Writing 1 Week 12–11/21

 Dear Students,

The weather is turning and we are all ready for a break! But before the break:  one last class!  

Our visual vocabulary words this week are:  felonious and elated. Hopefully, you are not elated about something felonious!

Writing

Today, the composition on Victorian Christmas is due. I checked in on how the process of summarization went. Writing source and fused outlines is a new skill to most and is very important to the “bones” of writing. After fielding some questions, we moved on to the next writing topic.  

I emphasized that up to this point, we have used the source texts provided and we haven’t used outside sources.We will continue to practice summarizing multiple sources, but for this next assignment, students will get to choose their own references/source texts.The subject is Victorian inventions/events. After watching a short video on the Victorian era, we broke into small groups to brainstorm ideas on this topic.  Students shared their ideas, so they should now have  at least a few pretty good ones. 

Their homework over break is to find AND bring 3-4 references/source text to class. Two references may be internet articles and the other one(s) must be from a different source– a book, magazine/journal or documentary. Bring a hard copy of your references–that means bring the physical book/magazine or printed article to class with you next class.  

Grammar

After that, the pronouns group presented. They did a good job! They have two worksheets from me for homework as usual. Our last presentation on prepositions will be presented when we come back from break on December 5th (Liam, Wesley, Brecken and Peter).

Literature

We wrapped up the class with a discussion on Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol.  I handed out a vocabulary worksheet that they will fill out as they work their way through the book and hand it in on the last day of class.  Then, we listened to a dramatized reading of the beginning of Stave 2 from Audible for the last few minutes of class.  Over break, students should read the rest of Stave 2 and answer 3 Questions from the worksheet. I forgot to mention that they should answer the fun Christmas food Discussion question posted on Google Classroom as well.

Homework

Choose a subject–Victorian invention/event

Bring 3-4 (physical) references about a Victorian invention or event to class

Two references may be Internet articles–bring the printed article to class; bring physical copies of the other reference(s)

Pronouns–1

Pronouns–2

Pronouns Evaluation

Read Stave 2 ACC

3 Questions

A Christmas Carol Vocabulary

Christmas Food Discussion Question–Google Classroom

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 11 (Nov. 14)

 Hi Everyone!

We had a great class today!  I am always encouraged to see such bright, inquisitive students each week who are engaged and ready to learn!

We kicked off with our Quick Write.  As our writing subjects get a little more “random,” it’s great to see students leaning in to ask themselves good questions in order to think of potential topics to write on.  Today’s subject:  silverware.

Next, we moved on to the Writing portion of our class.  Today, I introduced a new unit–really an expansion of the summarizing we’ve been working on.  From now on, we will be working with multiple references, so today we worked on the skills of making source outlines and then combining those source outlines into one fused outline. 

After viewing some short teaching videos which gave an overview of the process,  I handed out three source texts on the subject of Victorian Christmas traditions.  Together we read through the texts and picked out possible topics.  After assessing which topic had the most important, interesting and relevant information, we chose one.  

Then, from each source (labeled A, B & C), we filled out three abbreviated KWOs (also labeled A, B & C) and we ended up with three short source outlines.  After that, our work is easy:  simply scan the source outlines for the “best of the best” information and fill out one fused outline.  This fused outline helps organize information, and causes us to think critically on how the pieces should fit together.  It’s like a first draft and I explained that once that process is complete, the paragraph basically writes itself!  For a two paragraph composition, they will need to repeat this process twice.

As I wrote my outlines for the first topic on the board, students worked on theirs.  For this first paragraph, they are welcome to use my outlines or make their own.  Their homework is to write a second paragraph on a topic of their choosing using these source texts.  They should continue making source/fused outlines and use their checklist to write.

Whew!  They worked hard during that teaching!  Though I handed out our new novel,  we will leave discussing the Literature portion of the class until next class. After handing out A Christmas Carol, I explained that Charles Dickens has named each of the five chapters of his book “staves”--like the lines on a music staff.  There are five lines/staves in musical notation, and there are five chapters.  It is a carol (song) afterall!  Students will read Stave 1 as homework and answer questions.

No Grammar presentations this week–I asked the Pronouns and Prepositions groups to delay their presentations by one week.  We will pick up next week (11/21) with the pronouns group of Alexa, Samara and Evelyn.

Homework

Summarizing Multiple References–Victorian Christmas

Read Stave 1 A Christmas Carol

3 Questions on ACC

Links for this Week

Quick Write #5

About Summarizing Multiple References  (with teaching videos)

A Christmas Carol on Audible

Updated Assignment Checklist

CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 10 (11/7)

 CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 10 (11/7)

We are buzzing along in our semester and these students are learning a lot!

We started the class with our Visual Vocabulary words:  pensive and beleaguered.  Now that the election is over, hopefully none of us feel that way anymore!

Writing

After reviewing the www.asia.b clause, the new #2 preposition sentence opener, and some tips on how to handle numbers when writing a composition, students practiced identifying Dress-Ups on a student sample paragraph.  They compared notes with a neighbor and we went over the answers together as a class.

After reading the Checklist together, they are now ready to write their compositions.  The three paragraph summary is due next week.

Grammar

The adverbs group presented their part of speech today.  They also have two worksheets from me and should fill out an evaluation on today’s presentation.  Next week, the pronouns group (Samera, Evelyn & Alexa) will present.

Literature

To prepare for our next novella, I assigned students to read some introductory material about A Christmas Carol.  After they read that, they can take a quiz over it on Google Classroom.  There is also a video posted about Charles Dickens’ life and times to enjoy.

Have a blessed weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

About Summarizing a Reference w/ Checklist

Summarizing “CIA Training” OR “Tony Mendez”

Adverbs–1

Adverbs–2

Adverbs Evaluation

A Christmas Carol Introductory Material

Quiz–Introduction to A Christmas Carol

Links for this week

Visual Vocabulary #5