Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 9 (Oct. 24)

Greetings!

As with every week, I have a full agenda for our class period.  We started with a Quick Write, which was inspired by the fact that Oct. 24 is the 158th anniversary of the 1st transcontinental telegraph from Justice Stephen Field in California to President Lincoln in Washington, D. C.  I asked the students to list as many ways of communicating that they could think of, and we filled the board with our responses. 

Our Words of the Day were again unusual words.  Some could be decoded because they had familiar word stems, but for the others the students came up with creative definitions:

biblioklept -- fr. Greek, biblio, book; kleptes, thief -- someone who steals books

acnestis -- fr. Greek, knestis, spine -- the part of an animal's skin between the shoulder blades that it usually cannot reach.

octothorpe -- the symbol (#).  Note:  The origin of the word is disputed.  Some say it was a practical joke, and others say that it was named by Bell Laboratories to be used in telephone computing language and was named for the 8 legs of the symbol and for James Thorpe whom the originator admired.  

augend & addend -- fr. Latin augendum. to augment; addendus, to be added -- these numbers refer to numbers in an addition equation.  The first is the augend, and the second is the addend.

Students received their final drafts of the Process Essays and handed in their pre-writes and rough drafts of their Classification or Extended Definintion Essays.  I will go over these and hand them back next week for them to revise.

We had a great discussion about the end of our book, My Antonia.  I started by giving them some talking stems so that they could do the work of moving the conversation along without my direct involvement.  I have found that most students (and most adults, for that matter) need help in having productive discussions on academic topics.  They did a wonderful job, and we closed our work with this book with some thoughtful insights.  For the remainder of the semester, we will be reading selections from the prairie genre of literature.  Their assignment for next week is to read a portion of the first chapter of O. E. Rolvaag's Giants of the Earth and to highlight landscape descriptions that help set the tone or that are significant to the story.  They should also be working on their book projects.

We spent a considerable amount of time this week in Grammar discussion.  Most of the class did not do well on the worksheets relating to sentence patterns.  I did not do any pre-teaching of this topic, so it gave me a clearer picture of what the students know and don't know.  I told them that if they can show me that they understand this material, I will remove that low score.  With that incentive, they were pretty engaged as we talked about subjects, predicates, linking verbs, action verbs, predicate nouns, predicate adjectives, direct objects, and indirect objects.  I had intended for them to work together on the grammar assignment, but we ran out of time.  That assignment is at the bottom of this email.

Note:  For a review of the grammar discussion, read the Rocketbook Notes that Alyse took and that are attached below.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- My Antonia Final Exam

-- Ready excerpt from Giants in the Earth, highlighting landscape descriptions that help set the tone or that are significant to the story

-- Grammar Assignment

Links for This Week

Class Notes

SENTENCE PATTERNS WORK (on the blog)

SENTENCE PATTERNS WORK (on Google Docs)

Accountable Talk Discussion Stems

10-24 Student Notes

Giants in the Earth (on Google Docs)

Giants in the Earth (on the blog)

Have a great weekend!  Enjoy the weather before it turns cold!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Sentence Patterns Work

Sentence Patterns Work

On a separate sheet of paper, write the following types of sentences.

• Write 4 N-LV-N  sentences (also known as S-LV-PN)  
• Write 4 N-LV-Adj sentences (also known as S-LV-PAdj)
• Write 4 N-V-N sentences (also known as S-V-DO)
• Write 4 N-V-N-N sentences (also known as S-V-IO-DO)

EXTRA CREDIT:

Write compound sentences that follow these patterns:

• N-LV-N, and N-LV-N.
• N-LV-Adj, but N-V-N

Write a complex sentence that follows this pattern:

• Because N-V-N, N-LV-Adj

Writing 2 Class Notes -- Week 7 (Oct. 10)

Greetings!

Our Quick Write for today was this prompt:  If you could learn anything from anyone, what would it be and from whom would it be?  The purpose of this prompt was to cause students to look inward, forward, and outward. In life, it helps when we can identify what we want to learn for the sake of our futures; then we need to engage in the world around us to find mentors and teachers.  They shared both practical ideas and more abstract, personal growth ideas.

We did not have any Words of the Day this week.

This week the class handed in their final drafts of their Process Essays, along with their rough drafts, so it was time to assign another essay.  This time, they can choose to write either a Classification Essay or an Extended Definition Essay.  We took time to discuss what each of these essays would look like, how to choose a topic, and how to organize these types of essays.  If a student wants to, he/she can write 2 essays and get extra credit for the second one.  Most students won't need that much extra credit for a good grade, but they might want the extra essay-writing practice. 

During our discussion of the essay, I also explained the new stage of the writing process that we will be using for this and the rest of our essays.  In addition to a rough draft and final draft, students are to do a Pre-Write for their essays.  This can look like a mind map or an outline, and the goal of a pre-write is to facilitate brainstorming and organizing. (Here is a link with a picture of a mind map.)  This will give them an extra week to plan, research, and organize their essays.   (In fact, for this essay, they have the extra week of fall break.)

For the Literature Discussion about our book, My Antonia, the students broke into small groups to discuss 2 questions about our current reading assignment:  How were Lena and Antonia different from one another? and Why did Cather devote a large portion of the book to this "secondary" character?  As a circulated through the classroom I heard some good, insightful comments.  

Many students have already handed in their proposals for their My Antonia Book Project, but those who haven't need to hand them in next week (Oct. 10)  We will start presentations on Nov. 14.

We did not have any direct Grammar instruction, but I gave the students some work to do related to sentence patterns.  Their work will tell me how much instruction on this topic will be needed. 

A note about My GradeBook:  I worked with a couple of students and discovered that they were putting the class code where the password should go.  If you are having difficulties, remember that the temporary user name (until you change the primary log in) is the class code, and your student's first name and last initial (unless I've had to change it for you) is the password.  

You'll also find a link at the end of this email to a new feature of the class -- Student Notes (Rocketbook).  Every week I will have a student take notes, especially those elements that are written on the board.   

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read pages 141 - 153

-- 3 Reader Responses

-- 5 Vocabulary Words

-- Pre-Write for Extended Definition Essay OR Classification Essay

-- Sentence Patterns Practice Worksheet (Mr. Jackson)

-- Sentence Patterns Practice Worksheet (Three of my friends)

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Student Notes (Rocketbook)

Mind Map Image

My Antonia Proposal

My Antonia Final Project

Sentence Patterns Practice (Three of my friends)

Six Basic Sentence Patterns

Sentence Patterns Practice (Mr. Jackson)

Have a great weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Sentence Patterns Practice (Mr. Jackson)

SENTENCE PATTERNS PRACTICE

N-LV-N, N-LV-Adj, N-V-N

N-LV-N and N-LV-Adj Practice

In each of the sentences below

Underline the subject and label it “S”

Underline the linking verb twice and label it “LV”

Underline the predicate noun and label it “PN”

Underline the predicate adjective and label it “PAdj”

Note:  A sentence will have either a predicate noun or a predicate adjective, but not both.  Don’t mistake adjectives that modify predicate nouns as predicate adjectives.

1. Mr. Jackson is a librarian at Smith County Library.
2. He is very patient, especially with young children.
3. He is also a source of great stories.
4. The children seem appreciative of his help.
5. This red sweater is the one from the store.
6. It feels soft and cozy.
7. The squirrels in the yard seem tame.
8. The lake looks very calm in the moonlight.
9. The book on sale is A Tale of Two Cities.
10. He will be a member of the band this year.

N-V-N (N-V-DO) and N-V-N-N (N-V-IO-DO) Practice

In each of the sentences below

Underline the subject and label it “S”

Underline the linking verb twice and label it “LV”

Underline the direct object and label it “DO”

Underline the indirect object and label it “IO”

1. Our dog chased a squirrel out of the yard.
2. Janet likes carrot juice with her lunch.
3. Mark Twain published many books in his lifetime.
4. Our family ate dinner at the new restaurant.
5. Aunt Betty baked Uncle George a huge cake last year.
6. I brought five DVDs to my cousin’s house.
7. James Bond drove an Aston Martin.
8. Jacques is delivering newspapers to his neighbors.
9. We saw the Northern Lights in the sky.
10. Peter gave me a baseball, a bat, and a jersey for my birthday.

Six Basic Sentence Patterns

SIX BASIC SENTENCE PATTERNS

There are six basic sentence structures in the English language.

1. Subject-Verb

Examples:

• The boy plays.
• Jack eats.
• Sara sits.

2. Subject-Verb-Direct Object

Examples:

• The girl pets the cat.
• I love apples.
• Bill kicks the ball.

3. Subject-Verb-Indirect Object-Direct Object

Examples:

• The girl bakes her mother a cake.
• I bought Frank a book.
• Cindy gave me a present.

4. Subject-Linking Verb-Adjective

Examples:

• Lisa is pretty.
• They are nice.
• I am sad.

5. Subject-Linking Verb-Noun

Examples:

• I am the teacher.
• Jon is a carpenter.
• The boy is a student.

6. Subject-Verb-Adverb

Examples:

• Maria laughs loudly.
• The dog jumps high.
• Apples are everywhere.

Expanding Sentences

The examples above are basic sentences. Basic sentences can be expanded, or lengthened, by adding adjectives, adverbs and objects.

1. Subject-Verb

• Jack eats.
  This is the basic subject-verb pattern.
• Jack quickly eats.
  An adverb is added (quickly) to tell how Jack eats.  
   
• Jack quickly eats carrots.
  An object is added (carrots) to tell what Jack eats.
• Jack quickly eats carrots at home.
  Another adverb is added (at home) to tell where Jack eats.
• Jack quickly eats fresh carrots at home.
  An adjective is added (fresh) to tell what kind of carrots Jack eats.

2. Subject-Verb-Direct Object

• Bill kicks the ball.        
  This is a basic subject-verb-object pattern.
• Bill kicks the red ball.
  An adjective is added (red) to tell the color of the ball.
• Bill kicks the red ball hard.
  An adverb is added (hard) to tell how Bill kicks the ball.
• Bill kicks the red ball hard every day.
  Another adverb is added (every day) to tell when Bill kicks the ball.
• 
  

3. Subject-Verb-Indirect Object-Direct Object

• The girl baked her mother a cake        
  This is a basic subject-verb-object pattern.
• The girl baked her mother a chocolate cake.
  An adjective is added (chocolate) to tell the kind of cake..
• The girl skillfully baked her mother a cake.
  An adverb is added (skillfully) to tell how the girl bakes the cake..
• The girl baked her mother a cake yesterday.
  Another adverb is added (today) to tell when the girl bakes the cake

4. Subject-Linking Verb-Adjective

• She looks pretty.
  This is the basic subject-verb-adjective pattern.
• She looks pretty tonight.
  An adverb is added (tonight) to tell when she looks pretty.
• Lisa looks pretty tonight.
  The subject is identified with a name (Lisa).
• 
  

5. Subject-Linking Verb-Noun

• The boy is a student.
  This is the basic subject-verb-noun sentence pattern.
• Jon is a student. 
  The subject is identified with a name (Jon).
• Jon is a smart student.
  An adjective is added (smart) to tell what kind of student Jon is.
• Jon is a smart student at school.
  An adverb is added (at school) to tell where Jon is a smart student.

6. Subject-Verb-Adverb

• Apples are everywhere.
  This is the basic subject-verb-adverb pattern.

• Green apples are everywhere.
  An adjective is added (green) to describe the apples.

• Ripe, green apples are everywhere. 
  A series of adjectives are added (ripe and green) to describe the apples.

• Children sing happily.
  The subject-verb-adverb pattern can also use action verbs.

• Children sing happily today.
  Additional adverbs may be added to inform when.

• Children in the choir sing happily today.. 
  Prepositional phrases may be added to explain which children.

Sentence Patterns Practice (Three of my friends)

Sentence Patterns Practice

For each sentence: 

Underline the subject once and label it with “S;” 

Underline the verb twice and label it “V;” 

Circle the predicate complement, i.e. the Direct Object, the Indirect Object, the Predicate Noun, or the Predicate Adjective

Label the predicate complement.  (DO for direct object, IO for indirect object, PN for predicate noun, PA for predicate adjective).

1. Three of my friends formed a band.
2. The weather was calm and peaceful.
3. Max drinks soda with his lunch.
4. My dog is smelly after his encounter with the skunk. 
5. Our guest is the senator from Maine.
6. Dad washed his car at the gas stations.
7. I bought the whole class some candy.
8. Callie seems the best candidate for the class representative position.
9. Cindy baked the elderly twelve dozen cookies.
10. We use expensive pots and pans in the restaurant kitchen.
11. Uncle Fred told the children stories from his time in the army.
12. Sue, send me an e-mail about that meeting.
13. John Glenn was a pilot, an astronaut, and a senator.
14. Mr. Johnson appears distracted by the TVs at the restaurant.
15. This unpredictable weather is crazy.