Phrases -- Prepositional & Participial

As we grow as writers, we're sometimes confounded as we try to take our brilliant, complex thoughts and try to make them behave on paper.  We know what we want to say, but when we put it on paper, something's not quite right.What often trips us up are phrases and clauses. In the English language, we use five phrases:  prepositional, participials, gerunds, infinitives, and appositives.  These phrases can be restrictive (essential) or non-restrictive (non-essential).

The wonderful internet has some great resources for expanding our understanding.  Below are some helpful links:

Slideshare -- This site has A LOT of helpful Powerpoint presentations about so many topics.  Search their website for whatever grammar help you need.  (Prepositions and Participials)

eHow -- This website has a number of helpful tutorials.  This page has one that shows where to put commas.

Slideboom -- This site has Powerpoint slides along with a narrator.  (Prepositions )

Youtube -- Of course, this is an obvious place to go for so many kinds of instructional tutorials.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- November 28

Greetings!

Again, another productive class.  Have I mentioned how much I enjoy teaching this group of students?

With our Thanksgiving Dinners fresh in our minds, the Quick Write was titled "Eat Your Words."  I had the students list 10 verbs, 10 adverbs, and 10 adjectives that were related to their eating experience.  From all of the gobbling, slurping, munching, and "scarfing" involved, you all must have had a pretty good dinner.

They handed in their Rough Drafts of their History Essays.  I look forward to reading them.

We are in the place of our book, A Christmas Carol, where the Spirit of Christmas Present visits Scrooge.  The students discovered that there's more in the book than in any of the traditional movies they've seen.  We had a good discussion about the more symbolic portion in which the boy Ignorance and the girl Want appear from within the folds of the spirit's robe.  I love it when we go beyond the details of what happens in a piece of literature and can discuss deeper meanings and ideas about life.  For next week, we're reading Stave Four.  Since they have no writing assignments to do, they may do some extra credit work.  Of the study questions, they must answer at least 2 questions, but may do more.  For the vocabulary, they must give the definitions and word roots for at least 5 words, but they may do more.

As maturing writers, our Grammar discussion has to move beyond simple sentence structures.  Most students are reading, talking, and thinking in complex sentences.  The challenge is getting our writing skills to catch up with what's in our heads.  Just because a brilliant, complicated idea popped into our heads does not necessarily mean that it's grammatically correct.  We discussed phrases this week and will continue next week.  This week is was prepositional phrases (especially how they function as adjectives and adverbs) and participial phrases.  Verbal phrases often trip up writers, so I want to make sure they have a good understanding.  They have a worksheet on Participial Phrases as homework.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- November 14

Greetings!

As always, we had a productive class.  I really enjoy this group of students.  For our Quick Write today, we played a word game, Give Me Five, that I had gotten while in England.  The game consists of a deck of cards with categories (Fruits and Vegetables, Items found in a Bedroom, Pets, Types of Meals, etc.) and letter of the alphabet.  Either I or a student drew a card, and the students had to write 5 things that fit that card. The students got points for any answers they had written that were unique; in other words, they were the only ones who had written that answer.  We played a few rounds.  I like activities like this because it 1) plays with words; 2) causes everyone to be involved; 3) forces the students to think creatively; and 4) is interactive and helps us to continue to develop good class dynamics.

I handed back their final drafts of their Biographical Essays. As the students work on revising their rough drafts into final drafts, I'd like to remind them to carefully pay attention to corrections and comments that I made on the rough drafts.  The rough drafts are to be learning opportunities.  The final drafts are opportunities to show that they've been learning.  I was pleased to see that some students not only made grammar and punctuation corrections, but rewrote sections or added more material.  They are all becoming more skilled as writers of essays.  The students are to be working on their next writing assignment, a Historical Essay, over their break. In class we discussed how to go about developing a thesis around an historical event.  This can be a challenge, so they can feel free to send an e-mail if they have any questions.

Before our discussion of A Christmas Carol, we talked about the specific challenges of the book (an older style and more challenging vocabulary) which led to a discussion of learning styles.  If the book is difficult for a student, an audio book would be acceptable.  In addition to discussing some of the vocabulary, we read aloud a few sections from the second "Stave" in which the Ghost of Christmas Past appears.  Personally, I feel that this is such a rich book that we could take a lot more time than we do to "unpack" the images, themes and symbolism. 

No class next week.  Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Write Historical Essay rough draft
-- Read Stave 2;  Write answers for 2 questions for the First Half and 2 questions for the Second Half.
-- Write meanings and roots for 5 vocabulary words for the Stave.

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

History Essay

History Essay

Definition

            An historical essay demonstrates that you have a good knowledge about an event or a period of history and a good grasp of its importance and contributions to our world.  A typical essay will consist not only of the details surrounding the event or period but will reveal an understanding of some of the “big picture” of history.

Thesis Development

            Writing an essay about a historical topic requires that you make some judgment about the evidence and details.  Generally, a thesis explains the “why” and the “how” of something that happened.  Your thesis should take a stand on an issue or historical problem and requires some judgment and interpretation of evidence.  Your thesis should be as clear and specific as possible.

Organization

            Information can be presented chronologically (in a first to last sequence), in order of importance (least to most important), or in order of quantity of information (least amount to greatest amount).  Your essay can be divided by themes, geographical locations, or personalities involved.  In writing the essay, you will analyze the facts, not just describe them.

Tips on Writing

–   Everything you write about should support or be related to your thesis.

–   Be sure that you include enough information and define any unfamiliar terms.  Assume your readers do not know as much about the topic as you do.

–   Prove your arguments:  explain how and why a thing happened.

–   Suitable evidence includes data (facts and figures) and authorities on the subject (what historians know).

–   Use a variety of transitions in the text of your paper.

–   This is not a research paper, but may require some outside reading and note taking.  Remember to take notes in your own words.

Pitfalls to Avoid

–   Keep the language simple. Remember, this is an essay, not a story.  Use good, accurate vocabulary, but not overly flowery words.

Essay Guidelines

–   Due dates:  Rough Draft due November 28; Final Draft due December 12

–   Essay length:  500 – 700 words (between 2 and 4 pages)

–   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

A Christmas Carol Study Guide

A Christmas Carol Study Questions

Stave One Questions ~

1. What is the simile in the second paragraph?

2. Why does the narrator make such a point of Marley’s being dead?

3. Why doesn’t the weather affect Scrooge?

4. How is Scrooge’s nephew different from Scrooge?

5. What do the “portly gentlemen” who come in after Scrooge’s nephew leave want?

6. How does the knocker change?

7. Why does Scrooge like the darkness?

8. What has Marley’s ghost been doing since his death?

9. What is the warning that Marley gives Scrooge?

10. Why are the phantoms upset?

Stave Two Questions ~

1. What was the strangest thing about the way the spirit looked?

2. What is Scrooge’s initial attitude toward the spirit?

3. What is different about Scrooge when he says “Remember it? I could walk it with a blindfold?”

4. Who is Scrooge talking about when he says “Poor boy!”

5. What does it tell us about Scrooge when Dickens observes“a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character.”?

6. When Fan comes to pick Scrooge up, we learn a reason why Scrooge may have turned out the way he did. What is this reason?

7. What kind of people are the Fezziwigs?

8. Who is Belle and why was she important to Scrooge?

9. Why does Scrooge say “Remove me.”

10. How does Scrooge try to "extinguish the light"? Does he succeed? What is the light a symbol of?

Stave Three Questions

First Half ~

1. How is what Scrooge is thinking as he lies in bed waiting to see if the spirit appears different from the previous chapter?

2. What does the spirit look like?

3. What is this ghost’s personality like?

4. How has Scrooge’s attitude toward his being escorted by a ghost changed?

5. What is the point of the long description beginning “The house fronts looked black enough, and the windows blacker …” and continuing on for several pages until, “But soon the steeples called good people all, to church and chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in their best clothes, and with their gayest faces.”

6. What are three significant things we learn about the Cratchit’s?

7. How is Scrooge affected by seeing the family?

Second Half ~

1.What does the Spirit mean when he says But they Know me. See!”

2. What is the point of going to the lighthouse? to the ship?

3. What is the great surprise to Scrooge in the next paragraph (96)?

4. What would Fred think would be a positive outcome of his Christmas invitation to Scrooge?  What happens to Scrooge’s mood as the party goes on? Why do you think this happens?

6. Describe the game called “Yes and No” Scrooge witnesses at his nephew’s Christmas party.

7. What does it mean to say the boy and the girl (Ignorance and Want) are “Man’s children”?

Stave Four Questions ~

1. What does the spirit of Christmas future look like?

2. What is this spirit’s personality like?

3. How does Scrooge feel about this spirit?

4. What is the point of the long discussion between Joe and Mrs. Dilber?

5. What are some of the words Dickens uses to create the mood of the paragraphs that follow?  What is this mood?

6. When Scrooge asks the phantom to let him "see some tenderness connected with a death,” What does the ghost show him?

7. What is the lesson Scrooge learns in this stave that he had not learned before? Why is this stave needed when Scrooge’s attitude had already changed so much.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- November 7

Greetings!

This was an interesting day of classes.  Most students were processing the election results.  I talked at length about our responsibility to pray for and bless all those who were elected into office last night.  1 Tim. 2: 1-4 commands us to do this.  It's always good to align ourselves with God's plan.

I gave the students options for the Quick Write.  If they were still in a political mood, they could write a letter to President Obama OR write the diary of a politician.  If not, they could write a diary for a happy cow (a topic suggested by a student). The only requirement was that they couldn't be disrespectful.

We began our study of A Christmas Carol.  Besides being a great classic of literature that we all should read, this book will expand our vocabulary.  We started our conversation with our list of vocabulary words.  I also handed out a Study Guide for the book; I divided the class into groups to discuss these questions.

For our next writing assignment, the students are to write an Historical Essay.   We talked about the difference between a report and a thesis-driven essay.  They have handouts that explain this essay.  The Pre-Write is due next week, the Rough Draft is due November 28, and the final draft is due on December 12 (the last day of this term's classes.)

A couple of students thought they might be interested in the NaNoWriMo project.  If anyone wants to try writing a novel this month, they can sign up here. Check the previous e-mail for more information.

Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read Stave 2
-- Define 5 words from Stave 2
-- Answer 3 questions from the Study Guide
-- Pre-Write for the Historical Essay

Have a great week!
Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- October 31

Greetings!

Before our Quick Write today, the students got a history lesson.  Yesterday was not only Halloween, but it was Reformation Day.  We discussed Martin Luther and the 95 theses.  We did a word study of "reformation," "rebellion," and "catholic."  To top of the lesson, we watched the "Reformation Polka," a youtube cartoon.

Our Quick Write featured a pair of XXXXXXXXL camouflaged pants that my husband had gotten as a gag gift and a Kermit the Frog hat that I was given.  The students were to write a story centered on these two objects.  

We spent a lot of time discussing the Rough Drafts of the Biography Essays.  As I work through the rough drafts, making comments and corrections, I make a list of common grammar errors.  I think one of the best ways to learn grammar rules is by the mistakes we make. My hope is that this technique helps the material sink in.  The final copies of the essays are due next week.

They handed in their grammar worksheets.  I've also attached these worksheets in case someone is missing them.

We've finished Animal Farm and are starting our next book, Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  I handed out an Introduction and Vocabulary Worksheet. (I've attached these worksheets.) This is a short book, but the language and vocabulary can be challenging.  Feel free to read this book with them.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Finish the Final Copy of the Biography Essay.

-- Read the Introduction for A Christmas Carol

-- Read Stave One.

-- Choose 5 vocabulary words from the list and write definitions and word origins.

Have a great week!

Mrs. Prichard

This week's blog
Vocabulary Worksheet

Introduction to A Christmas Carol

Introduction to A Christmas Carol

Introduction to A Christmas Carol

            A Christmas Carol is a fairly straightforward allegory built on an episodic narrative structure in which each of the main passages has a fixed, obvious symbolic meaning. The book is divided into five sections (Dickens labels them Staves in reference to the musical notation staff--a Christmas carol, after all, is a song), with each of the middle three Staves revolving around a visitation by one of the three famous spirits. The three spirit-guides, along with each of their tales, carry out a thematic function--the Ghost of Christmas Past, with his glowing head, represents memory; the Ghost of Christmas Present represents charity, empathy, and the Christmas spirit; and the reaper-like Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come represents the fear of death. Scrooge, with his Bah! Humbug! attitude, embodies all that dampens Christmas spirit--greed, selfishness, indifference, and a lack of consideration for one's fellow man.

from Victorian Age

http://www.guidanceassociates.com/victorianage.html

            The Victorian Age is a very elastic term used to denote an extremely dynamic period. Although the Victorian Age roughly spans most of the 19th century (from 1832 to 1900), it is not totally confined within these dates. The rumblings of change to come were felt for some time before 1832, and changes did not stop occurring as soon as Queen Victoria died in 1901. However, lifestyles did change more dramatically during this period than ever before in English history. England was suddenly pulled together by the railways, the penny post, and the rest of the newly constructed apparatus of fast, cheap communication. The country became unified in a way never before possible.

            Prior to the middle of the 19th century, education had been reserved for the nobility and those who could afford to send their children to exclusive private schools. Even if the poor had been able to enter their children in these schools, they would not have done so. A child of six was expected to start bringing home money to help support his entire family; he would be put to work as soon as possible. In those days work meant twelve to sixteen hours a day of grueling, hard labor in conditions that would today be considered totally unacceptable. There was no time spare for education. However, with the appearance of the modern public school system it became fashionable and necessary for the children of the lower classes to at least learn the rudiments of the 3 R’s. With these assets, they could go on to vocational apprenticeships in one of the trades.

            Great nationalistic spirit developed during the Victorian Age, and England struggled to place herself at the top of the international scene. At the time of the Great Exhibition of 1851, England was influential in many countries. By the end of the Victorian Age, the British Empire had reached the high point of its development.

            During this period the extreme poverty of the lower working classes was pointed up by the increasingly congested living conditions of city life. While the nobility still hung onto its money and its social barriers, and an individual’s birthright tended to be the deciding factor of his future, the rapidly expanding middle classes made steady inroads. The middle-class novelist, Charles Dickens, did more than any writer before or since to expose the sufferings of the working class. His books found their way into the drawing rooms of the titled and wealthy, and social consciousness began to rise. Emancipation of women and the rights of children became popular cases for the previously sheltered nobility. They brought their money and influence to bear in demanding better working conditions and broader education for the working class. A kind of feverish sentimentality of guilt gripped everyone.  The debt owed to Charles Dickens for the many reforms of the Victorian Age is certainly not a small one.

A Christmas Carol Vocabulary Worksheet

A Christmas Carol Vocabulary

Choose 10 words from each Stave to define (and find any Latin or Greek roots, naturally!)

Stave 1	Stave 2	Stave 3	Stave 4	Stave 5
Unhallowed Entreaty Impropriety Multitude Executor Trifle Resolute Tremulous Legatee Implore Lunatic Rapture Garret Covetous Replenish Credentials Congeal Misanthropic Solitary Intimation Ominous Caustic	Plaque Reclamation Expend Tumult Recumbent Jocund Transition Capacious Tunic Instantaneous Loath Deftly Brigands Lustrous Latent Condescension Corroborate Pillaged Conducive Laden Decanter Aspiration	Consolation Glee Subsequently Withered Seething Demurely Prematurely Goblets Demeanor Conspicuous Shabby Exulted Grog Compulsion Swarthy Ubiquitous Blithe Abyss Intricate Bilious Ensued Dismal	Repute Flaunting Beseech Inexorable Disgorge Repent Relents Replete Reek Scanty Faltered Foreshadow Repulse Slipshod Revered Essence Intercede Dwindle Beetling Avarice Tarry Strive	Gruel Recompense Jiffy Hearty Peals Portly Feign Sealing wax Jovial Pang Waistcoat Illustrious Extravagance Loitered Sidled Endeavor Amends Giddy Poulterer Array Borough Dispelled