Hello Dear Students,
It was good to be back together again in the new year! The sun was even shining, which matched the shining faces I saw 🙂
We started the day out with a Quick Write. They had a choice to either write about National Kiss A Ginger Day (yes, that’s a real day!) and National Tea Day.
Though I forgot to bring copies of the Syllabus, Homework Checklist and Late Homework Dates information sheets, I assigned them to make sure they’ve signed up for Spring Semester of Writing 2 and take a look at those documents. They will be instrumental in helping them stay organized. They are linked below and I will bring hard copies next week.
For Literature, we kicked off the class by introducing our new book: Six Great Sherlock Holmes Stories by Arthur Conon Doyle. Some students had seen a TV show or movie based on the stories–and some had read a few stories themselves. We had a discussion on what images come to mind when you think of “Sherlock Holmes” and what elements make a good detective story. Some students were surprised to hear that Sherlock Holmes never actually said, “Elementary, my dear Watson.” He merely said “Elementary!” I hope students will thrill at meeting this calculating and intense sleuth themselves. We read a few pages of the first story aloud and they are to finish reading “Scandal in Bohemia” & “The Red-Headed League” this week and answer 4 questions from the Study Guide.
We went from reading mystery stories, to writing them with our first Writing assignment this year–a mystery writing with a twist. It’s a podcast! I am excited about this writing project because not only do students get a chance to write a mystery story, they get to build on their skills from the previous semester from the Advertisement project to produce a podcast of their own. My hope is that they will be inspired to launch out and do a podcast on a subject of their choosing someday soon. Our world needs their voices!
Today, we spent some time walking through how to structure their work. We found that a typical mystery/true crime podcast follows a fairly predictable routine–which will make their job that much easier. We broke those steps down and discussed different ways they could make it happen. After that, we sampled the first few minutes of such a podcast called “Up and Vanished.” Students listened to the story and took notes on clues and locations and we noted the rhythm/structure of the podcast. The Prewrite for this project is due next week.
Lastly, for Grammar, I introduced the comma unit we will be studying this year. We discussed compound sentences and got started on the three worksheets they will need to complete this week. Don’t forget to correct your work and mark it!
Enjoy your weekend!
Blessings,
Mrs. G
Homework & Links for This Week
Characteristics of a Detective Story
Read Ch. “Scandal in Bohemia” & “Red-Headed League”
About Essay 1: Mystery Podcast
“Up and Vanished” Podcast (Mentor Text)*
Sentence Structures: Simple and Compound Sentences
Writing 2 Class Blog
*Though the “Up and Vanished” podcast is a good source as a Mentor Text for this project, I am only recommending Episode 1 of Season 1. It can be intense for more sensitive students and I noticed a few swears in later episodes of Season 1. For those reasons, please be warned if you proceed to listen farther than what we heard in class.
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