Writing 2 Week 12–11/21

 

Dear Students,

The weather is turning and we are all ready for a break! But before the break:  one last class!  

Our visual vocabulary words this week are: jaded and gambit. We had some chess players who were a bit jaded with the vocabulary word gambit.

Writing

Today, the composition on Squanto is due. I checked in on how the process of summarization went. Writing source and fused outlines is a new skill to most and is very important to the “bones” of writing. After fielding some questions, we moved on to the next writing topic.  

I emphasized that up to this point, we have used the source texts provided and we haven’t used outside sources.We will continue to practice summarizing multiple sources, but for this next assignment, students will get to choose their own references/source texts.The subject is a historical person After brainstorming on their own and then as a class, they should have a pretty good idea of what subject they will choose.  

The parameters:  the person must no longer be living AND the person should have lots of material out there about them.  For example a more contemporary person probably wouldn’t have books/magazine/journal articles written on them.  It will be easiest to stick to well-known historical persons vs. more recent persons.  I advised them to take a look at their homeschool shelves–there’s sure to be some great ideas lurking there! 

Their homework over break is to find AND bring 3-4 references/source text to class. Two references may be internet articles and the other one(s) must be from a different source– a book, magazine/journal or documentary. Bring a hard copy of your references–that means bring the physical book/magazine or printed article to class with you next class.  

Literature

Today we played a board game that was a review for the Peace Like A River exam.  Each group had a game board, a stack of cards and a penny.  As they flipped the penny, they moved their piece forward and answered questions on our novel.

After that, I handed out the exam.  When they finished, they took a One-Pager assignment that they will fill out over the break after listening to a short story. We are expanding our understanding of the genre “magical realism” and after watching a short video on that topic, they will choose to listen to a story that fits that genre:  ”Chivalry” by Neil Gaiman or “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu.  The One-Pager’s focus is their chosen story, magical realism, and the question of whether or not Peace Like A River fits into that magical realism genre.  I am looking forward to the discussion afterwards!

Grammar

Since we needed the bulk of the time to review for and take the Peace Like A River exam, I simply assigned the two worksheets on Active & Passive voice.  There is a video linked on one of the worksheets with tips for using this voice in their writing.

Homework

Choose a writing subject (historical person)

Bring 3-4 (physical) references about a historical person to class

Two references may be Internet articles–bring the printed article to class; bring physical copies of the other reference(s)

Magical Realism One-Pager

Active to Passive Voice–1 & video

Passive to Active Voice–2

Links for this week

Magical realism genre and short stories

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 11 (Nov. 14)

 Hi Everyone!

We had a great class today!  I am always encouraged to see such bright, inquisitive students each week who are engaged and ready to learn!

We kicked off with our Quick Write.  As our writing subjects get a little more “random,” it’s great to see students leaning in to ask themselves good questions in order to think of potential topics to write on.  Today’s subject:  silverware.

Next, we moved on to the Writing portion of our class.  Today, I introduced a new unit–really an expansion of the summarizing we’ve been working on.  From now on, we will be working with multiple references, so today we worked on the skills of making source outlines and then combining those source outlines into one fused outline. 

After viewing some short teaching videos which gave an overview of the process,  I handed out three source texts on the subject of Squanto.  The tie-in is fantastic–obviously because Thanksgiving is upon us.  Also, a major theme of our novel this fall was miracles.  What is more miraculous than the story of how God used Squanto to preserve the lives of the pilgrims? In fact, God miraculously intervened in Squanto’s life many times. 

 On to the writing. Together we read through the texts and picked out possible writing topics.  After assessing which topic had the most important, interesting and relevant information, we chose one.  

Then, from each source (labeled A, B & C), we filled out three abbreviated KWOs (also labeled A, B & C) and we ended up with three short source outlines.  After that, our work is easy:  simply scan the source outlines for the “best of the best” information and fill out one fused outline.  This fused outline helps organize information, and causes us to think critically on how the pieces should fit together.  It’s like a first draft and I explained that once that process is complete, the paragraph basically writes itself!  For a two paragraph composition, they will need to repeat this process twice.

As I wrote my outlines for the first topic on the board, students worked on theirs.  For this first paragraph, they are welcome to use my outlines or make their own.  Their homework is to write a second paragraph on a topic of their choosing using these source texts.  They should continue making source/fused outlines and use their checklist to write.

Whew!  They worked hard during that teaching, so I decided to forego any Literature  and Grammar this week.  We’ll make it up next week.  (There’s still time to submit a question for the review game.)

Homework

Summarizing Multiple References–Squanto

Finish PLAR (final exam next week)

Submit a PLAR review question

Links for this Week

Quick Write #5

About Summarizing Multiple References (with teaching videos)

Updated Assignment Checklist

CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 10 (11/7)

 I noticed how golden the sun is coming in the windows during their class period.  Something to be thankful for during this time of year.

We started the class with our Visual Vocabulary words:  gist and fealty.  Now that the election is over, hopefully none of us feel that way anymore!

Writing

After reviewing the www.asia.b clause, the new #2 preposition sentence opener, students we read the Checklist together, they are now ready to write their compositions.  The three paragraph summary is due next week.

Grammar

Today’s grammar discussion continued our unit on Phrases.  Today it was Participial Phrases.  Using these phrases correctly is key to “leveling up” your writing.  Students took notes on how participials look like verbs, but they function as adjectives because they describe a noun/subject.  Participials usually end in “ed” or “ing.”  Students had a chance to write a few practice sentences and they were assigned homework.  

Students then got in small groups and played a round of Phrases Matching.  Each set of cards had the phrases we have learned so far:  prepositional, infinitive and participial.  For homework they are to complete a Phrases Review, which is posted as a Google Form on Google Classroom.

Literature

They have reached the pinnacle climax of our story.  The students have been enjoying our novel and it is coming to an end.  They are to finish it this week and do a 3 Responses worksheet as usual.  Next class, we will be prepare for the final exam by playing a Peace Like A River board game.  ATTENTION!  I did not assign this in class:  For next week, they each must write a question on their assigned chapter to add to their question decks.  See your assigned chapter and post your question on  Google Classroom.

Have a blessed weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

About Summarizing a Reference w/ Checklist

Summarizing “CIA Training” OR “Tony Mendez”

Participials–1

Participials–2

Phrases Quiz

Read PLAR Chapter 20-end

PLAR Review Game question

3 Responses

Links for this week

Visual Vocabulary #5

About Participial Phrases