Writing 1 Class Notes (Week 12)--November 1

Today was another full day.  The class was engaged and ready to learn–just what I like!

Quick Write

Today’s Quick Write was Thanksgiving inspired.  The class read a poem by Billy Collins called “The Gathering–A Thanksgiving Poem” and responded. I also asked them to contribute to a list of Quick Write ideas to be used for the rest of the year.

Words of The Day

Today’s word is also Thanksgiving inspired:

Repast:  (noun)  A meal, or the food eaten or provided at a meal.  Students listed their highlights and lowlights (if any) of their Thanksgiving repast.

Homework Check

A reminder to students:  make sure you correct your grammar worksheets and show on the worksheet or the Google Classroom assignment that you're corrected it.  Also, make sure you turn in assignments that you've done on Google Classroom.  A number of assignments have been finished, but students have forgotten to turn the work in.

Grammar

We had our last presentation for our parts of speech unit.  Today we heard from the Prepositions duo.  They had a slide presentation, a video, and a game.  Students have Prepositions worksheets and evaluation to do for homework.  They also have a review of the last 4 parts of speech before the final test.  (CAPP Review)

Literature

Today we  discussed A Christmas Carol up to Stave (chapter) Three.   We've read about Marley, the Ghost of Christmas Past, and the Ghost of Christmas Present along with others.  Students partnered up and completed a character “Roll-Call”--they were asked to match descriptions and quotations with the characters.  Using their books, they were able to locate more quotations and this led to a rich discussion. 

Writing

Students have been assigned another essay -- a History Essay.  The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due the week after Thanksgiving break.  We discussed possible thesis statements.  Coming up with thesis statements is one of the hard parts of writing a paper.  The thesis statement is more than a topic sentence; it is a sentence that tells the reader what the topic is and what the writer's stand or opinion is.  When students are thinking about their topics, they should also be thinking about that topic's importance or significance.  I often call this the "Why should I care?" element.                    

Students also took notes (for Extra Credit!) on things to keep in mind for their next essay.

Homework Links

Quick Write

Prepositions Worksheets

Prepositions Evaluation

CAPP Review–-Conjunctions

CAPP Review–Adverbs

CAPP Review–Pronouns

CAPP Review–Prepositions

ACC Roll-Call Activity

Read Stave 4 of A Christmas Carol

Stave 4 Study Guide Questions

Links for this Week

Class Summary video (for those absent)

Class Notes–Nov. 10 (WK 11)

We had an engaging and quick-paced class once again today.  Students are working well and we are accomplishing so much.  We can all be proud of ourselves.

Quick Write

I asked students to respond to a prompt about the concept and word “solace”.  They were to think about a time they received solace when they went through a difficult time.  What was it?  Today’s writing led to some rich discussion and reflection.

Word of the Day

“Denouement” is the word of the day today–appropriate because we have recently finished our latest novel.  It means the resolution of a plot following its climax; the wrapping up or outcome of any complex series of events–especially in literature/film/theater.  It can also mean the unraveling of understanding the details underlying arguments between friends.  

The etymology is fromLatin=nodus=knot; French=+de=”untying of a knot” (1752). 

Students were asked to “make it stick” in their brains by answering a question about the denouement of the plot of their recent novels.  Was it satisfying?

Writing

The final drafts of the Biography Essay were due this week, and we're on to the next essay -- a History Essay.  For the Biography Essay, students were to write about the significance of a person, and for the History essay, students should discuss the significance in history and culture of an event, item, or period.  For the rest of the essays that they will write for Writing 1, students will write a Pre-Write, Rough Draft, and Final Draft.  I have the Pre-Write "due" next week because I want students to take the week to plan and research for their essays.  However, they don't have to hand in the pre-writes until they hand in the rough drafts, which will be on December 1 (3 weeks from this week.)

Grammar

We had a nice student presentation today on pronouns with a Power Point presentation, worksheet and competitive activity.  Homework and evaluations are due next week.  Our last presentation is next week:  prepositions.

LIterature

We did not discuss A Christmas Carol this week.  Next week we will discuss Stave 1-3.  Students are to read Stave 3 and do 3 Study Guide Questions.

Homework

Biography Essay Rough Draft (if not done)

Biography Essay Final Draft (if not done)

First 5 Corrections (if not done)

History Essay Pre-Write (work on for 11/17; due with RD on 12/1)

Pronouns Worksheet

Pronouns Evaluation

Read Stave 3 of A Christmas Carol

3 Study Guide Questions

Links for this Week

Quick Write

About the History essay

Enjoy the changing of the season!

Warmly,

Amanda Gonsalves 

aka Mrs. G

November 3–Week 10

 We had a full class today–but we do every week!

Quick Write

This week, we had a Quick Write on a colorful topic!  After thinking of our favorite color, we watched a brief video on what different colors symbolize.  Then students wrote about what they think of when the color yellow comes to mind..  Do certain colors carry certain meanings for them?

We had a brief homework check. Grade Reports were sent last week. Here are the points we talked about:

•  If students have missing homework, they can consult the Late Homework policy and hand it in as soon as possible.  Those points really make a difference!  

• In order to help support students to have strong worksheets for the Parts of Speech Presentation, students will now be required to submit their worksheets to me for approval BEFORE their presentations.

• Once an essay (Rough Draft/Final)  has been submitted and graded, it is final.  

Words of the Day

We had NO Words of the Day this week as it was a full class and I wanted to leave room for it all.  We’ll get back on the train next week.

Grammar

For our Grammar Discussion today, we had a wonderful presentation, game and worksheet from the team of Jack and Teegan (make sure you fill out an Evaluation for their group.)They taught us about Adverbs.  Students have two worksheets due next week. One was handed out in class, the other one is posted on Google Classroom.  Make sure you correct them BEFORE you hand them in!

Some students had a hard time with the Adjective IVAN Quiz that was due last week. For that reason, we revisited this topic briefly and took “Guided Notes”--student’s received Extra Credit for these notes! If you are absent, fill the notes out using your Grammar Review Packet.  You can hand them in for Extra Credit.  They are to retake the Adjectives IVAN Review Quiz this week.

We will briefly touch on Conjunctions next week in the same manner.

Writing

If students handed in their Biography Rough Drafts, they were graded and handed back last week.  Students should fill out their First 5 Corrections (Mistakes) as they are editing and hand that in next week.  Biography Finals are due next week as well.

Today, the class took part in their second Writing Circle DIscussion.  They read some sample introductions and broke into groups to discuss the merits and weaknesses of the introductions. I asked them to especially look at the hook, “road map” and if the writer’s opinion was clear.  

They also discussed how confident they felt about different aspects of Grammar.  They took a Grammar Inventory and discussed what areas are strengths and weaknesses.

Literature

We did not discuss Stave 1 of A Christmas Carol this week, but we’ll circle back next week.  Students will answer three questions on Stave 2  on a Reader Response worksheet.

Have a blessed week!

Warmly,

Mrs. G

Homework

Adverbs HW #1 I gave out in class; #2 must be completed on GC

Adverbs Evaluation

Self-Evaluation (for Adverbs group)

Adjectives IVAN Review GC

Guided Notes for Adjectives (Extra Credit)

Grammar Review Packet (for Guided notes and self-study)

First 5 Corrections

Biography Essay Final Drafts

Writing Circle #2 & Grammar Inventory

Stave 2–3 Questions

Links for the Week

Quick Write 11/3

Late Homework Policy

Writing 1 Class Notes--Week 9 (October 27)

 It was good to see the students again after our Fall Break.  I hope they all had a chance to relax a bit.  They came back and were ready to learn!

Quick Write

Students responded to an excerpt about intelligent octopuses (yes, that is a legitimate pluralization of that word!)

Words of the Day

Today’s Words of the Day are seasonal in nature.  Students are continuing to compile these words with definitions, etymology and examples and sketches to “make them stick.”

macabre (adj)–ghastly; having weird, uncanny or exotic features; from Latin “chorea Machabaeorum” or “Dance of the Maccabees” a medieval stylized representation of the slaughter of the Maccabees; French “danse macabre” denoted a figure representing death who enticed people to dance with him until they dropped dead.

confection (n,v)--a sweet preparation of fruit, a preserve, a candy; the process of compounding, preparing, making something; something made up or confected.  Latin “confectionem”--a preparation, a medicament” the making by means of ingredients, act of compounding different substances into one preparation; in late 14C. Also “something prepared or made with sugar or syrup.”

masquerade (n,v)--A costume party at which masks are worn; a masked ball.  A disguise or outward show; a pretense.  From “mask”--1530’s “a cover for the face; a false face from French “masque”; medieval Latin masca “specter, nightmare.”

Homework Check

We did a brief check in on homework.  It can be challenging to have several assignments going at once–part of being a student in this style of classroom–and also as they move ahead academically. We talked about due dates. I hope to send out grade reports after I have graded the Rough Drafts this week which will be helpful.

Literature

I introduced our next novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  We watched a brief video about the author and discussed how our Christmas celebrations have evolved over the years. Interestingly, 

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! 

 I have assigned some introductory material and a quiz over that material on Google Classroom (due next week.)  I also assigned a Vocabulary Sheet students should be using as they work their way through the book.

Last, we did a very brief review of the characters in Animal Farm, the novel we just finished. Students signed up for a character and next week, they’ll work together to write campaign speeches for each character if time permits.

Writing

The Biography Essay Rough Draft and Prewrite were due today.  The final is due November 11.

Grammar

This week we had a lot of Grammar work!  There were two presentations:  Interjections and Conjunctions.  They both presented a video, a short teaching, and the Conjunctions group had an activity.  Next week, the Adverbs group will present.  Be ready!

They were given homework from the groups AND from me.  Those are due next week.

They also have a review of the four parts of speech that have been covered so far:  IVAN.  The IVAN Review is posted on Google Classroom–also due next week..  

Students should complete evaluations of the groups’ presentations.  If you presented, fill out the Self-Evaluation.

Homework

Introduction to A Christmas Carol

Quiz on Introduction to 

ACC Vocabulary Sheet

Biography Essay

Biography Prewrite

Biography Rough Draft

Interjections HW

Interjections Evaluation

Conjunctions HW

Conjunctions Evaluation

IVAN Review: Interjections

IVAN Review:  Verbs

IVAN Review:  Adjectives

IVAN Review:  Nouns

Parts of Speech Self-Evaluation

Links for This Week

Quick Write (10/27)

Charles Dickens YouTube video

Interjections & Conjunctions videos

October 13–Week 8

Quick Write

Today we had a choice of options revolving around events that happened on October 13 in different years in history–ranging from ancient to modern. We really skipped around!

Words of the Day 

No words of the Day today

Writing

Students handed in their Final Drafts of their Personal Essays.  As soon as we complete one essay, we start ite next. Our next essay is a Biography Essay. In this essay, they are to make sure that they have an opinion about the person and write in a way to show the significance/importance of that person.  For our previous papers, we followed a 2-step process (rough draft to final draft).  For the rest of the papers we write this year, we’ll follow a 3-step process:  pre-write, a rough draft, to a final draft.  We discussed pre-writing techniques such as using a mind map or outline.  I demonstrated composing an online Mind Map using a free website.  The Pre-Write and Rough Draft is due Oct. 27.

Literature 

We've finished Animal Farm, and as a final activity, but unfortunately did not have time to do our last activity.  Perhaps next class period.  They are to take the Final Exam posted on Google classroom.

The next book that we'll read is Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.  I gave them their books.  Below I'm posting the background information and the Introduction Quiz. Please note:  The quiz is not due until Nov. 3.

Grammar

We're continuing with the Parts of Speech presentations, and today we had the Nouns group.  They gave a short teaching, showed a video and had a game for the students to play.  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).   

Fall Break

We don't have CHAT classes next week; October 20 & 21 are our Fall Break days.  I hope you can find some fun outside activities to do.

Homework

Biography Essay

Pre-Write

Rough Draft

Animal Farm Final Exam (GC)

A Christmas Carol Introduction 

Quiz on A Christmas Carol (GC)due Nov. 3

Nouns Homework

Nouns Video

Nouns Evaluation

Nouns SELF Evaluation (if you presented)

Adjective Evaluation (if you haven’t completed yet)

Verbs Evaluation (if you haven’t completed yet)

Links for This Week

Quick Write

Class Notes Week 7–October 6

Once again, it was a jam-packed class.  We are accomplishing a lot in our short time together!  Students are really getting into a good groove.

Words of the Day

We have been starting with this portion of our class, and I did warn students that there will be a quiz on these words by the end of the semester.  It would be a good idea to review these words periodically.  These two words are Fall-related.  Can you see how these words are related to the season?

quietus (noun)--death that is a relief/eterna rest; death of an argument.From Latin “quietus est”=he is quiet; his debt is paid.

Students were asked to write about their own personal quietus–the welcome end of something in their lives.

deciduous (adj)–falling off or shed seasonally or at a certain stage of development in the life cycle.  Latin→de=down; off +caedere→to fall.  Related to the words decay and decadence→to fall from a condition of health or perfection. 

Quick Write

Students viewed and responded to the painting Wanderer Above the Sea of Clouds by romantic German painter Caspar David Friedrich. 

Homework Check

I touched on the fact that I had sent out detailed grade reports during the past week.  Students should note that each assignment is very important.  If something is not turned in, it says “Missing” on Google classroom.  Those marked “Missing” will automatically be transposed into a“0” when when imported to the grade book.  After three weeks, I will no longer grade work.  

Another noteworthy item is that the gradebook is broken up into weighted categories.  You can now easily see your progress in each category and how that impacts your overall grade.  Since grades are weighted, figuring out your own grade wouldl be a very complicated math problem!  If you calculate your total points and it doesn’t reflect the grade you are receiving, it might be due to the weighting.  

Grammar

The adjectives group presented this week.  They put together a teaching video on adjectives (link below). Fill out the evaluation form for that group’s presentation on Google Classroom.

 The class was assigned homework on adjectives as well.  The worksheet and the worksheets must be self-corrected.  Make sure you note those corrections!.

Due to illness, the Interjections Group wasn’t able to present.  They (Lydia, Grace, Celia)  will present next week along with the Nouns Group (Vivi, Annie, Phoebe).  Be prepared!  I reminded the students they are responsible for:  a short teaching to explain the part of speech and a worksheet. They must coordinate with their group members to make it happen.  

Literature

We have finished Animal Farm and today we had a discussion about the characters and some themes and conflicts–specifically leadership, manipulation and propaganda (link to Google Slideshow below).  After that, students broke into groups to discuss their Character Sketches that were due today.  We will use this as a basis for our class activity next week.

Writing

Today was our first Writing Circles discussion.  We did not have time to discuss our writing goals, but students were to have filled out a short 4 question worksheet which was due today.  I wanted to devote time to peer reviewing the Personal Essay Rough Drafts.  

There is great  value in reading others’ writing–and value for both the writer (feedback!), and the reader who gets the chance to experience the essay from other angles.

We briefly discussed proofreading/editing marks and transition words/phrases.  I asked students to read the essay through a few times to evaluate mechanics and organization. The essays were made anonymous which helped ease any stress, and students were able to take their classmates’ feedback home with them to use during the revision process.  Personal Essay finals are due next week (Oct. 13).

Have a blessed week!

Mrs. G

Homework

• Adjectives Worksheets (2)

• Adjectives Evaluation (GC)

• Revise Personal Essays

• Personal Essay Final Draft 

Links for this Week

• Quick Write

• Adjectives video

• Characters/Themes Slides

• Character Sketch

• Proofreading/Editing Marks and Transitions

• Writing Circles #1: Goals