Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 5 (9/26)

 Greetings and Salutations! Seems like summer is doing its swan song for us–and I love it!

Our bellringer this morning was a bit of an unusual Quick Write. Along with the regular prompts of choice of writing about National Days: World Dream Day, European Languages Day or Tourism Day, I played the first 3 minutes of the Charlie Kirk podcast. It was a moving tribute about his powerful Christian witness. Since his memorial service was held since the last time we met for class, perhaps many had watched all or part of it. I thought it was a powerful Jesus moment and felt I would be remiss if I didn’t give students a chance to process a bit in writing if they choose to do so. As usual, I set the timer, they chose a prompt and  wrote for five minutes. They were required to include and indicate and -ly adverb dress-up. Bonus points if you include any Visual Vocabulary word we’ve had so far.

Literature

Since we had an in-depth discussion last week, today we kept it short. Students had an in-class quiz over Peter Pan chapters 7 & 8. They should keep reading chapters 9-11 and complete the Reader Response worksheet this week.

Writing

Today I introduced our first formal essay: The Personal Essay. Though we will be using the traditional essay form (Intro, Body, Conclusion, etc) the emphasis in this piece will be on the strong use of descriptive language, figures of speech, and creative thinking as they explore a very early childhood memory. I mentioned that I posted a sample essay, the grading codes and the rubric in the “About the Personal Essay” material on Google Classroom. We will go into more detail on the sample next week. This week, I spent time explaining the grading process. 

The Key Word outline is due next week. They may either show it to me in class OR scan and upload it online. It is due on the due date or it will not receive credit.

The Grading Process

This year I will be using Grammar and Content codes to give students feedback on their writing. We went over these codes together and looked at the rubric. This semester, here’s how the grading will go: students will turn in their essays on the due date and then I will encode them by marking each issue with the number/letter of the rule that they’ve violated. I will also use the rubric to give them their grade. 

Once a student gets their graded essay back from me, they will work through it by numbering each issue that I marked with a code number/letter. On a separate sheet of binder paper, they will copy down the rule that was violated and then rewrite or reword their work to show me how they would fix the issue. Since they now have everything they need to polish their work, they will NOT need to rewrite their entire essay–that may change next semester depending on their feedback.

Final Edits will be due the week after their essays are due. They need to submit their handwritten edits stapled to their coded and numbered original essay. They can hand it in on paper in class on the due date OR on GC by scanning their edits AND resubmitting their original encoded/numbered essays. 

Grammar

I announced the winner of our IVAN CAPP mascot! Congratulations, Louisa! You will win some extra credit points AND bragging rights. Your “Cool Ducky” will adorn the whiteboard during Grammar time.

The remainder of the class time I gave to students to plan their and prepare for their presentations. Due to some last minute changes, our first group will be the Verbs group on Oct. 9–so be ready! You will likely need some out of class time to prepare.😀  

There was no Grammar homework from me this week. Next week we will jump in with both feet.

That’s It! Blessings on your weekend.

Mrs. G

Homework

Personal Essay KWO

Read Peter Pan Chapters 9-11

Reader Response–Whose Cell Phone?

Work on your Grammar Presentations

Links for this Week

Quick Write

Charlie Kirk show–(first 3 minutes)

About the Personal Essay

Parts of Speech Groups

Parts of Speech Projects:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 4 (Sept. 18)

 Greetings!

I cannot believe how the time flies with these students!  We covered a lot, but I find myself wishing we had more time.

Visual Vocabulary

Our words today were lackadaisical and paucity.  After studying the words, we took a minute to write the definitions and sentences using them correctly. Bonus points for when I see these words in your writing!

Writing

Last week we learned the Topic-Clincher Rule and students had a “door test” when they came in. Most of them remembered the rule and the actions that go along with it. Good job! Next week I will be introducing our first essay–the Personal Essay. In the meantime, we discussed the importance of childhood memories in our novel Peter Pan. I would like students  to do like David in Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens and press their hands against their temples really, really hard to help them remember their very earliest childhood memory ;) If they can’t remember their first memory, they should brainstorm a few very early memories that they’d like to write about. I’ll go into more detail about this next week.

Literature Discussion

Speaking of  Peter Pan, this week they had a small group discussion using the 4 Square Discussion model to discuss the content. Students were assigned Chapters 7 & 8 and should be prepared to take another in-class quiz next week.

Grammar 

As I mentioned last week,  we are having a class contest for our IVAN CAPP mascot. Students who wanted a chance to win extra credit points,have submitted a picture to me and I posted a voting “ballot” on Google Classroom last week. Today I reminded them to vote on their favorite.  The winner will be announced next week.

Students have been put in groups of 3, and they are to research and come up with explanations about their assigned parts of speech.  Additionally, they are to come up with an activity/game/video for the class, and also a short worksheet.  Some students use Google Slides, Canva or other types of presentations.  Sometimes videos are helpful.Today, Today, we  had time to explain the presentations and get them in groups long enough for them to set up a way to communicate with each other. Next week, we will use a large portion of our class time to work in groups to prepare these presentations. Students will likely need to connect outside of class to finish their presentations, so they also exchange information.  Our first presentation will be Oct. 2. (See schedule below.)

Assignments for Next Week

Brainstorm early childhood memories

Read Chapters 7 & 8

Prep for in-class quiz

Work on Grammar presentations

Grammar Pre-Test

Links for This Week

Visual Vocab. #2

Vote for the best IVAN CAPP

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 3 (9/12)

 Hi All!

We got right to it today with our very first Quick Write. Every other week students are given a topic, five minutes and a few parameters. Then I play some music and our goal is to write continuously during that time. Today, before writing, we talked about their first stylistic Dress-Up technique which is -ly adverbs. After talking about what an adverb is and what an adverb isn’t we looked at a long list of options. They stowed their papers in the binders and got a clean sheet of paper.

Then I gave them a choice of writing prompts: either school pictures OR the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I am giving extra credit for every -ly adverb used and for any visual vocabulary words that are used. So far, we’ve learned ostentatious and fatalistic.

Writing

In the writing portion of our class, we dove a bit deeper on the Key Word Outline. After talking through the attributes of a basic paragraph (see handout), we used the KWO on J.M. Barrie that was due today to write a basic paragraph. I modeled the choosing the topic and 5-7 key facts. Then I wrote the first few sentences. I gave students time to finish the paragraph emphasizing the topic-clincher rule and indicating any -ly adverbs used. After sharing their finished paragraphs with a partner, I handed out an article about AI. For homework, please read the article and create one KWO for each paragraph (three total) then write one basic paragraph summarizing all three KWOs. Hand in both pieces of writing next week–and there will be a door test on the topic clincher rule!  

Grammar 

Today, we talked through the parts of speech group projects.  A sign up sheet was circulated for students to choose their own groups. (See below.)  

Group assignments are based on the mnemonic device IVAN CAPP.  Each letter stands for a part of speech. Students will be presenting their part of speech using the model:

1. I do (explain the concept)

2. We do (lead the class in a short game)

3. You do (assign the class a worksheet designed by your group)

Each component of the presentation should take no longer than five minutes–15 minutes max. total. Students will have time next week in class to prepare for their presentations. 

They got started on a Grammar Pre-Test to see how much they already know about the parts of speech.  They have two weeks to complete and correct it at home.  (KEY is posted on GC.)  They will receive a base score no matter how many they have incorrect.  At the end of the semester, they’ll re-take it and see how much they have learned!

 

As an optional assignment, they can still submit a picture by midnight tonight of "IVAN CAPP" to be voted on as a class favorite to use as a mascot for this unit. 

Homework

KWO & Basic Paragraph (AI)

–Handwrite one KWO for each paragraph (3 KWOs total)

–Write one basic paragraph summarizing the KWOs

Grammar Pre-Test–correct it (due 9/25)

Read Peter Pan Chs. 5 & 6

Reader Responses–Enneagram

Links for This Week

Win a Prize!--IVAN CAPP drawing

Parts of Speech Group Assignments

Quick Write– (-ly adverbs)

Wr 1 Class Notes--WK 2 (9/4)

Hello All!

I appreciated the students’ hard working attitudes today as they dove into another great day of learning together. After a quick check-in about Google Classroom and how to turn off notifications, we got started.

We had our first edition of Visual Vocabulary (VV).  Today, we learned:  ostentatious and fatalistic.  These words are taken from SAT/ACT vocabulary lists and each week we do VV, students are given the definition, the part of speech, the synonym and antonym.  Then they write a sentence using the word in context. We will be adding to the list throughout the semester–so don’t lose that worksheet–keep it in your 3 Ring Binders. Speaking of that, as we passed in homework, I gave students credit for having their binders assembled and ready.

In the Writing portion of the class, I introduced a very important skill: Key Word Outlines. Students will be writing and using these throughout their year, so we spent today laying a good, solid foundation. After reading a biography on our author J.M. Barrie we took a stab at writing a KWO on that information. For each sentence, students are allowed to use 3 words; symbols and numbers don’t count toward this. An outline like this is an excellent way to critically think about what one is reading AND to synthesize the text–thereby making it your own. You do not have to worry about plagiarism when you use this method AND it helps us organize our thoughts for the next step of writing (or speaking.) Today, for the first paragraph students were invited to copy my KWO from the board, the next section we did together. The last section they can finish on their own as homework.

After that, we switched gears to Literature–Peter Pan.  We talked about some  Victorian vocab and practices. One of those practices is that little boys usually wore what we’d consider “dresses” until they are potty trained and they normally had long hair. When they turned two it was common to have a “breeching ceremony” where they received their first pair of pants or breeches, cut their baby curls and were paraded down the sidewalk because now they are considered a “big boy.” Typically a sad time for all mothers 🥲. It dovetails nicely with what the quote we discussed from the beginning of chapter one: 

 FDR in 1890–before his 

“breeching ceremony”

“You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end.” 

I gave them time to think about some more questions pertaining to chapters 1 & 2 and to  discuss with their small groups. I was very impressed with some of their insightful comments about J.M. Barrie in relation to this Peter Pan story. They are to keep reading and be prepped for an in-class quiz over the reading next week.

In the last few minutes of class, I introduced the Grammar project students will be working on throughout this semester.  Next week, we’ll talk in more detail.  For now, know that for this project, students will be the teachers–in teams they’ll gather information about an assigned part of speech and present it to the rest of the class.  I introduced them to Mr.  IVAN CAPP and invited them to submit a picture for a contest (optional.) Next week we’ll split into groups to begin work on this project.

Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Read Chapter 3 & 4  Peter Pan

Be ready for a quiz!

J.M.B. KWO

LInks for This Week:

Visual Vocabulary #1

About Key Word Outlines

Parts of Speech Project

IVAN CAPP Drawing Contest (optional)