Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 16)

 Greetings!

We had a marvelously full day today.  Most of the class was there early at 8:30 so that we could get all of the presentations in.

I always feel so proud of my students on our presentation days.  They have worked hard on their research papers, and listening to them talk about aspects of their topics allows the rest of the class to appreciate their hard work.  Another aspect of the presentations is that the students are able to give visual images for the information that they had been putting into words.  Whether it's maps, charts, videos, etc.  these items provide broader representations of their topics.  They also all did especially well with the question and answer section.  As their classmates asked questions, they skillfully contributed more information, showing just how well they knew their topics.  

For those who are interested, I've posted 3 Google Classroom materials posts with the slide shows for the presentations.  A couple of students have video presentations that will also be posted on Google Classroom when they are turned in.

Now, all that's left to do is get the final drafts in. As I told them last week, I will take any work (except rough drafts) until Sunday at 11:59 p.m.   

I would love to get everything graded and have grades out before Christmas, but that might not happen.  I have final drafts from all three classes, so the whole process might take a little longer.  When I am done, I will have paper copies with notes to give to them; these can be picked up at CHAT in January.  I can also scan and send the papers digitally.

This class has been a pleasure.  May all of the students have a well-deserved rest!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Links for this Week:

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 16)

Presentations for December 2

Presentations for December 9

Presentations for December 16

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 15 (December 17)

 Greetings!

We had a marvelously full day today.  I always feel so proud of my students on our presentation days.  They have worked hard on their research papers, and listening to them talk about aspects of their topics allows the rest of the class to appreciate their hard work. 

Another aspect of the presentations is that the students are able to give visual images for the information that they had been putting into words.  Whether it's the animals of the national forests, bridges and buildings, or paintings by Degas, these items provide broader representations of their topics.

Today we heard about the Dutch language, Degas and Impressionism, technology's benefits and pitfalls, cultural differences in architecture, the national parks, and the history of the piano.  We had some technical difficulties for one of the slide presentations, but other than that, the students were wonderful!

Now, all that's left to do is get the final drafts in. As I told them last week, I will take any work (except rough drafts) until Sunday at 5:00 p.m. 

I would love to get everything graded and have grades out before Christmas, but that might happen.  I have final drafts from all three classes, so the whole process might take a little longer.  I will send electronic copies of my notes and rubrics, but if a student wants the physical copy, he/she should let me know.  It could be picked up at CHAT in January, or I could mail it.

This class has been a pleasure.  May all of the students have a well-deserved rest!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Links for this week

(Note:  I've included links to the slide presentations.)

Class Notes

History of the Piano (Abby Kate)

Technology (Will)

National Parks (Isaac)

Architecture (Jacob)

Dutch Language (Laura)

Degas (Katie)

Low Cost Weddings (Annika)

Trafficked (Dellia)

Chemical Warfare (Lilly)

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 13 (December 3)

 Greetings!

It's hard to believe that we're in December already and that there are only 2 weeks left.  I feel like I'm just getting to know them as students, and we're going to be done.  

For this week's Quick Write, I offered the following prompts:

• Option 1: On December 2, 1867, Charles Dickens gave his first reading in America. People waited in mile long lines in New York to hear him read. Is there an author, speaker, or other person whom you would wait in a long line to hear? Why?
• Option 2: On December 1, 1824, the results of the election went to the House of Representatives because no presidential candidate had received a majority of the total electoral votes in the election, and according to the 12th amendment, Congress turned to the House to decide. What do you think of the election results and the efforts to find evidence of fraud?
• Option 3: On December 4, 1783, George Washington bid farewell to his officers, leaving military life before being elected in 1797 the first president of the United States. Do you have a favorite found father, military leader, or world leader? Who and why?

Following our Quick Write discussion, I went over the various rubrics that we're using with our final products.  For the Presentations, I will evaluate the students with a rubric, students will use the same rubric for a self evaluation, and classmates will use a shortened version for a peer evaluation.  Rubrics allow for a more holistic evaluation; a student can be strong in one point but weaker in another, and a rubric acknowledges those differences.  An important part of learning (and thinking) is to both reflect on work done and to think about the work of others.  I also use a rubric for the Final Draft of the Research Paper; students will fill out the same rubric as a Self-evaluation.

Here are the links to the Self-Evaluation Rubrics

Presentation Self-Evaluation Rubric

Research Paper Self Evaluation Rubric

After looking at those rubrics, we had our first Student Presentations.  Joseph told us about the dangers of rotational falls and frangible technology in the context of cross-country eventing.  Lilly, whose paper is about World War I, chose to focus on one aspect, the details of the chemical warfare of WWI.  Finally, Dellia had done research about the issue of trafficking in the United States and shared some sad, yet important statistics about this concern.  As I told the class, they've worked hard on their papers, and not only is it good for the rest of the class to learn some of what they've learned.  

With two weeks left, students should not only be finalizing their presentations, but they should be finishing up their papers.  Every student is in a different place and in varying stages of rough draft revisions and final draft preparations.  As soon as a student has a draft ready for me to go over, he/she should submit it to Google Classroom AND send me an email.  I'll do my best to get it back ASAP.  If there's a concern about a draft or any questions, please let me know.  The Final Draft of the Research Paper is due on December 17, which is the last day of class.

Here are the links to the Google Classroom assignments for each of the drafts:

Rough Draft #1

Rough Draft #2

Rough Draft #3 (opt)

Final Draft

Looking forward to more presentations:

December 10

Sophia

Annika

Abby Kate

Martha

December 17

Will

Laura

Isaac

Jacob

Brad

Katie  

We're down to the homestretch!

Mrs. Prichard

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 12 (November 19)

 Greetings!

A good class today!  

Our Quick Write today was to write about goals (short term or long term) and/or bucket list items.  At this time in students' lives, they are often thinking about the future and makeing plans.  As an older person, I often contemplate  who some goals/dreams have stayed the same and how some have drastically changed.

We covered 3 Latin roots in our Words of the Day:

ambi - Latin, ambiguu, having double meaning or both -- derivatives:  ambidextrous, ambiguous, ambidexterity

aud - Latin, audire, to hear -- derivatives:  auditory, audio, audience, auditorium.  (by the way, audacious comes from audacia, boldness)

aqua -- Latin, aqua, water --  derivatives:  aquatic, aquarium. aqueduct, aquifer

We had a short discussion about the challenges of writing this research paper.  On a scale from 0 to 5, students were somewhere between 1 and 3.  Most of them found time, motivation, and momentum to be concerns.  Other issues that came up were the challenges in organizing information, figuring out what to include and what to leave out, and finding the right balance between opinion and facts.  The students are each in a different place in their processes -- some are on the first draft, the second draft, or the third draft.  

Our other discussion topics for the morning included common grammar topics (commas, semicolons, and the like), documentation, and presentations.  We watched two videos about how to give presentations.  One student asked about using a video, which would certainly be OK.  As I told him, the key issue for this presentation is for students to share their information with their classmates.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Week.  Be blessed!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for the upcoming weeks:

-- Work on Rough Draft #1, Rough Draft #2, Rough Draft #3 (if you want), or Final Draft

-- Work on presentations.

-- Citations Quiz

Links for this week:

Class Notes

How to Sound Smart TEDtalk

How to Give a Great Presentation

How to Give an Awesome PowerPoint Presentation

Avoiding Death by PowerPoint (TED Talk)

Links for Documentation

Videos for Formatting in MLA, pt. 1

Videos for Formatting in MLA, pt. 2

EasyBib Format GuidelinesEasyBib

Citation Machine

Cite This For Me

Purdue OWL Research Guides

Insert Citation in Google Docs

How to Create a Hanging Indent in Google Docs

Creating Citations in Google Docs (video)

Formatting a Works Cited Page in Google Docs (video)

Formatting a Works Cited Page In Word (video)

Adding References and Citations in Word (video)

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 11 (November 9)

Greetings!

This week we did some problem solving for specific difficulties relating to format/citations. As students are working on their papers, they don't always know what they don't know (or can't do) until they encounter difficulties.  I showed them how to do hanging indents in both Google docs and Word.  We discussed how what to put between the parentheses of an in text citation.  

In a short time, students are to present their information to the class.  They can share the highlights of their topics or focus on just one aspect.  Some students have not done PowerPoint or Google slide presentations.

Students handed in their second rough drafts, which I will go over this week and hand back next week.  Next week we will do some peer reviews.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Work on your presentation

Links for This Week

Class Notes

How to Sound Really Important (TED Talk)

How to Give Great Presentations:  An Alternative to Bullet Points

Powerful Presentation Skills Simply Stated

Changing Educational Paradigms (One of my favorites ever!)

How to Avoid Death By PowerPoint (TED Talk)

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 11 (November 11)

Greetings!

We began class with some discussion about the elections.  I wanted to give the students some time to process their thoughts in writing.  I've found that many times thoughts and emotions rumble around inside, and the process of writing about them not only helps to bring clarity but to gives room for the Lord to speak to us as we write.  

Before we began writing, I spoke a bit about the need to hear from the Lord about our individual roles in this wonderful country of ours.  Where should we serve?  Who are the needy and broken for whom we can be the hands and feet of Jesus?  In the book of Luke, the work and gospel of Jesus is often expressed of in term of peace.  Peace, not anger that responds to hatred that is responding to more hatred, is our calling from the Lord.  OK, now I shall get off my soapbox.  I am so grateful to have the class of thoughtful homeschool students whom I can encourage in the Lord!

For the Quick Write, students could write about the election, Veteran's Day (November 11), the anniversary of the founding of the Marine Corps (November 10, 1775), or marshmallows vs. popcorn.

We worked on Works Cited pages and correct format for entries.  Easy Bib is a great resource, but students will need to check to make sure that the entry that Easy Bib gives them is actually correct.  I've had a number of incorrect ones for websites.  This site also had some good resources for MLA guidelines:  Citation Guides, Website Evaluator, and Commonly Cited Sources/ Research Guide.  We also looked at formatting using Microsoft Word.  In the links listed below, I've included a couple specifically for formatting.

Finally, I showed three videos about giving presentations.  Some students love giving speeches or presentations; others hate it.  This is a good, small group of gracious students, so I'm hoping that will help with any jitters about speaking and sharing the information about their topics.

Most of the students handed in their second rough drafts.  To clarify, I went over the first rough drafts looking for any problems with content or organization.  I gave a number of ideas and suggestions for expanding the papers or for re-organization.  For this rough draft, I'm especially looking for issues with grammar and mechanics.  For those who have had classes with me before, they know that I will be thorough and will read very carefully.  Students new to my style should be prepared to find lots of little marks and comments.  If the second rough draft was not handed in during class, it should be mailed to me by the end of the weekend. 

We will start presentations on December 1 (go to this blog post for the schedule of speakers.)  The Final Drafts are due the last week of class.  Students have the option to hand in a third rough draft if they think it is necessary.  

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Work on the Presentation

-- Send in Rough Draft #2, if nec.

Links for This Week

Class Notes

MLA Style Citations -- Video Links

MLA Style Guide

Easy Bib Citation Generator

     Citation Guides

     Website Evaluator

     Commonly Cited Sources/Research Guide

MLA Basic Format -- Works Cited  (note:  I do not require that URLs be included on the Works Cited pages)

How to Give an Awesome Presentation

How to Give a Great Presentation

How to Sound Smart (TEDtalk)

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 3 Class Notes -- Week 11 (November 6)

Greetings!

This week in class we covered a number of items related to the research papers.  We began our class with another Quick Write.  The day of our class, November 6, was James Naismith's birthday.  He was the inventor of the game of basketball, which he did as a class assignment.  The topic of the Quick Write was to write about a creative project they had done or would like to do for school.

In class, we discussed the format and details for the Works Cited page.  If they have any doubts about this part of the paper, they can check some of the online resources listed below.

Another topic for the day was their Presentations that they are to give at the end of the semester when their papers are due.  Some students really dislike this part, while others have a lot of experience speaking in front of others.  The reason for the presentations is that many times deeper learning happens when you explain to others what you're learned.  They are doing this in the process of writing the paper, but they will also be doing this via the presentation.  They should be thinking about what key points from their research they would like to share with their classmates.  

We watched a short video on giving presentations.  Also, I shared with the students the following statistics:

People remember 10% of an oral presentation; 35% from a visual presentation: and 65% of one that is oral and visual.

The students had a worksheet with a sample edited portion of a paper.  In groups, they discussed why the various edits were made.

Rough Draft #2 was due this week.  If it wasn't handed in at class, it should be e-mailed to me.  I will hand them back next week.

Assignment for Next Week:

-- Presentation Plan

This Week's Links:

Class Notes

MLA Format for Citations

MLA Guide (from Purdue OWL)

Examples of a Bad Presentation Video

Keep warm; winter's coming!

Mrs. Prichard