Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 5 (September 26)

Greetings!

We had a productive class today.  The students did some good, hard thinking.  We began the class with some work with writing test prompts. I divided the class into Team 1 and Team 2, and they each worked on a different test prompt.  After a short time, they shared the results of their discussions.

Team 1 discussed

In some states, legislators have debated whether teenagers should be required to maintain a "C" grade average in school before receiving a driver's license.  Some people think this would be a good policy because having passing grades shows that students are responsible enough to be good drivers.  Other people think such policy would not be appropriate because they see no relationship between grades in school and driving skills.  In your opinion, should teenagers be required to maintain a "C" average in school before receiving a driver's license?  (The Real ACT Prep Guide, 2005)

Team 2 discussed

A better understanding of other people contributes to the development of moral virtues.  We shall be both kinder and fairer in our treatment of others if we understand them better.  Understanding ourselves and understanding others are connected, since as human beings we all have things in common.  (Adapted from Anne Sheppard, Aesthetics:  An Introduction to the Philosophy of Art.)

Assignment: Do we need other people in order to understand ourselves?  (Source: The Official SAT Study Guide, The College Board, 2009)

 Following this discussion, we looked at some Grammar.  Today's topics were phrases:  prepositional, participial, gerund, and infinitive.  We discussed the questions associated with adjectives and adverbs so that we could identify the role the phrases are playing.

As we talked about the writing our our research papers, I briefly covered Taking Notes and types of outlines.  In order to fill in the gaps of our discussion, the students should read the explanations on Week 4 and Week 5.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Read handout for Week 4 and Week 5

-- Write Detailed Outline; hand a copy next week.

If students have any questions, they can feel free to send me an e-mail.

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

This week's blog:  Class Notes; Phrases;