Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 5 (9/25)

 Hi everyone!

It’s almost October, but it feels like the Dog Days of summer! I love it!  We had another action packed class today. Here’s the recap:

Quick Write

Our bellringer this morning was a Quick Write. They had a mini-lesson on the [3] adverb sentence opener. Now they have another sentence pattern to include in their writing. Today’s prompt was a choice of writing about National Days: World Dream Day, European Languages Day or Tourism Day. Students chose one to write about for five minutes and include bonus points if you include any Visual Vocabulary word we’ve had so far. Since his memorial service was held since the last time we met for class, perhaps many had watched all or part of it. I thought it was a powerful Jesus moment and felt I would be remiss if I didn’t give students a chance to process a bit in writing if they choose to do so. As usual, I set the timer, they chose a prompt and  wrote for five minutes. They were required to include and indicate the [3]adverbial sentence opener. Bonus points if you include any Visual Vocabulary word we’ve had so far.

Literature

Since we had an in-depth discussion last week, today we kept it short. Students had an in-class quiz over Peace Like A River  chapters 9 & 10. But before the quiz, I highlighted a VERY local Minnesota connection. 

The character Swede is currently inspired by Cole Younger as he is a romantic Wild West figure. She is inspired by his bravery and loyalty to his fellow outlaws. Though Swede’s enchantment will soon end, I wanted to give some reality to this outlaw by showing a short video about the Jesse James/Younger gang attempted bank robbery in Northfield, MN–just a 30 minute drive away!

They should keep reading chapters 11 & 12 and prepare for another in-class quiz next week. 

Writing

Today I introduced our first formal essay: The Personal Essay. Though there is no research required for this piece, students will need to use creative thinking as they explore a piece of media or art that has inspired them. I posted a sample essay, the grading codes and the rubric in the “About the Personal Essay” material on Google Classroom. We will go into more depth on the sample next week. This week, I spent time explaining the grading process. 

The Key Word outline is due next week. They may either show it to me in class OR scan and upload it online. It is due on the due date or it will not receive credit.

The Grading Process

This year I will be using Grammar and Content codes to give students feedback on their writing. We went over these codes together and looked at the rubric. This semester, here’s how the grading will go: students will turn in their essays on the due date and then I will encode them by marking each issue with the number/letter of the rule that they’ve violated. I will also use the rubric to give them their grade. 

Once a student gets their graded essay back from me, they will work through it by numbering each issue that I marked with a code number/letter. On a separate sheet of binder paper, they will copy down the rule that was violated and then rewrite or reword their work to show me how they would fix the issue. Since they now have everything they need to polish their work, they will NOT need to rewrite their entire essay–that may change next semester depending on their feedback.

Final Edits will be due the week after their essays are due. They need to submit their handwritten edits stapled to their coded and numbered original essay. They can hand it in on paper in class on the due date OR on GC by scanning their edits AND resubmitting their original encoded/numbered essays. 

Grammar

Today's topic was prepositional phrases as we wrapped up our parts of speech review.  I FORGOT to mention the Parts of Speech Quiz!–please complete that on Google Classroom this week. We ran through a few simple examples on the overhead projector during a mini-lesson and they were given some time to get started on their worksheets.  Do not forget to correct your own work! I FORGOT: 

That’s it!

Go enjoy this beautiful summer-like weather!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Reach Chs. 11 & 12 Peace Like A River

PLAR Ch. 9 & 10 Quiz

Personal Essay KWO

Identifying Prepositional Phrases

Prepositional Phrases

Parts of Speech Quiz (GC)

Links for this Week

Quick Write

About the Personal Essay

Cole Younger/Jesse James video

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 4 (Sept. 15)

 Greetings!

I cannot believe how the time flies with these students!  What a great group!  We covered a lot, but I find myself wishing we had more time.

Visual Vocabulary

Our words today were dastardly and sophomoric.  After studying the words, we took a minute to write sentences using them correctly.

Writing

Today we practiced the TRIAC paragraph again. We reviewed the role of each sentence in this type of paragraph. Then I handed out a worksheet with two paragraphs that were about a character from our novel–one paragraph defends Davy’s choice to take the law into his own hands and one opposes Davy’s choice.  After reading the two paragraphs, students got in small groups and with markers color coded each sentence according to its function, identified a [2] prepositional opener, and the repeating & reflecting words from the topic and clincher sentences. I posed the question of which position they agree with–Was Davy justified to take matters into his own hands or not? I also asked them to think about what genre of writing the character Swede was inspired by. Of course it is westerns! I asked the class to begin to think about which kind of art, genre of book, or type of media inspires them most. Our first essay of the year will be on the topic of media/art that inspires, so they should brainstorm over the week.

Literature Discussion

The writing exercise led nicely into our discussion. We're reading Peace Like A River, and this week we took a deep dive into our novels.  After laying out a timeline of events on the whiteboard, we broke into groups and used the 4 Square Discussion model to discuss the content. I heard some very intelligent insights!  Students were assigned Chapters 9 & 10 and they should be ready for an in-class quiz next week.

Grammar 

Today’s topic covered a review of interjections and conjunctions.  After a mini-lesson, students were assigned two worksheets. They should use the KEYS I that were handed out last week to correct their own work.

Assignments for Next Week

Read Chapters 6-8

Be ready for an in-class quiz!

Grammar

Interjections

Conjunctions–check your work!

Links for This Week

Visual Vocab. #2

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 3 (9/12)

 Hi All!

We got right to it today with our very first Quick Write. Every other week students are given a topic, five minutes and a few parameters. Then I play some music and our goal is to write continuously during that time. Before putting pen to paper, we talked about our first stylistic technique– the [2] prepositional phrase sentence opener. For some, this was a review and to some it was brand new. The purpose of using different sentence openers is to help students vary the sentence patterns they use in  their writing. We’ll add more gradually as the year progresses.

Then I gave them a choice of writing prompts: either school pictures OR the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I am giving extra credit for every [2] sentence opener they use and for any visual vocabulary words that are used. So far, we’ve learned poignant and blight.

Literature

The plot thickens for the Land family of Roofing, MN. In our novel, the turning point has happened that will be the central driver for the action from here on out. After reading aloud a bit of Swede’s epic poem, I asked students why they think the tone got darker and she had lost all her sympathy for the bandit king Valdez. They had some amazing, insightful answers! 

In lieu of a Reader Response worksheet, we had an in-class Quiz today over Peace Like A RIver chapters 4 & 5.  Because I gave them a few minutes to refresh each other because we will have a more in-depth discussion next week, we didn’t take time to discuss the novel today.  Instead, we will have a more in-depth discussion next week for a Literature Discussion. For homework, they will read chapters 6-8 and complete the take-home quiz (open book) on GC.

Writing

Today’s topic was two different styles of paragraphing. Writing a paragraph is a bit of an art and I want to equip students with some tools to master it. We contrasted the basic paragraph with the TRIAC paragraph. As we learned last year, to write a good basic paragraph, you write from a well-crafted, KWO and choose ONE topic as a focus and  5-7 facts from the KWO. We also learned the Topic-Clincher rule:  

The topic sentence and the clincher sentence

 MUST 

repeat or reflect 2-3 key words

(There will be a door quiz on that next week!) After that, I gave them the “Swiss knife” of all paragraphs: the TRIAC paragraph. The beauty of a TRIAC paragraph is that it practically writes itself! We talked through the 5 parts:

We practiced these models using an article about AI. As a class,we wrote a KWO on the first paragraph. Their homework is to write both a basic paragraph and a TRIAC paragraph using their KWOs–they can use the one we wrote together or they can write one on their own and use that. 

Grammar 

Students were given the KEY to all the grammar worksheets for this semester.  I explained that as we work through our grammar–parts of speech and phrases–they will need to correct their own work.  There is a lot of learning that happens in that process! The KEY is also posted on Google Classroom–I won’t be handing out another one.  For the most part, I will teach grammar mini-lesson and they will have some in class time to complete their worksheets.  This works well so I can answer any questions they might have while we are all together.  Today, we reviewed nouns, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs.  They have four worksheets.

Homework

Read Peace Like A River Ch. 6-8

Take-Home Quiz #1 (GC)

AI Basic & TRIAC Paragraphs

Nouns & Pronouns Review

Adjectives or Adverb Review

Action Verbs Review

Verb Tenses Review

Links for This Week

Quick Write #1--[2] prepositional sentence opener

About the Basic & TRIAC Paragraphs & AI Article

Grammar Worksheets KEY

CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes--WK 2 (9/5)

 Hello All!

This is such a fun group of students–I think we are really going to enjoy learning together this year!

We had our first edition of Visual Vocabulary (VV).  Today, we learned:  poignant and blight.  These words are taken from SAT/ACT vocabulary lists and each week we do VV, students are given the definition, the part of speech, the synonym and antonym.  Then they write a sentence using the word in context. We will be adding to the list throughout the semester–so don’t lose that worksheet–keep it behind the Vocabulary/QW tab! 

We dove right into writing with two notetaking techniques: the Key Word Outline and the Stick and Branch method. Both of these useful techniques are skills I hope students will practice and make a lifelong skill. Both have their strengths and are useful in different ways. We discussed that a KWO is helpful when taking notes from a linear or narrative piece of writing. The Stick and Branch method is like a KWO “on steroids” and is much freer form. It is great for taking notes when the source text/talk jumps around or feels a bit disorganized. You can connect ideas easily in this geographic and intuitive form of notetaking. 

We practiced these two techniques on a familiar fable:  “The Tortoise and the Hare.” Using a clip from Andrew Pudewa’s University-Ready Writing, students listened to the fable being read two times through. The first time they created a KWO; the second time through they created the stick and branch style notes. 

After that, we took another run at the method and listened to a 10 minute clip from the Sean McDowell podcast. I told them that this length of time is about one quarter of a lecture. As we listened, I took notes live on the whiteboard. Students copied mine or wrote their own and used mine as a reference. Their homework is to do it again with another 10 minute talk of their own choosing:  a sermon, a podcast, a Tedtalk, etc.

All this talk about miracles led us beautifully into a discussion about our novel Peace Like A River. After that, we switched gears to Literature–Peace Like A River.  We discussed the timeline of the book so far. It was mentioned how the narrative tends to jump around with lots of flashbacks and things told “out of order.” I posted a few questions and gave them time to discuss the high points and help them get those in their minds. The next chapter is the BIG action, so I want them to be ready! Instead of a worksheet over the reading, I will be giving them an in-class quiz to check their understanding.

No Grammar Discussion today.  Next week, we’ll start as promised!  

Enjoy the beautiful weather!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Notetaking–choose a 10 min. talk

Read Chapter 4 & 5 Peace Like A River

Quiz next week (in class!)

Links for This Week:

Visual Vocabulary #1

University Ready Writing