Tuesday, January 10
Students have been assigned to complete Descriptive Writing Essay Draft 2 at home. They began in class today, but due to our shortened day, they only had a 20 minute writing period to begin. No Math on Zearn necessary today. Thanks!
Wednesday, January 11
Mathematics:
Students were given a check-point quiz on finding calculating common denominators using cross multiplication. We are now moving next to topic 3 in Mission 3 of Zearn.Thursday, January 12
Mathematics:
Mr. Morris worked with Perennial Math students, I worked with students who needed re-teaching on finding a common denominator using cross multiplication of opposite denominators with both the numerator and denominator of the other fraction. The majority of students worked in Zearn Math.
There is no math homework today.
Language Arts:
The main thrust of language arts this week has been repeated editing of the descriptive essay they began last week. A third draft is due Friday, but we still have peer sharing and editing steps to complete before a final draft is written/typed next week. The students and I have analyzed together our 5th student descriptive essay on the topic: A Place To Have Fun.
Given the multiple revision process of this unit, students have been given time in class to type their essays with the idea that they can do their final revisions using a word processor. When they are finally evaluated, I should be given 3 versions showing a progression of their work that aligns with the topics covered in the separate critiques of the 5 model essays. The sequence has been: 1) Pretest Draft prior to instruction 2) Critique of Model essays 1-2-3; 3) Draft 2/optionally typed; 4) Model essays 4-5; 5) Third Draft. **Where we are now.**
Note that the third draft can be written into or added to typed 2nd drafts by the use of italicized sentences and these sentences should be descriptive using senses beyond only using sight. "On the teacup ride, you can hear the riders laughing and screaming as they turn around in circles."
Elements of study in the descriptive essay:
Elements I will look for include a rewritten introduction that includes a statement of the place to have fun; a preview the three sub-topics that will appear in the body paragraphs, and have one or more sentences written to expressly hook the reader.Forming body paragraphs organized around three different topics, usually places within the place they are describing. In one example, a model writing about having fun at the beach, included a paragraph about the sounds in a panorama of the beach; a second paragraph that was organized around the activities one commonly sees by beach-goers on the sand and emphasizes the sense of touch; and a third body paragraph of the activities one finds in the water itself and inclusion of the senses of taste, smell, as well as sounds.
The list of techniques for strong descriptive writing finally include: model structures; inclusion of most of the 5 senses in their descriptions; writing with a balance of describing by the details of a scene and showing action through active verbs; and how to see a scene as if they had on a camera pack and were alternatively panning/scanning the place mentally and zooming in the details of specific, unique, and fun things one can "see" and "do" at their fun place. Additionally, we have studied transition sentences and the use of descriptive adjectives.
Reading:
Students read their personal books and recorded examples of descriptive writing or text-to-text connections in their composition notebooks and shared these in small groups and a whole class setting.We Read Aloud from Milkweed, both today and yesterday.
