Writing 2 Class Notes--Week 14 (April 25)

 Greetings!

This week was our penultimate class for the year -- the one before the last one!

We started the class period with a Quick Write, and today's prompt was connected with the fact that it is National Poem in Your Pocket Day coming up in April.  In fact, all of this month is National Poetry Month!  I gave the students a sheet of paper with an extra large pocket outline. They were to write a poem within the lines of that pocket.   

This week, they took the Mastering the Comma Test.  After having done the and corrected the Review from last week, they should have done really well on it!  

Their final writing assignment, a Reflection Paper, is due next week.   For this paper, they are to write about what they learned this year, what they learned about themselves this year, and what did and didn't work well this year.  At the bottom of this email is a link to an article about the value of reflection as a part of learning.

After all that business, we watched a few poetry performances and rated their poems and delivery style.  There were some insightful comments about how poets use their voice, style, gestures and facial expressions.  The point of this is to gather inspiration on how to effectively deliver their own poetry next week for our Poetry Event.  

The rest of the class time was dedicated to committee work for the big event next week.  As we discussed, it takes a lot of work to pull off a successful event.  When students have “skin in the game” with planning and organizing an event, I find there’s a high level of ownership and engagement.  After discussing how the committee work should flow,  they were split  into groups and got busy dividing and conquering their committee’s punch list.  As a requirement, they were to exchange contact information and fill out an Exit Ticket to hand in at the end of class.

Next week is the final week, and I will accept homework until Saturday, May 4 at 7:00 AM.  My experience is that once the CHAT classes are done, students really lose momentum for completing late homework.  My plan is to get final grades out within the week.  

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Any old homework

–About the Reflection Paper

–Reflection Paper

–Practice your poems!

–Committee work

--Poetry Event Slideshow (Canva)

Links for this Week:

Sarah Kay “Hands”

Isabella Callery “Thoughtless Cruelty” by Charles Lamb

Harry Baker “I’ve Got 99 Problems and Maths Ain’t One” & “Dinosaur Love”

The Value of Reflection Papers

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 13 (April 18)

 Hello There!

Today was another great day with this group.  They are such a blessing as we continue to work and learn together.

As usual, we started the day with a Quick Write–since we are working our way through poetry, the prompt today was to try their hands at Haiku.  I think we realized how challenging this seemingly simple art form is!

After that, students had the opportunity to try their hands at writing some original “autobiographical” poetry.  We watched a video of local poet Rudy Francisco perform a piece called “My Honest Poem”  After that, we compared the delivery style to George Ella Lyon’s autobiographical poem “Where I’m From”--they had some insightful observations!  Students had time in class to compose their own autobiographical poem in a style of their choice or based on the “Where I’m From” poem template.“I could tell some really got into “the zone” writing these and my hope is to hear some of these performed at our Poetry Event.  

Speaking of the  Poetry Event, which will be the last day of class , we spent the rest of the class getting into more details about this project.  It takes a lot of work to put on an event like this, and to split up the labor,  each student signed up for a role on a committee.  Their grade on this project will depend on not only their poetry performance techniques, but also how well they worked as a group. They are to answer a Discussion Question about their first and second preferences of which committee they’d like to participate in. They should also begin to narrow down the poems they would like to perform.  **A conversation regarding Poetry Event Dress Code came up in class.  I posted Poll in the form of a  Discussion Question asking students to give their opinion. 

The last piece of Literature work for this week is to choose their favorite poem from this unit and complete a One-Pager about it.  They will be asked to comment on poetic devices, poetry’s style and connections to other poems they have read.  I encouraged students to really lean in to this assignment as it will be their last, ever One-Pager from Mrs. G ;)

To conclude our Grammar for the year, I have a Final Sentence Patterns Test that they will take next week.  For this week, they have a review sheet that they should complete and then correct. (The Key is on the Google Classroom assignment.)  Correcting their own work will further help them review and will be much more beneficial than waiting a week to see if they got the answers right.  

We didn’t touch on Writing in class today, because I am still working grading their Evaluation Essay Rough Draft.  Because of that delay, I have pushed back the Final Draft due date to the last day of class.  

We have a couple fun weeks planned to finish out our year, so let's make sure you get caught up on any late work.

Assignments for Next Week:

–Which Committee? Discussion Question

–Dress Code Poll

--Choose 2 poems for your contribution to the Poetry Jam (Here is the scoring/committee information)

–Finish composing “Where I’m From” poem ( if not finished in class)

–One-Pager

-- Complete the Evaluation Essay Rough Draft (if you haven’t finished it)

Complete the Mastering the Comma Review sheet and correct it. (Bring the corrected version to class)

Links for This Week

Rudy Fransisco’s “My Honest Poem” video

“Where I’m From” George Ella Lyon audio

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 12 (4/11)

 The weather is really starting to turn Springy now!  The buds are budding and the sun is shining–our spirits are lifted!  We had another great class with this group!

We started out with a great Quick Write today focused on rhyme schemes.  We discussed different styles of rhyming scheme–even Limericks!  After reading a few examples, they got to try their hands at crafting their own Limerick or lines of nature-based rhyme.

After that, students got out their Evaluation Essay Rough Drafts for the Writing portion of the class.  They traded with a partner and performed their last Peer Review of the year.  After they receive feedback from me, they can begin revising their Rough Drafts.  Final Drafts are due 4/25.

For Literature, we had a Poetry Devices Scavenger Hunt.  After discussing different Poetic Devices like onomatopoeia, imagery, and enjambment, we took a short poem by William Carlos Williams called “This is Just To Say”.  It had been assigned as homework, and some students were puzzled as to why this has become such a famous poem!  We watched the poem being performed, we practiced identifying devices together in the large group.  After that, I assigned groups and they were given time to read and “scavenge” their own poems for different devices.  We had time for a few rotations of this.  They found that there were some favorites among this batch–especially poems by Billy Collins.

After that, I handed out one Grammar worksheet on italics and quotation marks.  Students had some time to work the one worksheets in class, the other one is posted on Google Classroom (along with the KEY to correct your own work.)

 

That is all!  Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

Week 13 Poems

Poetry Response Packets

Week 12 Grammar 

–Italics & Quotation Marks

–Using Italics

Evaluation Rough Draft (if not finished)

Evaluation Peer Review

Links for This Week

“This is Just To Say” performed by Helena Bohnam Carter