Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 18)

 Greetings!

We had a wonderful day today and combined both work and fun on this final day. 

Homework & Grades

The Final Edits for their Victorian Invention Essays were due today. I will grade those and any other homework that was handed in; my goal is to have final grades out soon.  I mentioned to the class that I will take any homework submitted by December 21 at 11:59 p.m. If there are any questions, please contact me.  Because I have writing and projects from both my classes, I know that I won't have the work ready for final grades until after Christmas. Look for them some time after the New Year.  

The Wrap-Up

As a culminating event, students were given a few minutes to put the finishing touches on their A Christmas Carol presentations. When the timer went off, students were ready to put on their productions. They had the option of a game show, a news broadcast, a mimed scene or a one-minute story all based on the characters and action from the novel. They sure are a creative bunch!

Next, we combined work and fun with a quiz on the Fall Visual Vocabulary in the form of a KAHOOT! game.  I will record their scores and use it as their grade. 

Before our next segment, each table helped themselves to the hot chocolate bar and snacks that I brought. These were good fortifications before they took their test.

The “test” over A Christmas Carol was in the form of a game called ZAP!  The class split into teams and had fun answering questions and things got a little competitive!  ZAP! Is not only a question/answer game, but it also allows teams to steal points from each other. The winners received bragging rights and a candy reward. The class really enjoyed this wrapping up time together.

My prayer is that all of you have a great Christmas that includes lots of love and laughter!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Due Today

Victorian Invention Final Edits

Grammar Test (corrected)

Link for this Week

Writing 1 Class Notes (on blog)

Class Notes–Week 14 (December 11)

 Class Notes–Week 14 (December 12)

We had a wonderful day in class today.  A lot of the hard work of the semester is over, so our "work" today was a little more fun.

Our last Visual Vocabulary words for today were: amalgamate and alienate.  These words will show up on our end of the semester quiz next week–so make sure to review those.  The slides are posted on Google Classroom.

Writing

The Victorian Inventions composition was due last week and I handed the graded/coded essays back. I forgot to remind you in class, but the Final Edits are due next week. 

Grammar

I handed out the Parts of Speech Post-Test in class today.  It is identical to the Pretest they took at the beginning of the semester.  It is an “open-book” test and can be finished at home.  The KEY is posted and, just like a regular grammar worksheet, it needs to be corrected before it is handed in.  They will receive a base score when it is completed.

The best way of learning grammar is through lots of reading and writing. Direct instruction of grammar is important and helpful, and combined with literature and writing it can be pretty potent.  Next semester we'll be working on sentence structures.

Literature

First, I reminded the class about the A Christmas Carol vocabulary worksheet that is due next week.  If they have been defining four vocabulary words from each Stave as they have been reading, it should be a simple matter of finishing. It is worth 40 pts, so it is a bigger project.  

For homework, they were to invent their own ghost.In small groups, they compared and contrasted their creations. They had fun with this creative assignment to wrap up this novel. After that, we had fun creating some impromptu creative presentations on A Christmas Carol. We will have a test over the novella next week.

Next Week

Our last week of the semester is next week, December 19.  All work should be handed in by that date.  That said, they will be given until Sunday, December 21st to get any last work in.  They should not wait until then to do their work and hand it in.  Next week we will have our "Classy Classmas Party."  I will bring warm drinks, and students can bring goodies if they like.  We will combine work & play:   During the first part of the class,we will have the A Christmas Carol Final Exam and Visual Vocabulary quiz. The rest of the class time we’ll spend enjoying Christmas games, music and holiday cheer. 

Assignments for Next Week:

Review Visual Vocabulary words–quiz next week

Grammar Post-Test–open book/notes

ACC Vocabulary

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 13 (December 4)

 Students were energetic and ready to engage today.  I can’t believe we are nearing the end of the semester already!

Quick Write

Today, we revisited the topic of using strong verbs in our writing. To that end, we banned the boring, predictable and insipid word said. After brainstorming some alternatives that students listed on their Banned Verbs lists, we were ready to write about some special Christmas traditions your family does. The topic choices were:

December 4–NATIONAL SANTA’S LIST DAY

December 6–NATIONAL ST. NICOLAUS DAY 

December 8–NATIONAL TIME TRAVELLER DAY

After that, we practiced paraphrasing and citing those paraphrases again. Since our practice was about the British Victorian candy called Jelly Babies, each student got to choose a few to sample while they worked on their paraphrases.

Writing

Victorian Invention Essays were due today.  I answered a few questions and we reviewed how to make your own Style list to make sure all the style points are included in each paragraph. I hope to get the essays back ASAP so that students can perform the Final Edits and turn them in by the last day of class.

Speaking of final edits, the Biography Essay Final Edits were also due today. As a reminder, that is where students use the Grammar and Content Codes to isolate and fix the errors that are coded on their essays. Those must be handwritten, stapled to the paper essay and rubric I handed back to them. This is a requirement for all students. As an option, if a student wishes to improve their grade for this essay, they may edit and polish using the codes and Resubmit their paper for a regrade. CAUTION: Thinking of resubmitting? Great! Just know that every code I mark needs attention. A resubmission that fixes only two out of ten errors is like washing one sock—it doesn’t really help anyone, and it wastes my time. Aim high and revise them all.

Grammar

Our last group presented today. The Prepositions group of Jediah, Toby and Aaron taught a mini-lesson, played a game and handed out a worksheet. Good job guys! As usual, I also had two worksheets for them to do. Those need to be completed, corrected and handed in next week. Don’t forget to fill out an evaluation for this group.

Now that we are finished with our presentations, I have assigned a CAPP review. These are 10 point (open book) quizzes that are posted on Google Classroom similar to the IVAN reviews a few weeks back.

Literature

Now that Scrooge has met the three ghosts, we had a discussion today about how Dickens used the ghosts to tell this redemptive story. Students were assigned one of the three ghosts to think deeply about:  what did they show Scrooge? What emotions did Scrooge feel? How did this ghost nudge Scrooge towards his transformation? They were given a worksheet to design their own ghost. It is due next week. There are no Stave 5 questions assigned this week!

Blessings on the rest of your week.

Mrs. G

Homework

Read Stave 5 ACC

Stave 5 Questions

Invent your Own Ghost Worksheet

Prepositions Homework–1

Prepositions Homework–2

Prepositions Evaluation

Conjunctions Review

Adverbs Review

Pronouns Review

Prepositions Review

Links for this Week

QuickWrite (12/4) + Paraphrasing (pt. 2)

Grammar Codes

Content Codes for Expository Essays

About Prepositional Phrases

QuickWrite (12/4)