Writing 1 Class Notes--Week 2 (Sept. 5)

I appreciated the students’ hard working attitudes today as they dove into another great day of learning together.

We started out class with some housekeeping and some announcements:

1. Please clean up after yourselves after class.  No wrappers on floor; push in chairs 🙂

2. Turning in HW:  EITHER turn it on digitally OR turn it in manually.  NOT BOTH 🙂  (I have posted a tutorial on how to scan handwritten homework.)

3. AI:  Grammarly has added a generative AI aspect to their free program.  For this reason, I am asking students to avoid (uninstall) Grammarly if they have it on their browser.  We discussed the difference between the basic AI tools on Google Docs/Word vs. “generative” AI.  The goal is to use authentic word choices and develop a writer’s voice.  When we rely too much on the suggestions that AI generates, the paper we meant to write can end up VERY differently.  AI can be a wonderful tool to use–later.  And not in CHAT writing. 🙂

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 behind the Vocabulary/QW tab! 

After that, we switched gears to Literature–Ender’s Game.  We talked about the fact that our protagonist is very young and considered a prodigy.  They are to read chapters 1 & 2 and do three study guide questions or 1 a la carte option. (In class I assigned all the questions.  Only choose three!)

In the Writing portion of the class, we continued on the topic of child prodigies.  We read a source text on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and make a key word outline for paragraphs one and two.  Students are to finish it at home.  We discussed two Dress-Ups (-ly adverb and who/which clause.)  I also went over the title rule:  grab readers’ attention and repeat 1-3 words from the last sentence of the last paragraph.  They are to write three paragraphs using 1 dress-up per paragraph.  Students should:

1.  Write a KWO 

2. Write a Rough Draft.  Print it (see me if this is a problem).  

3. Have an Editor read and mark on Rough Draft.

4. Write a Final Draft.  

5. Hand in all four pieces.  EITHER on GC OR in class.  (Keep it all together!)

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.  We will divide into groups next week and meet Mr.  IVAN CAPP  

Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Read Chapter 1 & 2 Ender’s Game

3 Responses

About Writing from Notes–Mozart (with Dress-Ups)

Mozart KWO

Mozart–3 paragraphs

LInks for This Week:

Scanning Homework Tutorials

Visual Vocabulary #1

Ender’s Game Audiobook

Parts of Speech Project

Writing 1 Class Notes--Week 1 (Aug. 29)

 Hello Writing 1 Students and Parents!

We've started out our new school year well.  I'm looking forward to working with this group of students.  Below are the Class Notes for this week.  Every week I will send out notes similar to these.  I include the topics of the class and the direction of instruction.  At the bottom of each email I list the homework and links to the blog, to the Google Classroom assignments,  and to any other helpful information.

We got right into the nitty-gritty class details right away:  Class Guidelines, homework deadlines and Syllabus.  They have an assignment of having a parent sign the Guidelines–they can bring them in next week or submit on GC.

After that, we had a 10 minute Ice Breaker game where students got into groups, rolled the dice and answered corresponding questions.  It was a low-key way to connect with classmates and hopefully learn something new.  While they were engaged, I went around and checked on their Writing 1 Binders to see that they are complete–one of the first assignments.

Our Literature selection for this semester is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card.  We will start the  novel next week, but for this week, they are to watch the introduction video on Google Classroom and complete the Quiz.

In Writing, our first exercise was to make a Key Word Outline on Source Texts about Orson Scott Card and Science Fiction.  Outlining is a very powerful tool in learning to write well–it forces us to read and synthesize material so that we can express it succinctly. 

As a class, we read a source text on Orson Scott Card.  For each sentence, we chose the three (and three only!) most important, (“key”) words.  Abbreviations and symbols are “free” and don’t count toward the three.  After we compiled a KWO for the first paragraph, students wrote one on their own for the next paragraph.  We gathered their ideas on the board and, after that, flexed our public speaking muscles.  

How do you test whether an outline is good or not?  You tell it back using your outline.  Students paired up and took turns telling back their outlines to each other. I think some were surprised about how challenging this can be!  The technique is deceptively simple:

Read

Think

Look up

Speak

Can you remember what your symbols mean?  Were you able to tell it back successfully?  Then your outline is “good!”

For homework, students should outline a text about science fiction.  They will tell it back to someone at home and then have that person sign their KWO.  It is due next week.

No Grammar this week -- we'll jump in with both feet next week! 

Assignments for Next Week

(Note:  The links will take you to the Google Classroom post for the particular assignment.  If you plan to do the paper version, you can ignore the link.  If an assignment is labeled "GC," that means that is something that must be done on Google Classroom. These are usually quizzes or questions)

Writing 1 Class Guidelines (signatures needed)

Before school started assignments–Students can still do these:

Welcome Back #1

Welcome Back #2

Assembled Binders

“Science Fiction” Key Word Outline

Links for this Week:

Writing 1 Assignments Checklist

Writing 1 Syllabus

Homework and Late Dates

Ender’s Game Preview Material

Ender’s Game Introduction Quiz

Ender’s Game Audiobook (free version)

Key Word Outline

End of Year Wrap-Up!

 Dear CHAT Writing 1 Students & Parents,

I've just finished calculating the grades for the Spring semester, and you will be finding them in your inbox in just a few minutes.  As tutors, we give you suggested grades for you as homeschooling families to consider.

Allow me to share my thoughts on grades.  As I homeschool my own children, I don’t give them grades.  I feel that grades are far too subjective, especially coming from their mother.  Instead, I teach my own children for mastery, and we don’t proceed with a topic until they are ready, no matter how long that takes.  In a class setting, knowing where each student is with regards to his/her understanding of a topic is not always possible, so any grade given is not a complete representation of what the student learned or accomplished this year.

Letter grades are a funny thing.  For some students, it becomes the only motivation for doing well.  For some, it becomes a measure of their worth as people or as  academic learners.  I personally don't like these "side effects" of the grading system.  On the other hand, grades can be a valid reflection and reward for working hard, being diligent, and understanding the materials.

When teaching students to be good writers, I give a lot of consideration for growth and improvement. Each student has a starting place; over time I look for him or her to learn the mechanics of grammar, good writing techniques, and analytical thinking skills.

For this class, I gave points for Quick Writes, short assignments, literature assignments, grammar exercises, and longer essays. The final drafts of the essay assignments were graded using a rubric that divided the papers into the following categories:  focus, content, organization, and mechanics.  

The scores for class work are divided into the following categories:  Quick Writes and Miscellanea, Writing, Literature, and Grammar.  A student may have been strong in one area and not in another, and this will be reflected in these categories.  These scores are also weighted; in other words, not all of the categories have the same importance.  The Quick Write points are 15% of the total grade, the Writing assignments are 30%, the Literature homework is 28%, and the Grammar work is 27%. (You will see that each of these categories has subcategories.  This is  for the purpose of keeping the internal category weighting correct.)

The grade breakdowns for Writing 1 & 2 are as follows:

98% - 100% (A+), 93% - 97% (A), 90% - 92% (A-),

87% - 89% (B+), 83% - 86% (B), 80 % - 82% (B-),

77% - 77% (C+), 73% - 76% (C), 70% - 72% (C-),

67% - 69% (D+), 63% - 66% (D), 60% - 62% (D-),

55% - 59% (Pass), 50% - 54% (Fail); 0% - 49% (Incomplete)

Each student (and parents) will receive an e-mail with percentages and a suggested overall grade for this semester. (Note:  You will need to scroll down to the bottom of the document.)   I’ve seen each student improve with each paper and have truly enjoyed my interactions with this class.  Good Work!

Blessings to all,

Mrs. G

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 15 (May 4)

 Greetings everyone!

We had a marvelous final day of Writing 1 at CHAT for the 2023-24 school year.  We have covered so much over the course of the year, that our heads are full; but the weeks go by so quickly that it seems hard to think that we're at the end.  

As the culminating event, students have been working towards staging our class Poetry Event.  They all had a role to play on on a committee and they worked collaboratively to make this event a success.  I am proud of the way they communicated, split up the work and let their talents shine as they organized and then performed their poetic pieces.   Though I  know that some students do not enjoy poetry, I appreciated their good attitudes and risk-taking. I was especially touched by the quality and the authenticity  of original poems that were shared.  What a talented bunch!

After the Committees met to put the finishing touches together and we had a short class business meeting, we were ready to begin.  Using the beautiful program (designed by Abigail Bach) our Emcee duo of Grant and Broden took charge and explained the judging criteria and the flow of the event.  The judges (Hannah, Lydia & Evangeline) did a great job of evaluating the poem and the delivery style–and though it was difficult, they did come up with a winner!  

The top 5 were given a small prize and first prize won a T-Shirt.  

Congratulations to first prize winner Niles Benson!

Please watch Google Classroom for a link to the photo album from this event (thanks to the documentation committee for putting that together!)

Now that it is all over, I want to let you know that I am working on getting all the grading finished.  I have given students until Friday @ 11:59 PM  to hand any work in.  Final Grades will be out sometime next week.  If for some reason that won't work, please contact me. Look for 2 emails from me:  one that explains how I grade and then the grades themselves.  In the meantime, you can look at Google Classroom to get a pretty good idea of your grade.

This has been a great year with these students.  They're bright and engaging, and they've worked hard this year. I look forward to working with some of them again in Writing 2!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Writing 1 Class Notes--Week 14 (April 25)

Greetings!

This week was our penultimate class for the year -- the one before the last one!

We started the class period with a Quick Write, and today's prompt was connected with the fact that it is National Poem in Your Pocket Day coming up in April.  In fact, all of this month is National Poetry Month!  I gave the students a sheet of paper with an extra large pocket outline. They were to write a poem within the lines of that pocket.   

This week, they took the Sentence Patterns Final Test.  After having done the and corrected the Review from last week, they should have done really well on it!  

Their final writing assignment, a Reflection Paper, is due next week.   For this paper, they are to write about what they learned this year, what they learned about themselves this year, and what did and didn't work well this year.  At the bottom of this email is a link to an article about the value of reflection as a part of learning.

After all that business, we watched a few poetry performances and rated their poems and delivery style.  There were some insightful comments about how poets use their voice, style, gestures and facial expressions.  The point of this is to gather inspiration on how to effectively deliver their own poetry next week for our Poetry Event.  

The rest of the class time was dedicated to committee work for the big event next week.  As we discussed, it takes a lot of work to pull off a successful event.  When students have “skin in the game” with planning and organizing an event, I find there’s a high level of ownership and engagement.  After discussing how the committee work should flow,  they were split  into groups and got busy dividing and conquering their committee’s punch list.  As a requirement, they were to exchange contact information and fill out an Exit Ticket to hand in at the end of class.

Next week is the final week, and I will accept homework until Saturday, May 4 at 7:00 AM.  My experience is that once the CHAT classes are done, students really lose momentum for completing late homework.  My plan is to get final grades out within the week.  

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Any old homework

-- Reflection Paper

–Practice your poems!

–Committee work

--Poetry Event Slide Show (Canva)

Links for this Week:

Taylor Malli “Like, You Know”

Isabella Callery “Thoughtless Cruelty” by Charles Lamb

The Value of Reflection Papers

 

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 13 (April 18)

 Hello There!

Today was another great day with this group.  They are such a blessing as we continue to work and learn together.

As usual, we started the day with a Quick Write–since we are working our way through poetry, the prompt today was to try their hands at Haiku.  I think we realized how challenging this seemingly simple art form is!

After that, students had the opportunity to try their hands at writing some original poetry.  We watched a video of local poet Rudy Francisco perform a piece called “My Honest Poem” and then read an example based on his performance.  Students had time in class to compose their own “My Poem” based on the examples.  I could tell some really got into “the zone” writing these and my hope is to hear some of these performed at our Poetry Event.  

Speaking of the  Poetry Event, which will be the last day of class , we spent the rest of the class getting into more details about this project.  It takes a lot of work to put on an event like this, and to split up the labor,  each student signed up for a role on a committee.  Their grade on this project will depend on not only their poetry performance techniques, but also how well they worked as a group. They are to answer a Discussion Question about their first and second preferences of which committee they’d like to participate in.  They should also begin to narrow down the poems they would like to perform. **A conversation regarding Poetry Event Dress Code came up in class.  I posted Poll in the form of a  Discussion Question asking students to give their opinion. 

To conclude our Grammar for the year, we finished our study of Simple and Compound sentences by completing two worksheets which they had time to work on in class.  I also passed out a review sheet that they should complete and then correct. (The Key is on the Google Classroom assignment.)  Correcting their own work will further help them review and will be much more beneficial than waiting a week to see if they got the answers right in preparation for a  Final Sentence Patterns Test that they will take in class next week. 

We didn’t touch on Writing in class today, because students are still working on their Essay ReWrite which is due next week.

We have a couple fun weeks planned to finish out our year, so let's make sure you get caught up on any late work.

Assignments for Next Week:

–Which Committee? Discussion Question

--Dress Code Question

--Choose 2 poems for your contribution to the Poetry Jam (Here is the scoring/committee information)

–Finish composing “My Poem”( if not finished in class)

-- Complete the Essay Rewrite

–Simple or Compound Sentences

–Writing Compound Sentences

-- Complete the Sentence Patterns Review sheet and correct it. (Bring the corrected version to class)

Links for This Week

Rudy Fransisco’s “My Honest Poem” video

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 12 (4/11)

The weather is really starting to turn Springy now!  The buds are budding and the sun is shining–our spirits are lifted!  We had another great class with this group!

We started out with a great Quick Write today focused on rhyme schemes.  We discussed different styles of rhyming scheme–even Limericks!  After reading a few examples, they got to try their hands at crafting their own Limerick or lines of nature-based rhyme.

After that, I assigned our last Essay, which is an Essay Re-Write.  For this essay, students can choose any essay they have written this year for Writing 1, or they can choose an essay that they've written for another class.  They should take one of their final drafts and look for ways to improve it.  I often suggest that students choose the essay that they got the worst grade on or that they want to spend some more time on. This writing assignment is due Week 14–April 25, and students should hand in the original along with the rewrite.  (Note:  This isn't our regular pre-write to rough draft to final draft process.)

For the Literature part of the class, we had a Poetry Devices Scavenger Hunt.  After discussing different Poetic Devices like onomatopoeia, imagery, and enjambment, we took a poem by Walt Whtiman called “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer”.  It was very timely given the recent eclipse!  After identifying devices together in the large group, we broke into small groups to “scavenge” their own poems for different devices.  We had time for a few rotations of this.

After that, we had a very brief Grammar teaching on Simple and Compound sentences and students had time to work on the two worksheets in class.  We talked about the fact that when a FANBOY is connecting two independent clauses, it is called a compound sentence–and in that case, you must put a comma BEFORE the FANBOY.  If there is a FANBOY, but it is not connecting two independent clauses, it is a simple sentence and there is no comma necessary.

That is all!  Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

Week 13 Poems

Poetry Response Packets

Week 12 Grammar 

–Compound FANBOYS

–Compound Sentences & Commas

About the Essay Re-Write

Analogy Re-Write