Hello Writing 1 Students and Parents!
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.
We started with a quick Icebreaker before we got into some nitty gritty class details: Class Policies, homework deadlines and Syllabus. I went through an example schedule for Writer’s Workshop. It’s important for students to grasp this in order to get the most out of our time together–understanding these dates will help them to come to class prepared and NOT get surprised on the Final Draft Due Date.
A sample Workshop Schedule looks like this:
Week 1→Introduce Essay 1
Week 2→ Workshop Essay 1A
Week 3 Introduce Essay 2
Week 3 Workshop Essay 2A
Week 4→Workshop 1B OR 2B
Week 5 Workshop 1B OR 2B
Week 6→Final Drafts Due Date
As you can see, they will have two essays “simmering” at the same time and have 6-8 weeks to take it from Pre-Write to Final Draft. “Workshop” means they will be given about 30 minutes in class to WRITE! Obviously, there are many stages to writing a piece, and students may be at different stages during the Workshop. Some will be composing, some will be working on Peer Review and some will be Conferring with me. They will obviously need to work on their writing outside of class in order to not get snowed under onFinal Draft Due date.
Speaking of due dates, though there is some grace with the Literature and Grammar homework, the Writing due dates are non-negotiable. Any late writing work will be deducted 10% each day past the Due Date. On the Due Date, the Final Draft and ALL process pieces are due. The “Process Pieces” include:
Peer Review Sheet
Conferring Google Form
Rough Draft
Final Draft
End Notes
Checking in this way really helps students to track progress from stage to stage and helps me to know that they are actually engaging with their writing. With the advent of AI coupled with the fact that we meet just once a week, it can be tempting to skip the messy thinking process that writing entails. A Workshop model sets the stage for high writing engagement.
After all that, we got to the business of writing with our first Quick Write. I asked students to reflect on their writing life so far and ask: Who Am I As A Writer? They will develop this piece into a longer piece (due Week 3) and will include it in their end of the year Writing Portfolios.
Our Literature selection for this semester is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. We partnered up again and, with Post-It notes in hand, they circulated the room and discussed themes written on posters from the upcoming book. After discussing whether they agree or disagree with the statement, they left a Post-It behind stating their reasoning. I heard some insightful comments! We will be wrestling with big themes throughout this novel so it was a good introduction. We will start the novel next week, but for this week, they are to read the introduction on Google Classroom and complete the Quiz.
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 Guidelines (signatures needed)
Before school started assignments–Students can still do these:
Links for this Week:
Writing 1 Assignments Checklist
Who Am I (As A Writer?) Reflective Piece (due Week 3)
Ender’s Game Introduction Material
Ender’s Game Introduction Quiz
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