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
About Writing A Mystery from Pictures
Commas After Introductory Phrases
Links for this week
History of Conversation Hearts–video
Mystery Mansion Game & Characteristics of a Detective Story document
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