Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 14 (December 11)

 We had a wonderful day in class today.  A lot of the hard work of the semester is over, so our "work" today was a little more fun.

Our Visual Vocabulary words for today were:  laggard and efface.These words will show up on our end of the semester quiz next week–so make sure to review those.  The slides are posted on Google Classroom.

Writing

The Urban Legends Essay was due last week and I handed the graded/coded essays back. The Final Edits are due next week. If you haven’t turned it in yet, I encourage you to hurry. You will need to budget enough time to complete the Final Edits by the end of the semester. 

Grammar

The class was assigned a Fall Grammar Test about parts of speech and verbal phrases. I sent home a paper copy of the test to be taken at home.  They can use their notes to answer the questions at home. Just like with the worksheets, students must correct their own work and SHOW those corrections in order to receive full credit.

The best way of learning grammar is through lots of reading and writing. Direct instruction of grammar is important and helpful, and combined with literature and writing it can be pretty potent.  Next semester we'll be working on commas!

Literature

The rest of class was used for presenting our Peace Like A River projects.  Each one of them showed not only that the students had a good grasp on the details of our novel, but they also had a strong understanding of the themes and motifs of the book.  All around it was a fantastic day.

Next Week

Our last week of the semester is next week, December 19.  All work should be handed in by that date.  They should not wait until then to do their work and hand it in.  I will not accept any work submitted after midnight on Sunday, December 21st.

Next week we will have our "Class-mas Party."  I will bring warm drinks, and students can bring goodies if they like. (Please label if there are allergens.)  

We will have a ZAP! Game based on what we have learned this semester, a quiz on our Visual Vocabulary.  After that we will have some time to enjoy some Christmas cheer.

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Assignments for Next Week:

Review Visual Vocabulary words

Fall Grammar Test–open book/notes

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 13 (December 4)

 Hello All!

There’s a light at the end of the tunnel and I cannot believe this semester is coming to a close–that means we are starting to wrap things up.

Quick Write

Today we discussed the last sentence opener of the semester: the Subject-Verb opener aka the [1]. These are the very ordinary, run-of-the-mill sentence patterns that are our default to use. This is the reason we call it the [1] AND why it is taught last. We naturally use this in our writing and my job as a writing teacher is to help students branch out and use all those other wonderful sentence patterns for variations and interest. Nonetheless, it is useful to call attention to this useful pattern and use it sparingly.

After that, we were ready to write about some special Christmas traditions your family does. The topic choices were:

December 4–NATIONAL SANTA’S LIST DAY

December 6–NATIONAL ST. NICOLAUS DAY 

December 8–NATIONAL TIME TRAVELLER DAY

Writing

Urban Legend Essays were due today.  I answered a few questions and we reviewed how to make your own Style list to make sure all the style points are included in each paragraph. I hope to get the essays back ASAP so that students can perform the Final Edits and turn them in by the last day of class.

Speaking of final edits, the Process Essay Final Edits were also due today. As a reminder, that is where students use the Grammar and Content Codes to isolate and fix the errors that are coded on their essays. Those must be handwritten, stapled to the paper essay and rubric I handed back to them. This is a requirement for all students. As an option, if a student wishes to improve their grade for this essay, they may edit and polish using the codes and Resubmit their paper for a regrade. CAUTION: Thinking of resubmitting? Great! Just know that every code I mark needs attention. A resubmission that fixes only two out of ten errors is like washing one sock—it doesn’t really help anyone, and it wastes my time. Aim high and revise them all.

Literature

There is a one-week extension on the Magical Realism One-Pager assignment. Since I saw that the syllabus states it is due next week–extra credit to those who finished it today.

We spent the rest of our Literature time today listening to the students present their Peace Like A River Podcasts. I know some of them were nervous to play these for the class, and I am proud of each one for putting themselves and their work out there. I find that students really rise to the occasion when there is a real, live audience. Today, we heard Brecken, Liam and Wesley present their awesome projects while students colored and enjoyed a cup of popcorn. Next week, the rest of the class will present their projects. By the way, meeting deadlines is such an important academic skill. To that end, if you are late to post your podcast, points will be deducted. The podcasters we heard from today earned extra credit for putting themselves out there. Since I had to cut Wesley’s short, I posted it below if you’d like to finish it!

Grammar

“If I were a rich man!”  This week’s grammar discussion centered on Indicative and Subjunctive moods of verbs.  We have been examining different aspects of verbs–phrases (prepositional, gerunds, infinitives and participial).  We have considered voice–passive/active.  Today we looked at mood–indicative and subjunctive.  Now we know that  the subjunctive mood is mainly used to express a wish and sometimes for a demand.  We listened to the last 3 minutes of a  podcast by Grammar Girl on the subject.  The subjunctive worksheet is due next week.

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

Writing catch-up–if needed

PLAR Podcast Presentations–get ready for next week

Subjunctive Homework Worksheet

Links for this Week

Quick Write #6

Grammar Codes

Content Codes for Expository Essays

Podcast Presentation Schedule

Grammar Girl Podcast–Subjunctive Mood

Wesley’s Podcast