Writing 2 Class Notes 3/21

 Time flies when you are having fun–and it sure flew once again today in Writing 2.  You students are such a joy to teach!  Here’s a recap of all we accomplished in class today:

We are kicking off one of my favorite parts of the year in CHAT Writing:  Poetry!  For our Quick Write today, we talked about the genre of poetry called “List Poetry.”  Normally such a poem contains a few lines of explanation, followed by a list and ending with a few more lines of explanation.  It can be musical, funny, rhyming or whatever tickles your fancy.  After listening to “18 Flavors” and “Hector the Collector” by childhood favorite Shel Silverstein, students tried their hands at writing their own “list poetry.”  

For the Literature portion of our class, we finished our short stories unit with an in-class quiz, then we started our next unit–poetry.  Our poems come from a book titled 101 Great American Poems, and they will be reading a chronological collection of poems, starting with poetry from the early 1800s to that of the mid-1900s.  Students have the books, but I will also post the poems on Google Classroom.  

We talked about how each week from here on out students will read all the assigned poems and respond to two of them.

Here are their options:

1. Fill out a Poetry Worksheet for one or both

2.  Write a paragraph about the poem(s) that analyzes the poem; discuss what you think it means and why you like or don't like it.

3.  Instead of writing a paragraph, record a video commentary about the poem.  Youtube LiveStream or some other app on a device is OK as long as it can be seen by me.

4.  Do a piece of art that connects with the content and meaning of the poem.  

5.  Make a video of your recitation of the poem.  Our poetry unit will culminate in a Poetry Jam (poetry contest.)  More details on that to come.

We switched gears to discuss for Writing to discuss the final "from scratch" essay–an Evaluation Essay.  (Our next–and last paper–is a Reflection Essay.   The Essay Re Write will be omitted.  See the updated syllabus.)  They will choose a topic–a restaurant, an app, a news story, etc.–and they will evaluate it.  The key issues for this paper are criteria, judgment and evidence.  

After discussing the particulars of this paper, we had a Writing Circles Discussion.  Students were given a Mentor Text (example essay) on either podcasts, pizza or pens.  After doing a silent “scavenger hunt” for things such as the hook, thesis, roadmap sentence, etc, they were put into groups to discuss their findings.  They were also to discuss the merits and pitfalls of their particular Mentor Text.  Hopefully that will give them ample ideas for their own Evaluation essay.  The Pre-Write and Rough Draft are due on 4/11 (after our Break–see updated syllabus.)

With that time flown and gone, I decided that there will be no Grammar worksheets due next week.  You are welcome!

Have a blessed weekend!

Mrs. G

Assignments for Week 11 (March 28)

-- Read Week 11 Poetry 

-- Poetry Response (2 Poems)

- Poetry: Read Emerson (4-5); Longfellow (6-10); Holmes (21), Whitman (22-26),Dickinson (29 - 32)

        Week 11 Poetry Pt. 1 -- Emerson, Holmes, Longfellow

         Week 11 Poetry Pt. 2 -- Whitman, Dickinson

–About the Evaluation Essay

-- Evaluation Essay Pre-Write

-- Evaluation Essay Rough Draft

Links for this Week: 

“18 Flavors”

“Hector the Collector”

Writing Circles Discussion–With Mentor Texts

Updated Syllabus

CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 9 (3/14)

 Hello Dear Students!

We had a great class today–as usual!  

Since Sunday is St. Patrick's day, we started our class with a thematic Quick Write.  After watching a short video on the origins of Leprechauns, students were invited to respond creatively.  There were some fun ideas of what a conversation between you and a Leprechaun might sound like.

First off, we had a brief check-in about Writing.  The Urban Legend Final Draft and Endnotes are due next week.  If you still haven’t handed in your Rough Draft for me to grade, then today is your wake-up call and make sure you submit that ASAP so that you can begin your Final Draft.  There's a light at the end of the tunnel with one more “from scratch” essay after this.  We’re almost there!

This class is enjoying our short story unit and today we had an enjoyable Literature Circles Discussion.  After refreshing ourselves on the other three stories from last week, we spent the rest of the time focusing on “A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin.  In this Jigsaw style discussion, students became “experts” on one aspect of the story:  Plot, Theme, or Setting & Characters.  After they had thoroughly discussed, they re-grouped shared their information.  They were to come to a consensus on this question:   What is your opinion about Mrs. Sommers' choices for how she spent her money?  Once again, they had some wonderful insights!  They are to read the next “batch” of short stories for next week and do the worksheet.  There will be a Quiz over this week’s and next week’s reading in class next week–so make sure you are prepared!  

Our topic for Grammar was fairly simple.  After looking at some rules for using hyphens, students worked in pairs to complete a worksheet.  There is a second worksheet on End Marks and Abbreviations.  They are to be corrected and are due next week.

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

Urban Legend Final Draft

Urban Legend Pre-Write

Read:  Larsen (110); Anderson (1); Hardy (56); London (122)

Audio versions

Short Story Questions

Using Hyphens

End Marks and Abbreviations

Links For This Week

Leprechaun Video

Literature Circles Discussion

Hyphens Rules

CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 8 (3/7)

 

Food, glorious food!  Today’s Quick Write had to do with that topic as it is National Cereal Day.  (Yes–it’s a thing.)  We watched a 1 minute video about ranking sugary breakfast cereals.  They also had the option of writing about their thoughts on that OR writing about their favorite packed lunch ideas and memories.

I handed back the Rough Drafts of the Urban Legend essay during Writing and for the most part they looked great!  Bringing together the research and the MLA citations is no easy feat and they are coming along nicely. Final Drafts and Endnotes are due next week (3/14.)

We shifted gears to focus on our Literature and spent most of the class discussing all those short stories!  After refreshing ourselves on the key points on these famous short stories from last week and this week in our notes, the class got in groups of two or three and had a Hexagonal Discussion.  This is my favorite type of open-ended discussion because it really fosters critical thinking and making connections that might otherwise be overlooked.  Printed on each hexagon was a theme, a concept or the title of the story .  Students were really locked in as they decided where each where the terms best fit in the web.  This method yields many different results as a hexagon has six sides–therefore each concept CAN connect to six others.  Their job was to be intentional and make the most important connections a priority.  Using a dry erase marker, they even made their own hexagons to forge unique connections. They shared their results with the class at the end of the time and I was VERY impressed with some of their insights.  

As promised, we had a quiz over the stories.  It pays to be prepared for class!

We are forging ahead with our comma unit in Grammar and today’s topic was a review on where to put the commas in dates and addresses.  There are two worksheets due next week–they are to finish and correct them.  Please note, the worksheet “Commas in Dates and Addresses” I handed out in class was actually the KEY--you need only fill out the bottom half of that if you submit the paper one.  On Google Classroom it is fine–you may complete the whole thing. (Thank you, Miya, for pointing that out!)

 

We just had time to end the class by watching a Lego version of “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”  It was an enjoyable way to end the class to see a humorous interpretation of the story just read.

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

Homework

Urban Legend Final Draft

Urban Legend Endnotes 

Short Story Quiz

Read:  Chopin (30); Mansfield (130); Pirandello (149); de Maupassant (134)

PDF’s and Audio Versions

Short Story Packet #2

Commas in Dates and Addresses

Commas in Dates, Addresses and in Letters

Links for This Week

Rating American Cereal

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” (Lego version)

Hexagon Discussion

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 7 (2/29)

 Dear Students

Happy Leap Day, everyone!  In honor of leaping around in time, our Quick Write was about time capsules.  We watched a short video on the opening of a time capsule buried by Samuel Adams and Paul Revere in 1795.  Students had three options to choose from on this topic.

For Writing, students we had a productive session of Peer Review on the Rough Draft for their Urban Legend essays.  I am impressed because these students have made a lot of progress on learning and using MLA Style in-text citations and compiling a Works Cited page.  Today, we looked at another example of such a page. I showed them how to refer to a slide show that’s posted on our Classwork Page on that topic. We discussed some insightful questions on details of how to cite things like YouTube videos, figures and what to do if your source doesn't totally pass the CRAAP test.  As an answer to that last question, is that  it’s OK to use a source if it doesn't’ pass the CRAAP test 100%.   HOWEVER that source will be a weaker one.  If you do decide to include it, you need to have other stronger sources to add credibility to your essay.

After you get feedback from me on your Rough Draft, you may revise and turn in your Final Draft on 3/14.

After that, there was a teaching on the “controversial” topic of the Oxford comma in Grammar.  Surprisingly, students had some strong feelings about this!  We learned that although 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. We also talked about where a comma goes in a series of adjectives.  We had two worksheets on this topic that most students completed and corrected in class.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for a robust Literature discussion over the stories assigned from last class.  I hope we can revisit those gems next week.  The next batch of short stories was assigned along with a Short Story Packet.  Make sure to read all of them–there’s a strong possibility of a “pop” quiz next week!

Homework

Urban Legend Peer Review

Urban Legend Rough  Draft (if you didn’t get it turned in today!)

Commas in Lists

Commas in a Series

Read:  Twain (175); Jewett (87); Tolstoy (169); Checkhov (26)

Short Story Packet #1 (choose 2 stories to respond to; one side for one story and the other side for the other story)

Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 6 (2/15)

 The snowflakes flew today-finally!  If you are a true Minnesotan, these are a welcome sight ;)  Tearing our eyes away from the beautiful snow and sunshine, here’s what we accomplished.

Our Quick Write today was a creative one!  After watching this video, students brainstormed some ideas for villains compiled a to-list for this villain’s day off.  It is humorous to imagine Darth Vader’s downtime from being a bad guy.  Does he really binge watch “Golden Girls”? 

After that, we got down to the business of Writing.  Last week, we started working on our Urban Legend essays.  (The Prewrite was due today.)  This essay is a persuasive piece with research, MLA in-text citations and a Works Cited page.  Their job is to find an urban legend, describe it, explain why so many people have believed it, and finally to effectively debunk it.  We discussed the importance of tone, voice and structure last week.

This week, we analyzed a Mentor Text looking  for certain elements in the introduction and conclusion such as the thesis, roadmap sentence and hook.  We discussed how the whole essay comes full circle as the conclusion mirrors the introduction by restating the thesis and mirroring the hook in its memorable parting thoughts.  I asked them to think of  a title for this essay as well.  Next class period, we will examine this Mentor Text for its use of in-text citations.  The Rough Draft is due next class period when we will Peer Review your work.  Don’t forget to post an answer to the discussion question about your topic!

Since the topic of this essay is finding “misinformation” and debunking it, it is important to understand what a reliable source is and how to evaluate its credibility.  A tool to help do that is an acronym called The “CRAAP” test.  This mnemonic device stands for:  Credibility, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy and Purpose.  They are to watch an Edpuzzle video on this topic and then run one of their sources through this CRAAP test.  They are to complete a worksheet.

Literature

We are continuing on in our short story units now.  After brainstorming some connections and relationships between the four very different stories they read for homework, they broke into small groups to share their findings.  I must say that this class is full of deep (and lively!) thinkers and they made some insightful connections.  For homework, they have four more stories to read and a Short Story Packet to complete

Last, we talked over the topic of commas as 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.)  After working through some examples, they started work on three worksheets that deal with that concept.

Have a wonderful week off of CHAT and reach out with any questions you might have.  I hope to get Grade Reports out early next week, so keep an eye out for those.

Blessings,
Mrs. G

Homework

Urban Legend Mentor Text

Urban Legend Rough Draft

Discussion Question:  What’s Your Topic?

Edpuzzle:  CRAAP Test

CRAAP Test Worksheet

Read:  Hawthorne (73); Bierce (10); Poe (156); Harte (64)

Short Story Packet #1

Appositive Phrases

Comma Worksheet Appositives and Parenthetical Phrases

Interrupters Phrases

Writing 2 Class Notes--WK 5 (2/8)

 

Greetings!

The weather was unseasonably warm and our class was in high spirits.  What a joy these students are to teach every week!

Secrets!  We had several Quick Write prompts dealing with secrets, surprises or mysteries today.  Students could pick one and respond in writing.  They had fun sharing some mysterious activities by neighbors–both fictional and in real life!

First up for Writing:  we had a debrief on their Mystery Podcasts since they were due this week.  They had some great insights and feedback!  Some enjoyed writing the story, but NOT the podcasting aspect.  Some like the tight parameters and some didn’t because they felt it impinged on their creativity.  I explained that though frameworks can be helpful when writing, I will not be taking points off for not following the format exactly or for any tech snafus that might occur.  They need to post their finished podcast for a peer to review their work.  Have fun listening to your classmates’ creations!

After that, I rolled out their next essay:  Urban Legends Essay.  This assignment is a  persuasive piece that will include MLA citations, research and a Works Cited page.  After going over what the essay requirements will be, we watched a short video on different urban legends and then brainstormed a few.  The Pre-Write is due next week.

On to the Literature portion of our class.  We reviewed the three Russian stories and discussed their themes.  They need to read 4 more stories for next week and do the Short Story Responses.

At the end of class, I gave a very brief Grammar  "power lesson" about the commas that follow introductory elements.  These elements can include interjections, personal addresses, prepositional phrases, and dependent clauses.  They have 2 worksheets to  practice this.  

Blessings on your weekend!

Mrs. G

   

Homework

Mystery Podcast Final Peer Review

Urban Legend Pre-Write

Read Dickens, Munro, Wilde & Kipling Short Stories

Short Story Responses

Introductory Commas

Commas After Introductory Phrases

Links for This Week

Urban Legends Video

 CHAT Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 4 (2/1)

Hello All,

It was great to have class again this week amidst this crazy, wonderful, warm winter weather!

As usual, we started out with a Quick Write on the topic of their choosing:  Read-alouds, handwriting, or pies.  They are random–but based on the National Days calendar.  It was fun to hear what they had written about!

We spent the bulk of our time on Writing.  I have returned the Mystery Podcast Script Rough Drafts.  It was so fun to read what the class had come up with–some very riveting stories!  I mentioned that since these pieces are meant to be heard and not read, I didn’t comment on things like mechanics, spelling or format like I normally do for a Rough Draft.  Instead, we discussed how formatting their work more like a screenplay would be helpful during the recording process.

We also took some time to go over the expectations on how they will submit their podcasts & cover art, Final Peer Reviews, and Endnotes.  Students also had some great ideas and technology strategies.  They are welcome to go lower tech (vocaroo.com, phone recording app) to higher tech sound layering apps and sites like Canva, Wevideo and James suggested Audacity.com.  We also talked about what happens to the integrity of the mystery when we add or omit elements like interviews or others’ voices when recording.  I look forward to seeing what creative choices they will make!

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.  I passed out the new books which are a collection of short stories.  They are to read three for next week and answer the Short Story Questions.

For Grammar, we went over independent and subordinate clauses again.  This time, we practiced identifying those clauses and writing sentences that contain both.  We took some time to work on those in class.  Most students finished–which is good because they have enough on their plates with their podcast Finals! 

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Podcast Final Draft

Podcast Final Peer Review

Podcast Endnotes

Sherlock Holmes Final Exam

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

Short Story Worksheets

Identifying Ind/Sub Clauses

Writing Ind/Sub Clauses