Writing Teacher's Notes and other Things

[PhyllisG]

Here are the notes that I will be teaching from tomorrow. They can be used to fill in for notes that were missed or if Mom needs a little more info than what's in the curriculum.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Notes for co-op 2!

[PhyllisG]

I am giving a copy of these to the students, but added them to the forum just in case you need another copy.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Dear Pre-Rhetoric writing families,

I have some guidance that I'd like to pass on before a whole lot of homework gets done for next co-op. First of all, I'm excited to be able to teach your kids this year. As always, I get very excited when I think about all the progress the students will make as they go through the year, and I believe this will be especially true this year because of the amount of material we're covering and the abilities of the students.

Having said that, I feel I need to address a couple of things before we go any further. At the first co-op, I mentioned more than once that I expected the students to ONLY give me acceptable sentences when writing their variations. I specifically said not to give me any awkward sentences with strange word choices because at their grade level, it's more than reasonable to expect them to write three good, usable sentences in every variations exercise. So, I was a little disappointed with the number of unacceptable sentences I read as I looked at their homework. Thankfully, there was usually at least one good sentence, with a couple of students not really having any problems in this area. So, to be completely clear on this, every variation sentence MUST be a sentence they would actually use in their paraphrase when they re-write the fable. Their variations should be so good that they have a hard time choosing which one they're going to use. I also had difficulty reading a couple of the student's handwriting. Again, this homework was pretty easy, so my expectations were high...I will leave it up to you whether you want them to redo co-op 1's work after you look at my comments.

I may need your assistance in helping the students adjust to a higher level of effort than what they're used to. I'm hoping that if we can start out well, there will be fewer problems as we go through the year. Please take a look at your student's homework before the next few co-ops to see if it's legible, complete, and meets the standards before they turn it in at TOG. I will again be looking at it carefully, hopefully making positive comments, but if necessary, being quite blunt if they're missing the mark. I will send back any awkward sentences or illegible writing to be redone by the next co-op WITH a personal note to you that they must redo their work.

When writing their variations, students at this level should be able to write excellent sentences that make sense and flow with the rest of the fable. They have a lot of leeway here, as long as the main components of the sentence are maintained. So they may add anything from adjectives to prepositional phrases to clauses to strengthen and change their sentences. They may also vary the order of the words as long as the sentence still makes sense and is grammatically correct.

As always, please don't hesitate to e-mail, text me or respond to the forum if there are questions on the lesson or the homework. I'm available and want to help you and the students to have a successful year in writing.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Co-op 5 Teaching Notes.docx

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The attached notes may be helpful to you and your students if they weren't able to get all the notes yesterday.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Here are tomorrow's teaching notes. They will be very helpful for the students and will allow them to follow along with the examples that I give for the various figures of speech and points of view. Please make sure they have a copy in class.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Again, sorry for the late post but these should help with time constraints and understanding of the concepts. Please have your student print these out and bring them to class.

Blessings,
Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

Ladies,

We are now moving into the essay portion of this curriculum, the Chreia/Maxim stage. I'm excited to teach your students how to write an excellent essay and I continue to pray that this curriculum is beneficial to them. This next stage will not be as difficult in terms of the amount of work they'll have to do, but they will definitely be thinking harder.

I've attached two documents below, my teaching notes for tomorrow and a written example of the encomium portion of Lesson 1. The example document also includes a template for how I would like the final drafts to be done. Please print out the Lesson 1 example for your student to bring to class. If you feel they need my notes, then they may also bring a copy of that to look at in class while I teach, however, I won't be covering as much material these last co-ops and they should easily be able to take notes during class.

Let me know if you have any questions!!

Phyllis

[PhyllisG]

I've added a link below for a worksheet on comma use. Please have your students print it out, fill it out and bring it to class with them. We may go over it if we have time or there are questions in class.

Blessings,
Phyllis

http://www.englishforeveryone.org/PDFs/Commas.pdf

[PhyllisG]

Here are my notes and examples for co-op 12.