Greetings!
Today is National Stick to your Resolutions Day. For our Quick Write today, we talked about the word “resolve”--which means to reach a firm decision about something. We watched a short section from a Studio C clip where the main character shared his New Year’s resolutions: he is a thief–and therein lies the humor! I challenged the class to make up a character and write a New Year’s Resolution list for them. They could also opt for sharing their resolutions or sharing an opinion on Resolutions.
Our first order of business was organizational. I have tweaked a few things since last semester and we talked about those:
We previewed this semester Syllabus and Homework Checklist. Students saw what Literature we would be reading and also how many and the types of Essays that will be assigned. This gives us a map for moving forward.
In Semester 2, I will be much stricter on Deadlines. We reviewed my Late Homework policy.
Also, in Semester 2, I will be much stricter about phones in the classroom. For most students this hasn’t been a problem, but I want to be upfront. My desire is to keep this class as distraction-free as possible. As per CHAT policy, if I see a phone out, it will be turned into me until the end of the class. If it’s a problem after that, I will take it for the entire day. It can be picked up at the end of the day. In both cases, parents will be contacted.
Because of the nature of my Gradebook set up, I have chosen to forego most Extra Credit assignments from here on out. As stated above, Words of the Day will be our only Extra Credit opportunity this semester.
I distributed blank notebooks for students to use for the class from now on. We divided it into 3 parts: Notes, Annotations and Words of the Day (no more index cards!) Each section has its own tabs.
When we take notes, they will go in there; when handouts are given, they can be attached there (use tape or glue.). Annotations, which we will be using for close reading and class discussions will also “live” there.
We did not have any Words of the Day, but students can bring them to class for us to enjoy. (The only extra credit offered.) For the rest of the semester, students can bring in interesting words for our weekly Words of the Day part of our discussion. For these words, they also need to include the etymology and a definition.
The first topic we covered was our first Writing assignment -- a Mystery Story. This is an opportunity to get clever and creative. We didn’t talk at length about the characteristics of a Detective story, but there is a document on Google Classroom. A piece of advice is to start the story at the end. In other words, know how it will resolve and work backwards. The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due in 2 weeks on January 26.
Next on the agenda was our first book for the semester. This semester we will be reading 6 Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Many are familiar with the BBC show Sherlock, which takes some of the original stories and gives them a 21st century interpretation. In our pre-reading discussion we discussed the elements for a detective novel. I'm looking forward to hearing their impressions of the original stories. [NOTE: Most of these stories can be found as audioversions on Youtube or Librivox. Feel free to listen to the stories.]
Last semester in the Grammar portion of the class we covered types of phrases, including verbal phrases. This semester, we will be all about the comma (and a few other bits of punctuation. I find that to fully understand comma rules, a writer must understand basics about other facets of sentence writing. In other words, I'm using the comma as an avenue to teach other aspects of grammar. As with last semester, students must correct their own worksheets and hand them in with corrections. I must see clear evidence of that, or the assignment will get a zero.
Glad to be back in the classroom with these great students! See you all next week!
Homework
-- Read "The Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Redheaded League"
–2 Quotes per story in Writing 2 Notebook
-- Start working on the Mystery Story
-- Mystery Story PreWrite & Rough Draft
-- Grammar -- Compound & FANBOYS
-- Grammar -- Compound Sentences & Commas
-- Simple or Compound Sentences
Links for This Week
Writing 2 Assignments Checklist
Characteristics of a Detective Story
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