Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 11 (3/38)

 As is typical the week before Spring Break, we had a few absent from our class today.  One of the beauties of homeschooling is that we can take trips with the family as is needed and necessary with very few  repercussions!  We missed those who were gone, but had a fun class anyway.  If you were absent, be sure to check these notes very well ;)

For our Quick Write, students are continuing their efforts to write some original poetry.  Last week, we wrote list poetry.  This week, they generated questions of all kinds and then attempted to arrange them into a poetic form.  

  

For Writing, I reminded the class that their Evaluation Essay Rough Drafts will be due when we get back from break.  Make sure you bring a copy to class for Peer Review.  I hope to get Grade Reports out over the break, so it’s a great time to make up any work that might be outstanding.

For the Grammar portion of the class, we had a special lesson on the semicolon.  Most people (students and adults alike) are confused about the bit of punctuation; they use it as a comma or as a colon.  I use the Reese's peanut butter cups as an object lesson.  Ask your students about how the semicolon is like this candy.  They also have 2 worksheets to practice putting semicolons and colons in the right place. Since we missed the grammar from last week, we took the opportunity to catch up on that in class as well. We practiced working with parentheses, dashes, and ellipses Most of the students finished these worksheets in class.

After that, we had a little fun.  We played a game called “Poetry for Neanderthals”--a fun add-on to our poetry unit.   Normally, poets use thoughtful phrases and descriptive words, but a Neanderthal isn’t capable of such flowery language.  They only speak in 1 syllable words.  We broke into teams and played a few rounds.  The object was  to get their teams guess a specific word using only one syllable words as clues.  If you slip-up, the other teammate gets to club you with a stick!  (In this classroom version of the game, the opposing team member whacked the table with an inflatable club!)

That’s all, folks.  Happy Easter!  He is Risen!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Evaluation Essay Rough Draft

Read Poetry:  Read Wilcox (33), Thayer (34-35), Sandburg (p. 53-54), Williams (p 60-61), Johnson (41), Dunbar (p. 41 – 43)

• Week 12 Poetry (pdfs on Google Classroom)

• 2 Poetry Responses

Grammar:  Wk10 - Dashes & Parentheses

Grammar:  Wk10 - Parentheses & Dashes

Grammar:  Wk10 - Ellipsis

Grammar – Wk11:  The Colon

Grammar – Wk11:  Using the Semicolon and Colon

Writing 2 Class Notes 3/21

 Time flies when you are having fun–and it sure flew once again today in Writing 2.  You students are such a joy to teach!  Here’s a recap of all we accomplished in class today:

We are kicking off one of my favorite parts of the year in CHAT Writing:  Poetry!  For our Quick Write today, we talked about the genre of poetry called “List Poetry.”  Normally such a poem contains a few lines of explanation, followed by a list and ending with a few more lines of explanation.  It can be musical, funny, rhyming or whatever tickles your fancy.  After listening to “18 Flavors” and “Hector the Collector” by childhood favorite Shel Silverstein, students tried their hands at writing their own “list poetry.”  

For the Literature portion of our class, we finished our short stories unit with an in-class quiz, then we started our next unit–poetry.  Our poems come from a book titled 101 Great American Poems, and they will be reading a chronological collection of poems, starting with poetry from the early 1800s to that of the mid-1900s.  Students have the books, but I will also post the poems on Google Classroom.  

We talked about how each week from here on out students will read all the assigned poems and respond to two of them.

Here are their options:

1. Fill out a Poetry Worksheet for one or both

2.  Write a paragraph about the poem(s) that analyzes the poem; discuss what you think it means and why you like or don't like it.

3.  Instead of writing a paragraph, record a video commentary about the poem.  Youtube LiveStream or some other app on a device is OK as long as it can be seen by me.

4.  Do a piece of art that connects with the content and meaning of the poem.  

5.  Make a video of your recitation of the poem.  Our poetry unit will culminate in a Poetry Jam (poetry contest.)  More details on that to come.

We switched gears to discuss for Writing to discuss the final "from scratch" essay–an Evaluation Essay.  (Our next–and last paper–is a Reflection Essay.   The Essay Re Write will be omitted.  See the updated syllabus.)  They will choose a topic–a restaurant, an app, a news story, etc.–and they will evaluate it.  The key issues for this paper are criteria, judgment and evidence.  

After discussing the particulars of this paper, we had a Writing Circles Discussion.  Students were given a Mentor Text (example essay) on either podcasts, pizza or pens.  After doing a silent “scavenger hunt” for things such as the hook, thesis, roadmap sentence, etc, they were put into groups to discuss their findings.  They were also to discuss the merits and pitfalls of their particular Mentor Text.  Hopefully that will give them ample ideas for their own Evaluation essay.  The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due on 4/11 (after our Break–see updated syllabus.)

With that time flown and gone, I decided that there will be no Grammar worksheets due next week.  You are welcome!

Have a blessed weekend!

Mrs. G

Assignments for Week 11 (March 28)

-- Read Week 11 Poetry 

-- Poetry Response (2 Poems)

- Poetry: Read Emerson (4-5); Longfellow (6-10); Holmes (21), Whitman (22-26),Dickinson (29 - 32)

        Week 11 Poetry Pt. 1 -- Emerson, Holmes, Longfellow

         Week 11 Poetry Pt. 2 -- Whitman, Dickinson

–About the Evaluation Essay

-- Evaluation Essay Pre-Write

-- Evaluation Essay Rough Draft

Links for this Week: 

“18 Flavors”

“Hector the Collector”

Writing Circles Discussion–With Mentor Texts

Updated Syllabus

CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 9 (3/14)

 Hello Dear Students!

We had a great class today–as usual!  

Since Sunday is St. Patrick's day, we started our class with a thematic Quick Write.  After watching a short video on the origins of Leprechauns, students were invited to respond creatively.  There were some fun ideas of what a conversation between you and a Leprechaun might sound like.

First off, we had a brief check-in about Writing.  The Urban Legend Final Draft and Endnotes are due next week.  If you still haven’t handed in your Rough Draft for me to grade, then today is your wake-up call and make sure you submit that ASAP so that you can begin your Final Draft.  There's a light at the end of the tunnel with one more “from scratch” essay after this.  We’re almost there!

This class is enjoying our short story unit and today we had an enjoyable Literature Circles Discussion.  After refreshing ourselves on the other three stories from last week, we spent the rest of the time focusing on “A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin.  In this Jigsaw style discussion, students became “experts” on one aspect of the story:  Plot, Theme, or Setting & Characters.  After they had thoroughly discussed, they re-grouped shared their information.  They were to come to a consensus on this question:   What is your opinion about Mrs. Sommers' choices for how she spent her money?  Once again, they had some wonderful insights!  They are to read the next “batch” of short stories for next week and do the worksheet.  There will be a Quiz over this week’s and next week’s reading in class next week–so make sure you are prepared!  

Our topic for Grammar was fairly simple.  After looking at some rules for using hyphens, students worked in pairs to complete a worksheet.  There is a second worksheet on End Marks and Abbreviations.  They are to be corrected and are due next week.

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

Urban Legend Final Draft

Urban Legend Pre-Write

Read:  Larsen (110); Anderson (1); Hardy (56); London (122)

Audio versions

Short Story Questions

Using Hyphens

End Marks and Abbreviations

Links For This Week

Leprechaun Video

Literature Circles Discussion

Hyphens Rules

CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 8 (3/7)

 

Food, glorious food!  Today’s Quick Write had to do with that topic as it is National Cereal Day.  (Yes–it’s a thing.)  We watched a 1 minute video about ranking sugary breakfast cereals.  They also had the option of writing about their thoughts on that OR writing about their favorite packed lunch ideas and memories.

I handed back the Rough Drafts of the Urban Legend essay during Writing and for the most part they looked great!  Bringing together the research and the MLA citations is no easy feat and they are coming along nicely. Final Drafts and Endnotes are due next week (3/14.)

We shifted gears to focus on our Literature and spent most of the class discussing all those short stories!  After refreshing ourselves on the key points on these famous short stories from last week and this week in our notes, the class got in groups of two or three and had a Hexagonal Discussion.  This is my favorite type of open-ended discussion because it really fosters critical thinking and making connections that might otherwise be overlooked.  Printed on each hexagon was a theme, a concept or the title of the story .  Students were really locked in as they decided where each where the terms best fit in the web.  This method yields many different results as a hexagon has six sides–therefore each concept CAN connect to six others.  Their job was to be intentional and make the most important connections a priority.  Using a dry erase marker, they even made their own hexagons to forge unique connections. They shared their results with the class at the end of the time and I was VERY impressed with some of their insights.  

As promised, we had a quiz over the stories.  It pays to be prepared for class!

We are forging ahead with our comma unit in Grammar and today’s topic was a review on where to put the commas in dates and addresses.  There are two worksheets due next week–they are to finish and correct them.  Please note, the worksheet “Commas in Dates and Addresses” I handed out in class was actually the KEY--you need only fill out the bottom half of that if you submit the paper one.  On Google Classroom it is fine–you may complete the whole thing. (Thank you, Miya, for pointing that out!)

 

We just had time to end the class by watching a Lego version of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”  It was an enjoyable way to end the class to see a humorous interpretation of the story just read.

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

Urban Legend Final Draft

Urban Legend Endnotes 

Short Story Quiz

Read:  Chopin (30); Mansfield (130); Pirandello (149); de Maupassant (134)

PDF’s and Audio Versions

Short Story Packet #2

Commas in Dates and Addresses

Commas in Dates, Addresses and in Letters

Links for This Week

Rating American Cereal

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” (Lego version)

Hexagon Discussion