Exemplification Assignment

After writing down the new vocabulary words (we only have 2 rounds left for the class), you received the assignment for the exemplification essay, which will involve an abstract noun, your interpretation of the meaning, and a plethora of examples from multiple genres. While the minimum for this essay is 3 examples, it would behoove your work and maturity of understanding to do more -- including one in the hook to provide the direction of your essay.

At this point, you have chosen your abstract noun and have begun the process of researching and prewriting. We will have all class on Tuesday to work on preparations for this essay. I am still working on the exact schedule for the remainder of the week, but it looks like the first draft for this essay will be due on Monday, March 6, for peer review. Stay tuned for the final dates. We will finish the exemplification essay prior to Spring Break.

As for the grammar angle, you have completed the first part of the review in which you tested your knowledge and determined the areas for future study. Review number two will arrive at the end of the hour on Tuesday, which you will complete for homework.

Team Essay Analysis

For the majority of class today, we provided feedback for your team sybaritic essay. Overall, common suggestions included stronger hooks - with imagery or example perhaps, expressive topic sentences, a plethora of specific examples, and appropriate concluding sentences.

For the remainder of class and for homework this weekend, utilize englishgrammar101.com and complete the first review handout. This is to test what you know at this moment and ascertain what you will need to study individually. If absent, request copy via e-mail.

Team Sybaritic

After our "circle" vocab quiz, you spent the rest of the hour in your teams constructing your sybaritic essay. At this point you should have shared your team essay with me so that our class will analyze your work tomorrow.

S, you will need to create a Google doc, brainstorm a list of examples for "sybaritic," select one of these examples for exemplification, and then write an introductory paragraph and one body paragraph.

And, since we have finished all of our grammar work -- which hopefully will pay off in dividends with your future essays - a Grammar Quest is coming next week. Prior to that moment, we will have 3 reviews to practice the rules and make sure you know what to study for the quest.

Prepositions & Team Sybaritic

For our first half of class, we first reviewed our vocab for the big quiz tomorrow. Congratulations to Logan for his prowess on the buzzers and his crowning as vocab champion this time around. Then, we worked with prepositions by identifying prepositional phrases in sentences, revising sentences so that we do not end with a preposition, and rephrasing sentences to avoid over-prepositioning in writing.

For the second half of class, we worked in teams to begin our team essay on "sybaritic" (yes, a vocabulary word on the quiz tomorrow). Thus far, the teams have brainstormed a lengthy list of examples, composed a thesis statement, determined the relevant examples, and ordered the range. For homework, you are to complete informal research on your specific example so that you may use that information during tomorrow's writing.

For our two absent ladies, you will need to complete the brainstorming portion for "sybaritic," coming up with as many examples as you can for that word. You will be working as a partnership tomorrow, and I will clarify the steps that you will need to do to catch up.

Prepositional Short Stories

After vocabulary and the sharing of your evil paragraphs (absentees will need to turn in a printed copy), we worked on prepositional phrases in a creative light by making prepositional short stories. Tomorrow, we will check out your stories and discuss the rules for prepositions in your writing.

Evil Preparations

In order to write our class essay on evil, you will need to do research on your evil subjects. Take notes on your person/group/abstract idea/miscellaneous example, and bring these in tomorrow with the sources of your notes. We will be reviewing how to transition evidence into your writing and how to cite your sources in writing. Then, you will be writing your evil exemplification paragraph.

Exemplfication

After our verbal quiz, we began work our next unit: exemplification. Using the broad topic of "student," we went step by step through brainstorming, selecting a theme/thesis, removing irrelevant examples, grouping examples, determining a range, and providing specific details. Tomorrow, we will construct a class "evil" essay using your brainstorm from today's class.

Semicolons and Colons

In order to vary your syntax - and correctly punctuate it - we looked at how semicolons and colons are used in sentences. Hopefully, this will aid your narrative final draft preparations as the the final draft deadline is 3 p.m. tomorrow.

Comma Day!

Class was all about the commas as we looked at what to do with a dependent-independent joining of clauses, 2 independent clauses with one of those FANBOYS, and transitional expressions. For homework, finish the last section of the handout.

We will go over semicolon and colon rules on Monday, and then you will have some work time on your narrative essay. Our next unit, beginning on Tuesday, will involve exemplification, a writing style that promotes the usage of your ethos on multiple subjects.

Narrative Peer Review

The entire hour was dedicated to working on the narrative draft and then peer editing your classmates' work. We will work on punctuation on Friday and Monday in order for you to have no mechanical distractions on your final draft, which has a deadline of Tuesday at 3:00 p.m. As we had 2 absentees today, I will have you peer review during class on Friday.

Adverbal

The first half of class was designated for your narrative writing. Remember, you will have a half hour in class tomorrow to complete your first draft prior to our class peer edit.

The second half of class featured three new vocabulary words and the focus on adverbs. If you missed class today, you did not have the opportunity to witness the theatrical performances of your classmates as they acted out behavior and movement using diverse adverbs. In any circumstance, note how you incorporate adverbs into your narrative to help create tone and action.

Your Narrative

1. The commencement of our new vocab unit, which began with 4 new words today.
2. The return of your descriptive writing essays, which were filled with imagery, figurative language, and engaging hooks.
3. The check of your narrative warm-ups and brief observations regarding which one would be best for your narrative.
4. The reading of 2 sample essays to provide 2 varying approaches to a narrative or college application essay.
5. The official assigning of the narrative essay, which will be either a game narrative, a future narrative, or a college ap/scholarship prompt.

The first draft of the narrative will be on a Google Doc and will be expected for class evaluation on Wednesday after lunch. That will give you a couple days plus a half hour to finish up your story.

Adjectives

With the vocab quiz completed, you now have 10 new words starting next week. We discussed hyphens and commas with adjectives, and then you were assigned narrative warm-up 3 for Monday's class.

Pronouns

After a heated vocab review on the buzzers (congrats, Morgan), we completed our dialogue exercise by crafting conversations between two of your assigned characters. Absentees, you will not have to make up this assignment.

Then, we discussed pronoun rules involving antecedent-pronoun agreement, possessive pronouns, and that who/whom placement. Currently on the board, we have all of the subjective and objective pronouns available to help remind you of their placement in sentences. To help us practice pronoun rules, you completed a handout on this subject. Absentees, I have this handout available tomorrow if you would like to stop by.

Last, you have a homework assignment. Complete Narrative Warm-Up 1 for Friday's class.