Writing 2 Class Notes–Week 11 (3/38)

 As is typical the week before Spring Break, we had a few absent from our class today.  One of the beauties of homeschooling is that we can take trips with the family as is needed and necessary with very few  repercussions!  We missed those who were gone, but had a fun class anyway.  If you were absent, be sure to check these notes very well ;)

For our Quick Write, students are continuing their efforts to write some original poetry.  Last week, we wrote list poetry.  This week, they generated questions of all kinds and then attempted to arrange them into a poetic form.  

  

For Writing, I reminded the class that their Evaluation Essay Rough Drafts will be due when we get back from break.  Make sure you bring a copy to class for Peer Review.  I hope to get Grade Reports out over the break, so it’s a great time to make up any work that might be outstanding.

For the Grammar portion of the class, we had a special lesson on the semicolon.  Most people (students and adults alike) are confused about the bit of punctuation; they use it as a comma or as a colon.  I use the Reese's peanut butter cups as an object lesson.  Ask your students about how the semicolon is like this candy.  They also have 2 worksheets to practice putting semicolons and colons in the right place. Since we missed the grammar from last week, we took the opportunity to catch up on that in class as well. We practiced working with parentheses, dashes, and ellipses Most of the students finished these worksheets in class.

After that, we had a little fun.  We played a game called “Poetry for Neanderthals”--a fun add-on to our poetry unit.   Normally, poets use thoughtful phrases and descriptive words, but a Neanderthal isn’t capable of such flowery language.  They only speak in 1 syllable words.  We broke into teams and played a few rounds.  The object was  to get their teams guess a specific word using only one syllable words as clues.  If you slip-up, the other teammate gets to club you with a stick!  (In this classroom version of the game, the opposing team member whacked the table with an inflatable club!)

That’s all, folks.  Happy Easter!  He is Risen!

Blessings,

Mrs. G

Homework

Evaluation Essay Rough Draft

Read Poetry:  Read Wilcox (33), Thayer (34-35), Sandburg (p. 53-54), Williams (p 60-61), Johnson (41), Dunbar (p. 41 – 43)

• Week 12 Poetry (pdfs on Google Classroom)

• 2 Poetry Responses

Grammar:  Wk10 - Dashes & Parentheses

Grammar:  Wk10 - Parentheses & Dashes

Grammar:  Wk10 - Ellipsis

Grammar – Wk11:  The Colon

Grammar – Wk11:  Using the Semicolon and Colon

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