What a fast paced day! Whew! It felt like a sprint to try to get it all in.
It was great to get to hear all the reports from the students that won't get to be at the Medieval Dinner. You will be very missed. What an amazing bunch of reports we had! Quite a few Oscar winning performances too ;) These talented writers really shine! My sincere apologies to all who didn't get to read. I REALLY underestimated the length of each report. Fortunately, I had heard two during Foundations but there is still one more that I'm quite anxious to hear! You get to go first on Thursday!
Keep reading through your "Presentations Skills Toolbox" handout and think of ways to continue tweaking your papers. We'll go through it much more slowly and in a more relaxed fashion on Thursday so that we can soak it all up.
While you are practicing, take a moment to shorten your papers if you wish (Several of you have asked if this is okay already.). Each student completely deserves their time on stage but if they are uncomfortable with reading all of their paper and wish to read just one or two paragraphs that is fine.
See you Thursday at 2 at Westside Chapel. Remember to come in street clothes with your costumes and a snack in tow. We will walk across to Christ Community together and have a dress rehearsal before having some relax -time before the show begins. (Girls have got to fix their hair, right?)
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and get ready for creative writing. We'll set our imaginations free to roam on week 13! Thank you for all the lovely chocolates and gift cards and candles, I feel very spoiled. This has been a blessing of a semester and I have enjoyed getting to know all of you!
Melissa
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
IEW-Week 11
The time has come! We're tying up loose ends so we can finish the semester with a bang.
Today in class we reviewed introductory paragraphs as well as conclusion paragraphs. We went through some very specific types of "Hook" openers and talked thorugh some examples. We also talked about using the pronoun "I" to turn our report into a first person story and went over some medieval words that we can sprinkle in to make our report sound a bit more "of the time period."
Several of you asked if the paper was due in first person or third person form. Over the years it's been done many ways. Some people write the report itself in third person and then present it in first person but that is a tricky task unless you're a second or third tour student. What ever mom is comfortable with is perfect. You know your student and your level of comfort with the material.
First class got really into the lesson and we had a blast taking our rough drafts and thinking of great hook openers. It was great to see moms working with their students and to hear the different ideas that were coming from everyone's imagination. It was also a lot of fun to hear your ideas on how to mix in medieval words.
Second class said they were set to go so we jumped into the vocabulary word search. They did really well! I was very impressed. Nearly everyone finished it. First class, I handed yours to you on the way out the door so that you can do yours at home.
Final papers are due next week and we will have everyone read their papers and work on public speaking skills. Next semester we jump head first into creative writing. Let's beef up our oral presentation skills so that reading those super fun papers is really exciting!
We also want to get a jump start on practicing for the Medieval Dinner. If you are not participating in that, you are invited to come in costume next week and strut your stuff! Your hard work needs its chance on stage too. :)
We will meet Thursday November 21 at 2pm (attention: This time may change but I will let you know if it does.)at Westside for a dress rehearsal. Please come in street clothes and bring your costume and a snack or two. Matt and Brie will be on hand to run through rehearsals with us so that we can get really comfortable in our skin in front of the crowd. Character development, stage business (what to do with your hands on stage), speaking from your diaphragm, and a little bit of fun and relaxing in character will make for a fun filled but productive afternoon. I am also hoping to have some theatre students from Guilford come to help fix the girls' hair!
We will dress for the show and walk across to Christ Community as a group. I know some of you have some conflicts during the day and will need to leave but the intent of this time is to really let the students have some genuine rehearsal time with a bit of coaching tossed in. Don't worry, they will get some down time to eat and dress and relax before "curtain" too!
Moms, once you drop them off, please consider wandering across to Christ Community to help Shelley, Amy, Patrice, Cynthia, and Sherry set up and decorate. These ladies have gone above and beyond to make this evening unforgettable for the classes and I am so grateful to all of them! JonVarnell will already be smoking the meat for dinner as well so please take a moment to say thank you. This is an amazing team.
I would also like to say a big giant THANK YOU to Karen and her team for putting together a wonderful Marble Jar party! These students have worked so hard this semester to earn this treat.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please email me. I am here to help.
Your children are such blessings and I am humbled and grateful to have been a part of your first semester.
Melissa
Today in class we reviewed introductory paragraphs as well as conclusion paragraphs. We went through some very specific types of "Hook" openers and talked thorugh some examples. We also talked about using the pronoun "I" to turn our report into a first person story and went over some medieval words that we can sprinkle in to make our report sound a bit more "of the time period."
Several of you asked if the paper was due in first person or third person form. Over the years it's been done many ways. Some people write the report itself in third person and then present it in first person but that is a tricky task unless you're a second or third tour student. What ever mom is comfortable with is perfect. You know your student and your level of comfort with the material.
First class got really into the lesson and we had a blast taking our rough drafts and thinking of great hook openers. It was great to see moms working with their students and to hear the different ideas that were coming from everyone's imagination. It was also a lot of fun to hear your ideas on how to mix in medieval words.
Second class said they were set to go so we jumped into the vocabulary word search. They did really well! I was very impressed. Nearly everyone finished it. First class, I handed yours to you on the way out the door so that you can do yours at home.
Final papers are due next week and we will have everyone read their papers and work on public speaking skills. Next semester we jump head first into creative writing. Let's beef up our oral presentation skills so that reading those super fun papers is really exciting!
We also want to get a jump start on practicing for the Medieval Dinner. If you are not participating in that, you are invited to come in costume next week and strut your stuff! Your hard work needs its chance on stage too. :)
We will meet Thursday November 21 at 2pm (attention: This time may change but I will let you know if it does.)at Westside for a dress rehearsal. Please come in street clothes and bring your costume and a snack or two. Matt and Brie will be on hand to run through rehearsals with us so that we can get really comfortable in our skin in front of the crowd. Character development, stage business (what to do with your hands on stage), speaking from your diaphragm, and a little bit of fun and relaxing in character will make for a fun filled but productive afternoon. I am also hoping to have some theatre students from Guilford come to help fix the girls' hair!
We will dress for the show and walk across to Christ Community as a group. I know some of you have some conflicts during the day and will need to leave but the intent of this time is to really let the students have some genuine rehearsal time with a bit of coaching tossed in. Don't worry, they will get some down time to eat and dress and relax before "curtain" too!
Moms, once you drop them off, please consider wandering across to Christ Community to help Shelley, Amy, Patrice, Cynthia, and Sherry set up and decorate. These ladies have gone above and beyond to make this evening unforgettable for the classes and I am so grateful to all of them! JonVarnell will already be smoking the meat for dinner as well so please take a moment to say thank you. This is an amazing team.
I would also like to say a big giant THANK YOU to Karen and her team for putting together a wonderful Marble Jar party! These students have worked so hard this semester to earn this treat.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please email me. I am here to help.
Your children are such blessings and I am humbled and grateful to have been a part of your first semester.
Melissa
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
IEW-Week 10
Can you believe it? It's party time! A semester of hard work has paid off and our marble jar is full.
This week, continue to work on your FOH report. Many of you were able to bring in some rough draft paragraphs to dress up and first class got to play around with ideas a bit. Second class, we got a bit off track discussing colons and bibliographies but they were conversations well had.
Just to second the conclusion we came to in class, the colon is used when the second independent clause seems to confirm or explain what the first independent clause says. The semi-colon is used when the two independent clauses are closely related. I've Googled it again and every source seems to follow a variation of this. It does seem to be splitting hairs in some cases. THIS LINK from UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center has a wealth of information about all things grammar. It also addresses the topic of whether or not to capitalize the first letter after a colon (either way is correct) and mentions some common incorrect colon usage.
This same site also has MLA bibliography information. Here is a link to the EasyBib site we talked about in class. I highly recommend that you allow your student to work through the process with you as much as is appropriate for their age/skill level. Afterwards, you can plug it into EasyBib to double check. Please let me know if you need any help with this. remember, no crying in Essentials!
If your student is first year, please do not allow these details to take the joy out of this fun assignment. I am concerned that for some, the topics we covered in class this week may overwhelm them. They do not need to use colons or semi-colons in each paragraph unless they find it fun. These punctuation rules are to stretch the skill level of the second and third tour students who are moving into Challenge not to frighten the first year students. However, it is a fun way to change up the sentence structures when they are ready.
Next week, bring your 3 rough draft body paragraphs and some ideas for introductory and concluding paragraphs. We will discuss how to make our reports first person and include some words from the time period to make it sound authentic! If you don't get all 3 done, bring what you have.
I still have not heard from some of you about a head count for dinner. We are trying to get food ordered next Tuesday evening so :) please, let me know as soon as you can. Also, if you have anything medieval-ish in your home that you would be willing to let us borrow for the evening, let me know: flameless candles, tapestries, fleur-de-lis decorations that might be appropriate, catapults or other presentation visuals from weeks past, ya know, that family suit of armor you keep for use when the castle gets attacked... hehehe, yep. They do exist in the closets of some of us!
Have a blessed week!
Melissa
This week, continue to work on your FOH report. Many of you were able to bring in some rough draft paragraphs to dress up and first class got to play around with ideas a bit. Second class, we got a bit off track discussing colons and bibliographies but they were conversations well had.
Just to second the conclusion we came to in class, the colon is used when the second independent clause seems to confirm or explain what the first independent clause says. The semi-colon is used when the two independent clauses are closely related. I've Googled it again and every source seems to follow a variation of this. It does seem to be splitting hairs in some cases. THIS LINK from UNC-Chapel Hill Writing Center has a wealth of information about all things grammar. It also addresses the topic of whether or not to capitalize the first letter after a colon (either way is correct) and mentions some common incorrect colon usage.
This same site also has MLA bibliography information. Here is a link to the EasyBib site we talked about in class. I highly recommend that you allow your student to work through the process with you as much as is appropriate for their age/skill level. Afterwards, you can plug it into EasyBib to double check. Please let me know if you need any help with this. remember, no crying in Essentials!
If your student is first year, please do not allow these details to take the joy out of this fun assignment. I am concerned that for some, the topics we covered in class this week may overwhelm them. They do not need to use colons or semi-colons in each paragraph unless they find it fun. These punctuation rules are to stretch the skill level of the second and third tour students who are moving into Challenge not to frighten the first year students. However, it is a fun way to change up the sentence structures when they are ready.
Next week, bring your 3 rough draft body paragraphs and some ideas for introductory and concluding paragraphs. We will discuss how to make our reports first person and include some words from the time period to make it sound authentic! If you don't get all 3 done, bring what you have.
I still have not heard from some of you about a head count for dinner. We are trying to get food ordered next Tuesday evening so :) please, let me know as soon as you can. Also, if you have anything medieval-ish in your home that you would be willing to let us borrow for the evening, let me know: flameless candles, tapestries, fleur-de-lis decorations that might be appropriate, catapults or other presentation visuals from weeks past, ya know, that family suit of armor you keep for use when the castle gets attacked... hehehe, yep. They do exist in the closets of some of us!
Have a blessed week!
Melissa
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