CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes--Week 9 (10/31)

 Dear Students,

We were rolling quite along today and spirits were high!

                                                                    Quick Write

After a seasonally appropriate Quick Write on the topic of Candy, we got started with the class.

Writing

Today, we continued our unit of summarizing a reference and they will have two weeks to complete this next assignment.  After they’ve chosen to either summarize an article about a former CIA operative (“Tony Mendez”) or the article on how to become one of these elite officers (“CIA Training”)  they are to write a KWO for 3 topics (paragraphs.)  The outline is due next week–WK 10 (11/7.)   After reviewing the main points, we got a good start on a KWO about CIA training.  Some students chose to use my ideas for topics, some decided to choose their own as we began the KWO on the board.  The (three paragraph) composition will be due the following week Week 11 (11/7.)  If students want to get a head start on it, they are welcome to do so–everything is posted on GC, but we will go over the checklist next week.  

 After the exam, some students took the opportunity to keep working on their KWOs.

Grammar

We have now finished the IVAN section of our mnemonic device and are moving on to CAPP.  Today’s grammar topic was C=conjunctions.  The Conjunctions group had a teaching, an activity and a worksheet designed by them; there are also two homework sheets for practice from me. Make sure to fill out an evaluation for that group.  Next week, the Adverbs group will present.  Be ready!

Literature

We finished Ender’s Game this week which means it was time for the final exam :)  Students took the exam in class.  We will start A Christmas Carol next week.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the snow?!?!?

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

KWO on “CIA Training” OR “Tony Mendez”--bring it to class!

About Summarizing A Reference (part 2)

“Tony Mendez” & “CIA Training” Source Texts

Conjunctions–1

Conjunctions–2

Conjunctions Evaluation

Links for this week

Quick Write

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 8 (10/24)

 Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 8 (10/24)

It was good to see your smiling faces back from break.  We are officially halfway through the Fall semester now.  Can you believe it?!?

Class opened with a Door Test on the Topic-Clincher Rule.  Memorizing and using this rule helps us to write well-rounded paragraphs.  Studies show that using gestures can support memorization; pairing simple actions with words will  help this rule stick in our minds. The “test” was simple: after a practice round, students stood up and recited the rule using the actions we learned.  They did great!  

Since I had a Google Slides malfunction, we had just one Visual Vocabulary word of the day:  licentious.  Elsa sings a famous song about that. We’ll catch up next round!

Writing

We are continuing our unit on summarizing a reference–laying the groundwork for longer essays later in the year.  Last week, the assignment was a two paragraph summary on a reference about Elon Musk and those were due today.  Since the teaching was sent out as a set of short videos, we had a progress check-in. They should have incorporated all five of the dress-ups and the new topic-clincher rule.  

After that, we had a mini-lesson introducing Sentence Openers.  We will have six this year and the first one is sentence opener two:  the prepositional sentence opener.  As the name suggests, this sentence begins with a preposition or prepositional phrase.  An example:

[2] In sentence openers, the indicator is a number in brackets before the sentence.

Students got a hand out on that opener. We took a few minutes to write a few practice sentences.

No writing assignment this week–just catch up on any late work.  I will be sending out grade reports before next class, so use this time wisely!  Next week, we’ll practice summarizing with a little longer assignment and incorporate this sentence opener.

Grammar

Before our next Grammar presentation, we had a short seque. I find that students are surprised that adjectives are much more than simply “descriptive words.”  They took some notes and did some practice that will help them to take their IVAN Review Google Forms quizzes that are due next week.

We're continuing with the Parts of Speech presentations, and today we had the Nouns group.  They had a game for the students to play and a worksheet. We watched a short video about nouns and 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).   Here are the next next two groups on deck:

Literature

This is our last assignment for Ender’s Game.  Unfortunately, we ran out of time for our Literature Circles Discussion.  I collected their role sheet homework and will base their grade on that.  

We played a lightning round of a fun review team play game called ZAP!  Students are to finish reading chapters 13 & 14 and get ready for the Final Exam next week. I posted the game with answers.  I told them that if they studied these questions, they would ace the test we’ll take in class next week!

That’s it!  Reach out with any questions.

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Catch-up on any late writing assignments

Nouns Homework–1

Nouns Homework–2

Nouns Evaluation

IVAN Review Quizzes (open notes)

Interjections

Verbs

Adjectives

Nouns

Finish Ender’s Game– Chapters 14 & 15–Review for Final Exam

Links for this Week

Visual Vocabulary

ZAP! Ender’s Game (Test Review Questions)

Updated Assignment Checklist

CHAT Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 6 (10/3)

 Greetings, Everyone!

We’ve turned the corner into Fall and the weather is still gorgeous.  Time sure flies with this wonderful group of students!

After a check-in about homework, we started the class with Visual Vocabulary as we discussed the words epigram and edifice.  In today’s world, there seem to be edifices of epigrams wherever we look!  If you want to see a lot of epigrams in one place, go to your local Hobby Lobby!  😀 (See the example on the left.)

After that, we got to our Writing.  Today’s focus was on learning the last of the dress-ups–strong adjectives and www.asia.b.  The latter is not a website, but a mnemonic device to help us remember the subordinate conjunctions which begin this adverbial clause dress-up.  Students should memorize these www words for a quiz at the beginning of class next week.  (Try to be able to recite them in 3 seconds or less!) 

For a more fulsome discussion of these dress-ups, see the slideshow posted on GC. They are to choose “The Shepherd Boy” or “The Fox and the Crow” to write three paragraphs.  As usual, hand in all four pieces EITHER on GC OR on paper:  checklist, rough draft, final draft and KWO (which is a story sequence chart.)  Follow the directions on your checklist.

Literature

Roles for our big Literature Circle discussion were assigned for next week.  You will receive a grade on your preparation and participation and we went over the expectations.  Each student has a part to play in order to make this a fruitful discussion.  They are to keep reading chapters  9 & 10 this week and complete a 3 Responses worksheet.  Any material up to chapter 10 is fair game for the discussion.  

Grammar

Due to technical difficulties, the scheduled verbs presentation will be presented next week. Both the verbs and adjectives groups will go, so make sure you’re prepared!  I passed out two worksheets on verbs which are due next week.  

Homework

Retelling Narrative Variations–”The Shepherd Boy” OR “The Fox and the Crow”

Literature Circles Roles–See above

Read chapters 9 & 10 Ender’s Game

3 Responses

Verbs

Where is the Verb–Worksheet–Homework 1

Identify the Verb in the Sentence–Homework 2

Links for this week

Visual Vocabulary #3

About -ly adjectives & www.asia.b clause Dress-ups & Numbers Slides

Grammar Presentation Groups

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 4 (September 15)

 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 paucity and lackadaisical.  After studying the words, we took a minute to write sentences using them correctly.

Writing

Last week we filled out a Story Sequence Chart about the fable “The Wind and the Sun.”  I asked the students to memorize the blank chart and we had a quiz at the beginning of class.  After that, I checked on their finished Wind/Sun SSC’s.  Most students were successful at taking the key ideas from the fable and answering the questions about characters/setting, plot/conflict & resolution of the story. I emphasized that this is a bit different from a Key Word Outline in that students are to take the basic ideas and embellish them from their imagination.  They are a starting point for their stories, and students are free to riff off using their SSC’s.I assigned the next step today which is to take their SSC and write three paragraphs to retell the fable.  (You may write more if you’d like.)  They are to make sure to include the Dress-Ups:  -ly adverbs, who/which clause and to use strong verbs (not the “Banned Verbs” see, said, go.)  This assignment is due next week.  I have an example posted on GC if students need it!)

Literature Discussion

We're reading Ender’s Game, and this week they had a small group discussion using the 4 Square Discussion model to discuss the content. Students were assigned Chapter 5-6 and 3 Responses.  They will also need to complete a Week 4 Take Home Quiz.

Grammar 

As I mentioned last week,  we are having a short contest for our IVAN CAPP mascot. Students can still submit a picture to Google classroom, and we’ll vote on their favorite.  The winner will win a prize!  The drawings will be posted on Google Classroom.  

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. We used 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 October 3.

Assignments for Next Week

Retelling “The Wind and the Sun”--3 paragraphs

Read Chapters 5 & 6

Week 4 Take Home Quiz–Chapters 5-6

Read Chapters 5 & 6

Work on Grammar presentations

Links for This Week

Visual Vocab. #2

Parts of Speech Checklist + Resources

Writing 1 Class Notes–Week 3 (9/12)

We had a good class today.  The students were ready to learn and we got a lot accomplished.

How does one think?  I propose that thinking is really made up of asking and answering questions.  And since writing=thinking, it makes sense to spend some time cultivating the skill of asking good questions. When you get good at asking questions, you will never lack for anything to write about!  Our Quick Writes This year will be focused on the skill of asking good questions.  This time, students were given the topic of Pencils.  In three minutes, students each generated as many as possible:

things about

topics pertaining to

aspects of 

PENCILS

as they could think of.  They had some GREAT ideas!  Each week we do it, the better they will become.

                                                        Grammar 

Today, we talked through the parts of speech group projects.  A sign up sheet was circulated for students to choose their own groups.  (If you were absent, I assigned you a group. See the list 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 submit a picture of "IVAN CAPP" to be voted on as a class favorite to use as a mascot for this unit. 

We didn’t take time to discuss Ender’s Game in Literature today.  Instead, we will have a more in-depth discussion next week for a Literature Discussion. For homework, they will read chapters 3 & 4 and complete 3 Reader Response questions.

Writing

In the writing portion of our class, we shifted from writing a Key Word outline for factual articles into a different type of outline used for narratives (stories).  It is called a Story Sequence Chart.  Instead of choosing 3 key words from each sentence as in a KWO, I modeled how to answer questions for each part of a story:  setting/characters, plot/conflict & resolution.

I wrote a blank Story Sequence Chart on the board and students copied it in their notes.  I asked students to memorize it for next week.  (There will be a quiz on it!)

Then we filled in the template together after reading Aesop’s fable “The Wind and the Sun.” Students are to finish it as homework and bring it next week.  (I attached a copy of my SSC you can look at if you need extra help.) In the future, we will rewrite the fable using that chart.

Links for This Week

Win a Prize!--IVAN CAPP drawing

“Wind and the Sun” Story Sequence Chart we made in class

Parts of Speech Groups

Updated Assignment Checklist

Homework

Grammar Pre-Test–correct it (due 9/26)

Read Ender’s Game Chs. 3 & 4

3 Responses

Story Sequence Chart, Template & Source Text–Complete the template & bring it next week