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
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