Thursday, September 22, 2022

Writing 1 Class Notes–(Sept. 22) Week 5


Greetings,

Class went well today.  The students worked well and we covered a lot of material.


Quick Write:  

Today in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.  We read a portion of that document today and students had an opportunity to respond.  They could choose to write about the meaning of freedom, the Emancipation Proclamation itself or that era in US history.  They could also write about the photograph of Lincoln and share their thoughts on it.  Of course the last option is that they can choose their own topic, but they MUST write!  Students did a good job keeping those pencils/cursors moving!


Words of the Day: Just one today–

querulous– Given to complaining;Habitually making peevish complaints

Etymology:  Old Fr=querelos “quarrelsome, argumentative”; Latin=querulous “full of complaints, complaining;Root:  quarrel

Students drew a picture or listed a dinner/food that might tempt them to become querulous.

Writing Discussion

The Descriptive Essay final drafts were due today. This essay is relatively simple because it is narrative in nature and gives  me a good idea of where students are in their writing.  However, as the year goes on, the writing will progressively become more challenging.  The goal is to bring students to their next level–I am confident they will do just that.  

On that note, I  introduced a new concept:   the Rough Draft Rubric.  On the last essay students received a base grade if they turned it in.  I made corrections and comments on that.  Those comments are a great way to START—my expectation is that they will  incorporate what I give them and move beyond that.  I should see vast improvements from their Rough Draft to their Final Draft.  To that end, I will be “ruthless” on their Rough Drafts and their scores will reflect that.  We will continue this process throughout the semester.

We discussed thesis statements and topic ideas in pairs.  Hopefully this will give them further direction as they work on their Personal Essay Rough Drafts.

Literature Discussion

We had no Grammar discussion as I wanted to give ample time for students to work on their Parts of Speech Presentations.  

Students are assigned Ch. 7-8 in Animal Farm; they also have Study Questions assigned.


Grammar Discussion

We viewed the winner of our IVAN CAPP mascot competition.  Congratulations on Zach!  Students filled in a quick worksheet on the different parts of speech.  We watched an example video from past classes, and, after fielding a few questions, students got into their groups to begin planning their presentations.  They are responsible to teach the class their part of speech and for a worksheet of some kind.

Next week the Interjections and Verbs group will present. Students may find they need to connect with their classmates outside of class in order to complete this project. 

Homework:

  1. Quick Write

  2. Personal Essay Rough Draft

  3. Rough Draft Rubric

  4. Read Ch. 7-8

  5. Study Questions for Ch. 7-8

  6. Parts of Speech Unit

Links for this Week

  1. Parts of Speech Planning

  2. Parts of Speech Rubric

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