We’re in the thick of it now here at CHAT–writing, reading and learning the grammar. Some weeks it feels like a juggling act–for all of us. But it is fun to learn together.
First, we had a Quick Write about a tasty topic. Since tomorrow is National Cereal Day, they were given a choice of prompts related to breakfast cereal. In order to really get into the sensory details, I brought a gallon of milk and enough mini-boxes for students to munch while they wrote.
Writing
We started by exploring different possibilities for writing a good hook. After that, students analyzed an introduction and conclusion for an example essay on the subject of coffee.
They silently found and underlined the three topics in the introduction/conclusion that were presented in the body paragraphs. They found the hook and background information in the introduction, observed how the topics were restated in the conclusion, and noticed how the writer states the “most significant” of the topics in the conclusion and presents NO NEW INFORMATION in that conclusion.
Last, they got together in their writing circles to compare their answers and discuss the effectiveness of this method.
Bring a paper copy of your Persuasive Essays to class next week. We will be performing Peer Review. If you are not prepared, you will not only be missing out on points (ouch!) but you will be missing out on valuable feedback from your peers and the opportunity to showcase your amazing writing skills ;)
Literature
We had a short discussion over the stories assigned from last class. Though these were very different stories from Early American writers, students were given themes that they tried to relate to each story. While they had similar comparisons, they also had some unique insights. After that, we listened to the first few minutes of the audio version of Twain’s short story “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” (I posted it on GC.) Twain has such a colloquial way he writes that it is super helpful to hear it instead of just reading it. Listen to rest if you have time! We also watched a few minutes of the same story dramatized using Legos! I hoped to inspire students to really enjoy Twain’s humor as they read his story.
The next batch of short stories was assigned along with a Short Story Packet–that worksheet is on Google Classroom and accessible there since I had printer problems this week. I also posted audio versions of all four stories. Make sure to read all of them–there’s a strong possibility of a “pop” quiz next week!😉
Grammar
After that, there was a teaching on the “controversial” topic of the Oxford comma in Grammar. Students are usually surprised that there are strong feelings about this grammar topic! The Oxford comma is really a style issue and is actually optional, mostly only the British and newspapers omit it. I personally like and encourage the Oxford comma for readability and so that you don’t have to rethink this issue every time it comes up. There are two worksheets on this topic and about where a comma goes in a series of adjectives. I posted a short video on this topic that will hopefully shed some light. These are due next week. Make sure you use the posted KEY to correct your work!
Blessings on your weekend!
Mrs. G
Homework for the Week
Persuasive Essay–be ready for Peer Review next week!
Commas in Lists
Commas in a Series
Read: Twain (175); Jewett (87); Crane (34); Gilman (50)
Short Story Packet #1 (choose 2 stories to respond to; one side for one story and the other side for the other story)
Links for this Week
“The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” by Mark Twain (audio)
Audio (versions of this week’s)Short Stories
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