As we may have noticed, we are in review mode for your big Mechanics Quest next week. At this point, you should have completed the first part of the review using englishgrammar101 and the checklist. If you did not have a flawless review, you will need to review and study the specific grammar and punctuation categories. For Friday's class, you will need to arrive with the second review completed. The plan is to go over this handout and then have a practice Quest next week before the real deal.
In addition, we will continue our exemplification unit by reading another brief essay during Friday's class.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Prepositional Cliffhangers!
The title of the blog makes our class sound dramatic! During class, we shared our prepositional short stories, which helped us learn about prepositions and the requirements of prepositional phrases.
Then, we discussed two sins in writing: ending a sentence with a preposition and over-prepositioning (my own term) in writing.
Whenever you notice a preposition at the end of the sentence, you will need to revise the word order and construction of that sentence. For example, "Mrs. Bennet had many grievances to relate, and much to complain of" comes from Jane Austen's pen. This could be rewritten as "Mrs. Bennet had many grievances and complaints to relate."
In addition, you may be the habit of using a great deal of prepositional phrases in your writing. The result = wordiness!
The balloon of blue from the circus floats across the sky with clouds.
The blue circus balloon floats across the cloudy sky.
As for exemplification, we practiced the relevancy, range, and specific aspects using the broad topic of "creativity." For homework, you are to take your assigned specific example and create a paragraph illustrating its creativity. If you were absent, you will need to pick a specific person, place, or object and write a paragraph illustrating how your selection reflects creativity.
Since we ran out of time on vocabulary, we will resume vocab experts tomorrow.
Then, we discussed two sins in writing: ending a sentence with a preposition and over-prepositioning (my own term) in writing.
Whenever you notice a preposition at the end of the sentence, you will need to revise the word order and construction of that sentence. For example, "Mrs. Bennet had many grievances to relate, and much to complain of" comes from Jane Austen's pen. This could be rewritten as "Mrs. Bennet had many grievances and complaints to relate."
In addition, you may be the habit of using a great deal of prepositional phrases in your writing. The result = wordiness!
The balloon of blue from the circus floats across the sky with clouds.
The blue circus balloon floats across the cloudy sky.
As for exemplification, we practiced the relevancy, range, and specific aspects using the broad topic of "creativity." For homework, you are to take your assigned specific example and create a paragraph illustrating its creativity. If you were absent, you will need to pick a specific person, place, or object and write a paragraph illustrating how your selection reflects creativity.
Since we ran out of time on vocabulary, we will resume vocab experts tomorrow.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Exemplifying Prepositional Phrases
After learning four new vocabulary words (catharsis, kudos, risible, estrange), we began our exemplification unit. Exemplification is exactly how it sounds -- a writing style that emphasizes examples. For instance, we brainstormed all the related words and emotions of this general topic: students. Next, we picked "bad decisions" as a theme to clarify a direction to our exemplification. Then, comes the three qualities of exemplification writing: relevancy, range, and specificity. First, relevancy involves selecting the items on the brainstorm that connect with the theme and ditching all the items that do not fit. You can then group the items into usable categories such as social, educational, and emotional for our student examples. Second, range connects to organization of examples. Do you want a chronological order, a least important to most important order, etc. For today, we decided to organize socially then emotionally then educationally. Last, specificity involves taking a vague idea (lunchroom bad decisions) and making these into memorable, specific, image-filled examples (starting a fight over spilled peas). To further instill the exemplification ideas, we read "Be Specific," a short essay detailing the necessity of specific names and information for all objects -- whether it be flower, cheese, or person.
For the creative portion of our show, we reviewed prepositions and prepositional phrases. Remember, a preposition exists in a prepositional phrase. The phrase begins with a prepositional and ends with an object. You can have modifiers to describe the object, but there are no verbs in a prepositional phrases.
With a partner, you drew four random prepositions and created a story in prepositional phrases. Tomorrow, we will start by turning this story into a visualization via construction paper. Ideally, this will help all of us improve with recognizing prepositional phrases -- whether you are a squirrel in a tree, a girl in a bed of spiders, or a high school student asleep on the bus.
See you tomorrow for more exemplifying and prepositional fun!
For the creative portion of our show, we reviewed prepositions and prepositional phrases. Remember, a preposition exists in a prepositional phrase. The phrase begins with a prepositional and ends with an object. You can have modifiers to describe the object, but there are no verbs in a prepositional phrases.
With a partner, you drew four random prepositions and created a story in prepositional phrases. Tomorrow, we will start by turning this story into a visualization via construction paper. Ideally, this will help all of us improve with recognizing prepositional phrases -- whether you are a squirrel in a tree, a girl in a bed of spiders, or a high school student asleep on the bus.
See you tomorrow for more exemplifying and prepositional fun!
Friday, September 18, 2015
Narrative Edit Day
What you learned today:
The narrative essay will be evaluated on 4 areas: idea, organization, voice, and conventions. With the idea, you need a true story with imagery, characters, optional dialogue, and theme. With organization, you need a memorable title, an introduction with a attention-getting hook, sound body paragraphs, transitions between ideas, and a strong conclusion. With voice, pay attention to your word choice by including specific, mature language and active verbs, your originality of expression, and your non-usage of contractions and second person. With conventions, MLA format does matter as well as mechanical conventions.
The final draft is due by 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday.
What I learned today:
Your class is quite competitive and likes the buzzer system. I guess we will have to use that for future vocabulary reviews!
Happy Homecoming!
The narrative essay will be evaluated on 4 areas: idea, organization, voice, and conventions. With the idea, you need a true story with imagery, characters, optional dialogue, and theme. With organization, you need a memorable title, an introduction with a attention-getting hook, sound body paragraphs, transitions between ideas, and a strong conclusion. With voice, pay attention to your word choice by including specific, mature language and active verbs, your originality of expression, and your non-usage of contractions and second person. With conventions, MLA format does matter as well as mechanical conventions.
The final draft is due by 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday.
What I learned today:
Your class is quite competitive and likes the buzzer system. I guess we will have to use that for future vocabulary reviews!
Happy Homecoming!
Thursday, September 17, 2015
Conjunctions & Punctuation
Wednesday was punctuation in Advanced Comp. We practiced punctuation rules regarding dependent and independent clauses, transitional expressions, semicolons, and colons. For homework, you need to finish the highlighting activity, which we will discuss on Friday.
As you now know these punctuation rules, your narrative first drafts, which are due at the beginning of the hour on Friday, should have less distractions. Remember, read your essays out loud to catch your mistakes or needed punctuation.
By the way, if you are serious about a t-shirt for the class, submit designs to me.
As you now know these punctuation rules, your narrative first drafts, which are due at the beginning of the hour on Friday, should have less distractions. Remember, read your essays out loud to catch your mistakes or needed punctuation.
By the way, if you are serious about a t-shirt for the class, submit designs to me.
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
Sample Day
Today's class featured vocab quiz 3 and the assignment of the first 11 words in unit 4. Then, we heard sample narratives from various writing levels: sophomore, junior, and collegiate. Last, we reviewed the difference between independent and dependent clauses in preparation for conjunction and punctuation rules.
Narrative first drafts, whether in hard copy or digital form, must be available at the start of Friday's class for peer and teacher evaluation.
Narrative first drafts, whether in hard copy or digital form, must be available at the start of Friday's class for peer and teacher evaluation.
Monday, September 14, 2015
Narrative Assignment
On our docket today was vocabulary review (Quiz 3 tomorrow), "Porkopolis" college application essay, narrative essay assignment, and narrative warm-ups. When you enter class tomorrow, make sure you know what option you would like to explore in your narrative essay. We will have previous student samples to give you further examples of narrative subjects and characterization. Remember, you will need the first draft of your narrative essay on Friday for peer review and teacher evaluation.
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