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 are your favorite school/office supplies?
We had two Words of the Day:
Academy–old French; meaning college, place of training; Latin–place in Athens where Plato taught; a grove or a park
Learn–[OE] verb; from the German lernen; gaining experience by following a track
Much of our first class of the year is spent doing a fun ice breaker, 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.
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.) Please use this Google Doc link (on Google Classroom) to compose your Rough Draft. I did not emphasize this in class!!
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). We will have a quiz on the Animal Farm Introduction next week.
No Grammar this week -- we'll jump in with both feet next week!
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 WK 3;9/8)
Before school started assignments–Students can still do these:
Links for this Week:
Mrs. G’s Guide to Technology 2022
Writing 1 Assignments Checklist
