After finishing the last review and practice of grammar, we started our next exemplification activity. Today's abstract noun is evil. During class, we started the process by brainstorming anything and everything that is evil. Then, each of you selected one example to use for further research.
In class tomorrow, we will work more with evil and review how to create citations in writing. the exemplification component will be the first half hour prior to lunch. We may work on this as well on Friday. Then, you will have the GRAMMAR QUEST post-lunch. Make sure to study all your rules, check out englishgrammar101.com and chompchomp.com for more practice.
Tuesday, September 29, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
Nearing the Quest
These blogs have been fairly short for your class as we have spent the last few days winding down Grammar Boot Camp and preparing for the Quest on Wednesday.
Without much ado...
1. Vocab Quiz 4. If you were absent, you will need to make up the quiz by Friday.
2. Grammar Review Part II. We identified the parts of speech, and I gave you tips to help you recognize different parts of speech. For instance, start by identifying nouns in the sentence. Then, go in this order: pronouns, verbs & infinitives, adjectives & adverbs, conjunctions & prepositions.
3. As individuals and then in small groups, you completed a practice Quest. We will go over the answers tomorrow.
Without much ado...
1. Vocab Quiz 4. If you were absent, you will need to make up the quiz by Friday.
2. Grammar Review Part II. We identified the parts of speech, and I gave you tips to help you recognize different parts of speech. For instance, start by identifying nouns in the sentence. Then, go in this order: pronouns, verbs & infinitives, adjectives & adverbs, conjunctions & prepositions.
3. As individuals and then in small groups, you completed a practice Quest. We will go over the answers tomorrow.
Friday, September 25, 2015
Review Part II
During class, we will be analyzing "The Catbird Seat," an exemplification essay, for its theme, purpose, specific examples, relevancy, and range. Next week, we will return to writing by creating a practice exemplification on an abstract noun-- I promise this one will have more options for you than "creativity" -- and eventually your own exemplification essay. The second part of class revolved around Grammar Review Part II, the sequel. If you are struggling with any sections, utilize practice exercises on englishgrammar101.com and chompchomp.com.
Don't forget the Vocab Quiz on Monday -- it will cover the 11 words from Unit 4 and, of course, feature return words from the previous units.
Don't forget the Vocab Quiz on Monday -- it will cover the 11 words from Unit 4 and, of course, feature return words from the previous units.
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Review
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.
In addition, we will continue our exemplification unit by reading another brief essay during Friday's class.
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!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)