Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 5--September 24

 

Hi everyone!

Quick Write

Our bellringer this morning was a Quick Write. They had a mini-lesson on the [3] adverb sentence opener. Now they have another sentence pattern to include in their writing. Today’s prompt was a choice of prompts in honor of National Hobbit Day! As usual, I set the timer, they chose a prompt and  wrote for five minutes. They were required to include and indicate the [3]adverbial sentence opener. Bonus points if you include any Visual Vocabulary word we’ve had so far.

Writing

Today I introduced our first formal essay: The Personal Essay. Though there is no research required for this piece, students will need to use creative thinking as they explore a piece of media or art that has inspired them. I posted a sample essay, the grading codes and the rubric in the “About the Personal Essay” material on Google Classroom. We will go into more depth on the grading process next week. This week, we analyzed an example of this type of essay.

The Key Word outline is due next week. They may either show it to me in class OR scan and upload it online. It is due on the due date or it will not receive credit.

Literature

Since we had an in-depth discussion last week, today we kept it short. Students had an in-class quiz over Peace Like A River  chapters 9 & 10. 

They should keep reading chapters 11 & 12 and prepare for another in-class quiz next week. 

Grammar

Today's topic was prepositional phrases as we wrapped up our parts of speech review.  I FORGOT to mention the Parts of Speech Quiz!–please complete that on Google Classroom this week. Though there was no time for a  mini-lesson, I posted some notes on Google Classroom in case it is needed. Do not forget to correct your own work! 

That’s it!

Go enjoy your weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Reach Chs. 11 & 12 Peace Like A River

PLAR Ch. 9 & 10 Quiz

Personal Essay KWO

Identifying Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional Phrases

Parts of Speech Quiz (GC)

Material for this Week

About the Personal Essay

Class Blog–Archived Class Notes

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 4--September 17

 Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 4 (Sept. 17)

Greetings!

I cannot believe how the time flies with these students!  What a great group!  We covered a lot, but I find myself wishing we had more time.

Visual Vocabulary

Our words today were dastardly and sophomoric.  After studying the words, we took a minute to write sentences using them correctly.

Writing

Today we practiced the TRIAC paragraph again. We reviewed the role of each sentence in this type of paragraph. Then I handed out a worksheet with two paragraphs that were about a character from our novel–one paragraph defends Davy’s choice to take the law into his own hands and one opposes Davy’s choice.  After reading the two paragraphs, students got in small groups and with markers color coded each sentence according to its function, identified a [2] prepositional opener, and the repeating & reflecting words from the topic and clincher sentences. I posed a question to which position they agree with–Was Davy justified to take matters into his own hands or not? I also asked them to think about what genre of writing the character Swede was inspired by. Of course it is Westerns! I asked the class to begin to think about which kind of art, genre of book, or type of media inspires them most. Our first essay of the year will be on the topic of media/art that inspires, so they should brainstorm over the week.

Literature Discussion

The writing exercise led nicely into our discussion. We're reading Peace Like A River, and this week we took a deep dive into our novels.  After laying out a timeline of events on the whiteboard, we broke into groups and used the 4 Square Discussion model to discuss the content. I heard some very intelligent insights!  Students were assigned Chapters 9 & 10 and they should be ready for an in-class quiz next week.

Grammar 

Today’s topic covered a review of interjections and conjunctions.  After a mini-lesson, students were assigned two worksheets. They should use the KEYS I that were handed out last week to correct their own work.

Assignments for Next Week

Read Chapters 6-8

Be ready for an in-class quiz!

Grammar

Interjections

Conjunctions–check your work!

Links for This Week

Class Blog–Archived Class Notes

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 3 --September 10

 Hi All!

We got right to it today with our very first Quick Write. Every other week students are given a topic, five minutes and a few parameters. Then I play some music and our goal is to write continuously during that time. Before putting pen to paper, we talked about our first stylistic technique– the [2] prepositional phrase sentence opener. For some, this was a review and to some it was brand new. The purpose of using different sentence openers is to help students vary the sentence patterns they use in  their writing. We’ll add more gradually as the year progresses. We did a quick review of -ly adverb dress-ups today as well.

They had a creative prompt today and I think they enjoyed it!They are required to use at least one[2] sentence opener and they can earn extra credit for using an -ly adverb.

Writing

We started today with a fun exercise of “testing” their notes. I paired students up to retell them using their stick and branch style notes. Some students  chose to take notes on a Youtube video, a Prager U video, a sermon–lots of different and interesting ideas! If they could recall the details of their video using their notes, they reflected that they did a pretty good job. We practiced looking at the notes, thinking then looking at their partner and speaking. I think they enjoyed it–this is a life skill that will hopefully take them far as we learn to be clear and efficient communicators.

Today’s topic was two different styles of paragraphing. Writing a paragraph is a bit of an art and I want to equip students with some tools to master it. We contrasted the basic paragraph with the TRIAC paragraph. As we learned last year, to write a good basic paragraph, you write from a well-crafted, KWO and choose ONE topic as a focus and  5-7 facts from the KWO. We also learned the Topic-Clincher rule:  

The topic sentence and the clincher sentence

 MUST 

repeat or reflect 2-3 key words

(There will be a door quiz on that next week!) After that, I gave them the “Swiss knife” of all paragraphs: the TRIAC paragraph. The beauty of a TRIAC paragraph is that it practically writes itself! We talked through the 5 parts:

We practiced these models using an article about AI. As a class,we wrote a KWO on the first paragraph. Their homework is to write both a basic paragraph and a TRIAC paragraph using their KWOs. Follow the instructions on the homework sheet. You may turn in the paper sheet OR submit it on Google Classroom.

Literature

Because we took more time for writing, we had a shorter time for literature today. However, yhe plot thickens for the Land family of Roofing, MN. In our novel, the turning point has happened that will be the central driver for the action from here on out. The tone is getting darker and it seems Swede has lost all her sympathy for the bandit king Valdez. 

We had no time for our in-class Quiz today over Peace Like A River chapters 4 & 5, so I simply assigned that as extra credit.  For homework, they will read chapters 6-8 and complete the take-home quiz (open book) on GC.  We will have a more in-depth discussion next week, we didn’t take time to discuss the novel today.  Instead, we will have a more in-depth discussion next week for a Literature Discussion. 

Writing

Today’s topic was two different styles of paragraphing. Writing a paragraph is a bit of an art and I want to equip students with some tools to master it. We contrasted the basic paragraph with the TRIAC paragraph. As we learned last year, to write a good basic paragraph, you write from a well-crafted, KWO and choose ONE topic as a focus and  5-7 facts from the KWO. We also learned the Topic-Clincher rule:  

The topic sentence and the clincher sentence

 MUST 

repeat or reflect 2-3 key words

(There will be a door quiz on that next week!) After that, I gave them the “Swiss knife” of all paragraphs: the TRIAC paragraph. The beauty of a TRIAC paragraph is that it practically writes itself! We talked through the 5 parts:

We practiced these models using an article about AI. As a class,we wrote a KWO on the first paragraph. Their homework is to write both a basic paragraph and a TRIAC paragraph using their KWOs–they can use the one we wrote together or they can write one on their own and use that. 

Grammar –Lightning Round

Students were given the KEY to all the grammar worksheets for this semester.  I explained that as we work through our grammar–parts of speech and phrases–they will need to correct their own work.  There is a lot of learning that happens in that process! The KEY is also posted on Google Classroom–I won’t be handing out another one.  For the most part, I will teach grammar mini-lesson and they will have some in class time to complete their worksheets.  This works well so I can answer any questions they might have while we are all together.  Today, we reviewed nouns, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs.  They have four worksheets.

Homework

Read Peace Like A River Ch. 6-8

Take-Home Quiz #1 (GC)

AI Basic & TRIAC Paragraphs

Nouns & Pronouns Review

Adjectives or Adverb Review

Action Verbs Review

Verb Tenses Review

Links for This Week

Grammar Worksheets KEY

CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes--WK 2 (September 3)

 Hello All!

This is such a fun group of students–I think we are really going to enjoy learning together this year!

We had our first edition of Visual Vocabulary (VV).  Today, we learned:  poignant and blight.  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 the Class Notes tab! 

After reminding ourselves about some major themes of the novel and discussing miracles we started our Literature portion of the class to discuss–Peace Like A River.  We discussed the timeline of the book so far. It was mentioned how the narrative tends to jump around with lots of flashbacks and things told “out of order.” I posted a few questions and gave them time to discuss the high points and help them get those in their minds. The next chapter is the BIG action, so I want them to be ready! Instead of a worksheet over the reading, I will be giving them an in-class quiz to check their understanding.

We dove right into writing with two notetaking techniques: the Key Word Outline and the Stick and Branch method. Both of these useful techniques are skills I hope students will practice and make a lifelong skill. Both have their strengths and are useful in different ways. We discussed that a KWO is helpful when taking notes from a linear or narrative piece of writing. The Stick and Branch method is like a KWO “on steroids” and is much freer form. It is great for taking notes when the source text/talk jumps around or feels a bit disorganized. You can connect ideas easily in this geographic and intuitive form of notetaking. 

We practiced these two techniques on a familiar fable:  “The Tortoise and the Hare.” Using a clip from Andrew Pudewa’s University-Ready Writing, students listened to the fable being read two times through. The first time they created a KWO; the second time through they created the stick and branch style notes. 

After that, we took another run at the method and listened to a 4 minute minute clip from the Sean McDowell podcast. I told them that this length of time is about one quarter of a lecture. As we listened, I took notes live on the whiteboard. Students copied mine or wrote their own and used mine as a reference. Their homework is to do it again with another 10 minute talk of their own choosing:  a sermon, a podcast, a Tedtalk, etc.

Last, we just had time for a brief Grammar Discussion today.  In small groups, we discussed why the study of grammar is important and we talked about some positives and some pain points (diagramming sentences!) We won’t be doing that this year, however we will be addressing some areas of grammar in our study that are typically tricky for students to learn. In my humble opinion, the best way to learn good grammar is to READ a lot–but does come a time for a well-placed worksheet too;) 

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Notetaking–choose a 10 min. Talk to do “stick and branch” style notes

Read Chapter 4 & 5 Peace Like A River

Quiz next week (in class!)

Material for This Week:

Visual Vocabulary #1

Writing 2 Class Blog (Class Notes Archive)

CHAT Writing 2--Week 1 (August 27)

Hello Writing 2 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:  A timed in-class writing assignment. I gave them a prompt, handed out Blue Books and set the timer for 20 minutes. The rationale for this assignment is to simply get their writing juices flowing AND to give them a baseline of their skill level. My hope is that by the end of the year, they will see vast improvement in their ability to write clearly and effectively.  I “suffered” along with them by participating myself.  (I hope everyone comes back next week. 🙂) 

After that, we shook our hands out and did an ice breaker activity. At their tables, students enjoyed a snack while they played an Ice Breaker game with a parter. It was fun to see them reconnecting and making new friends, too.

Then, we got right into the nitty-gritty class details: expectations, homework deadlines and the syllabus. I talked about the importance of “budgeting” for about one hour each weekday to Writing class. I suggested they map out their week by designating a chunk of homework to that day.  

For example:  

Fridays=literature 

Mondays=grammar worksheets

Tuesdays & Wednesday=essays & writing

By chunking it down, they will avoid having that work pile up. They have an assignment of having a parent sign the Guidelines–they can bring them in next week or submit on GC. 

Included in our class business was a slide show that presented a sort of “carrot and stick” approach to generative AI. I hoped that this would be a “pep talk” about the importance of learning how to think critically and write clearly. 

The carrot:  Writing is simply thinking–it’s thinking made manifest. To think is a God given gift. The author John Warner said that “To outsource writing and reading is to cease being human.” We took a minute to discuss the validity of that statement. 

The stick: We talked about acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI and I reviewed the consequences of using AI to do your homework or write essays instead. 

On to more delightful topics–our Literature selection for this semester is Peace Like a River by Leif Enger.  Before reading a bit out loud, we watched a video on a recent and local real-life miracle. As homework, they are to read the introductory material about Peace Like a River on Google Classroom and complete the Quiz and to read chapters 1-3.

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

Assignments for Next Week

Before school started assignments–Students can still do these:

Welcome Back #1

Welcome Back #2

Signed Guidelines Assembled Binders

Peace Like A River Introductory document 

PLAR Introduction Quiz

Reader Response–New Book “Fortune Teller”

Material for this Week:

Writing 2 Assignments Checklist

Writing 2 Syllabus

Homework and Late Dates

Scanning handwritten homework tutorial

How to turn off notifications tutorial

Warner, John. More than Words. Basic Books, 4 Feb. 2025.

Thoughts about Grades

 Dear CHAT Writing 2 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 & Visual Vocabulary, 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.  

The grade breakdowns for Writing 1 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 2 Class Notes–Week 15 (May 7)

 Greetings everyone!

We had a marvelous final day of Writing 2 at CHAT for the 2024-25 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.   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 The stage was set, the refreshments ready and the decorations were amazing!! Thank you all for working so hard at putting this all together. It really made it special!

After  a short class business meeting, we were ready to begin. In the pre-round, all students performed the poem they have memorized this semester “Annabel Lee.” Students who could recite it without looking at the poem received extra credit! Then, using the beautiful student designed program our dynamic Emcee duo of Brecken and Liam took charge and explained the judging criteria and the flow of the event.  A panel of judges used a scoring system to evaluate the poem and the delivery style–and though it was difficult, they did come up with the top three performances.  After a tie-breaker for third place, the winners were announced and prizes were given:

Congratulations to 

3rd place: William

2nd place: Casha

1st place:  Peter–with a British accent!

Please watch Google Classroom for a link to the photo album from this event. 

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 tonight–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. (Heads up:  your grade may appear higher on GC than it is especially if you are missing a lot of assignments! Remember that Google Classroom doesn't default those missing scores to zeros. That’s what happens in the grading program I use).

This has been a great year with these students.  They're bright and engaging, and they've worked hard this year. I will truly miss them as they move on to their future academic endeavors.

Blessings,

Mrs. G