CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 6--February 26

 Hello Dear Students!

We made it back from our first week of Spring break. From here on out, this semester will go fast. Hang on for the ride–Spring is coming!

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

Writing

Next, we checked in about the Persuasive essays.  After re-capping the persuasive technique, they had an opportunity to think about how they will put their thesis statements together for this essay. Since it is a truly persuasive essay  (as opposed to an argumentative essay) their stance should not be revealed until the very end of the essay. The reason is to encourage the reader to read to the end of the essay–whether or not the reader agrees with your perspective. Instead, their thesis sentence should state the pro, con and then inject a sliver of doubt or a question.

Students had an opportunity to try and write their thesis statement for their essay and to share it with a partner. While they were working on this, I circulated and gave them credit if they met the deadline for the KWO.  As per usual,  the assignment will be closed for submissions by midnight tonight. The reason for that is to encourage students to meet their writing deadlines.😉 Speaking of deadlines, your essay should be ready for Peer Review on March 12.

On a separate, but related note:  It is important to draft their essays in the template provided. The software I use to help me detect plagiarism and AI use, alerts me when work is copied/pasted from outside the templates. When that happens, I must review their drafting process. As per CHAT policy, the first offense results in a meeting with a parent and if it is determined that work is not original, a student will have to take a 0 or re-do the assignment. The second offense results in a possibility of being expelled from CHAT. As you can see, this is fairly serious and why I needed to use strong wording here. If you are ever in any doubt, or have a question, please simply reach out to me and we will figure out a solution together. 

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.  

After reorganizing into mixed groups, students shared the plots and highlights from their stories. During the discussions, I heard evidence of deep thinking and insightful connections.  

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

Grammar

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.)  I handed out 3 worksheets that deal with that concept.  They are to finish those as homework.

That’s it! Reach out with any questions!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework for this week

Start drafting Persuasive Essay

Peer Review day→3/12

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

CHAT Academic Integrity Agreement

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 5 (2/12)

 Greetings!

We made it through today and I am sensing we are all in need of a break! There’s good news: we are headed for a warm-up, the sun is shining and no classes next week! Woohoo!

Quick Write

Since Valentine’s Day is this weekend, our Quick Write today was topical. First, there was a short teaching about quality adjectives and we banned some “boring” adjectives. The words bad and good are now banned from essays. We will add periodically to this list. We talked about a much easier way to use interesting adjectives without banning every boring one.

 Today’s writing was to come up with as many quality adjectives as they could about a loved one, a friend or a Valentine. Early finishers were challenged them to come up with as many “Gen Z” messages for conversation hearts as possible.  (6-7 anyone?!?) After the timer went off, we took a minute to try folding an origami heart–the perfect container for the missive they just wrote! 

Literature

On to the Literature portion of our class.  We reviewed the three Russian stories and compared and contrasted them. Students listed the “simple” character, the “authority figure” character and the main conflict of each one.  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.🫣 You 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 class  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

The Mystery/Detective stories were due last week. I have graded, coded and handed them back. They were SO enjoyable to read–and I think students enjoyed writing them. The next steps are to work on the Final Edits. We do this so that the rule can be internalized and hopefully avoid making that same mistake in the future. Together, we worked through an example as a refresher for what is required for Final Edits. First, we used the Grammar Codes sheet to interpret the codes. Then we numbered the codes chronologically on a lined piece of binder paper. After that, students NEATLY copied the first sentence of the rule that was violated and under that they made the fix.  In some cases that means a simple correction and in other cases that means writing or rearranging a sentence or two. The Final Edits are due next class.

After that, I introduced the next essay:  The Persuasive Essay. Students already tasted this style of essay when they wrote their Urban Legends essay last semester. We are taking another run at a purely persuasive essay. We discussed the format of this type of writing:  it’s a bit delicate because in a persuasive essay, you will have readers who do not agree with your take. BUT–you want them to keep reading until the end because your aim is to persuade them to see things your way. We analyzed an example of this style of writing by reading a humorous example comparing styles of eggs–fried vs. boiled vs scrambled. I gave the class a chance to brainstorm some more ideas. The KWO is due next class.

Grammar

At the end of class, I handed out the 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 two worksheets to  practice this.  This is a mistake that is very common in student writing–so we could all use some practice! 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 break!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework for this week

Read British Short Stories:

Dickens (45)

Kipling (101)

Wilde (189)

Munro (140)

Short Story Responses

Mystery/Detective Story FInal Edits

About The Persuasive Essay

Essay  KWO

Commas After Introductory Phrases

Introductory Commas

Links for this week

How to Fold an Origami Heart

Writing 2 Class Blog

CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 4 (2/5)

 Hello All,

We’ve hit a “warming trend” to break up the cold snap. Who knew 26 degrees would practically be tropical?

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

Though we are wrapping up our Sherlock Holmes unit, the mystery writing continues as their Essays were due today. I will get them graded and coded as soon as I can and hand them back ASAP. Enjoy the week off from doing writing assignments!

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.  We’re starting out reading three famous Russian short stories. Students were introduced to Pushkin, Chekhov and Tolstoy through watching short slideshows. They are to read three for next week and answer the Short Story Questions. Respond to two of the stories:  the first story on side 1; second story on side two.

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.  There is a brief teaching video posted on Google Classroom in case anyone needs support learning these concepts.

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Sherlock Holmes Final Exam

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

Short Story Worksheets

Identifying Ind/Sub Clauses

Writing Ind/Sub Clause

Writing 2 Class Blog