Writing 2 Class Notes--Week 2 (August 31)

 Hello All!

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

We started out class with a QuickWrite which was about something we all have experienced:   mistakes and regrets.  We used a mentor sentence and analyzed it for grammar and language and recorded those Craft Moves on a chart they will be compiling throughout the semester. After that, we tried our hands at a five minute QuickWrite.  I challenged students to incorporate a complex compound sentence, a metaphor and or vivid verbs!  In partners, we shared a word, a phrase or a sentence before turning those in.

After that, we switched gears to Literature and focused on our novel, Peace Like A River.  After refreshing each other about the major themes of the novel, we had story time!  I read aloud the first few pages so we could get a feel for the characters, setting and conflict.  It’s a gripping opening and I think students are excited about reading it.  They are to read chapters 1-3 and do three study guide questions. 

In the Writing portion of the class, we turned our minds back to thinking about mistakes and regrets. I assigned Essay 1 “My Favorite Mistake”.   It’s a reflective piece of writing where students will need to be able to both recall the event that happened, and also reflect on how the mistake impacted their life–positive or negative.  They read an example essay and, using highlighters, they marked examples of areas of writing that were either expressing (recalling)  and areas that are reflecting on the impact of the event.  I handed out the Pre-write and students had a short time to begin their essay.  Though I didn’t bring paper copies of the essay description, it is posted on Google Classroom, and it can be accessed there. The Rough Draft template is posted and they should begin their essays this week.  Next week we’ll have more time devoted to writing in a Writer’s Workshop, and again in Week 5 for this essay.

In the last few minutes of class, we touched on the topic of why learning grammar is important.  We watched a short video from Grammar Girl where she gives us some insight on why the study of grammar is important in our world today.  I recommend the students give the Grammar Girl podcast a listen sometime.  As an “exit ticket” students got in groups to come up with three reasons grammar is important and three questions they have about grammar.  Some groups had a hard time coming up with questions, but we’ll cover more grammar topics in the weeks to come.

Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

“Who Am I (As A Writer)? from Week 1

About Essay 1 “My Favorite Mistake”

Work on Essay 1 “My Favorite Mistake”

• Pre-Write

• Rough Draft

Read Chapter 1-3 Peace Like A River

3 Responses

LInks for This Week:

Craft Moves Identification Chart

Grammar Girl podcast

Writing 2--Week 1 (Aug. 24)

 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 started with a quick Icebreaker before we got into some nitty gritty class details:  Class Policies, homework deadlines and Syllabus.  I went through an example schedule for Writer’s Workshop.  It’s important for students to grasp this in order to get the most out of our time together–understanding these dates will help them to come to class prepared and NOT get surprised on the Final Draft Due Date.

A sample Workshop Schedule looks like this:

Week 1→Introduce Essay 1

Week 2→ Workshop Essay 1A

Week 3 Introduce Essay 2

Week 3 Workshop Essay 2A

Week 4→Workshop 1B OR 2B 

Week 5 Workshop 1B OR 2B 

Week 6→Final Drafts Due Date

As you can see, they will have two essays “simmering” at the same time and have 6-8 weeks to take it from Pre-Write to Final Draft.  “Workshop” means they will be given about 30 minutes in class to WRITE!  Obviously, there  are many stages to writing a piece, and students may be at different stages during the Workshop.  Some will be composing, some will be  working on  Peer Review and some will be Conferring with me.  They will obviously need to work on their writing outside of class in order to not get snowed under onFinal Draft Due date.  

Speaking of due dates, though there is some grace with the Literature and Grammar homework,  the Writing due dates are non-negotiable.  Any late writing work will be deducted 10% each day past the Due Date.  On the Due Date, the Final Draft and ALL process pieces are due.  The “Process Pieces” include:

• Peer Review Sheet

• Conferring Google Form

• Rough Draft

• Final Draft

• End Notes

Checking in this way really helps students to track progress from stage to stage and helps me to know that they are actually engaging with their writing.  With the advent of AI coupled with the fact that we meet just once a week, it can be tempting to skip the messy thinking process that writing entails.  A Workshop model sets the stage for high writing engagement.

After all that, we got to the business of writing with our first Quick Write.  I asked students to reflect on their writing life so far and ask:  Who Am I As A Writer?  They will develop this piece into a longer piece (due Week 3) and will include it in their end of the year Writing Portfolios.

Our Literature selection for this semester is Peace Like A River  by Leif Enger.  We partnered up again and, with Post-It notes in hand, they circulated the room and discussed themes written on posters from the upcoming book.  After discussing whether they agree or disagree with the statement, they left a Post-It behind stating their reasoning.  I heard some insightful comments!  We will be wrestling with big themes throughout this novel so it was a good introduction.  We will start the  novel next week, but for this week, they are to read the introduction on Google Classroom and complete the Quiz.

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 2 Class Guidelines (signatures needed)

Before school started assignments–Students can still do these:

Welcome Back #1

Welcome Back #2

Links for this Week:

Writing 2 Assignments Checklist

Writing 2 Syllabus

Homework and Late Dates

QuickWrite

Who Am I (As A Writer?) Reflective Piece (due Week 3)

Intro to Peace Like A River

Intro to Peace Like A River Quiz