Grammar Videos for Week 5

Sometimes a teacher could use a little help from other teachers.  Part of next week's assignment includes watching some videos.  I've found some good, short, and to-the-point instructional videos that can help with our grammar and writing instruction.  Below are the video options:
 
Conjunctions & Interjections
Conjunctions #1
Conjunctions #2
Interjections
Coordinating Conjunctions/Comma Splices

Verbs and Tenses
Verb Overview
Troublesome verbs
Simple verbs
 

WEEK 6 – Verbs: Tense, 4 Principle Parts

WEEK 6 – Verbs:  Tense, 4 Principle Parts

TENSE

Tense means “time” and refers to the time shown by the verb.  In addition to past, present, and future, but verb tenses also include past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect.

–   Present tense:  This verb implies habitual action, action that occurs over a period of time, and tells the reader that the subject may have done this in the past and may continue to do it in the future.  It is used to show action happening now, action that happens as a regular occurrence, action that is historical, and action that indicates the future.

            Examples:

                        Jackson runs a fishing business in Florida. (action happening now)

                        Bill Woods is traveling to Argentina.  (action happening now)

                        Steve visits Ireland very six months.  (action as a regular occurrence)

                        Babe Ruth strides to the plate.  (historical present)

                        The weather man said it is going to rain.  (present tense for the future)

                       

–   Past tense:  The action is completed, over, done with, and completed.  Use of the past tense implies that perhaps the action will not occur again.

            Examples:        

                        Doug once caught a Yellow-fin tuna.

                        My uncle fought in World War II.

–   Future tense:  This verb indicates later time but also implies a continuance or an extension.  The action has not happened yet but some time later it will.

            Examples:        

                        Hugh will never forgive me for being a better fisherman.

                        The Smiths will start a college fund for their daughter.

                        I will bake a pie for dinner.

                       

–   Present perfect:  This verb shows a completed action begun in the past extending to the present time.  The writer implies that he has done something and will continue to do it.  It also implies time that is continuous or sporadic but that happens many times.

            Examples:

                        I have attended CHAT for 3 years.

Because of his musical passions, James has practiced daily for the last twelve years.

Joe Clark has opened another store in the area.

You have missed your chance to go to the concert.

–   Past perfect tense:    A verb in past perfect tense shows a completed action just as the simple past does; however, the past perfect also places this completed action before some other past action that occurred later.  Both are completed actions: one happened before the other.

            Examples:        

Sally had had many opportunities to make a lot of money but preferred live a simple life.

My mother complained that I had not cleaned my room.

Before he consulted a doctor, Mr. Brown had experienced only minor chest pains.

Authors sometimes use the past perfect to guide the reader into a flashback, a literary device to recall past events even thought the story is now in the present.  Once in the past, the past perfect may be abandoned for the simple past tense.

–   Future perfect:  This verb indicates a time in the future completed before some other completed time in the future.  Future perfect, showing action that has not taken place, can also be expressed by the simple future, consequently, may writers don’t use the future perfect.

            Examples:        

President Clinton will have written twelve books by the time he is seventy years old.

By Memorial Day, Fort McHenry will have hosted several thousand visitors.

Melissa will have attended eighteen concerts by Christmas time.

           

Note:  For the sake of this section, a short review of verb tenses will be helpful.

Infinitive	to fight	to cook	to sing	to write
Present	fight	cook	sing	write
Past	fought	cooked	sang	wrote
Future	will fight	will cook	will sing	will write
Present perfect	has fought	has cooked	has sung	has written
Past perfect	had fought	had cooked	had sung	had written
Future perfect	will have fought	will have cooked	will have sung	will have written
Progressive	is/are fighting	is/are cooking	is/are singing	is/are writing

4 PRINICIPLE PARTS

Every verb in English is composed of 4 principle parts:

            Present stem:  for forming the present and future tenses

            Past tense

            Past participle:  for forming the perfect tenses

            Present participle:  for forming the progressive mood

Examples

Present Stem	Past Tense	Past Participle	Present Participle
bring	brought	brought	bringing
sing	sang	sung	singing
dive	dived or dove	dived or dove	diving
run	ran	run	running
hang	hung (a picture)	hung	hanging
hang	hanged (a person)	hung	hanging
cast	cast	cast	casting

WEEK 5 – Parts of Speech: Conjunction & Interjection

WEEK 5 – Parts of Speech:  Conjunction & Interjection

CONJUNCTION

Conjunction:  A conjunction is a word or words used to join other words, phrases, or clauses.

            Joining words:  apples and pears, dogs or cats

            Joining phrases:  on the top and on the bottom; hitting the books and sleeping eight hours

Coordinating conjunctions:  and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet (or “fanboys”)

Correlative conjunctions:  These pairings of words join two or more words with words, phrases with phrases, and clauses with clauses

            either … or;

            neither … nor;

            not only … but also; 

            both … and;

            whether … or

Adverbial conjunctions join subordinate clauses with main clauses

            Examples:  although, if, because, since

Generally, conjunctions appear within the sentence.  On rare occasions, a conjunction may begin a sentence or paragraph.

INTERJECTION

Interjection:  An interjection is a word or group of words expressing emotion or feeling, however slight.  Also, this part of speech doesn’t fit into any of the other categories of the parts of speech.

Examples:         Well, I don’t think so.

                        Marvelous! You have done an incredible job.

                        Oh no.  This is terrible.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- September 26

Greetings!

We had a good class this week.  For our Quick Write, the students wrote 5 alliterative sentences.  We had short and long sentences in which the students used words that began with the same beginning sounds. I also drew a tree with an apple on the ground telling that that it was a clue about a significant event of the day.  A couple had an idea that it was connected to Johnny Appleseed.  In fact, September 26 was Johnny Chapman's birthday.

I handed back their final copies of their Observation Essays.  I grade the the papers in three areas:  mechanics, organization, and content.  The total possible score for the paper is 30 points (10 points for each section).  I tend to be an easy grader; it's hard to evaluate a student's skill, effort, and improvement.  Over the course of the year, I am looking for each student to improve in all three areas of mechanics, organization, and content.  I especially look for corrections made from suggestions and comments made on the rough draft.

During the Grammar portion of our class we finished our discussion of the 8 parts of speech with the last two components:  conjunctions and interjections.  I gave the students handouts for this week and for next week.

Part of next week's assignment includes watching some videos.  I've found some good, short, and to-the-point instructional videos that can help with our grammar and writing instruction.  Below are the video options:
Conjunctions & Interjections
Conjunctions #1
Conjunctions #2
Interjections
Coordinating Conjunctions/Comma Splices

Verbs and Tenses
Verb Overview
Troublesome verbs
Simple verbs

I enjoyed our discussion of Animal Farm this week.  The students are doing a wonderful job of looking for deeper meanings and making connections.  We especially looked at the strategies used to manipulate and induce fear by those ambitious to be in power.

Next Week's Assignments:
-- Read Chapters VII and VIII.
-- Choose 3 questions from the Discussion and Short Answer options for this section.  Write your answers to these questions.
-- Watch 1 Grammar video about Conjunctions and Interjections.  Write 3 things you learned from this video.
-- Watch 1 Grammar video about Verbs.  Write 3 things you learned from this video.

The weather has been spectacular.  Enjoy!
Mrs. Prichard

Class Notes -- September 19

Ahoy Mateys!

As many of you may have heard, yesterday was "Talk like a Pirate Day," and we had a Quick Write along those lines.  We had some conversation about common pirate vocabulary:  Ahoy, Avast, Aye, Aye! Landlubbers, Jolly Roger, Buccaneer, Crow's Nest.  I borrowed Mrs. Nelson's son's pirate coat and hat for the occasion. 

The students handed in their first Final Copies for this class.  I look forward to reading them. Since we only meet once a week, the turn around on papers has to be pretty quick, so they are already starting on the next assignment.  This week they are to be writing the rough draft of a Personal Essay.  They have a handout explaining this essay but should feel free to contact me if they have problems with this essay.  We spent a good deal of time discussing how to come up with a thesis.  Sometimes this is the hardest part in writing an essay.

For our Grammar discussion, we looked briefly at 3 parts of speech:  adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions.  Grammar is not very exciting, but it's an essential aspect of being a good writer.

We took a longer time to talk about our literature, Animal Farm.  They've done some careful reading and shared some insightful comments.  Orwell did a fascinating job of using a farm and simple animals to illustrate some complex social and political ideas.

Assignment for next week:

-- Read Ch. IV and V of Animal Farm

-- Read the Study Questions in order to be prepared for the discussion.

-- Write the rough draft of your Personal Essay

-- Extra Credit:  Watch any of the videos from last week and list 3 things you learned

Enjoy this beautiful Fall weather!

Mrs. Prichard

WEEK 3 Suggested Videos

Greetings!

Below are links to some grammar videos that might be enjoyable and definitely helpful.  We did not have time for a full discussion of nouns in class, and some students may appreciated the aid of these videos.

Countable & Uncountable Nouns
Schoolhouse Rock:  Nouns
What is a Noun
What is a Pronoun
Pronouns
Countable Nouns
Pronouns, again
Relative Pronouns

Hope these are helpful!
Mrs. Prichard

WEEK 3 -- Nouns and Pronouns

Week 3 – Parts of Speech:  Noun

Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, idea, or quality.

Categories for nouns:

 Common

Proper

Compound

Collective

As adverbs

Concrete

Abstract

Countable

Non-countable

Verbal nouns (gerunds)

Nouns fill the following places in sentences: 

Subject

Direct object

Indirect object

Object of a preposition

Predicate Noun

Pronouns

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.  An antecedent is a word or group of words to which a pronoun refers.  If the antecedent is singular, the pronoun must be singular.  If the antecedent is plural, then the pronoun must be plural.

           

Various types of pronouns

Personal

            Subjective case

            Objective case

            Possessive case

Reflexive or intensive

Demonstrative

Relative

Interrogative

Extended

Indefinite

Writing 1 Class Notes -- September 12

Greetings!

We started our class today with a Western Quick Write.  Last week my town Northfield celebrated the Defeat of Jesse James, and I thought I would extend the theme to my class.  I did my best to put on a cowboy/western accent.  The students can be the judge regarding how well I did.

We spent the bulk of our time discussing grammar and writing issues that came up in their Rough Drafts.  I find that you can teach a lot of grammar rules, but it isn't until a student does his own writing that the rules start to make sense.  If your students are having any problems or don't understand my comments, please have them contact me.  For first essays, the students have done wonderful jobs.

As the students work on their rough drafts preparing them as Final Copies, they should pay special attention to the marks and comments that I've made.  I'd like them to hand in both the rough drafts and final copies together.

Because we spent so much time on the rough drafts, I didn't cover the other materials from the Grammar Plan.  I sent home a worksheet about nouns.  They are to give 2 examples for the types of nouns listed with the exception of "nouns as adverbs" and "verbal nouns/gerunds."  We'll discuss those next week.

The students were assigned chapters I and II of Animal Farm which we discussed this morning.  The Introduction and Preface, assigned for last week, were more challenging to read because they written as historical and critical analysis.  It felt good to get into the real text of the story.  The first chapter introduces the major characters and sets up the details for the animal revolt.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Final Copy of Observation Report.
-- Fill out the Noun's section of the grammar worksheet.
-- Read Chapter's II & IV of Animal Farm and be prepared to discuss the questions on the study guide.
-- Extra Credit:  bring to class some information about the "Oxford Comma."
-- Extra Credit:  Watch one of the videos (message with links in another e-mail) and list 3 new grammar details that you learned.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

Elephant Stew

Elephant Stew

     1 elephant (medium size)

     Salt and pepper

     Brown gravy

     2 rabbits

           

Cut the elephant into bite size pieces (this should take about 2 months).  Add the brown gravy and cook over kerosene fire about 4 weeks at 465 degrees.

This will serve 3800 people.  If more are expected, 2 rabbits may be added, but do this only if necessary, as most people do not like to find hare in their stew.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- September 5

Greetings!

We had a good second class.  I'm enjoying getting to know the students.  Our Quick Write was food related.  The students could choose one of two options:  1) Write about your favorite meal; 2) Come up with a recipe for "Elephant Stew."  Usually I have the students write for 5 - 7 minutes.  I also include Vocabulary Builders from time to time.  This week we had the words "masticate" (to grind or crush with teeth for swallowing), "gastronomical" (good eating, culinary culture), and "repast" (a meal).  When I introduce words, I also like to look at the roots of words and other related words.  One of my goals for the class is to expand their vocabulary.

We discussed the rough drafts for the Observation Reports.  It was not necessary that these essays have thesis statements, but we discussed how a thesis statement is a sentence about your topic in which you take a stand or express an opinion.  The students handed in the rough drafts, and I will go over them and hand them back next week.  I gave them advance notice that they should expect to find lots of red marks and comments.

We didn't take time to discuss much Grammar today.  According to my plan, we were to briefly discuss verbs as one of the parts of speech.  Next week we'll discuss verbs, nouns, and pronouns.

We took a longer portion of the class to discuss our book, Animal Farm by George Orwell.  The students were to read the Preface and Introduction which are more difficult reading than the rest of the book.  We discussed how we might experience the book as a fairy tale (the subtitle) and the background political ideas of capitalism, socialism, and communism. 

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Chapters 1 & 2 of Animal Farm
-- from the Animal Farm Study Guide:
     -- Choose one question from the Discussion section and write out the answer.
     -- Choose one question from the Short Writing Exercises and write out the answer.

Have a great week and enjoy the wonderful fall weather!
Mrs. Prichard

Prewriting Strategies

Pre-Writing Exercises

Getting Started

·        Think right:  believe in yourself and ability to learn; keep trying and learn from mistakes

·        Get organized

–       Use a notebook:  keep track of handouts and assignments

–       Take notes:  notes help you to retain important information and stay focused; write down whatever your teacher writes on the board and specific information about assignments.

–       Schedule study time:  don’t leave assignments to the last minute; schedule regular time

–       Use good resources:  teachers, books, on-line sources, classmates

           

First Steps to Writing

·        Understanding the assignment

–       Make sure you are clear on requirements:

Due Date

Length

Format of paper

Topic restrictions

·        Narrowing the topic

–       Find an area of the topic that you can write about

–       Narrowing tree to divide a general topic or subject into more specific parts until you find a specific topic of interest

–       Brainstorming by thinking of the aspects of the topic or of specific examples and writing down all the ideas that come to mind (can be done in a group)

·        Determining the writing context

–       Purpose:  why are you writing, what your goals are, and what you hope to accomplish; what to include and what to leave out; most writing is to inform, to persuade, or to entertain.

–       Audience:  tailor your statements to the person or group to whom you are speaking; keep in mind your audience’s interests, concerns, values, educational backgrounds, and attitudes.

–       Tone:  the writer’s attitude toward the subject or audience; can range from serious, sarcastic, angry, humorous, condescending, insensitive, compassionate, etc.

·        Formulating a main idea:  think about the direction you might be heading in or what you might write about; stating a tentative main idea will help you generate ideas about your narrowed topic more effectively.

Generating Supporting Ideas

·        Brainstorming:  write down everything you think of regarding this topic; be aware of all the senses; can be done in phrases; can be done individually or in a group

·        Freewriting:  start writing sentences and paragraphs; write everything that comes to mind

·        Listing:  visualize and write what comes to mind;

·        Clustering/ Mind map:  cluster related ideas together; group or organize ideas

·        Dividing:  break the topic into its components; use journalistic questions (who, what, where, when, why how)

Organizing Ideas

·        State the main idea:  narrow your topic into a thesis statement; sometimes this will need to be revised as you gather materials

·        Map your topic:  Use the a table similar to the one below the develop your ideas

Supporting Ideas	Specific Details	Relation to Thesis

·        Outline:  use the formal outline structure to help organize topics of support and subtopics.  The outline below is an example of style.

I.  Introduction

            A.  Specifics

            B.  Specifics 

II.  Suppporting idea #1

            A.  Specifics

            B.  Specifics

                        1.  Details

                        2.  More details

III.  Supporting idea #2

            A.  Specifics

                        1.  Details

                        2.  More details

            B.  Specifics

IV.  Conclusion

Observation Report

Observation Essay

Definition

In an Observation (or Descriptive) Essay, the writer paints a word picture of a person, place, object, or event that appeals to one or more of the five senses (smell, taste, hearing, touch, and sight).  In this kind of essay, the writer works to give a clear representation of the object of his close observation.

Organization of an Observation Essay

Descriptions can be organized spatially (left to right, top to bottom); chronologically (in time order); or in order of importance (the thing that strikes you firs or that is dominant about what you are describing).

Thesis Statements

The thesis statement generally presents the subject of the description and/or established the tone or mood of the description.  It controls what details you will include.

Tips on Writing

–   Have a purpose in mind for the description of your observation.  Are you trying to be objective, or are you trying to convey an attitude, opinion, or mood?

–   If you are describing a person, try to help the reader see the person and his or her character by describing appearance, dress, mannerisms, actions, and/or speech.  Descriptive details can be used to suggest personality or character.

–   If you are describing a place, scene or activity, you will need to select a physical perspective or viewpoint on the subject and stick to it.  Your perspective might be from a particular position, time, season, etc.

–   If you are describing an object, try to help the reader see the object and its meaning to you.  Rely on the five senses to evoke the physical appearance and emotional association of the object.

–   Do you have an emotional perspective of attitude toward your subject?  Keep it in mind as you select the words to describe the details.

Pitfalls

–   Avoid disorganized descriptions.  If your description is haphazard, you will confuse your reader.

–   Avoid inconsistent descriptions.  Don’t mix positive and negative perspectives; also don’t mix descriptions for varying viewpoints.

–   Avoid generalizations and abstractions.  You want to recreate a specific person, place or event for your readers.  Give specific information.

Essay Guidelines

–   Due dates:  Rough Draft due September 5; Final Draft due September 19

–   Essay length:  200 – 300 words (about 1 page)

–   Rough drafts can be typed or hand-written, but must be double-spaced.

–   Final draft format:

–   Typed (if this is not possible, please let me know)

–   1 inch margins

–   Name and date on the upper right hand corner

–   Number the pages on the lower right hand corner

–   Title centered above the text of the essay