Week 11

Week of November 2, 2009
In my English 10 classes, we spent the week learning phrases--preposition, gerund, participle, and infinitive. I started out the week with a PowerPoint that had an overview of phrases, prepositions, appositives, gerunds, participles, and infinitives. The students were to follow along closely to the notes and activities. Each day following was devoted to a specific verbal. Friday concluded the lessons with a game. This is where I really noticed that the students learned what we discussed all week. The game consisted of the students getting into groups. Each group had 3 colored pieces of construction paper--green (for gerund), purple (for participle), and white (for infinitive). The students were to take turns passing around the construction paper within their groups. I read them sentences. Then, the first student to hold up the right coordinating paper got the first chance to tell me what the gerunds, participles, and/or infinitives were. If they were correct, they got a point for their team. In the end, this game showed that the students were basically experts. I was proud of how well the students understood gerunds, participles, and infinitives and how they are used. It was important to show students how grammar can be fun with the use of the game!

Honors English 10 started studying William Shakespeare and Julius Caesar. They seemed pretty excited about the topics covered. I was nervous to start the unit; however, the students made me feel very comfortable.

In creative writing, this was one of my favorite weeks! We spent the entire week focusing on different forms of poetry. The students really enjoyed writing all the various forms of poetry. We covered a wide array (at least 11 different types).