After a fun week of public speaking lessons and an amazing TEDxAmadorValley experience, it’s back to writing basics for my freshmen. Over the weekend, they’ll finish the rough drafts of their Personal Narratives, which will be collected on Wednesday.
Here’s the plan:
Monday
Open with a five-minute M.U.G. Shot (Mechanics, Usage, Grammar) Monday mini-lecture/bell-ringer.
Practice identifying and applying the Write Like a Pro techniques (participles, absolutes, appositives, adjectives shifted out of order, vivid verbs, and similes/metaphors) to a sample student essay.
Add all six elements to their own rough drafts and/or identify the ones they’ve already included.
Review the grading rubric for the essay that’ll be turned in on Wednesday.
For HW, students need to finish adding the six elements to their rough drafts and bring a fresh printed copy to class tomorrow.
Tuesday
Open with a five-minute Lit. Term Tuesday mini-lecture/bell-ringer.
Writers’ workshop on rough drafts with two rounds of Peer Editing.
For HW, students need to address the peer editing feedback on their essays during this final evening of buffing and polishing. Final drafts are due tomorrow.
Wednesday
Open with a ten-minute Words on Wednesday vocabulary mini-lecture/bell-ringer.
Collect the Personal Narrative final drafts.
Begin the introduction lecture to our school district’s writing program and begin learning the terminology for Literary Analysis writing.
For HW, students should read their S.S.R. books.
Thursday
Finish the lecture about Lit. Analysis terminology and practice thesis writing.
Give a pre-test regarding students’ understanding of How to Embed Quotations within Lit. Analysis writing and then present a lecture on the subject.
If time allows, play a round or two of Brain Teasers to add to the Quarter Trio scoreboard.
For HW, students need to remember to bring their S.S.R. books.
Friday
Introduce analogies with a Prezi-based interactive lecture and assign a worksheet of analogies to complete as weekend homework.
Students will use the remaining class time to read their S.S.R. books.
For HW, students need to complete the analogies worksheet mentioned above.
And, with that, the week is done! After work on Friday, my English dept. comrades will enjoy our first evening get-together of the new year with a little wine tasting (the grown-up teacher version of Happy Hour, yes?) and supper downtown. Hope your week flies by. Teach on, everyone!
Hi Laura,
What writing program is your district implementing? And do you like it, or would you prefer to have more freedom in your approach?
Hi Lecvillalpando,
My district uses the Jane Schaffer model for lit. analysis writing. I like that all of our English teachers use the same terms when describing writing elements and I think Schaffer’s skeletons are a great place to start for reluctant writers. I do, though, pretty quickly teach kids how to move away from the formulaic structure, which can start to feel like they’re building brick walls rather than developing passionate, purposeful pieces of writing. Still, there’s a lot of value in using her methods to lay a nice foundation. As with all curriculum (mine included), a teacher will have to modify things to work best with her own teaching style and student population – that’s allowed, right? 😉
Hope you’re having a great Sunday. Thanks for reading!