Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 1 (August 24)

Greetings!

We had a great first class for our 2017 school year!  This is a great group with both returning and new students; I'm looking forward to spending time with them.

This first week of classes is about taking care of the business regarding how the class is run.  I handed out a lot of papers, which you will find attached to this e-mail, inserted into the blog and on Dropbox.  As I told the students, they have multiple ways to find assignments and handouts should they be missing any.

We began the class with a Quick Write, which we will do every week.  The purpose of the Quick Write is to get the students in a writing mood.  Most of these are light-hearted; often they are connected to a current even or something that happened on that day in history, and sometimes they are of a more serious tone.  The topic for today's Quick Write was the fact that it is National Waffle Day, in honor of Cornelius Swarhout who obtained the first waffle iron patent.  Students could write anything about waffles, breakfast foods, or favorite fair foods.  

After these beginning exercises, we got down to business with all of the handouts.  We went over, at length, my Classroom Policies for this class that included conduct, communication, and grading.  I especially talked about electronics and cell phone use in class.  More and more students have smart phones, and some find it difficult to keep them stowed away during class.  This year, if I suspect a student is using his/her phone, I will ask and then confiscate the phone if needed.  Parents will get an e-mail if this happens.  The students were in agreement with me, and I don't anticipate this being a problem with this class.

I have 3 goals for this class:

1)  to learn research writing skills

2)  to write a lengthy, well-researched paper

3)  to learn about themselves as writers, researchers, and students

In addition to laying a foundation  for the semester's class, we talked for a while about choosing topics for their papers.  Another topic of discussion was the significance of coming up with a strong thesis statement.  We didn't get to grammar this week.  No worries; we'll do double next week.

In addition to the Classroom Policies, students received the Writing 3 Syllabus, 30 Steps to a Research Paper, "Why I'm Interested" handout, and a double-sided worksheet about choosing a topic.

For next week, they are to skim Steps 1 - 6 and to think about topics and possible thesis statements.  The following week they will write a short response to why they are interested in their chosen topics.

Assignments for Next Week
-- Review Steps 1 - 6 in 30 Steps
-- Narrow Your Topic Worksheet 
-- Surveying Your Topic Worksheet

Links for this Week:

Class Notes
Classroom Policies
Week 1:  Steps 1 - 7
Writing 3 Syllabus

30 Steps to a Research Paper
Narrow Your Topic
Surveying Your Topic

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard