Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 6 (March 4)

 Greetings!

We had a full day in class this week.  Breaks are nice, but I like it when we're back together.

For our Quick Write today, the students had options that came from their own suggestions:  1) If you could teach anything, what would you teach and why? 2) What is your favorite Bible verse?  Why? 3)  Compare a friend or family member with a fictional character. and 4) Discuss the benefits/evils of video games.

Our Words of the Day came from Nina, Halle, and Rachel -- they were fun words today -- 

bombinate -- fr. Latin, bombitare, to hum -- to hum or buzz like a bee

aubade -- fr. French, auba, "dawn" -- a poem or piece of music appropriate to the dawn or early morning

fideism -- fr. Latin, fide, "faith" -- a doctrine that states that faith rather than reason is the means by which Christian truths are known

Between our beginning of class activities and instruction, we do a quick Homework Check.  Along with misc. worksheets and other homework, I handed back the final drafts of their Narrative Essays.  They did a wonderful job on this writing assignment.  During this time I also reminded them about my homework correcting practices -- I correct homework one day during the week before the next week's class.  All work that was handed in on time will get corrected, but if it was turned in late, it might not get corrected until the following week.

The students are on to their next writing assignment, which is either an Examples Essay or an Analogy Essay.  (There are some resources listed in the links below.)  We talked briefly about this writing assignment.  If students are still unclear about what they want to write, they should check the sites below.

For our literature portion of the class, we closed out our reading of The Thirty-Nine Steps.  Many people remarked that the ending was a bit unsatisfying.  With all of the build up about the race from the bad guys, the ending seemed abrupt.  Many students had ideas about what would have made it a better story.  

Our next reading selections come from a book of O. Henry Short Stories.  O. Henry is one of my favorite writers.  He tells a good story and often ends them with unexpected twists.  Our first two stories are "Gift of the Magi" and "After Twenty Years."  The students just need to read the stories, and we will discuss them next week.

For our Grammar lesson, we looked at two similar sentence structures:  N-LV-N and N-LV-Adj sentences.  Many times, when students think of verbs, they only think of action words. I have them a handout with a Venn diagram illustrating linking verbs, helping verbs, and state of being (to be) verbs.  We worked half way through the worksheets, and they should finish them for next week.

Have a great weekend!  The weather looks like it will be marvelous!!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:  

• Examples/Analogy  Pre-Write and Rough Draft

• Short Stories:  Read Gift of the Magi & After Twenty Years
  

• Wk6: Sentence Patterns (N-LV-Adj) 
  

• Wk6: Sentence Patterns (N-LV-N)

Links for This Week

Class Notes

O. Henry Short Stories (pdfs)

About the Example/Illustration Essay (including example essays from Writer's Resources)

How to Write an Examples Essay

How to Write an Analogy Essay

Examples of Analogies

Subject Complements & Predicate Adjectives

Subject Complements

Linking Verbs—such as be, appear, become, feel, grow, seem, smell, sound, and taste—always need a subject complement to complete their meaning in a sentence.

There are two kinds of complements: predicate nominatives (nouns that follow linking verbs) and predicate adjectives (adjectives that follow linking verbs).

            Predicate nominatives rename, identify, or refer to the subject of the sentence.

                        Those people are tourists. (predicate noun)

                        This magazine is mine. (predicate pronoun)

            Predicate adjectives modify the subject of a sentence.

                        The food is spicy. (predicate adjective)

           

            Predicate nominatives and predicate adjectives can be compound.

                        Those people are tourists and explorers.  (compound predicate nominative)

            The food is spicy and hot. (compound predicate adjective)

Exercise #3:  In the following sentences, underline the subject once and the verb twice.  Label S for Subject and V for Verb.  Circle the subject complements, labeling predicate nominatives PN and predicate adjectives PA.

Put all prepositional phrases between parentheses.

 1.      The author C. S. Lewis has been an amazing writer and teacher.

2.      The main characters in his books are two brothers and two sisters. 

3.      The central character is Aslan, a lion.

4.      Aslan is not at all tame.

5.      Lucy, the youngest sister, seems adventurous.

6.      The oldest brother seems at times bossy.

7.      Edmund is the younger brother.

8.      Mr. Tumnus, Lucy’s first friend in Narnia, is afraid of the White Witch.

9.      The Beavers are life savers for the Pevensy children.

10.  An empty wardrobe can be an amazing place.

Predicate Adjectives

Section A - Underline the predicate adjective in the following sentences. Hint: There are 20.

1. The trip was long, tiring and boring.

2. You are brilliant and strong.

3. The weather is frightening.

4. The boat was shiny, new and fast.

5. The bear is asleep in his cave.

Section B - Underline the linking verb in the following sentences:

1. His new car is Japanese.

2. That story was very funny.

3. Plane flights are often bumpy.

4. Our guest could be late.

5. Any donations will be appreciated.

Section C - Underline the predicate adjective and circle the subject it modifies in the following sentences:

1. We were afraid of the dark

2. The news was shocking and unbelievable.

3. Carol and Ginger were ecstatic.

4. As the storm approached, the clouds grew black.

5. Love can be unstoppable.

Section D - Write five sentences using these predicate adjectives and linking verbs. You do not have to use them all, but do not repeat one.

Predicate adjectives: distraught, concerned, remarkable, funny, sour, sweet, spoiled brilliant, squeaky, ageless

Linking verbs: sounds, appear, become, would be, can