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

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 6--February 26

 Hello Dear Students!

We made it back from our first break of Spring semester –I trust we all had refreshment and are ready to learn together!

We began the class with two new Visual Vocabulary words:  cynical and audacious.  We discussed how with too many audacious news stories, we become cynical and hard to convince. It’s the ultimate “Boy Who Cried Wolf.”

Writing

Next, we checked in about the Compare/Contrast essays. After sharing their topics with the class, we practiced writing thesis sentences for this essay. Students had time to think-pair-share their work. I believe they are ready to begin drafting their essays if they haven’t done so already.

During their sharing time, I circulated and gave them credit if they met the deadline for the KWO for this essay.  As usual, the assignment will be closed for submissions by midnight tonight. The reason for that is to encourage students to meet their writing deadlines.😉 Speaking of deadlines, your essay should be ready for Peer Review on March 12.

On a separate, but related note:  I reminded students that it is important to draft their essays in the template provided. The software I use to help me detect plagiarism and AI use, alerts me when work is copied/pasted from outside the templates. When that happens, I must review their drafting process. As per CHAT policy, the first offense results in a meeting with a parent and if it is determined that work is not original, a student will have to take a 0 or re-do the assignment. The second offense results in a possibility of being expelled from CHAT. As you can see, this is fairly serious and why I needed to use strong wording here. If you are ever in any doubt, or have a question, please simply reach out to me and we will figure out a solution together. 

Literature

Today’s class was the last day of discussion about Animal Farm because we have officially finished it!  Before students take the Animal Farm Final Exam (posted on Google Classroom), I wanted to pause and allow students to think deeply about the connections between characters, themes, symbols and allegorical elements of the novella.  We accomplished this by diving into a “Hexagon Discussion.”  Honestly, I was impressed with the deep thinking that took place–I heard many insightful connections!  Because our discussion time was short, we didn’t have time for each group to share their most profound connection.  However, they wrote their assertions and noted their connections on a worksheet. Students will be graded on the quality of their assertions.

I passed out our next book which is a collection of short stories by O. Henry.  They are to read two of them and complete a Short Story Worksheets.

Grammar

After that, we had a mini-lesson on helping, linking and be verbs and used a  Verb Venn Diagram to complete two worksheets on different sentence patterns:  N-LV-N & N-LV-ADJ.  Varying sentence structures is one way to make your writing more interesting.  Many students finished in class, but if not, they are to be finished as homework.

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework for this week

Start drafting the Compare/Contrast Essay

Peer Review day→3/12

N-LV-N

N-LV-ADJ

Animal Farm Final Exam (GC)

Read:  “Gift of the Magi” & “After Twenty Years”

Short Story Worksheets

N-LV-N

N-LV-ADJ

Links for this week

Venn Diagram of Verbs

CHAT Academic Integrity Agreement 

CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 5 (2/12)

 

Greetings!

Nothing like warmer temps, sunshine and knowing that we have off next week to put a pep in our step! These students are a joy to teach–and today was no exception

Quick Write

Since Valentine’s Day is this weekend, our Quick Write today was topical. First, there was a short teaching about quality adjectives and we banned some “boring” adjectives. The words bad and good are now banned from essays. We will add periodically to this list. We talked about a much easier way to use interesting adjectives without banning every boring one.

 Today’s writing was to come up with as many quality adjectives as they could about a loved one, a friend or a Valentine. Early finishers were challenged them to come up with as many “Gen Z” messages for conversation hearts as possible.  (6-7 anyone?!?) After the timer went off, we took a minute to try folding an origami heart–the perfect container for the missive they just wrote! 

Literature

We have read up to chapter 8–almost done with the book, so we took some time to think about all the different characters we’ve met so far. They had some time to brainstorm three strengths and three weaknesses of one of them.  For homework, they’ll need to write a “character sketch” that details these aspects of their chosen character.  They should finish the novel and complete the Reader Response questions. We will have the Animal Farm final exam when they come back from break.

Writing

The Narrative Essays were due last week and most have been graded and coded. The next steps are to work on the Final Edits. We do this so that the rule can be internalized and hopefully avoid making that same mistake in the future. Together, we worked through an example as a refresher for what is required for Final Edits. First, we used the Grammar Codes sheet to interpret the codes. Then we numbered the codes chronologically on a lined piece of binder paper. After that, students NEATLY copied the first sentence of the rule that was violated and under that they made the fix.  In some cases that means a simple correction and in other cases that means writing or rearranging a sentence or two. The Final Edits are due next week.

After that, the next essay was introduced:  The Compare/Contrast Essay. In comparison and contrast essays, the writer places two subjects side by side and examines their similarities and/or differences in order to clarify the qualities of each (to inform) or to make a point (to persuade).  We brainstormed a few ideas and then used a Venn diagram to help compare two subjects. I encouraged them to look beyond the surface to find patterns. Not how does the subject look; but how does the subject act? The trick is to pick subjects that have some surprising things in common though on the surface they may appear to have nothing in common. You show your analysis skills when you highlight the similarities. After brainstorming topics and possible thesis sentences, we talked through the requirements. A sample is also posted on Google Classroom. Key Word Outlines are due next week. I have posted the template for the essay in case students want to get started over the break. It will need to be ready for Peer Review by 3/12.

Grammar

At the end of class, I assigned the Grammar worksheets, 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, so we had a mini-lesson. Corrected worksheets are due when they come back from break.

Have a wonderful break!

Mrs. G

   

Homework

Read Ch. 8 & 10 Animal Farm

Ch. 9 & 10–3 Responses

Animal Farm Character Sketch

Narrative Essay Final Edits

Compare/Contrast KWO

Classifying Prep Phrases

Prepositional Phrases -- Adj or Adv

Links for This Week

How to fold a Valentine’s Heart