Notes/English 189

Angela Morales

October 10-14

This week we continued working on sentence fragments. Students were given 8 quizzes to complete by the end of the week. This week was, for the most part, uneventful. I used the lecture slides on the added detail fragments and the dependent word fragments. Students are doing homework out of their textbook, and we are using the book with a little more regularity. I continue to feel frustrated when it comes to balancing the online work with the paper/textbook work. I feel a bit overwhelmed with the sheer number of quizzes—even though I know I don’t have to use them all!

Monday October 10

Today I discussed added detail fragments. The slides seemed to work well. Students seem to enjoy the group effort of watching a lecture and then seeing if they can get the answers right. I am still finding the computers to be a bit distracting. They seem to have this powerful, almost magnetic pull over the students’ minds. They have trouble keeping their hands off of them, and while I like the flexibility of having a computer lab available every day, it certainly presents new challenges. Students continued working on their “Dislikes” paragraph. It would be nice to have a “tech” person in the classroom, as we seem to be having computer problems quite frequently.

Wednesday October 12:

Students began writing their “Dislikes” paragraph. This seems like a very effective topic. With the exception of a couple troublemakers, the students were well focused and kept an efficient pace. I almost wish the class were 2 hours long, 2 days a week. I never feel like I get enough time in this classroom. Just when we seem to really get going, class is finished…

Friday October 14^th:

We continued working on sentence fragments. I pointed out to students that they cannot pass the class if they are still writing with sentence fragments. Of course this isn’t completely true, but it sure made them sit up a little taller. At first I thought that 2-3 weeks spent on sentence fragments seemed a little too much, but now that the time spent is just about right. I’m anxious to move on to other grammatical issues, but I’m trying to be patient and remember that repetition is vital.