Today was another full day. The class was engaged and ready to learn–just what I like!
Quick Write
Today’s Quick Write was Thanksgiving inspired. The class read a poem by Billy Collins called “The Gathering–A Thanksgiving Poem” and responded. I also asked them to contribute to a list of Quick Write ideas to be used for the rest of the year.
Words of The Day
Today’s word is also Thanksgiving inspired:
Repast: (noun) A meal, or the food eaten or provided at a meal. Students listed their highlights and lowlights (if any) of their Thanksgiving repast.
Homework Check
A reminder to students: make sure you correct your grammar worksheets and show on the worksheet or the Google Classroom assignment that you're corrected it. Also, make sure you turn in assignments that you've done on Google Classroom. A number of assignments have been finished, but students have forgotten to turn the work in.
Grammar
We had our last presentation for our parts of speech unit. Today we heard from the Prepositions duo. They had a slide presentation, a video, and a game. Students have Prepositions worksheets and evaluation to do for homework. They also have a review of the last 4 parts of speech before the final test. (CAPP Review)
Literature
Today we discussed A Christmas Carol up to Stave (chapter) Three. We've read about Marley, the Ghost of Christmas Past, and the Ghost of Christmas Present along with others. Students partnered up and completed a character “Roll-Call”--they were asked to match descriptions and quotations with the characters. Using their books, they were able to locate more quotations and this led to a rich discussion.
Writing
Students have been assigned another essay -- a History Essay. The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due the week after Thanksgiving break. We discussed possible thesis statements. Coming up with thesis statements is one of the hard parts of writing a paper. The thesis statement is more than a topic sentence; it is a sentence that tells the reader what the topic is and what the writer's stand or opinion is. When students are thinking about their topics, they should also be thinking about that topic's importance or significance. I often call this the "Why should I care?" element.
Students also took notes (for Extra Credit!) on things to keep in mind for their next essay.
Homework Links
Read Stave 4 of A Christmas Carol
Links for this Week
Class Summary video (for those absent)
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