CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 6 (2/20)

 Hello Dear Students!

We made it to our first break of Spring semester–and I think we are ALL ready for it!  Some surprised me by not knowing that we have next week off–I think that’s a good sign.  ;)

We began the class with two new Visual Vocabulary words:  nascent and panacea.  

Writing

Next, we checked in about the Writing From Pictures assignment.  After re-capping the process on the board, they got in groups to compare their Key Word Outlines and to discuss the pictures they chose and the Checklist.  I heard some great ideas and it seems like they are enjoying this creative writing assignment.

I circulated and gave them credit if they met the deadline for the KWO.  When time was up, I fielded some questions that they couldn’t answer in their small group and assigned the Mystery Pictures essay which is due after break (3/6).  

Literature

We are continuing on in our short story units now and today we had a Literature Circles discussion.  After discussing different types of conflicts found in literature and generating some examples on the board, they broke into small ”expert” groups to draw a diagram plot on an assigned story from last week and to discuss its main conflict.  

We hovered in our expert groups and didn’t end up organizing into mixed groups for those discussions. I must say that this class is full of deep (and lively!) thinkers and they made some insightful connections.  

For homework, they have four more stories to read and a Short Story Packet to complete

Grammar

Because we devoted more time to a quality literature discussion, instead of a live grammar lesson, I will post a video in case some extra support is needed.  Today’s topic of commas was about how they appear in appositives for grammar. Appositives, a special kind of parenthetical expression, can add flair and are positioned next to another noun/noun phrase to identify it or give additional information.  (The appositive is underlined in the previous sentence.)  As they were discussing their short story, I handed out 3 worksheets that deal with that concept.  They are to finish those as homework.

I hope your break is brimming with rest, relaxation and some time with a good book!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework for this week

Mystery Pictures KWO (due today)

Mystery Pictures assignment

Read:  Hawthorne (73); Bierce (10); Poe (156); Harte (64)

Short Story Packet #1

Appositive Phrases

Comma Worksheet Appositives and Parenthetical Phrases

Interrupters Phrases

Links for this week

Literature Circles Discussion

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 5 (2/13)

                                    Greetings!

The weather was seasonably cold today and I had more than a few out with different viruses.  We are one week away from a break, and I sense we are in need of some time off!  These students are a joy to teach–even when circumstances are challenging.

Since Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, our Quick Write today was on the subject of conversation hearts.  After watching a short video on this candy’s history, students brainstormed as many aspects of, things about and topics pertaining to this subject.  I even challenged them to come up with as many “Gen Z” messages as possible.  The heart shaped lollipops helped this process along!  Students also made some Valentine’s for a friend or family member.  Sweet!

Literature

On to the Literature portion of our class.  We reviewed the three Russian stories and discussed their themes of poverty and integrity.  Once again, I was impressed with some of their insights and their ability to think critically.  It was also very clear there were some students who hadn’t read the stories.🫣  I warned them that they never know when a pop quiz might happen–so they should make sure to do their readings each week!

They need to read 4 more stories for next week and do the Short Story Responses.  Read all four; answer one side for one of the stories; the other side for a different story.

Writing

We started another writing project today which is writing a detective story a la Sherlock Holmes.  After reading a hand out about characteristics of detective stories, I assigned a pair of pictures to each student.  The pair of pictures assigned are moody and suggestive of a story, but very open ended. I gave another  option which was to choose a series of three pictures for their mystery stories. Like our last round of writing from pictures, though the images are suggestive of a story, they are minimal.  That leaves room for lots of creativity!  

We very briefly reviewed the basics of asking good questions and making a Key Word Outline for this assignment.  Those KWOs are due next week.

To wrap up today’s lesson, students had a chance to play a round or two of Mystery Mansion.  They grouped up and used the cards to take turns telling the story.  They had fun with this and it was good practice for the upcoming assignment!

At the end of class, I handed out the Grammar  worksheets.  The topic is about the commas that follow introductory elements.  These elements can include interjections, personal addresses, prepositional phrases, and dependent clauses.  They have 2 worksheets to  practice this.  I wasn’t able to do any teaching on this, but the concept is laid out in the directions.  If you have any questions, just reach out.  Remember to correct your own work!

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework for this week

Short Story Responses

About Writing A Mystery from Pictures

Mystery Pictures KWO

Commas After Introductory Phrases

Introductory Commas

Links for this week

History of Conversation Hearts–video

Animal Farm The Graphic Novel

Mystery Mansion Game & Characteristics of a Detective Story document

CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 4 (2/6)

Hello All,

We’ve hit a cold snap in Minnesota, but that didn’t keep these lovely Writing 1 students from the task at hand this week.  It was good to be together again!

Our Visual Vocabulary words today were clemency and munificent.  We took a few minutes to discuss the words. They wrote some sentences (and drew pictures!) to help cement these words into their brains.  I always look forward to reading these sophisticated words in their writing!

Writing

Before they passed their Visual Vocabulary in, we added two new sentence openers to our style sheets and practiced writing sentences using the #3 -ly adverb opener and the #4 -ing opener.

These will be added to our checklists for the next compositions!

Though we are wrapping up our Sherlock Holmes unit, the mystery writing continues as their Writing from Pictures assignment was due today.  We will start our next writing assignment next week.

Literature

With regret, we are finished with our Sherlock Holmes unit.  We used our Characterization of Sherlock worksheets that were due today to help them make a chart listing the hero's positive and negative traits.  They then got in small groups and had a mini-debate on whether they think Sherlock was actually a hero or not. They have a Sherlock Final Exam that focuses on that topic. It was a great display of critical thinking and public speaking.  I was impressed with their efforts!

After that,  I passed out the new books which are a collection of short stories.  They are to read three for next week and answer the Short Story Questions.

For Grammar, we have two worksheets on independent and subordinate clauses again.  This time, they will identify those clauses and write sentences that contain both.  Due to the fact that we didn’t have time to work on those in class,  I plan to make and post a quick teaching video in case anyone needs support learning these concepts.

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Sherlock Holmes Final Exam

Read Short Stories: Pushkin (162), Tolstoy (169), Checkov (26)

Short Story Worksheets

Identifying Ind/Sub Clauses

Writing Ind/Sub Clause

Links For This Week

Style sheet

Hero Debate