CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes--Week 9 (10/31)

 Dear Students,

We were rolling quite along today and spirits were high!

                                                                    Quick Write

After a seasonally appropriate Quick Write on the topic of Candy, we got started with the class.

Writing

Today, we continued our unit of summarizing a reference and they will have two weeks to complete this next assignment.  After they’ve chosen to either summarize an article about a former CIA operative (“Tony Mendez”) or the article on how to become one of these elite officers (“CIA Training”)  they are to write a KWO for 3 topics (paragraphs.)  The outline is due next week–WK 10 (11/7.)   After reviewing the main points, we got a good start on a KWO about CIA training.  Some students chose to use my ideas for topics, some decided to choose their own as we began the KWO on the board.  The (three paragraph) composition will be due the following week Week 11 (11/7.)  If students want to get a head start on it, they are welcome to do so–everything is posted on GC, but we will go over the checklist next week.  

 After the exam, some students took the opportunity to keep working on their KWOs.

Grammar

We have now finished the IVAN section of our mnemonic device and are moving on to CAPP.  Today’s grammar topic was C=conjunctions.  The Conjunctions group had a teaching, an activity and a worksheet designed by them; there are also two homework sheets for practice from me. Make sure to fill out an evaluation for that group.  Next week, the Adverbs group will present.  Be ready!

Literature

We finished Ender’s Game this week which means it was time for the final exam :)  Students took the exam in class.  We will start A Christmas Carol next week.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the snow?!?!?

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

KWO on “CIA Training” OR “Tony Mendez”--bring it to class!

About Summarizing A Reference (part 2)

“Tony Mendez” & “CIA Training” Source Texts

Conjunctions–1

Conjunctions–2

Conjunctions Evaluation

Links for this week

Quick Write

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 8 (10/24)

 Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 8 (10/24)

It was good to see your smiling faces back from break.  We are officially halfway through the Fall semester now.  Can you believe it?!?

Class opened with a Door Test on the Topic-Clincher Rule.  Memorizing and using this rule helps us to write well-rounded paragraphs.  Studies show that using gestures can support memorization; pairing simple actions with words will  help this rule stick in our minds. The “test” was simple: after a practice round, students stood up and recited the rule using the actions we learned.  They did great!  

Since I had a Google Slides malfunction, we had just one Visual Vocabulary word of the day:  licentious.  Elsa sings a famous song about that. We’ll catch up next round!

Writing

We are continuing our unit on summarizing a reference–laying the groundwork for longer essays later in the year.  Last week, the assignment was a two paragraph summary on a reference about Elon Musk and those were due today.  Since the teaching was sent out as a set of short videos, we had a progress check-in. They should have incorporated all five of the dress-ups and the new topic-clincher rule.  

After that, we had a mini-lesson introducing Sentence Openers.  We will have six this year and the first one is sentence opener two:  the prepositional sentence opener.  As the name suggests, this sentence begins with a preposition or prepositional phrase.  An example:

[2] In sentence openers, the indicator is a number in brackets before the sentence.

Students got a hand out on that opener. We took a few minutes to write a few practice sentences.

No writing assignment this week–just catch up on any late work.  I will be sending out grade reports before next class, so use this time wisely!  Next week, we’ll practice summarizing with a little longer assignment and incorporate this sentence opener.

Grammar

Before our next Grammar presentation, we had a short seque. I find that students are surprised that adjectives are much more than simply “descriptive words.”  They took some notes and did some practice that will help them to take their IVAN Review Google Forms quizzes that are due next week.

We're continuing with the Parts of Speech presentations, and today we had the Nouns group.  They had a game for the students to play and a worksheet. We watched a short video about nouns and they have homework to practice identifying nouns.  (A reminder:  students should fill out the evaluation of ALL the presentations we’ve seen so far:  Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and Nouns.  If you presented, fill out the Self-Evaluation).   Here are the next next two groups on deck:

Literature

This is our last assignment for Ender’s Game.  Unfortunately, we ran out of time for our Literature Circles Discussion.  I collected their role sheet homework and will base their grade on that.  

We played a lightning round of a fun review team play game called ZAP!  Students are to finish reading chapters 13 & 14 and get ready for the Final Exam next week. I posted the game with answers.  I told them that if they studied these questions, they would ace the test we’ll take in class next week!

That’s it!  Reach out with any questions.

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Catch-up on any late writing assignments

Nouns Homework–1

Nouns Homework–2

Nouns Evaluation

IVAN Review Quizzes (open notes)

Interjections

Verbs

Adjectives

Nouns

Finish Ender’s Game– Chapters 14 & 15–Review for Final Exam

Links for this Week

Visual Vocabulary

ZAP! Ender’s Game (Test Review Questions)

Updated Assignment Checklist

CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 6 (10/3)

 Greetings, Everyone!

We’ve turned the corner into Fall and the weather is still gorgeous.  Time sure flies with this wonderful group of students!

After a check-in about homework, we started the class with Visual Vocabulary as we discussed the words epigram and edifice.  In today’s world, there seem to be edifices of epigrams wherever we look!  If you want to see a lot of epigrams in one place, go to your local Hobby Lobby!  😀 (See the example on the left.)

After that, we got to our Writing.  Today’s focus was on learning the last of the dress-ups–strong adjectives and www.asia.b.  The latter is not a website, but a mnemonic device to help us remember the subordinate conjunctions which begin this adverbial clause dress-up.  Students should memorize these www words for a quiz at the beginning of class next week.  (Try to be able to recite them in 3 seconds or less!) 

For a more fulsome discussion of these dress-ups, see the slideshow posted on GC. They are to choose “The Shepherd Boy” or “The Fox and the Crow” to write three paragraphs.  As usual, hand in all four pieces EITHER on GC OR on paper:  checklist, rough draft, final draft and KWO (which is a story sequence chart.)  Follow the directions on your checklist.

Literature

Roles for our big Literature Circle discussion were assigned for next week.  You will receive a grade on your preparation and participation and we went over the expectations.  Each student has a part to play in order to make this a fruitful discussion.  They are to keep reading chapters  9 & 10 this week and complete a 3 Responses worksheet.  Any material up to chapter 10 is fair game for the discussion.  

Grammar

Due to technical difficulties, the scheduled verbs presentation will be presented next week. Both the verbs and adjectives groups will go, so make sure you’re prepared!  I passed out two worksheets on verbs which are due next week.  

Homework

Retelling Narrative Variations–”The Shepherd Boy” OR “The Fox and the Crow”

Literature Circles Roles–See above

Read chapters 9 & 10 Ender’s Game

3 Responses

Verbs

Where is the Verb–Worksheet–Homework 1

Identify the Verb in the Sentence–Homework 2

Links for this week

Visual Vocabulary #3

About -ly adjectives & www.asia.b clause Dress-ups & Numbers Slides

Grammar Presentation Groups