We had a great class this week. I always enjoy the conversations that occur with this group of students.
Our Quick Write this week was a listing exercise. As some of the students start to think about college application essays and scholarship essays, an important precursor for this writing is to know "what makes you tick." The lists that I had them write might help them unpack a little bit who they are: 7 Passions, 10 Interests, 10 Skills, and 7 Dreams.
This was the week that Rough Draft #1 was due, but in the last Class Notes, I mentioned that with our Fall Break, they could have an extension until Monday, October 19. (I will be at a conference all of this next week, so I won't be able to get to them until then.) For those who got their rough draft done -- Good job!.
For Rough Draft #1, I will be reading primarily for content and organization. In the second Rough Draft, my focus will be grammar, mechanics and sentence/paragraph construction.
In class this week we discussed the research process. I wanted to get across to the students that it is not always a straightforward, linear process. Sometimes additional research must be done even as the paper is being written. Sometimes a thesis must be adjusted because of new information found while doing research. Or possibly a weak thesis gives way to a stronger thesis as a student is gathering more information.
I also discussed with the students Peer Editing and paragraph construction.
Our classroom does not have a clock, so keeping track of time can be a little challenging. Last week I inadvertently let the students out early, and not a one of them mentioned it. This week, even thought I set my alarm on my phone so that it wouldn't happen again, the class almost tricked me into letting them out early by causing me to think that they only had a few minutes left. Thankfully, we didn't lose that last half hour, and they got to do some extra grammar.
Assignments for October 22
-- Rough Draft #1 in by Monday, 10/19
-- Review A: Clauses Worksheet
Links for this week:
Class Notes
Have a great Fall Break!
See you on October 22,
Mrs. Prichard
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