Lesson:
We are continuing our study of expository writing with a type of essay similar to what older students write as a definition essay. Ours will be more flexible and simple, but the idea is to define an intangible quality or idea. This can include dictionary definitions, scriptures, discussions,quotations, examples from life, history, fiction, etc. This can also include discussion of what the defined idea is NOT.
Our assigned topic for the week is FRIENDSHIP. We spent most of the class brainstorming a list of ideas connected with friendship. What is friendship? What is the value of friendship? What makes people become friends? What qualities are desired in a friend?
Assignment:
Students are to write a good long paragraph about friendship. I do not want students to turn this into a description of a particular friend. This is meant to discuss friendship in a general way, developed with examples where appropriate.
After students compose their rough draft of this paragraph, I would like them to revise it for sentence variety, including at least one each of the six primary ways we have learned to start sentences.
Later, we will learn to expand a basic paragraph like this into a longer essay.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
7th - 8th Writing, March 27
Lesson:
I collected their literary analysis essays, then discussed with the class the timeline for our remaining lessons. We will take a brief look at poetry in the next couple of weeks, then begin our final unit, an MLA -style research report.
To review information about poetry, read previous posts from the high school lessons. We will not study poetry as deeply as the upper classes, but the information and the assignment for this week is the same:
POETRY REVIEW from Winning Writing: 9th - 12th Writing, March 13
I collected their literary analysis essays, then discussed with the class the timeline for our remaining lessons. We will take a brief look at poetry in the next couple of weeks, then begin our final unit, an MLA -style research report.
To review information about poetry, read previous posts from the high school lessons. We will not study poetry as deeply as the upper classes, but the information and the assignment for this week is the same:
POETRY REVIEW from Winning Writing: 9th - 12th Writing, March 13
9th - 12th Writing, March 27
Lesson:
We discussed the students' choices of poems and styles of explication, as well as any difficulties.
Then we talked our way through some select poems, looking at background, meaning, and poetic devices.
Assignment:
Each student is to choose another poem and write another explication in either of the styles we have discussed. (See last week's blog post to review the two possible approaches.)
We discussed the students' choices of poems and styles of explication, as well as any difficulties.
Then we talked our way through some select poems, looking at background, meaning, and poetic devices.
Assignment:
Each student is to choose another poem and write another explication in either of the styles we have discussed. (See last week's blog post to review the two possible approaches.)
Monday, March 23, 2009
4th - 6th Writing, March 20
Lesson:
We continued to review and drill on sentence variety. I spent some time clearing up some confusion students have been having about how to use words that appear on both the preposition list and the clausal starter list.
For example:
Because of the weather, the game was canceled.
Here, because is a prepositional phrase starter, with the noun weather as object of the preposition.
Because it was raining, the game was canceled.
Here, because is a clausal starter. Clauses have a subject and a verb; in this case, it is the subject, and was raining is the verb.
I had the students write another quick Brainwarmer. From those, I asked various students to read an example of each kind of opener we have been learning.
Here is a review of sentence openers, borrowed from the Institute in Excellence guidelines from Andrew Pudewa.
1. Subject
2. Prepositional phrase
3. "-ly" (Adverb)
4. "-ing" (Participle)
5. Clause (Dependent clause)
6. VSS (Very short sentence)
7. "-ed" (Past participle --- optional, for more advanced students)
Examples:
1. Subject: A hare always boasted about how fast he could run.
2. Preposition phrase: In his opinion, he was the speediest animal around.
3. "ly"/Adverb: Surprisingly, the slow tortoise challenged the arrogant hare to a race.
4. "ing"/Participle: Running as fast as he could, the hare was soon far ahead of the plodding tortoise.
5. Clause: Since he was sure he would win, the confident hare lay down for a nap and slept while the tortoise passed him by and crossed the finish line.
6. VSS: The tortoise had won!
7. "ed" /Past Participle: Pleased, he declared, "Slow and steady wins the race."
Assignment:
I have made available four simple paragraphs for the students to use as a base for improving sentence variety. The students may also use any of their recent Brainwarmers as a basis for revision.
The homework assignment is to revise any two paragraphs, using in each paragraph all the sentence openers we have learned without using the same one twice in a row.
I would like the students to write the number of the opener they are using in the left margin of their papers.
We continued to review and drill on sentence variety. I spent some time clearing up some confusion students have been having about how to use words that appear on both the preposition list and the clausal starter list.
For example:
Because of the weather, the game was canceled.
Here, because is a prepositional phrase starter, with the noun weather as object of the preposition.
Because it was raining, the game was canceled.
Here, because is a clausal starter. Clauses have a subject and a verb; in this case, it is the subject, and was raining is the verb.
I had the students write another quick Brainwarmer. From those, I asked various students to read an example of each kind of opener we have been learning.
Here is a review of sentence openers, borrowed from the Institute in Excellence guidelines from Andrew Pudewa.
1. Subject
2. Prepositional phrase
3. "-ly" (Adverb)
4. "-ing" (Participle)
5. Clause (Dependent clause)
6. VSS (Very short sentence)
7. "-ed" (Past participle --- optional, for more advanced students)
Examples:
1. Subject: A hare always boasted about how fast he could run.
2. Preposition phrase: In his opinion, he was the speediest animal around.
3. "ly"/Adverb: Surprisingly, the slow tortoise challenged the arrogant hare to a race.
4. "ing"/Participle: Running as fast as he could, the hare was soon far ahead of the plodding tortoise.
5. Clause: Since he was sure he would win, the confident hare lay down for a nap and slept while the tortoise passed him by and crossed the finish line.
6. VSS: The tortoise had won!
7. "ed" /Past Participle: Pleased, he declared, "Slow and steady wins the race."
Assignment:
I have made available four simple paragraphs for the students to use as a base for improving sentence variety. The students may also use any of their recent Brainwarmers as a basis for revision.
The homework assignment is to revise any two paragraphs, using in each paragraph all the sentence openers we have learned without using the same one twice in a row.
I would like the students to write the number of the opener they are using in the left margin of their papers.
7th - 8th Writing, March 20
Lesson:
This was an unusual class. Some students apparently took the week off for spring break; one got called away during class because her brother broke his wrist. It left our class too small to continue on to the scheduled lesson for the second week in a row.
Since the remaining students like to write fiction, we spent the class period discussing how to write interesting characters.
Characters may be flat or round, and may be static or dynamic. Good lead characters are complex, multi-dimensional, realistic beings who change and grow during the course of the story.
Here is a concise discussion of basic character types:
Fictional Characters
Students who write fiction will benefit from How to Create a Character Profile
Assignment:
Regrettably, I could not assign any new work. I will expect the pending assignment to be done to a high standard, since students have had so much time to work on it.
I hope that we can still complete the main coursework I had planned for the rest of the year, which was a poetry unit, then a major research project. To do this, I may omit any additional literary analysis and in-class timed writing.
This was an unusual class. Some students apparently took the week off for spring break; one got called away during class because her brother broke his wrist. It left our class too small to continue on to the scheduled lesson for the second week in a row.
Since the remaining students like to write fiction, we spent the class period discussing how to write interesting characters.
Characters may be flat or round, and may be static or dynamic. Good lead characters are complex, multi-dimensional, realistic beings who change and grow during the course of the story.
Here is a concise discussion of basic character types:
Fictional Characters
Students who write fiction will benefit from How to Create a Character Profile
Assignment:
Regrettably, I could not assign any new work. I will expect the pending assignment to be done to a high standard, since students have had so much time to work on it.
I hope that we can still complete the main coursework I had planned for the rest of the year, which was a poetry unit, then a major research project. To do this, I may omit any additional literary analysis and in-class timed writing.
Saturday, March 21, 2009
9th - 12th Writing, March 20
Lesson:
We spent most of the class period discussing the poems the students had been assigned. We looked at the meaning of each poem, as well as some background information on the poets themselves, and then the various poetic devices employed.
This was unfamiliar to most of the class, so we went more slowly and less deeply than I might have liked. We will continue to develop these concepts next week. In the meantime, I distributed a sample poetry explication, along with a few more poems.
Assignment:
Student are to prepare at least a rough draft of a poetry explication of any of the poems distributed so far. I would prefer finished essays, if possible. Explication means explanation; poetry explication is essentially literary analysis for poetry.
We will learn two formats for poetry explication. Both are correct, so choose whichever format better suits your chosen poem.
Standard five-paragraph essay format
Intro paragraph, ending in thesis statement (Intro is a good place to discuss form of poem, number of stanzas, narrative elements, poet info, etc.)
1st body paragraph: Sound Devices (meter, rhyme scheme, assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.)
2nd body paragraph: Figures of Speech (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, etc.)
3rd body paragraph: Imagery/Themes (tone, mood, meaning, etc.)
Concluding paragraph: (Restate thesis, summarize points, opinion/comment on poem)
Stanza-by-stanza, line-by-line poetry explication
Intro paragraph, ending in thesis statement (as above, plus include meter and rhyme scheme. This format does not require standard thesis of statement plus three-part comment; a statement alone is sufficient.)
1st body paragraph: 1st stanza, explained line by line
2nd body paragraph: 2nd stanza, explained line by line
3rd body paragraph: 3rd stanza, explained line by line
and so on, as many body paragraphs as stanzas
Concluding paragraph: as above
Stanzas in poetry are similar to paragraphs in prose. In many poems, stanza breaks are easy to see by the way the poems are laid out visually. In other poems, stanzas may be identified by ideas or rhyme scheme. Stanzas are named by how many lines they contain:
2 lines: couplet
3 lines: tercet
4 lines: quatrain
6 lines: sestet
8 lines: octave
The example essay distributed in class follows the stanza by stanza format. Since it explicates a Shakespearean sonnet, which always have four stanzas of three quatrains and a couplet, the example has four body paragraphs plus an intro and conclusion.
We spent most of the class period discussing the poems the students had been assigned. We looked at the meaning of each poem, as well as some background information on the poets themselves, and then the various poetic devices employed.
This was unfamiliar to most of the class, so we went more slowly and less deeply than I might have liked. We will continue to develop these concepts next week. In the meantime, I distributed a sample poetry explication, along with a few more poems.
Assignment:
Student are to prepare at least a rough draft of a poetry explication of any of the poems distributed so far. I would prefer finished essays, if possible. Explication means explanation; poetry explication is essentially literary analysis for poetry.
We will learn two formats for poetry explication. Both are correct, so choose whichever format better suits your chosen poem.
Standard five-paragraph essay format
Intro paragraph, ending in thesis statement (Intro is a good place to discuss form of poem, number of stanzas, narrative elements, poet info, etc.)
1st body paragraph: Sound Devices (meter, rhyme scheme, assonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, etc.)
2nd body paragraph: Figures of Speech (simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, etc.)
3rd body paragraph: Imagery/Themes (tone, mood, meaning, etc.)
Concluding paragraph: (Restate thesis, summarize points, opinion/comment on poem)
Stanza-by-stanza, line-by-line poetry explication
Intro paragraph, ending in thesis statement (as above, plus include meter and rhyme scheme. This format does not require standard thesis of statement plus three-part comment; a statement alone is sufficient.)
1st body paragraph: 1st stanza, explained line by line
2nd body paragraph: 2nd stanza, explained line by line
3rd body paragraph: 3rd stanza, explained line by line
and so on, as many body paragraphs as stanzas
Concluding paragraph: as above
Stanzas in poetry are similar to paragraphs in prose. In many poems, stanza breaks are easy to see by the way the poems are laid out visually. In other poems, stanzas may be identified by ideas or rhyme scheme. Stanzas are named by how many lines they contain:
2 lines: couplet
3 lines: tercet
4 lines: quatrain
6 lines: sestet
8 lines: octave
The example essay distributed in class follows the stanza by stanza format. Since it explicates a Shakespearean sonnet, which always have four stanzas of three quatrains and a couplet, the example has four body paragraphs plus an intro and conclusion.
Monday, March 16, 2009
4th - 6th Writing, March 13
Lesson:
We opened the class period with a five-minute Brainwarmer, since we had not done that in a while.
Then we reviewed the various sentence openers we have learned so far, discussing them with more examples.
After that, we read through student homework, identifying the type of sentence openers the students had used for each sentence.
I was quite pleased with the progress in sentence variety that the class showed.
Assignment:
I offered the students four more basic model paragraphs to rewrite for greater sentence variety; student are to complete at least two of them. Students also have the option of including their brainwarmer as one of their reworked samples.
As before, these can be reworded, rearranged, and restructured, but no major information is to be added or omitted. Students are to use each of the six primary sentence openers at least once (and the seventh, optional opener, if desired) and should not use the same type of opener twice in a row. NOTE: the openers do NOT need to be used in any particular order.
These are due this coming Friday, March 20.
We opened the class period with a five-minute Brainwarmer, since we had not done that in a while.
Then we reviewed the various sentence openers we have learned so far, discussing them with more examples.
After that, we read through student homework, identifying the type of sentence openers the students had used for each sentence.
I was quite pleased with the progress in sentence variety that the class showed.
Assignment:
I offered the students four more basic model paragraphs to rewrite for greater sentence variety; student are to complete at least two of them. Students also have the option of including their brainwarmer as one of their reworked samples.
As before, these can be reworded, rearranged, and restructured, but no major information is to be added or omitted. Students are to use each of the six primary sentence openers at least once (and the seventh, optional opener, if desired) and should not use the same type of opener twice in a row. NOTE: the openers do NOT need to be used in any particular order.
These are due this coming Friday, March 20.
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