Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 18)

Greetings!

Great class, yesterday!  Since Monday was President's Day, for the Quick Write, I asked the students to write either about their favorite president or to write 5 questions they might ask any president.  While many liked our first president, George Washington, some had preferences for others, e.g. Millard Fillmore and Dwight Eisenhower.

Our Words of the Day were words of Latin origin:

quorum -- the minimum number of persons required for a business or board to make decisions

quid pro quo -- "something for something" or "this for that" -- an exchange of goods or services, where one transfer is contingent upon the other

cave canem -- Beware the Dog

Fac ut vivas -- "Get a life"

And our final phrase is one that often gets brought up when people are joking about knowing Latin.  

Semper ubi sub ubi  -- translates as "Always where under where"

Students handed in the final copies of their Narrative Essays.  I look forward to reading them.  Our next essay, and probably the hardest one of the year, is a Theme or Character Essay.  Using the book that we're just finishing, students can choose to write about one of the themes presented in the book, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or they can write about one of the characters.  As they have been reading, they were to be taking notes that should help then to find supporting passages.  The Pre-Write is due when we next meet -- March 3.

We talked a bit about our book.  We are two chapters shy of the ending; our reading for this week brought us to the place where Utterson and the butler, Poole, discover a dead Mr. Hyde.  Students will need to finish the book to write their essays AND to take the Final Exam for the book.  I've attached the test, which students are to take "closed book."

Finally, during our Grammar portion of the class, we had some more instruction and practice on the following phrases:  prepositional, participle, and gerund.  We had time to do a few from each section.

We do not have class next week.  The next time we meet is March 3.

Assignments for March 3:

-- Theme/Character Essay Pre-Write

-- Take Home Final Exam (Closed book)

-- Read Ch. 9 & 10 (No questions)

-- Finish Vocabulary Chart

-- Grammar Worksheet

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Phrases Worksheet

Themes Worksheet

Character Worksheet

PHRASES WORKSHEET

Name:  _______________________________

PHRASES WORKSHEET

Prepositional Phrases, Participle Phrases, Gerund Phrases

PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES:  These phrases are either adjectives or adverbs depending upon how they are used.  A prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun.

            Examples:

·  At the high school, Mr. Thompson taught history.  (adverbial modifying taught)

·  The gym at the high school is sold out for the big game.  (adjectival modifying gym)

·  In 1892, James Corbett became the heavy weight champion of boxing.  (first phrase is and adverb; second phrase is an adjective)

            Same phrase used two different ways:

·  Ann found in her drink a fly.  (adverb phrase modifying found)

·  The fly in her drink bothered Ann.  (adj. phrase modifying bee)

·  From the shore, Randy caught fifteen catfish.  (adverb modifying caught)

·  Greg visited his friend from the shore of Lake Superior.  (adj. modifying friend)

PRACTICE

For each sentence, put the prepositional phrase in parentheses.  Circle the preposition.  Finally, determine if this phrase is an adjective phrase or an adverb phrase.  Draw an arrow to the word it modifies.

                                                                                                  

1.     The table in the kitchen was my mother’s.

2.     We put the table in the kitchen

3.     The keys in my pocket belong to my boss.

4.     I found the keys in my pocket.

5.     The bridge over the river is longer than the one over the creek.

6.     Using the bridge, the cars went over the river.

7.     The stars beyond the solar system are still a mystery.

8.     Let’s build a rocket that goes beyond the solar system.

9.     Between you and me, this cake of my aunt’s is dry on the outside.

10.                        The house of the father of my best friend’s uncle from Kansas is for sale.

PARTICIPLE PHRASES:  These phrases function as adjectives and contain a present or past participle.  Participles all tend to end in “’ing” (present participle), “-ed,” “-d,” “-en,” “-n,” or “-t” with a few exceptions like “swum” and “hung.”  Participial phrases are made up of a participle along with an object or modifier or both.  These adjective phrases are usually placed as near as possible to the words they modify.  Participles are the third and fourth principle parts of verbs.

Examples:

·  Fortified against an attack, Macbeth’s army almost deserted their leader.

·  Singing “Aida” in the shower, Gary annoyed his roommates. 

·  Marching in the parade, Patrick showed his Irish pride.

·  Dedicated to the health of the poor, Mother Theresa helped others.

·  Thrashing the shore with great force, the storm pounded the rocky coast of Maine.

PRACTICE

For each sentence below, underline the participle phrase.  Include the present or past participle and other parts of the phrase.  Draw an arrow to the noun or noun phrase that the participle phrase modifies.

1.     Sam, encouraging his brother, cheered him on at the finish line.

2.     The growing population forced the city to build a new school.

3.     Studying math, Calvin is planning a career as an accountant.

4.     The mother quieted the sleeping baby.

5.     April, expecting an important phone call, waited in the hallway outside.

6.     The defeated soldiers laid down their weapons.

7.     The coffee shop, located on the north side, hosted a sing-along.

8.     She found the exhausted doctor asleep on one of the hospital beds.

9.     Mr. Larsen found the opened letter on his desk.

10.                        The basketball players walked away with wounded pride.

GERUND PHRASES:  Like any noun, a gerund phrase can function as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object of the preposition, or predicate nominative.  The gerund phrase is made up of the present participle (“-ing”) and can contain an object and/or a modifier (and sometimes many modifiers).  The gerund is a verbal noun.

Examples:

            Gerund phrase as a subject:

·  Making the varsity team is a challenging endeavor.

Gerund phrase as a direct object:

·  The rookie catchers practiced protecting the plate.

Gerund phrase as an indirect object:

·  If students give learning grammar a fair chance, their writing will improve.

·  My brother once gave swinging a golf club his undivided attention.

Gerund phrase as an Object of the Preposition:

·  Carrie got first prize by memorizing the most poetry.

Gerund phrase as a Predicate Nominative:

·  Robyn’s greatest accomplishment is singing in the opera.

PRACTICE

For each sentence below, underline the gerund phrase.  Label the phrase Subject, Direct Object, Indirect Object, Object of the Preposition, or Predicate Nominative.

1.     I love eating burgers and fries.

2.     Listening to the orchestra inspired me to practice more.

3.     Mrs. Jones heard loud growling in his back yard.

4.     A trait of successful employees is working cheerfully.

5.     I can hear from my window the hammering on the building.

6.     Ben is not very good at staying awake after 10:00 pm.

7.     Jumping on the trampoline gives Mandy all the exercise she needs.

8.     I am not very good at locating cities on a map.

9.     The candidates reveal their personalities by arguing with one another.

10.                        Some women use group cooking to prepare food for their families.

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 4 (February 11)

Greetings!

We had a good week in class again.  Since this weekend we are celebrating Valentine's Day, I asked the students to write a Literary Love Letter as their Quick Writes.  We had comments of affection and appreciation for authors, punctuation marks, and even the spaces between words.  I plan to type them into the blog later this week.

Our Words of the Day were "Reduplicatives." These expressions are pairs of words that can repeat (bonbon), be similar (ping pong) or rhyme (higgeldy-piggeldy).  Our words:

shilly-shally -- to procrastinate, hesitate, or vacillate

tussie-mussie -- a bunch of flowers, a bouquet, nosegay

herky-jerky -- moving in a sudden, spasmodic, irregular way

wishy-washy -- lacking in decisiveness, determination, or purpose

In class today we discussed some of the common errors that were found in the rough drafts of their Narrative Essays.  These include:

-- Using "There is/are" sentences

-- using contractions

-- Consistent verb tenses

-- Parallel structure

-- Writing out numbers

Using their own writing is one of the best ways to teach grammar and writing principles.  This is one case when learning from mistakes is a great strategy.

Following our writing discussion, we moved on to our literature selection.  We've read most of the The Strange Adventures of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, so I asked them their impressions of the book as a whole.  For some, it seems dry with not a lot of action.  As we looked at some scenes, it appeared that Robert Louis Stevenson did a lot of telling as opposed to showing.

Assignments for Next Week

-- Final Drafts of Narrative Essays

-- Read Chapters 7 & 8 of Jekyll/Hyde

-- No Grammar Worksheets

Links for this Week:

Class Notes

Happy Valentine's Day!

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 3 (February 4)

Greetings!

We had a productive day in class this week.  Our Quick Write began with a discussion about figures of speech and cliches related to "hands."  We compiled quite a list: 

I gotta hand it to you; in the palm of my hand; being fingered for a crime; wrapped around my finger; 5-finger discount; back of my hand; a slap in the face; thumbs up/down; give me five; lend a hand; hand it over, etc.  After this little brainstorming, I asked the students to write something about hands.  They could use some of our cliches or they could write about the use of their hands.  When they were done, I had them watch a short video about hands by spoken word artist, Sarah Kay.

This week's Words of the Day were "coined words;" in other words, they were words that someone just made up and they ended up "sticking" in our American vocabulary.

boondoggle -- coined by Robert H. Link, a Boy Scout leader, in reference to a small braided piece on the scout uniform.  It has come to mean some project or venture that is a useless waste of time and resources.

heebie-jeebies -- coined by cartoonist Billy DeBeck in the early 1900s; a feeling of nervousness and creepiness

runcible -- coined by Edward Lear as a word with obscure meaning, it was later applied to a combination spoon, fork, and knife utensil; like a spork.

In Writing 1 this week we welcomed a new student, Michelle Sorenson.  This gave us a great opportunity to review our essay writing process and the importance of a thesis statement.  The Rough Drafts of the Narrative Essays were due today.  I will have them back to them next week; they then will revise and edit them into wonderful Final Drafts for the following week.  We discussed again the importance of the thesis statement.  I use this equation when teaching this idea:

     Subject/ Topic

+   Opinion/ Stand

Thesis Statement

We're working on Phrases during the grammar section of class this semester in Writing 1, and we took time to work as groups on Prepositional Phrases.  In their groups, they were to come up with a selection of prepositional phrases, then write sentences using them, then determine if the phrases in the sentences were adjective phrases or adverb phrases, and finally draw an arrow from the phrase to the word it modifies.  Students can understand that an adjective or adverb is a word that modifies a noun or verb, respectively.  It's a bit harder to view a group of words (i.e. phrases) that do the work of an adjective or adverb.  They did marvelously!

We briefly discussed the next set of phrases:  Participial phrases and Gerund phrases.  Because we didn't take much time on this, the students should only do the Participial Worksheet (6 - 4) for next week, BUT NOT 6 - 5.

We did not have time for any literature discussion this week.  Nevertheless, they need to keep reading Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for next week and to do the study guide questions.  I've included a link below that has some audio versions of the book.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read Chapters 5 & 6

-- 2 Study Guide questions for each chapter

-- Work on Vocabulary Worksheet

-- Grammar Worksheet:  6 - 4 (A: 1 - 10 and B:  1 - 10)

This Week's Links:

Class Notes

Sarah Kay's "Hands"

Writing 1 -- Sarah Kay's "Hands"

Audio Versions of Jekyll/Hyde

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

The Strange Adventure of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde -- Audio versions

While our book for the Spring Semester is not very long or overly challenging, students who are strong auditory learners my benefit from an audio version of the story.  If students choose to listen to these, I encourage them to read along with their hard copies of the book.

Below are some options:

Audiobook Treasury selection

Learn Out Loud selection

Sarah Kay's "Hands"

Our Quick Write began with a discussion about figures of speech and cliches related to "hands."  We compiled quite a list: 

I gotta hand it to you; in the palm of my hand; being fingered for a crime; wrapped around my finger; 5-finger discount; back of my hand; a slap in the face; thumbs up/down; give me five; lend a hand; hand it over, etc. 

 After this little brainstorming, I asked the students to write something about hands.  They could use some of our cliches or they could write about the use of their hands.  When they were done, I had them watch a short video about hands by spoken word artist, Sarah Kay.