Grammar Week 1 -- The Sentence

WEEK 1 – The Sentence

A sentence is

– a unit of words

– simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex

– made of a subject and a verb, and a complete thought

Subject

– The simple subject is the singular noun or plural nouns that do the action of the verb.

– The complete subject is the simple subject with any modifiers.

Verb

– The simple verb may consist of one word or a group of words.  These are the action words of the sentence.

– The complete subject is also called the predicate.  It contains modifiers, direct objects, and indirect objects.

Fragment

– A fragment often looks like a sentence with a capital letter and an end punctuation.  However, it is missing either a subject, a verb, or a complete thought.

            Examples:

The Run-on

– A Run-on sentence is two or more sentences improperly joined by wrong punctuation, no punctuation, or a conjunction that needs help from some kind of punctuation. 

– Correcting a Run-on sentence

1.      Make two sentences.

2.      Join the two clauses by using a comma and a coordinating conjunction.

3.      Join the two clauses with a semicolon.

4.      Join the two clauses with a semicolon and a connector with a comma (but not a coordinating conjunction.

5.      Subordinate one of the clauses.

Writing 1 Grammar Plans

WRITING 1 GRAMMAR PLANS

Fall	Topic
1	THE SENTENCE
	The Sentence
	Fragment & Run-on
2	PARTS OF SPEECH
	Verb
3	Noun, Pronoun
4	Adjective, Adverb, Preposition
5	Conjunction, Interjection
6	QUIZ
7	TYPES OF SENTENCES
	Declarative, Interrogative
	Imperative,  Exclamatory
8	SENTENCE STRUCTURES
	Simple, Compound, Complex
	Compound – Complex
9	PROBLEMS WITH SENTENCES
	Incomplete, Run-on, Comma Splice
10	QUIZ
11	AGREEMENT:  SUBJECT-VERB, PRONOUN-ANTECEDENT
	Subject-verb agreement
	Pronoun-antecedent agreement
12	PARALLEL STRUCTURE
	Using coordinating conjunctions in parallel structure
	Words in a series, Phrases in a series
	Prepositional phrases
13	Gerund (noun) phrases
	Participial phrases, Infinitive phrases
	Clauses and sentences in a series
14	TEST
Spring	Topic
1	PHRASES
	Prepositional, Appositive phrases
2	Participial phrases, Gerund phrases
3	Restrictive phrases, Infinitive phrases
4	CORRELATIVE CONJUNCTIONS
	Using Correlative conjunctions in a parallel structure
	Words, phrases, clauses with correlative conjunctions
5	QUIZ
6	CLAUSES
	Dependent clauses, Noun clauses
	Adjective clauses, Adverb clauses
7	COORDINATION & SUBORDINATION (CLAUSES)
	Coordinating conjunctions
	Correlative conjunctions
	In compound and complex sentences
8	QUIZ
	MISPLACED AND DANGLING MODIFIERS
9 - 10	WORD USAGE ERRORS
11	MASTERING THE COMMA
	In a Series, In Sentence Structures
12	With phrases and clauses
13	Review
14	TEST

Writing 1 Class Notes -- Week 1 (August 29)

Greetings!

We had a great first day in class.  I'm glad to be back in class at CHAT and working with some hard-working homeschool students.  Though the set-up at Grace is different, it seems to me that students are doing well with the change.  I anticipate a great year!

My focus for the first week is to get to know the students and to introduce the materials.  I start all of my classes with a Quick Write, and today's was "I am _________ summer is over because ______ ..."  The aim of the Quick Write is to get the students thinking in a writing sort of way.  The writing prompts for these are either light-hearted or seasonal or related to a current event.  I collect and read them, but don't correct or grade them.  

Another activity that I include at the beginning of class is a Word of the Day.  Since writing is made of words, I like to explore various types of words in order to expand our vocabulary.  Using a book of foreign words and phrases, I had the students select words that began with a letter on the "letter" dice that they rolled.  This week we had "anabasis" (a military advance) and "obbligato"  (an elaborate especially melodic part accompanying a solo or principal melody).

I handed out the following papers to the class:

Classroom Policies

Writing 1 Fall Syllabus

Essay Rubric for Writing 1 Essays

Week 1 Grammar Handout

Background information for Animal Farm

Animal Farm Study Guide

Pre-Writing Strategies

Description Essay

We discussed the Classroom Policies handout, and part of their homework assignment is to have parents read and initial it. On it I mention 2 additional online resources that I use for the class:  a blog (http://chatwriting1.blogspot.com) and Dropbox (www.dropbox.com)  On the blog I will post the content of the Class Notes e-mails, copies of any handouts, video lessons, and posts with any interesting information or links related to our studies. Dropbox is an online document storage site, and I will have all of the handouts available there.  I will also send as attachments any papers handed out in class.  This may seem like a bit of overkill (having information in 3 places), but since I've been doing this I haven't had any instances of missing worksheets, etc.  You will be getting an invitation to join the Dropbox folder for Writing 1.  

During this fall semester, the class will write 4 essays.  The rough draft for our first one, a Descriptive Essay, is due next week.  The first two essays will be done in 2 steps:  rough draft and final draft.  As the essays become more complex, we'll write them in 3 steps:  pre-writing, rough draft, and final draft.  

The book we're reading for the first part of the semester is Animal Farm (George Orwell).  Orwell called this book a "fairy tale," and we talked about elements that you might find in a make-believe fairy tale.  They are to be on the lookout for these elements in the book.  They won't really find any, which is part of the irony of the book itself.  They have a handout that discusses socialism, communism, Stalin, and Trotsky in addition to a study guide.  I'm looking forward to discussing the book with them.

Assignments for Next Week:

-- Have a parent read through the Classroom Policies handout and initial it.

-- Read the background information about Animal Farm

-- Read the Introduction in Animal Farm

-- Write a paragraph entitled "What Makes a Good Leader"

-- Write the rough draft of the Descriptive Essay

Have a great weekend!

Mrs. Prichard

Welcome to Writing 1, Fall 2013

Welcome to Writing 1!

Registrations are coming in, and Kim Nelson has sent out updated class rosters to the tutors.  I'm excited to see this class fill up.  

The students will be reading Animal Farm (Orwell) and A Christmas Carol (Dickens) this semester.  I will buy these books for the students.  I order almost all of my books from Dover Publications because they are so inexpensive.  Dover doesn't carry Animal Farm, so I get used copies at book sales, Half-Price Books, etc.  If you have a copy of Animal Farm that you would like to use, let me know, and I will adjust the supply fee.

The only items your student needs to bring to class, along with some paper and a pen/pencil, is a notebook or folder to keep track of assignments, handouts, worksheets, and class notes.

I'm looking forward to a new group of students and starting a fresh year of writing.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Tammy Prichard

General Comments about Spring 2013 Grades

Grades for the Spring semester have been sent out.  I've divided the scores into 4 categories:  Writing, Literature, Grammar, and a Combined Score.  Sometimes a student is stronger, or weaker, in one area, so it helps to know the breakdown of the scores.  As I've said before, these grades are suggestions for you as homeschoolers.  Writing is a challenging subject to grade.   As homeschooling parents, you know that  some children are "naturals" in an area while others put a lot of extra time and effort in order to achieve the same results.  Sometimes a high score means quality and sometimes it means quantity.

I've thoroughly enjoyed this class this year.  We had a good sense of community, and I believe we learned a lot.  I hope to see many of you next year in Writing 2!

Writing 1 Class Notes -- May 8 (Week 15 -- Final Class)

Greetings!

Well, we're done with another wonderful year of writing.  I've had a great 2 semesters teaching these hardworking students.  For our last class together, we had a little more fun than work.

For our Quick Write, the students were told to write a "There is" sentence.  All year we've discussed how sentences using this kind of construction are weak and wordy.  "Lame," as a student from another class called them.  Once they had a sentence written, they handed their papers to the person on the right who would write another "there is" sentence to continue the story.  We did this 4 times.  My favorite set of sentences was:

1. There is anger in Mrs. Prichard because I just use the phrase "there is."
2. There is anger in Mrs. Prichard because I just used the phrase "there is" because I could.
3. There will be fire in Mrs. Prichard's eyes because we have all used the phrase "there is" multiple times.
4. There might be a clown, Mrs. Prichard's dad, in the class today.

Our next activity for the day was a "Rhyme Off."  Like a spelling bee, we went around the class coming up with sentences that rhymed with a given word.  If they couldn't think of any or repeated a word, they had to sit down.  Due to the clues and extra time given, it really wasn't very competitive.

Our last activity of the day was our Final Exam, which looked an awful lot like a Bingo Game.  The students brought prizes to add to the ones that I had.  (Our town has a HUGE booksale in April, and on the last day, you can get a bag of books for $5.  All of my prizes came from that sale.)  They each had 2 cards with titles, authors, grammatical and writing terms, and punctuation marks.  I would give clues, and as a class they would give the answer.  Since I limited the prizes to 3 a piece, they could trade/steal prizes from classmates.  As always, some items were more sought after and others were quickly abandoned.

As I've said, I've had a great time teaching this class.  I will have Grades out within the next few days.  I'd like to direct you to a blog post that I wrote after the first semester.  This gives my thoughts on grading.  

Next year I will again be teaching Writing 1, Writing 2, Writing 3 -- Research and Writing (fall semester), British Literature (spring semester) and a new class, Latin I.  You can find descriptions and schedule on the CHAT website.  I hope to see many of you again!

This week's blog

Have a great summer!

Mrs. Prichard

The Value of Reflection Papers

I've asked my students from my classes this year to write an end-of-the-year paper that will cause them to reflect on their classes and on themselves as students.  They groaned a bit because  they realized they would have to put some deliberate thought into this assignment.  

I thought I'd give some of my thoughts about reflective work that students can do in order to be more effective learners.  Reflection, put simply, is looking back and thinking about what you've done, where you've been, what activities you've been involved in, and what you've learned.  It's taking time to allow think about the information you've learned and your performance as a student.  When students take time to "think about their thinking," it affects their retention and enables them in future studies.

How does this happen?  Firstly, when a student is forced (at least that's how if might feel to him) to take stock of what he's learned and how he's learned, he owns his education to a greater degree.  He not only has learned stuff, but he's aware that he's learned it.  He also might be more aware of how he learned it.  Secondly, being reflective helps them in future classes.  The more a student is aware of how he learns, the better he will learn new material.  According to Republic Polytechnic in Singapore, "Learning is not just a process of accumulation of information. Instead it is about how the new knowledge that the learner encounters is integrated with his existing schemata of prior knowledge ... Reflective thinking is not only an organic component in the learning cycle, it is simultaneously the very ground from which knowledge and belief spring.  Reflective thinking, in short, is both process and product."

Other thoughts about reflection:
1.  Reflection helps turn an experience or academic information into genuine learning.  It's crucial for integrating material in a real way.
2.  Reflection helps a student assess his own goals, values, and progress.
3.  Reflection can help improve basic academic skills; it promotes a deeper understanding of the class materials and its relations to the rest of the world.
4.  Reflection papers force a student into higher level thinking by causing them to look at his own personal development, sense of self-awareness, and capacities.
5.  The writing process itself often brings new ideas to mind.