Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 12 (4/16)

 

The weather is really starting to turn Springy now!  

We started out with Visual Vocabulary.  Today’s words are:  fallacious and ardent.  Hopefully these students are never ardently fallacious! We only have one more installment of Visual Vocabulary before the end-of-semester quiz.

The next portion of  class was dedicated to poetry. Some students enjoy poetry and some are not crazy about it.  We talked about how poetry is art made with words.  I told them that it is said that poets are born–but the rest of us can learn how to write verse and enjoy it.  :) 

Writing

We blurred the lines between writing and literature today because we worked with a poem that is assigned for next week.  It’s actually one of my very favorites!  “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams is short and packed with imagery–we read another short one by him last week.  After discussing reading, hearing and discussing, we also read another example of “imagist” poetry by Ezra Pound. Students are assigned to try to imitate one or both poems for homework.

Literature

We had a Poetry Devices Scavenger Hunt.  After discussing different Poetic Devices like onomatopoeia, imagery, and enjambment, we practiced identifying devices together in the large group.  After that, I assigned groups and they were given time to read and “scavenge” their own poems for different devices.  We had time for a few station rotations of this.  They found that there were some favorites among this batch–especially poems by Billy Collins.

Grammar

After that, we had a very brief teaching on Simple and Compound sentences and students had time to work on the two worksheets in class.  We talked about the fact that when a FANBOY is connecting two independent clauses, it is called a compound sentence–and in that case, you must put a comma BEFORE the FANBOY.  If there is a FANBOY, but it is not connecting two independent clauses, it is a simple sentence and there is no comma necessary.

That is all!  Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

Week 13 Poems

Poetry Response Packets

Imagist Poems–write 2

Week 12 Grammar 

–Simple & Compound Sentences

–Writing Compound Sentences 

Compare/Contrast Essay (if not yet finished or would like to reduce checklist)

Links for this week

Visual Vocabulary

WK 12 Poetry Discussion– “The Red Wheelbarrow”

CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 11 (4/9)

I had to travel out of state for a family event over the weekend. So, I left the class in the capable hands of my sub, Mrs. Burns.

April is Poetry Month in Writing Class!  As an English teacher, it’s probably not surprising that I enjoy poetry.  But honestly, I haven’t really gotten into it until later in life.  If they are not already enjoying it, my goal is to open a door of poetry enjoyment for my students through reading some great poetry and attempting to write some lines of our own.

Visual Vocabulary

Today, our words were:  laconic and ebullient. I know when I am feeling ebullient, and am usually not very laconic.  I usually talk a lot, and at a high volume.

Writing

Today, the Formal Critique Essay was due.  I will be working my way through grading and coding those this week. Once you receive those, the last batch of Final Edits will be due since this is our last “from scratch” essay!  

Literature

Today, since we are rolling on poetry, students got to enjoy reading a famous sonnet by “The Bard” William Shakespeare. Then, they all got out their phones and their earbuds (wow!  Did I just say that?  Usually phones are banned!  When the cat’s away…) and they spent the next few minutes enjoying a podcast that had overlapping themes. Students analyzed these themes on a worksheet and then had some time to discuss as a class.

Their homework is to read the poems for next week and respond to two.  

Grammar

After that, they watched a video about Direct and Indirect Objects to cement that concept. Then they worked on three worksheets. Please finish and correct your work.

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework for this week

Read Poetry:  

• Poetry:  Wordsworth (p. 12); Browning (p. 19); Bronte (24); Carroll (p. 29); 

• Hopkins (p. 31); Burgess (39)

• Week 12 Poetry (pdfs on Google Classroom)

• 2 Poetry Responses

• Week 12 Grammar 

• Complements Worksheet (John Updike)

• Sentence Patterns (Mr. Jackson)

• Sentence Patterns Practice (Four Bakers)

CHAT Writing 1--Week 10 (3/26)

 Hello Everyone!

Time flies when you are having fun–and it sure flew once again today in Writing 1.   Read on for a recap of all we accomplished in class today!

Quick Write

Because we are coming up on Holy Week, I pivoted. We had another Quick Write responding to an allegorical animated short film that beautifully parallels the sacrifice, the death, and resurrection of Jesus and what that means for us. The best stories convey truth— I pray students will internalize the truth of God’s great love for us.

Visual Vocabulary

Our words for today were big “feelings words”:  laconic & ebullient.  The former means sparse or few words, while the latter means lively or enthusiastic.  When I feel ebullient, I am seldom laconic–I usually talk a lot!

Literature

We finished our O. Henry short stories unit with a short discussion.  After they had thoroughly discussed, they were also to come to a consensus on this question:  What was your opinion on “The Ransom of Red Chief”?  It was interesting to discuss because the story was both funny (about a boy so bad and mischievous that his family didn't want him back from the kidnappers) and sad (for the same reason).

After the discussion, I handed out their new books:  Great Short Poems.  This is an anthology of short verse that spans 400 years of English and American literary history.  Students have the books, but I will also post the poems on Google Classroom.  

We talked about how each week from here on out students will read all the assigned poems and respond to two of them.

Here are their options:

1. Fill out a Poetry Worksheet for one or both

2.  Write a paragraph about the poem(s) that analyzes the poem; discuss what you think it means and why you like or don't like it.

3.  Instead of writing a paragraph, record a video commentary about the poem.  Youtube LiveStream or some other app on a device is OK as long as it can be seen by me.

4.  Do a piece of art that connects with the content and meaning of the poem.  

5.  Make a video of your recitation of the poem.  Our poetry unit will culminate in a Poetry Jam (poetry contest.)  More details on that to come.

Writing

Last week I introduced our last “from scratch” essay–the Formal Critique. The KWO for that was due today. I circulated around the room, checked in with each student and gave credit to those who met their deadline for this assignment. After that, we talked through some more helps for this essay. I passed out a two sided-sheet with a “thesaurus” for writing this type of essay and more helpful vocabulary for discussing topics like themes, character qualities and general analysis words.  These are posted in the About the Formal Critique material on Google Classroom.  Please avail yourself of these helps when writing your essays over the break. You’ll sound as smart as you are!  The Formal Critique is due April 9th–when you get back from break.

To further support you as students write their critiques, today we watched a video on Story Types. We learned there are basically 4 types of stories:  whole, healing, broken, and twisted. After generating a few more examples of each story type, we read through the famous short story “The Little Match Girl” by Hans Christian Anderson. It was SO sad!  Though we didn’t have time to finish in class, when you finish at home over break, you will see that it is a great example of a healing and a broken story. It was healing because there was redemption for the Little Match Girl in heaven, but also broken because it is a cautionary tale of what happens when we harden our hearts to those in need. Familiarity with story types will be helpful as they write their critiques.

Grammar 

Last,I gave three worksheets for continued practice in identifying sentence elements for the various sentence patterns that have been covered this semester.  Make sure to correct your own work!

That’s all for now, folks.

Blessings on you!

Mrs. G 

 Assignments for Week 11 

–Formal Critique (due 4/9)

-- Read Week 11 Poetry (PDFs on Google Classroom)

–Raleigh (p.1); Donne (p.); Quarels (p. 4); Milton (p. 5); Bradstreet (39)

-- Poetry Response (2 Poems)

Grammar

• Nouns as Direct Objects

• Compound Direct Objects

• Finding Direct Objects

CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes--Week 9 (3/19) Hello!

 Hello!  

Yes, there is snow on the ground. Lots of snow. BUT-the forecast calls for WARM temps this weekend! Looks like we Minnesotans have the last laugh afterall! We had another great class together today.  Here’s what we did.

Quick Write

The topic today prompted them to write about parents and children. They have lots of experience with both subjects! They were given five minutes and they could choose whichever topic piqued their interest and include and indicate two style points.

Writing

The cycle continues in Writing 1 class; one essay is due and the next one is rolled out. Honestly, we are on the homeward stretch and this is the last essay I’ll assign to have the pre-writing, drafting and polishing stage. So, be encouraged!

Today, I introduced the Formal Critique. A formal critique is the type of writing that requires you to analyze a piece of writing, and offer your opinion. It's not simply a retelling of events, although you must briefly do that. A formal critique is a step between a “book report” and college-level literary analysis.  In a formal critique essay, the focus is on critical thinking and self-examination. This essay is a common upper level writing course assignment.

Today, we talked through the requirements and structure for this paper and we analyzed a sample. Students discussed what they noticed about this piece of writing. For their paper, students will choose a short story, movie, novel or narrative poem that they believe has impacted them. They will also choose two topics to analyze from that piece of writing. 

As a class, we talked through some possible topics (setting, message, theme, characters, etc.) and they were given vocabulary suggestions for how to discuss their topics. The Key Word Outline is due next class period (3/26) and the Final Essay is due after break (4/9).  This is a change of schedule and the syllabus has been updated. (It’s due a week earlier to allow for more time for Final Edits.)

Literature

We didn’t discuss “Piemienta Pancake” or “Retrieved Reformation” from last week in Literature.  Instead, we had a true Pop Quiz!  I wanted to give these students the “authentic pop quiz” experience since I had given them a warning last week. 

I assigned the last, and arguably most famous O. Henry story for next week. It is a very humorous one that I think they will enjoy.  We listened to the first few minutes together in class. There is a worksheet, and we will have a paper quiz over this story next week in class.

Grammar

Today, we discussed Direct and Indirect objects.  Using some simple example sentences, we identified the direct object–which is the noun or pronoun that “receives” the action of the verb.  The indirect object is used when the direct object alone doesn’t tell the full story.  Indirect objects “receive” the action of the verb indirectly through the direct object.  (Phew!)  A tip is that you will find it right after the verb. For example:

She threw him a kiss.

S AV     IO                   DO

There are two worksheets that ask students to build sentences using direct and indirect objects.  Mrs. G will correct those.

And I will wave goodbye to you for now.  

Blessings!

Mrs. G

Have a blessed weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

Formal Critique KWO

Read “Ransom of Red Chief”

Short Stories Worksheet

“Ransom of Red Chief” Quiz

Grammar

N-V-N

N-V-N-N

Links for this week

Updated Homework Checklist

Class Blog

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 8 (3/12)

Visual Vocabulary

Our words today were hackneyed (adj) and boon (noun).  Students worked with those words today.

Writing

Happy deadline day! We turned in our Compare/Contrast essays and jumped straight into Peer Reviews. I love this exercise because it gives you an authentic audience and the kind of "outside-in" feedback that turns a good draft into a great one. Plus, there’s no better way to spark your own creativity than by seeing the brilliant ways your peers tackle the same assignment.  In order to benefit from this assignment, you had to have brought a finished paper copy of your essay today.  The final essay is due next week (3/19).

Literature

After that, we refreshed ourselves on the two O. Henry stories that were assigned for Literature this week.  They were a study in contrasts!  “The Furnished Room” is a rare melodramatic (and, frankly, depressing story) whereas “Makes the Whole World Kin” is  more in the style we have come to know from O. Henry:  witty, humorous and ironic.  After a short discussion–and because I must keep these students on their toes– we had a quiz over the second story.  Next week they have two more stories and a Short Story Packet as homework.

Grammar

Today we coveredPredicate Complements.  I told the students that linking verbs are very vain:  they always need a “complement”!  We took out the linking verb Venn Diagram that we used during the last class to remind us of linking verbs examples.  

If a complement renames the subject, it is called a “predicate noun.”  If the complement describes the subject, it is called a “predicate adjective.”  I wrote a few simple examples on the board and then students had time to work on the worksheets.  They should use the KEY to correct their own work and are due next week.

Blessings!

Mrs. G

Homework this week

Read “Pimienta Pancake” & “Retrieved Reformation”

PDF’s & Audio versions

Short Story Packet #2

Grammar

Predicate Complements

Predicate Adjectives

Links for this week

Linking Verbs Venn Diagram

Writing 1 Class Blog

CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 7--March 5

 

We’re in the thick of it  now here at CHAT–writing, reading and learning the grammar. Some weeks it feels like a juggling act–for all of us. But it is fun to learn together.

First, we had a Quick Write about a tasty topic.  Since tomorrow is National Cereal Day, they were given a choice of prompts related to breakfast cereal. In order to really get into the sensory details, I brought a gallon of milk and enough mini-boxes for students to munch while they wrote.

Writing

We started by exploring different possibilities for writing a good hook.  After that, students analyzed an introduction and conclusion for an example essay on the subject of cotton balls.  (Yes, I said “cotton balls”:)  

They silently found and underlined the three topics in the introduction/conclusion that were presented in the body paragraphs.  They found the hook and background information in the introduction, observed how the topics were restated in the conclusion, and noticed how the writer states the “most significant” of the topics in the conclusion and presents NO NEW INFORMATION in that conclusion.

Last, they got together in their writing circles to compare their answers and discuss the effectiveness of this method.

Bring a paper copy of your Compare/Contrast Essays to class next week. We will be performing Peer Review. If you are not prepared, you will not only be missing out on points (ouch!) but you will be missing out on valuable feedback from your peers and the opportunity to showcase your amazing writing skills ;) 

Literature

Last, we watched a short video on the life of William Syney Porter, aka O. Henry.  This iconic writer had a very interesting life that certainly shows up in his short stories. We learned that his stories are famous for their “snapper” endings (twist endings), the focus on everyday people as characters, and rooting for the underdog. They reflected on how those themes showed up in  “The Gift of the Magi” & “After Twenty Years.”  They had time to discuss in small groups and debrief their findings to the class.

They are enjoying these O. Henry stories and have two more for next week along with a Short Story Packet.  I gave the warning to make sure to read carefully for next week as there is a STRONG possibility there might be a “pop” quiz. 😉

Grammar

Since we were running short on time, the class voted to have no grammar lesson this week, with the understanding that next week, we will have two grammar mini-lessons plus the worksheets. We used our last bit of time to watch a few minutes of the dramatized version of “The Gift of the Magi”

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework for the Week

Compare/Contrast Essay–for Peer Review

No Grammar!

Read “Makes the Whole World Kin” & “The Furnished Room”

Short Story Packet #1

Links for this Week

“Gift of the Magi”--dramatized