Notes/English 189

Angela Morales

September 26-30

This week I really tried to adjust to pacing of the class. With so many new components to deal with, I had begun to feel that the class was spinning out of control. My goal was to begin to streamline the materials and use only what I felt was really essential. I tried to put more focus on the textbook and the writing assignments, and in doing so, I began to feel more relaxed about using the online materials.

Monday September 26^th:

I introduced the second writing topic today. Students will be writing about the significance (or insignificance) of music in their lives. We started off by reading the topic as a group. Chris has created a slideshow that contains the topic and highlights important key words and emphasizes ideas students should pay attention to as they begin to write.

The slideshow also contains a sample outline and students can see yet another example of how they might fill in their own outlines.

Wednesday September 28^th:

We continued discussing the parts of speech. Today I reviewed the slideshow on the parts of speech. Students appeared to be very engaged and interested. They struggled to understand the difference between an adverb and an adjective, but it seemed like a small problem, given the overall success of the slideshow. In the time we had left, they worked on their paper topics. We spent some time doing a “clustering” activity on the board. Students are still a little confused about “clustering.” Many students will just write any idea that pops into their heads and then circle it. I emphasized the point that clustering does have a logic to it, and that they must connect related ideas.

Friday September 30^th:

Students came to class and promptly took their vocabulary quizzes. At last students appeared to know what to do and , for the most part, they are now able to navigate easily within the website. With the remaining time, students worked on their paragraphs. A couple students asked if they HAD to use the computers to compose their essays. I told them that it’s more efficient for many people but that they did not. Some students still prefer to write by hand. I have to admit, I still like the idea of pen to paper when composing. For some students, typing on the computer requires a different level of thinking, and for those students with low typing skills, I think it adds another form of stress.