CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes–WK 3 (1/29)

Quick Write:

Today, we practiced thinking! As discussed earlier, we think by asking ourselves questions and then answering them. It’s funny that we humans always want to circumvent the hard word of thinking–especially in the age of AI! So, we are going to practice today! We stretched our muscles by generating as many questions about, topics pertaining to and aspects of:  SNOW. These questions we ask, become fodder for writing as we attempt to answer them using research and organizing our thoughts.

Since today’s National Days are about Puzzles and Corn chips, students selected a topic, I set the timer for five minutes and they began to generate as many questions as they could.

In Literature, we had a check-in about the Animal Farm.  We are getting momentum in the story now and we reviewed the ballad that was sung in chapter 1–”Beasts of England.”  I asked them to skim the lyrics and notice how the song was filled with descriptive images, hope for a bright future of what life will be like when they finally get rid of the oppression of man.  After that, we stood up and sang it to the tune of “O My Darling Clementine.”  In true capitalist style, enthusiastic singers received a fabulous juiceprize.  (In true communistic style, they ALL received one! ;)  As homework, they are to read chapters 5 & 6 and complete the discussion questions in preparation for our in-class discussion.

Writing

First up, we checked-in about the upcoming Narrative Essay that is due next week. I fielded some questions. It should be a fun essay to write as these students have a lot of creative ideas! After that, we flexed our storytelling muscles by playing a few rounds of Story Matic. While they played, I checked their Key Word Outlines, which were due today.

Because we were enjoying our storytelling, I opted to simply hand out the grammar worksheets. Students can watch the mini-lesson videos I have posted on Simple Sentences with Compound Subjects and/or Compound Predicates should they need some guidance. The worksheets are due next week. Make sure you grade them–and mark your corrections!

That’s it! I hope you have an awesome weekend. Have fun writing your stories. Reach out with questions if you have any.

Blessings, 

Mrs. G

Homework:

Narrative Essay

Read Ch. 5 & 6 Animal Farm

Answer the Discussion questions

Grammar

Simple sentences/Compound Subjects

Simple Sentences/ Compound Predicates

Simple Sentences/Compound Subjects & Predicates

CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 2 (1/22)

 Today, we started our Visual Vocabulary words for Spring.  This is where we work with some ACT/SAT vocabulary words; we learn the definition, the part of speech, and use it in a sentence.  I gave them this semester’s worksheet where the words will be cumulatively compiled.  They turned in the sentences or prompts that they completed to help cement this word in their memories and to “furnish the mind” as writing teacher Andrew Pudewa says. I hope to see some of these words in composition this semester!  The words today were:  bellicose and presume. 

Writing

Today I introduced our first essay for this semester: The Narrative Essay. This style of essay tells a story from a clear point of view. A narrative essay allows for some creativity and is more informal than expository essays–and tells a story from a clear point of view. In this assignment, students will tell the story from the perspective of a character from a Normal Rockwell painting. (Paintings are posted on GC). 

On the board, we talked through how to break writing this story down into manageable parts. We looked at the painting “Happy Birthday, Miss Jones” by Norman Rockwell. I gave the class a chance to do a “picture study” as we observed all the details we could. After naming some, we began to ask ourselves questions:   who, what, (what are they thinking/doing/saying/feeling) when, where, why, how?  And then a level deeper:  what happened before the picture?  After?  Outside the picture?  What may have happened before or after?  In this way, students begin to access their thinking and imagination and create their own story.

We also imagined what could have happened before this moment, then what was happening in the moment captured on the canvas and last, what happened after. That’s where they come up with their story’s message or takeaway. Those three “moments” will become their three paragraphs for the story.

After reading and discussing the sample essay based on the same painting, students will be ready to compose their story. They are to use the Topic-clincher rule for each paragraph and to employ all the Dress-Ups we have used so far:  -ly adverb, who/which clause, strong verb and a decoration of some sort. In addition, I encourage them to use dialogue where appropriate. Please take the dialogue quiz (GC) to brush up on how to punctuate dialogue correctly. The Key Word Outline is due in class next week!

Literature

We had a quick check-in today on Animal Farm.  I asked them to think/pair/share on a few questions.  They had some thought-provoking answers!  After touching on the qualities of a good leader, I shared with them a free resource on the topic of socialism and communism.  It’s a FREE course through Hillsdale College for those students who are interested in learning more about the political background of this novel.  It is excellent! For homework, they are to keep reading (chapters 3 & 4), answer the questions AND take the quiz over chapters 1-4 posted on Google Classroom.

Grammar

For the Grammar portion of class, we worked again on simple and compound sentences.  The worksheets are a review of the basic elements of a sentence (subject + verb + complete thought).  Many times students write sentence fragments and run-on sentences and comma splice sentences because they don't have a strong sense for these sentence elements.  [Note:  Remember to correct your grammar worksheets and to clearly mark that they've been corrected.]

Homework

Read Animal Farm Ch. 3 & 4

Take Home Quiz #1–Chs. 1–4(GC)

Narrative KWO–due IN CLASS next week!

Grammar worksheets

What is a Sentence?

Sentence Patterns–N-V

Links for this week

Visual Vocabulary #1

Hillsdale College Socialism/Marxism course

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 1 (January 15)

 Hello Dear Students,

Even though some may not be that excited to start up again, I am very proud of them for all they had been learning this past year.  There’s much to be grateful for!

We started the day out with a Quick Write.  Today’s topic was a choice between:

JANUARY 15–NATIONAL BAGEL DAY

JANUARY 15–NATIONAL HAT DAY or

JANUARY 17–NATIONAL CLASSY DAY

After that, we previewed the Spring Syllabus, Homework Checklist and Late Homework dates.  We highlighted the important due dates and took a brief look at what this semester has in store.  I told them a good strategy is to use the Homework Checklist to help them parcel out their work during the week to avoid having it all pile up at the last minute. Students should plan to work on this class at least 30 minutes per day.

After that, we switched gears to introduce the novella Animal Farm. We talked through a slideshow on The Cycle of Revolution and the Iron Law of Oligarchy.  We had a Jigsaw style discussion on the three themes from the book:  Government, Equality/Equity and Leadership. They had some interesting insights!  There were some that argued that though we are all created with equal rights, some people have different gifts and therefore, in reality, it is impossible for everyone to be “equal.”  How smart is that?!!  Our discussion led beautifully into the main slogan of “Animalism” from our novel which is an allegory for Communism. 

For homework, they are assigned to watch two videos and take a quiz on the historical background on this novella–which is actually an allegory about the Russian Revolution. For homework, they will keep thinking about the theme of leadership as they answer the discussion question (on GC) about what character quality makes for a great leader.

They should start reading the book (Ch. 1 & 2) and answer 3 Study Guide questions.  They also have a Vocabulary Worksheet that they should be filling out as they read–it will be due at the end of the unit.  

Grammar

After that, I introduced this semester’s grammar focus:  Basic Sentence Patterns. I explained that while English depends largely on word order to convey meaning, other languages often rely on inflection (modifications to word forms) to determine relationships between words, making their sentence structures more flexible in comparison. Some students have studied another language, so they were able to illustrate that with examples.

We watched a Youtube Short on the Basic sentence patterns and I handed out two worksheets. 

Students had time to get started on those and are to complete and correct them. This semester, instead of paper KEY, students are to use the KEY that is posted with each worksheet on Google Classroom. Please remember to correct your own work and mark those corrections! I was more lenient on that last semester than I will be this semester;)

Enjoy your weekend!

Blessings, 

Mrs. G

Homework

Syllabus

Homework Checklist

Homework & Late Dates

Read Ch. 1 & 2

Animal Farm Vocabulary Worksheet

Ch. 1 & 2 Study Guide Questions

Introduction to Animal Farm Quiz (GC)

“Top Character Quality–Leader?” Response 

Links for this week

Syllabus

Homework Checklist

Homework & Late Dates