Dear Students,
The weather is turning and we are all ready for a break! But before the break: one last class!
Visual Vocabulary
I opened class with a Bellringer activity to practice paraphrasing. After that, we did our usual visual vocabulary words. This week the words are: jaded and gambit. We had some chess players who were a bit jaded with the vocabulary word gambit.
Writing
Today, their KWO’s for their Urban Legend essays were due. During their work time today, I circulated and gave credit to those who met their deadline. I will close this assignment by midnight tonight. Part of learning how to be a good student is learning how to budget time wisely. I hate being a stickler about deadlines–on the other hand, since we are on about a three week essay cycle, and I know from experience that once a student gets behind, it is very difficult to dig out of that hole. That is why I tend to be strict about writing due dates. On that note, I have changed the due dates for this last essay, see below:
In preparation for writing the final essay this semester, which incorporates some research, we had a Writing Circle discussion about MLA Style citations. Students have been handling this skill fairly well, but supporting claims using citations can always use some practice. Each small group was given a folder with directions on how to cite the most common sources: books, online articles, podcasts, videos/Youtube, and movies. After taking a look at those, I gave each group a stack of cards with an example of each type of source. Their job was to compose a Works Cited entry AND show how to cite the source in their writing. They were very engaged in this task!
Literature
Now that we are finished with Peace Like A River, we have turned a corner and for the last few weeks of the semester, we’ll dive into the genre of Magical Realism. Today, we discussed the high points of that genre and discussed whether or not PLAR fits. Over the break, students get to listen to two short stories that are vivid examples of magical realism. They should complete a One-Pager assignment on the stories ”Chivalry” by Neil Gaiman and “The Paper Menagerie” by Ken Liu. I am looking forward to the discussion afterwards!
Don’t forget to keep working on your podcasts over the break! We will start our presentations after break! See schedule below:
Grammar
They are 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
Listen to “Chivalry” & “The Paper Menagerie” (audio)
Links for this week:
PLAR Podcast Presentation Schedule
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