Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 6 (February 27)

Greetings!

Even though the students enjoyed their break, it always feels good to get back to the routine of school.  For our Quick Write this week students chose from the list we developed last semester:  1) What is the best food at the MN State Fair? 2) Hat or no hat? 3) Long pants vs. shorts.  As always, many of the students share the ideas that they had written about.

Our Words of the Day were also chosen by the students:

ma non troppo -- Italian, "but not too much" -- this term is often used with musical terms, especially tempo-related ones.

pas -- fr. Italian, "step" -- a step or series of steps used in ballet

toccata -- fr. Italian "touch" -- a musical piece for organ or harpsichord characterized by full chords, rapid runs, and high harmonies

I checked in with the class on the progress of their current writing assignment, which is to write a literary analysis paper on a theme or character from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  This, as I've told them, is probably the hardest paper they will write this year.  It requires them to have done a careful reading of their book and then to assemble supporting details from the text.  We discussed some options for organizing this kind of paper.  (See the Rocketbook notes for a diagram that we discussed in class.)

We are now done with the Jekyll/Hyde book, and I divided the class into groups of 4 to answer questions on a final test for the book.  As a whole, the class expressed mixed reactions to the book.  Some really liked it, and some didn't care for it at all.  Some enjoyed the story while others found it too confusing to follow.  Our next literature selection is a book of short stories by O. Henry.  Some of my all-time favorite stories are in this book, so I'm hoping the students will enjoy them, too.  I lieu of questions to answer for the stories, the students elected to have a quiz next week.  

We are continuing to work on sentence patterns and structures for the Grammar section of the class.  When we last met, we looked at N-LV-N and N-LV-Adj patterns, which we continued to work on this week.  

Have a great weekend.  The weather should be nice, and spring is just around the corner!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Read "The Gift of the Magi" and "After Twenty Years"

     -- No worksheet, but be ready for a Quiz on the two stories

-- Themes or Character Rough Draft

-- Subject Complements worksheet (both sides)

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Rocket Book Notes

Writing 1 Spring Google Drive folder

Writing 1 Spring Words of the Day

Subject Complements & Predicate Adjectives

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

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 5 (February 13)

Greetings!

We covered a lot of material this morning in class. We started with a Quick Write, which was to be a "Literary Love Letter." This is a traditional assignment for the class around Valentine's Day.  They could choose a part of speech, some punctuation, an author, or anything else literature of writing related. I like to post these on the blog, so students could let me know if they would like theirs published. (There are links below with "love letters" written in past Writing 1 classes.)

Our Words of the Day included 2 choices from the students and one from me.  

hoc monumentum posuit -- Latin,  hoc monumentum posuit, "this monument built/erected" -- The abbreviation H.M.P. is often added at the base of a statue or monument denoting who built it or who commissioned the building.

larmoyant -- French, larmoyant, "tearful" -- tearful, maudlin, sentimental

eponym -- Greek, epi, "called after," nym, "named"   -- a person after whom a discovery, invention, place, etc., is named or thought to be named.  Examples:  Kleenex, chapstick, sandwich, cardigan.

Students handed in the final drafts of their Narrative Essays.  As soon as we finish one Writing assignment, we start the next essay.  Their next essay is probably the hardest one of the year.  This next assignment is to write a literary analysis essay either about a theme or a character from our book The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  We discussed themes and characters in the book and did some brainstorming about possible ways to organize an essay of this type.  Students find this essay hard because they don't get to choose the topic and because they might not have enjoyed the book.  As students were reading the book they were to be filling in charts for a theme or a character.  This in a sense was to be their research for this paper.

Following this discussion/explanation, we did some good Grammar work.  We're working on sentence structures, and one difficulty that I feel students have is isolating the subject nouns, predicate nouns, direct objects, and indirect objects; prepositional phrases with their objects often confuse students.  With this in mind, we spent last week and this week reading sentences and pulling out the prepositional phrases.  After some work on prepositional phrases, we looked at N-LV-N and N-LV-Adj sentences.

Next week we have a break from CHAT classes, so the assignments listed below are for February 27.

Have a great two weeks!

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for February 27

-- Read Chapters 9 & 10 (This finishes the book)

-- 4 Study Guide Questions

-- Pre-Write for Themes or Character essay

-- 2 Sentence Patterns Worksheets (N-LV-N and N-LV-Adj)

Links for This Week

Class Notes

Writing 1 Spring Google Drive folder

Writing 1 Spring Words of the Day

Character Essay

Themes Essay

Sentence Patterns -- N-LV-Adj

Sentence Patterns -- N-LV-N

Theme Essay

Definition

The theme is the major idea the author is trying to “get across.”  The themes of a literary work are the underlying key ideas or the generalizations it communicates about life. At times, the author’s theme may not agree with your own beliefs, but even then, if it is skillfully written, the work will still have a theme that illuminates some aspects of true human experience.  A Theme Essay explores these ideas and helps the reader gain a greater understanding of the book as a whole.   

Remember that there may be various themes in any one piece of literature.  The following are ways by which a theme may be revealed:  direct statements of the author, direct statements by the characters, dramatic statements by characters, imagery, characters representing ideas, and the entire work representing ideas.

The body of the essay will center on your objective, which is (1) to define the idea, and (2) show its importance in the work.” 

Questions for Theme Analysis

–  What important idea or theme does this literary work convey? Think about the topics of some of your journal entries. What questions do the journal prompts raise about human nature?

–  What do characters do that helps illustrate this idea?

–  What do characters say that helps to illustrate this idea?

–  What events take place in the work that help to illustrate this idea?

–  Are there any recurrent images or clusters of images? Do these images support the idea or theme that you find in the work?

–  What does the narrator say that helps to illustrate this idea?

Writing your Essay

            First, pick one theme to write your analysis.  Next, you need to form your thesis statement. After deciding on a thesis, you need to form a rough outline using the provided example. You will need to provide a number of examples from the book to illustrate the theme, which will be the components of your three body paragraphs. You will need three quotes per body paragraph, so nine quotes all together. Don’t rely on the quotes to explain themselves. You need to lead into the quote, and also comment on the quote after you quote it. You need to effectively show how the quote helps to prove your point.

Essay Guidelines

– Due dates:  Pre-Write due February 27; Rough Draft due March 5; Final Draft due March 19.

– Essay length:  600 – 800 words (between 3 and 5 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

Character Essay

 Definition

            The purpose of a character analysis is to provide information and understanding about a character from a piece of literatures.  Writers use supporting details from the book to back up their opinions and evaluations about the character.        

Thesis Development

            Your thesis should state a stand or opinion about the character you have chosen.  Your thesis can be concerned with the character’s weaknesses or strengths, primary motivations, inner qualities, interactions with others,

Organization

            Your essay should follow the standard structure with an introduction, body, and conclusion.  In the body, the paragraphs should cover the points that you will use to support your thesis.

Tips on Prewriting

·         Survey all the details you have collected and group them in clusters that reveal some similar qualities.

·         In a single sentence, sum up what the character is like.  This summary can be the thesis or controlling idea for your entire essay.

·         Select the details that help support, explain, and illustrate your thesis.

·         Pull from your chart with material you’ve collected.  Use effective quotes and examples.

·         Plan your introduction and conclusion.

Tips on Writing the Introduction

·         The opening paragraph of your essay should introduce who this character is, briefly explaining what his/her role is in the story and why you have chosen to analyze this personality. 

·         Define your character in terms of whether he is the protagonist (hero), antagonist (villain), supporting player or a catalyst.  A catalyst character often does not participate directly in any of the action, but instead fulfills the role of inspiring the lead character.

·         Possible information to include in your introduction:

–   Make some general comments about the subject matter of the thesis.  Give background information.

–   Mention personal experiences and attitudes you and your readers might share about the character.  Do you think other people have the same opinion about this person.

–   Include thoughts about the author.  Does his life give any clues to this character?

–   Write a few general sentences about the story.

Using Quotations

·         This type of paper requires that you use quotations from the story to support your points.  Be sure that you quote accurately and that your reason for quoting is clear.  Be careful not to use long quotes for your essay will merely repeat the words of the story.

  

Writing the Conclusion

·         The final paragraph should not introduce a new idea because it cannot be developed.  The conclusion should smoothly bring the reader back to the thesis of the essay.  It is the final comment you make and is your last chance to drive home your main idea

Essay Guidelines

– Due dates:  Pre-Write February 27; Rough Draft due March 5; Final Draft due March 19.

– Essay length:  600 – 900 words (between 3 and 5 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

Sentence Patterns -- N-LV-N

NAME:  ________________________________

The Equation for a Sentence:

     Subject (Noun)

     Verb

+   Complete Thought

     SENTENCE

Every complete sentence (independent clause) must have these components.  Additionally, all sentences start with capital letters and have an end punctuation mark. (i.e. period, question mark, exclamation mark.)

Predicate Nouns Sentence Pattern:  N-LV-N

This sentence pattern uses a linking verb (LV) with the subject noun to a noun in the predicate.  The linking verb acts as an equal sign (=) between the subject and the noun in the predicate.

Exercise #1:

In the chart below, fill in the boxes with a subject noun and a predicate noun.  The two nouns should be different words/expressions for the same idea/item.  Put a single word in each box.

Subject Noun	Predicate Noun
EX:  book	dictionary
EX:  season	summer
1.
2.
3.

Using your subject nouns and a predicate nouns from the chart above, build a sentence by adding a linking verb.  You can add adjectives if you like.  Below your sentence, write an equation with the subject and the predicate noun.  Do not add any more subject nouns, direct objects, or verbs.

EX:  The big book was a dictionary.                                       My favorite season is summer.

         Book = dictionary                                                           season = summer

1.

2.

3.

Exercise #2:

In the chart below, fill in the boxes with a subject noun and a predicate noun.  The two nouns should be different words/expressions for the same idea/item.  Put a single word or phrase in each box.

Subject Noun	Predicate Noun
EX:  class	Basic Composition
1.
2.

Using your subject nouns and a predicate nouns from the chart above, build a sentence by adding a linking verb.  Add adjectives and prepositional phrases.  Below your sentence, write an equation with the subject and the predicate noun.  Do not add any more subject nouns, direct objects, or verbs.

EX.  My favorite class on Wednesday is Basic Composition.

            Class = Basic Composition

1.

2.

Exercise #3:

In the chart below, fill in the boxes with a subject nouns and a predicate nouns.  The two nouns should be different words/expressions for the same idea/item.  Put more than one word if the box is labelled “Compound” and put a single word if the box is labelled “Simple.” 

Compound Subject Nouns	Simple Predicate Nouns (plural)
EX:  squirrels, rabbits	animals
1.
Simple Subject Nouns (plural)	Compound Predicate Nouns
EX: cars	Honda, Toyota
2.

Using your subject nouns and a predicate nouns from the chart above, build a sentence by adding a linking verb.  Add adjectives and prepositional phrases.  Below your sentence, write an equation with the subject and the predicate noun.  Do not add any more subject nouns, direct objects, or verbs.

EX.  The happy little squirrels and rabbits are animals in my backyard.

The new cars on the lot were the Honda and the Toyota. 1.

2.

Sentence Patterns -- N-LV-Adj

NAME:  ________________________________

The Equation for a Sentence:

     Subject (Noun)

     Verb

+   Complete Thought

     SENTENCE

Every complete sentence (independent clause) must have these components.  Additionally, all sentences start with capital letters and have an end punctuation mark. (i.e. period, question mark, exclamation mark.)

Predicate Nouns Sentence Pattern:  N-LV-ADJ

This sentence pattern uses a linking verb (LV) with the subject noun to an adjective in the predicate.  The linking verb acts as an equal sign (=) between the subject and the adjective in the predicate.

Exercise #1:

In the chart below, fill in the boxes with a subject noun and a predicate noun.  The two nouns should be different words/expressions for the same idea/item.  Put a single word in each box.

Subject Noun	Predicate Adjective
EX:  book	boring
EX:  movie	exciting
1.
2.
3.

Using your subject nouns and predicate adjectives from the chart above, build a sentence by adding a linking verb.  You can add adjectives if you like.  Below your sentence, write an equation with the subject and the predicate noun.  Do not add any more subject nouns, direct objects, or verbs.

EX:  The big book was boring.                                    The movie seems exciting.

         Book = boring                                                    movie = exciting

1.

2.

3.

Exercise #2:

In the chart below, fill in the boxes with a subject noun and a predicate adjective.  The adjectives should describe the noun in the box.  Put a single word or phrase in each box.

Subject Noun	Predicate Adjective
EX:  dinner	delicious
1.
2.

Using your subject nouns and predicate adjectives from the chart above, build a sentence by adding a linking verb.  Add adjectives and prepositional phrases.  Below your sentence, write an equation with the subject and the predicate noun.  Do not add any more subject nouns, direct objects, or verbs.

EX.  My dinner is delicious.

            Dinner = delicious

1.

2.

Exercise #3:

In the chart below, fill in the boxes with a subject nouns and a predicate nouns.  The two nouns should be different words/expressions for the same idea/item.  Put more than one word if the box is labelled “Compound” and put a single word if the box is labelled “Simple.” 

Compound Subject Nouns (plural)	Simple Predicate Adjective
EX:  squirrels, rabbits	frisky
1.
Simple Subject Noun	Compound Predicate Adjectives (plural)
EX: car	new, economical
2.

Using your subject nouns and a predicate nouns from the chart above, build a sentence by adding a linking verb.  Add adjectives and prepositional phrases.  Below your sentence, write an equation with the subject and the predicate noun.  Do not add any more subject nouns, direct objects, or verbs.

EX.  The happy little squirrels and rabbits seem frisky in the spring.

The cars on the lot were new and economical. 1.

2.