve seen each student improve with each paper.  Good Work!

Blessings,

Tammy Prichard

Writing 1 -- Grades are Coming!

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 16)

 Greetings!

We have a wonderful day today.  I try to get most of the hard work of the class done before this last week so that we could have some fun on this final day.  

Quick Write

For our final Quick Write, I had the students do a mini reflection about their semester.  I asked them to write about what worked well, what didn't work, what amazing "thing" they learned, and what they might do differently next semester.  Reflection is a powerful learning tool; when students take time to think about their learning and themselves.

Homework & Grades

Students handed in their final drafts of their History Essays.  I will go over the essays and any other homework that was handed in; my goal is to have final grades out soon.  I mentioned to the class that I will take any homework December 19 at 11:59 p.m. If there are any questions, please contact me.  Because I have final drafts from all of the classes, I know that I won't have the essays and homework ready for final grades until after Christmas.  Look for them some time after the New Year.  

A Contest

Following the Quick Write, we had the Annual Writing 1 Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest.  They were pretty intent on their drawing and coloring, which I complemented with a video of a fire with Christmas music.  Oh, and we had the lights turned down.   After they drew and colored, we voted on the best (and it wasn't ugly at all!) picture.  Great work, Carmela!

A "Test"

After the coloring, we had a "test" in the shape of a Jeopardy game.  Most of the categories were related to A Christmas Carol, but there was one for Christmas jokes.  I divided the class into 4 teams, and they took turns answering questions.  There were 20 questions which they answered or tried to answer; when they got the wrong answer, they lost points.  It was a fairly competitive game/test.  (By the way, research also indicates that using gamification to ignite learning increases recall, retention, and cognitive growth.  So while we were having fun, we were still intellectually engaged in our topics.) 

Links for this Week

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 16)

Quick Write -- 12/16

Reindeer Games (all of the links for today's class)

Ugly Christmas Carol template

Most Relaxing Christmas Music

Writing 1 Christmas Carol Jeopardy Game

Gamification & Learning

My prayer is that all of you have a great Christmas that includes lots of love and laughter!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard