A journal is a collection of daily writings based on a wide variety of topics. Journal writing accomplish two things. First, they help many students get over their fear or aversion to writing. Since entries are not graded according to content, but soley on completing the entry in the proper format and on time, students do not feel the pressure of grammar, punctiation and makin it sound "just right." Those issues are addressed in the writing portfolio. Second, journal points help students who struggle with English-related activities compensate. Your child will write often for 10 to 15 minutes in their journal. After five entries are completed, they will be graded. This gives your child ample time to ensure that they are always caught up in their journal. I insist that all suudents use a standard composition book for their journal. They are available at most wal-Mart type stores. Journals will be returned to the student at the end of the year.
A Writing Portfolio is a collection of all the various types of writing your child will complete over the course of this school year in this class. Many different types of writing will be covered, including but not limited to descriptive, expository, persuasive, and expressive writing such as various poetry and autobiography. The report, summary, paraphrase, business and personal letter will also be covered. Interpretive and special writing projects will be included, and we will end the year with a research paper. All pieces will be typed, follow a specific format, and finally bound and given to the sudent at the end of the year for them to keep as a demonstration of the skils they have acquired in writing over the course of the year. Every two weeks, a new type of writing will be discussed and completed.
Every child is in the process of acquiring new vocabulary. In this class, your child will learn new vocabulary words that will help them succeed on proficiciency tests, ACT and SAT tests, in college, and ultimately in life in general. Your child will not simply memorize words for a test every other Friday and then forget them, but will learn to recognize, understand and use these words in the context of everyday situations. Ten new words are introduced every other Monday, discussed in detail the following day; flash cards are due that Wednesday, and the test is on the following Friday.
Grammar is the focus on the parts of speech and how they function in a given sentence. As such, this class will focus on traditional grammar elements such as nouns, verbs, etc. We will cover a complete chapter every three weeks, with the test on the third Friday after beginning that chapter.
There will be several large-scale, special writing projects during the year, as yet to be decided. Past projects have included rewriting the Prologue to the Canturbury Tales, creating a class book of riddles in the Anglo-Saxon tradition, and constructing a six-foot castle and a seven-foot Frankenstein's monster. I have found that committing to a large project like this causes students to learn far more along the way to reaching the goal than I could have anticipated had I tried to identify and teach its individual components.
Mr. Lawrence