Lesson:
We began with a brief review of the things we are looking for in our paragraphs, especially action verbs and a variety of sentence openers. We discussed the difference between revision (re-seeing) and mere editing. I encouraged the students to read over their first drafts several times during the revision process, checking each time for specific things like verbs and openers. I also recommended that the students read their papers aloud at least once during the revision, because their ears will sometimes notice things their eyes might miss. Once they are satisfied that they have done their best revision, then the students should edit for grammar, spelling, and punctuation before typing or writing their final copy.
We spent most of the class time reading aloud and critiquing the students' "how-to" process papers. Some of the students had even brought examples, which were a hit with their classmates --- especially the food items!
We decided to make a booklet of all the students how-to paragraphs as our class Christmas project. I asked the students to email me their work so I can compile it for the class.
Assignment:
In honor of the season, students are to write an expository paragraph with a Christmas theme. They may choose their own Christmas topics, but their paragraphs need to be informative, not personally narrative.
Examples might include:
the meaning of Christmas
the history of Christmas
the traditions of Christmas
Christmas celebrations around the world
Christmas carols (e.g., how Silent Night was written, etc.)
Christmas stories or movies
the best part of Christmas
Christmas at the White House
the origin of Christmas stockings
the origin of Christmas trees
giving to others at Christmas time
etc.
or, another process paper, explaining how to:
make an ornament
choose or wrap a gift
prepare a Christmas treat
etc.
(Reminder: Please email me a copy of your child's how-to paragraph from last week. Thanks!)
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
7th - 8th Writing, December 5
Lesson:
I was gratified to read this week's work. Though some previous essays showed misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge, the students applied our recent review lessons with good results. I appreciate their receptive attitudes and willingness to work at writing.
Assignment:
Our next class period will be devoted to an in-class timed writing exercise. This is an important skill to master for college entrance exams and college essay tests, so I want to give these students exposure and practice.
Students will have the full class period to complete a five-paragraph essay. (Hint: Be on time, kids! In fact, you would be wise to be comfortably settled and ready to write as soon as class begins.)
A merely adequate but complete essay will score better than a brilliantly begun but incomplete essay. These essays will not be graded to the same standards as at-home compositions, but still must follow standard five-paragraph format with clear thesis statements, sensible organization, and solid development of arguments.
Students should prepare ahead of time and may bring to class one 3 x 5 index card of notes. Smart preparation might include selecting a topic, brainstorming, writing a thesis statement, organizing and/or outlining main points, choosing and jotting down supporting details, even up to writing out a full practice essay. The note card may be written on both sides, and may contain whatever notes the student deems helpful, such as a prepared thesis statement, outline, quotations, etc.
(Note: Many timed writing exercises, certainly college entrance exams, do not allow so much preparation; often, even the topic is not known in advance. However, we are taking a more user-friendly approach.)
Students may choose to write either a definition essay or a compare/contrast essay from the topic list provided below. (Students may not write on a topic that they have covered previously.)
Topic Choices
~Definition Essays~
Christmas Spirit
Generosity
Faith
Faithfulness
Servanthood
Joy
Contentment
~Compare/Contrast Essays~
The original Christmas nativity and modern Christmas observances
Secular/"pop" Christmas songs and spiritual/traditional Christmas carols
Islam and Christianity
Dating and courtship
PC and Mac
Spiderman and Batman (or any two superheroes)
Sherlock Holmes and Gregory House
(P.S. --- This has nothing to do with this assignment, and I don't suppose this topic would appeal to many people, anyway, but I just thought of an intriguing comparison. I think it might be interesting to compare the roles and relationship of Star Trek's Captain Kirk and Spock with U2's Bono and The Edge.)
I was gratified to read this week's work. Though some previous essays showed misunderstandings and gaps in knowledge, the students applied our recent review lessons with good results. I appreciate their receptive attitudes and willingness to work at writing.
Assignment:
Our next class period will be devoted to an in-class timed writing exercise. This is an important skill to master for college entrance exams and college essay tests, so I want to give these students exposure and practice.
Students will have the full class period to complete a five-paragraph essay. (Hint: Be on time, kids! In fact, you would be wise to be comfortably settled and ready to write as soon as class begins.)
A merely adequate but complete essay will score better than a brilliantly begun but incomplete essay. These essays will not be graded to the same standards as at-home compositions, but still must follow standard five-paragraph format with clear thesis statements, sensible organization, and solid development of arguments.
Students should prepare ahead of time and may bring to class one 3 x 5 index card of notes. Smart preparation might include selecting a topic, brainstorming, writing a thesis statement, organizing and/or outlining main points, choosing and jotting down supporting details, even up to writing out a full practice essay. The note card may be written on both sides, and may contain whatever notes the student deems helpful, such as a prepared thesis statement, outline, quotations, etc.
(Note: Many timed writing exercises, certainly college entrance exams, do not allow so much preparation; often, even the topic is not known in advance. However, we are taking a more user-friendly approach.)
Students may choose to write either a definition essay or a compare/contrast essay from the topic list provided below. (Students may not write on a topic that they have covered previously.)
Topic Choices
~Definition Essays~
Christmas Spirit
Generosity
Faith
Faithfulness
Servanthood
Joy
Contentment
~Compare/Contrast Essays~
The original Christmas nativity and modern Christmas observances
Secular/"pop" Christmas songs and spiritual/traditional Christmas carols
Islam and Christianity
Dating and courtship
PC and Mac
Spiderman and Batman (or any two superheroes)
Sherlock Holmes and Gregory House
(P.S. --- This has nothing to do with this assignment, and I don't suppose this topic would appeal to many people, anyway, but I just thought of an intriguing comparison. I think it might be interesting to compare the roles and relationship of Star Trek's Captain Kirk and Spock with U2's Bono and The Edge.)
9th - 12th Writing, December 5
Lesson:
We spent most of the class period reading and critiquing student essays. The read-arounds during the last session paid off handsomely; these persuasive essays showed notable improvements over the original drafts.
Many of the students tackled thorny topics like abortion policies or immigration reform. Those are challenging subjects, especially for an essay of this size, but the students did well.
We again stressed the need to remember their target audience, to structure their arguments to appeal to the readers' needs and viewpoints, and to issue a clear call to action.
Assignment:
Each student will prepare another five-paragraph persuasive essay on a different topic of choice.
We spent most of the class period reading and critiquing student essays. The read-arounds during the last session paid off handsomely; these persuasive essays showed notable improvements over the original drafts.
Many of the students tackled thorny topics like abortion policies or immigration reform. Those are challenging subjects, especially for an essay of this size, but the students did well.
We again stressed the need to remember their target audience, to structure their arguments to appeal to the readers' needs and viewpoints, and to issue a clear call to action.
Assignment:
Each student will prepare another five-paragraph persuasive essay on a different topic of choice.
AP Writing, December 4
These students continue to excel. I enjoy seeing how they apply what we discuss from week to week.
Assignment:
Having examined selected short stories, students will write five-paragraph literacy analysis essays with emphasis on setting, character and theme.
Assignment:
Having examined selected short stories, students will write five-paragraph literacy analysis essays with emphasis on setting, character and theme.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
4th - 6th Writing, November 21
Lesson:
This was a fun class. It was time to move into expository (informative) writing, beginning with process papers, also known as "how-to" writing. To illustrate, I asked the students to pretend that I was an alien whose ship landed in the back yard, and that I had wandered in for lunch. They were to tell me step by step how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I would do exactly what they told me to do. Their directions led to some entertaining actions before they realized how to present step-by-step instructions for an edible sandwich.
After that, we reviewed different sentence openers that will add variety to their writing. Then we read aloud their second personal descriptions, which were nicely done..
Assignment:
Class will not meet during Thanksgiving Week, but will resume December 5.
Students are to write a process paragraph explaining how to perform a task of their choosing. These paragraphs are to employ a variety of sentence openers to describe the steps to completing a process. Some example topics might include:
how to bathe a dog
how to clean a bedroom
how to choose a gift
how to be a good friend
how to make bead jewelry
how to make a grilled cheese sandwich
how to do a skateboard trick
etc.
This was a fun class. It was time to move into expository (informative) writing, beginning with process papers, also known as "how-to" writing. To illustrate, I asked the students to pretend that I was an alien whose ship landed in the back yard, and that I had wandered in for lunch. They were to tell me step by step how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and I would do exactly what they told me to do. Their directions led to some entertaining actions before they realized how to present step-by-step instructions for an edible sandwich.
After that, we reviewed different sentence openers that will add variety to their writing. Then we read aloud their second personal descriptions, which were nicely done..
Assignment:
Class will not meet during Thanksgiving Week, but will resume December 5.
Students are to write a process paragraph explaining how to perform a task of their choosing. These paragraphs are to employ a variety of sentence openers to describe the steps to completing a process. Some example topics might include:
how to bathe a dog
how to clean a bedroom
how to choose a gift
how to be a good friend
how to make bead jewelry
how to make a grilled cheese sandwich
how to do a skateboard trick
etc.
7th - 8th Writing, November 21
Lesson:
This was a rough class session. Recent student papers show serious errors and deficiencies that I needed to address. I realize many of the students have missed different lessons here and there, due to camping, speech/debate, etc., so may have spotty understanding. I scrapped the planned lesson and reviewed key points instead.
Assignment:
Class will not meet Thanksgiving week, but will resume December 5.
The students are to revise their latest compositions to meet all the criteria we discussed in class.
This was a rough class session. Recent student papers show serious errors and deficiencies that I needed to address. I realize many of the students have missed different lessons here and there, due to camping, speech/debate, etc., so may have spotty understanding. I scrapped the planned lesson and reviewed key points instead.
Assignment:
Class will not meet Thanksgiving week, but will resume December 5.
The students are to revise their latest compositions to meet all the criteria we discussed in class.
9th - 12th Writing, November 21
Lesson:
Since several students have missed a few key sessions lately, I thought it best not to move on to a new assignment immediately before Thanksgiving break. Instead, we spent most of the class period in read-arounds of their persuasive essays. Read-arounds, wherein students pass around and critique one another's major papers, are a common practice in college. In our case, it not only acquainted the students with that procedure, but it also gave them a chance to hone their editing and revision skills together.
Assignment:
We will not meet during Thanksgiving week, resuming again December 5.
Students are to revise and edit their five-paragraph persuasive essays. They should take into account the critiques of their classmates, though they are not bound by those, and must still exercise their own best judgment.
Since several students have missed a few key sessions lately, I thought it best not to move on to a new assignment immediately before Thanksgiving break. Instead, we spent most of the class period in read-arounds of their persuasive essays. Read-arounds, wherein students pass around and critique one another's major papers, are a common practice in college. In our case, it not only acquainted the students with that procedure, but it also gave them a chance to hone their editing and revision skills together.
Assignment:
We will not meet during Thanksgiving week, resuming again December 5.
Students are to revise and edit their five-paragraph persuasive essays. They should take into account the critiques of their classmates, though they are not bound by those, and must still exercise their own best judgment.
AP Writing, November 20
Lesson:
We spent most of the class period evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the students' literary analysis compositions. Overall, the students' insights were more than satisfactory and their writing was solid.
Assignment:
We will not meet during Thanksgiving week, resuming again December 4.
Before the next class, each student is to choose another short story, reading it least several times and making notes for the next literary analysis.
We spent most of the class period evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the students' literary analysis compositions. Overall, the students' insights were more than satisfactory and their writing was solid.
Assignment:
We will not meet during Thanksgiving week, resuming again December 4.
Before the next class, each student is to choose another short story, reading it least several times and making notes for the next literary analysis.
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