ACT Prep & College Writing Class Notes -- Week 2 (January 28)

 Greetings!

We had a full class today as we worked through Chapters 5 & 6 of Cracking the ACT book.

We started class with a Quick Write in which I asked the students to think and write about two prompts -- 1) What makes you unique?  What makes you "you?" and 2) What factors do people consider when making decisions for the futures?  I appreciated their comments about themselves and about their futures.

As I mentioned, we worked through Chapters 5 & 6, which are about the English Test.  This is the first test of the ACT, and it's mostly about grammar, mechanics, and word usage.  I have slides that I use to present the information; they are also posted on Google Classroom.)  We discussed basic steps for approaching the questions:

Step 1:  Identify the Topic (see p. 35)

Step 2:  Use POE

Step 3:  Use the context

Step 4:  Trust your ear, but verify

Step 5:  Don’t fix what isn’t broken

Each week I will go through 1 - 3 chapters from the book Cracking the ACT, and for homework, students will read that those chapters and do practice exercises or drills. For this week, they are to do the English Drill 1 (here are instructions for how to do the Drills on Google Classroom.)

One thing that I've noticed is that, due to the masks, it's harder to have discussions in part because it takes a lot more energy to respond and talk. That said, the class has done a great job at answering questions and taking part in discussions.

Have a great weekend!

Blessings!

Mrs. Prichard

Homework for Next Week

Read through Chapters 5 & 6 -- Be an active reader 

• Especially read the practice/example questions and the explanations
  
• Review the Summary
  

English Drill 1 on p. 54 - 56 (Answers in Chapter 25, p. 384)
Bring to class questions about troublesome sections or topics
Review the following topics as needed:  

• Verbs:  Subject-verb agreement, Verb tenses, Irregular verbs, participles
  
• Pronouns:  Agreement, antecedents, cases
  
• Modifiers:  Adjectives, adverbs, comparison, superlative
  
• End (Stop) punctuation:  period, question mark, exclamation point, semicolon
  
• Go punctuation:  comma, colon, dash
  

Links for This Week

Class Notes

ACT Syllabus

ACT Assignments Checklist

Spring ACT Prep Google Drive folder

Instructions for Drills and Practice Tests

ACT Week 2 (Ch. 5 & 6) Slides

Where Will I Go?  (due 1/28)

ACT Videos (Supplemental)

3 Must Know Tips for English Test

4 Major Rules for Commas for the ACT

Number 1 Tip for the English Test

10 Quick Hints for the English Test

ACT Grammar Top Punctuation Rules

Video:  5 Most Important Things to Know for the English Test

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

ACT Prep & College Writing Class Notes -- Week 1 (January 21)

 Greetings and Welcome to the first set of Class Notes for this class!

It was good to be back in the classroom and to see everyone's faces (at least I'm sure there were faces behind the masks.)

Note:  For those who have been trying to get onto Google Classroom, the site had been down for a couple days.  It's up and running and at its regular speed.

We began class with a Quick Write.  I asked students to give some thought to the ideas of where they saw themselves in 5, 10, and 20 years.  As high school students, it's hard to picture themselves that far ahead, but I feel it's important to start imagining and then planning for the future.  Students shared some comments about college, choices of occupations, and gap years.

After that, we covered some housekeeping topics.  First, I will be using Google Classroom for this class.  (Here's the invitation to the class.)  Most of the students are familiar with it from last semester.  All of the assignments will be posted on Google Classroom.  Finished assignments can be handed in during class OR on Google Classroom -- but not both!  I have all of the assignments posted as "Ungraded," so Google Classroom is the place to go to see what the assignments are and to see whether or not a student is missing an assignment.

For scores, students should go to TrackMyGrades.com.  You should have gotten an invitation to your account; your user name is the chatclasses.com email and the password is a 4-digit number.  

This week was an introduction to the ACT.  My plan for our week by week progress is to introduce the information, give examples and explanations, and do some practice.  Students will then work through those chapters that we discussed and do whatever drills are a part of the assigned chapter.  The homework for the ACT Prep part of the class includes reading chapters, completing the drills, and taking practice tests.

For the College Writing portion of the class, we will learn how to write the ACT Essay Exam and do some initial writing of the College Application Essays.  

In the Class Resources topic on Google Classroom, you will find these resources:

ACT Prep Syllabus, Spring 2021

ACT Prep Assignments Checklist

Instructions for Drills and Practice Tests

In the Week 1 topic, you will find the following material

What are Colleges Looking For?  (Google Slides)

College Admissions in 2021 (Google Slides)

ACT Week 1 (Ch. 1 - 4) (Google Slides)

Taking the ACT (2 Google Docs)

Have a great weekend!  

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Homework for Next Week

• Read through Chapters 1 - 4

• Be an active reader -- highlight sections and write in your book.

• Review the Summary

• Sign up on the Princeton Review website -- www.princetonreview.com/cracking

• “Where will I Go?”  Worksheet

Links for This Week:

Google Classroom Class Resources

Google Classroom Week 1

Spring ACT Prep Students Google Drive Folder

ACT Prep & College Writing Class Notes blog

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature