Greetings!
We
had a productive class
yesterday. Even if they occasionally need to redirect their attention
to the tasks at hand, they're a wonderfully collegial group.
Our Quick Write
was in recognition of National Popcorn Day that was on January 19. I
had the students write about either their favorite salty snacks or
something popcorn-related.
Our Words of the Day were the following Latin roots:
amo/ami -- fr. Latin "to love" -- derivatives: amiable, amicable, amorous, enamored
aqua -- fr. Latin "water" -- derivatives: aquarium, aqueous, aqueduct, aquifer, aquamarine
audi -- fr. Latin "to hear" -- derivatives: audiotape, auditory, auditorium, audiophile
Following
these beginning of class activities, we quickly discussed the progress
on their first writing assignment for the semester. This first writing assignment
is a Mystery Story. Diverging from the essay format, some
students are finding this easy while others find it more challenging.
Coming up with a good idea seems to be the hardest part. However, I
have great faith in them, The Pre-Write was to be done this week, and
the Rough Draft is due next week.
The next order of business for our class was our Grammar discussion.
I went over again the elements of a sentences. In order to know where
you put the comma for a complex, compound, or a compound-complex
sentence, you
need to understand what independent and dependent clauses are. And you
need to know what subordinating conjunctions and coordinating
conjunctions are. You see, learning where to put commas also involves
learning a lot of other bits of grammar.
The next comma rule deals with the comma used in lists.
This is often called the series comma, the serial comma, the Oxford
comma, and the Harvard comma. The Oxford, etc. comma is the final comma
that is inserted before the conjunction and the last word of a list.
Take this sentence, for example: I like to eat cookies, brownies, cake,
and pie. The comma between the words "cake" and "and" is considered
the serial or Oxford comma. Students have a worksheet to go with this
lesson. By the way, the syllabus has this week's lesson as
"Introductory Elements;" I switched it for something a little simpler
since I considered the previous lesson a little more challenging.
Our discussion about the Sherlock Holmes stories centered on the
character development of Holmes and descriptions of his personality and
abilities. We also discussed the partnership between Holmes and
Watson.
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" and "The Engineer's Thumb."
-- Answer 4 questions for one of the two stories
-- Complete the Series Comma Worksheet
-- Rough Draft of the Mystery Story
--
EXTRA CREDIT -- Bring to class an article about the Oxford comma.
Extra points if you bring an article that discourages/disapproves of
this comma.
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