Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 11 (April 15)

 Greetings!

We had a lovely class this week.  One aspect that I especially enjoy with this Writing 1 class is that they all get along well and participate in a harmonious way.  We have good, productive conversations.

For our Quick Writes, here were their options:

1). If your life had a theme song, what song would it be and why? 2) If your life was a movie, what would the title be and what genre would it be?  Why? 3) Skittles of M & Ms?  Why? and 4) If you could design a “National Day” what would it be and why?

We had some unusual Words of the Day:

leal -- fr. Scottish "loyalty" -- loyal, raithful, honest true

redhibition -- fr. Latin, rehibitio, "a taking back" -- to return a faulty or damaged product

We had a very short quiz after our Words of the Day.  I asked the students to memorize the state of being words:  am, is, are, was, were, be, being, and been.  I had them list the words, and they did a great job.

They have handed in the rough drafts of their News Stories.  I'm looking forward to reading them; a number of students said that that they had added more creative and imaginative elements to their writing.  I asked them today to think about how they've improved as writers.  They shared some insightful comments.

We are now reading poetry for our Literature portion of the class. Some students like poetry, but many aren't that crazy about it.  Today, we watched a couple of videos of poetry recitations.  (See links at the bottom.)  The class has their new poetry books, and they should read the poems of the poets listed below.  For their homework, they need to respond to 2 poems, and the have 5 options:  

1.  Fill out a Poetry Worksheet for one or both

2.  Write a paragraph about the poem(s) that analyzes the poem; discuss what you think it means and why you like or don't like it.

3.  Instead of writing a paragraph, record a video commentary about the poem.  Youtube LiveStream or some other app on a device is OK as long as it can be seen by me.

4.  Do a piece of art that connects with the content and meaning of the poem.  

5.  Make a video of your recitation of the poem.

For our Grammar section of the class, we worked on 2 worksheets for the students to practice putting commas in compound sentences.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Blessings,

Mrs. Prichard

Assignments for Next Week:

• Poetry:  Wordsworth (p. 12); Keats (p. 17), Browning (p. 19); Carroll (p. 29); Hopkins (p. 31), Henley (p. 33)

• 2 Poetry Responses

• Grammar – Wk11:  Compound FANBOYS

• Grammar – Wk11:  Compound Sentences & Commas

Links for this Week

Class Notes

Taylor Mali "Speak with Authority"

Dead Poets Society "What will your verse be?"

Tamera M. Prichard

Writing Instructor at CHAT

Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3

ACT Prep, British Literature

FANBOYS Worksheet

Name: __________________________                                                   Date: __________

                                                                       

FANBOYS

(for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)

A Compound sentence is a sentence that has two simple sentences joined together. When a compound sentence is joined together with a coordinating conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet so), add a comma before a coordinating conjunction.

Hint:  not all conjunctions join two simple sentences (independent clauses). If they are not joining two simple sentences, do not use a comma.

Examples of Comma Rule:

Jordan broke his arm, so he had to go to the hospital.
My dog chased a rabbit around the yard, but he couldn’t catch it.

Amelia opened her locker and grabbed her books for class.

Directions: Underline the FANBOYS in the sentence. If it is joining 2 sentences, insert a comma BEFORE the coordinating conjunction. If it is not joining 2 sentences, do not insert a comma.  On the line after the sentence, write S if it is a simple sentence or C if it is a compound sentence.

Exercises

1.    Roberta likes going to school but she does not like math class.  _______

2.    Jed and Joey put hot fudge and whipped cream on their ice cream.  _______

3.    Betty likes to eat pizza but she likes spaghetti better.  _______

4.    Eli sat down to do his homework but his sister ate it.   _______

5.    Snoopy went to his dog house to eat and take a nap.  _______

6.    Linus lost his blanket and started to cry.  _______

7.    Charlie Brown wanted to ask Lucy a question but she was too busy.  _______

8.    Students are eating spaghetti or deli subs today.  _______

9.    Sponge Bob took his notebook to class but he forgot his pencil.   _______

10.  Sally went fishing last Saturday but we didn't catch anything.  _______

Writing Compound Sentences

Write 3 separate, simple sentences.

1.     __________________________________________________________________________

2.     __________________________________________________________________________

3.     __________________________________________________________________________

Using the sentences above, make them into compound sentences.

4.     __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

5.     __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

6.     __________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________

In the following passage from The Giver by Lois Lowry, highlight every compound sentence.  Watch out, some sentences have a compound predicate (2 verbs for the same subject.)

It was almost December, and Jonas was beginning to be frightened. No. Wrong word, Jonas thought. Frightened meant that deep, sickening feeling of something terrible about to happen. Frightened was the way he had felt a year ago when an unidentified aircraft had overflown the community twice. He had seen it both times. Squinting toward the sky, he had seen the sleek jet, almost a blur at its high speed, go past, and a second later heard the blast of sound that followed. Then one more time, a moment later, from the opposite direction, the same plane.

At first, he had been only fascinated. He had never seen aircraft so close, for it was against the rules for Pilots to fly over the community. Occasionally, when supplies were delivered by cargo planes to the landing field across the river, the children rode their bicycles to the riverbank and watched, intrigued, the unloading and then the takeoff directed to the west, always away from the community.

But the aircraft a year ago had been different. It was not a squat, fat-bellied cargo plane but a needle-nosed single-pilot jet. Jonas, looking around anxiously, had seen others--adults as well as children--stop what they were doing and wait, confused, for an explanation of the frightening event. 

Sentences & Commas Worksheets

Insert the comma in the proper place.

1.      I am going to bed and I am planning on reading this book.

2.      She did not eat the cookies nor did she eat the candy.

3.      Paul is going to the movie and John is going but Sally is not going.

4.      Did Mom go to the concert or did Dad go alone?

5.      Debbie was upset for she wanted to go on that trip but her mother was sick.

6.      Melissa was sick so she left the party early.

7.      It was midnight but it did not seem so late so we went out for dinner.

8.      Cathy caught the heel of one of her shoes in a crack on the sidewalk and the heel broke off.

9.      Susan thought the lemonade was good yet it was a bit too sweet.

10.  Michael threw a fit for he was upset with the dog that had eaten his shoes.

11.  Did Paul go to the movie with Michael or did Michael ask John to go?

12.  Cathy had forgotten to set her alarm so she was late for work.

13.  Fred craves pizza every night but Faith would rather have popcorn.

14.  Nancy thought James had taken her phone but she realized that it was in her backpack.

15.  Mary had a little lamb and its fleece was white as snow.