How Do You Feel About Daylight Savings Time?

So, what time is it really?  Does it matter?  And do you know this movie?
Extra credit to the first one who can tell me what movie this poster is referring to.  (This depends on your schema -- background knowledge -- or Mom or Dad's!)
Extra credit to the first person who can explain to me what time it really would be if we weren't  on a Daylight Savings Time system. 

Examples of Effective Description

1.   From Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World by Jennifer Armstrong:
         "The whaling station was a rough spot, with the carcasses of blue and humpback whales putrefying in the midnight sun, and the harbor red with blood and shimmering with grease around the oil factory.  Billowing clouds of steam rose from the plant where blubber was being boiled down.  According to Harry McNeish, the ship's Scottish carpenter, "Ye could sniff the aroma if ye were five miles out to wind'ard."  The crew soon gave the harbor the sarcastic name "the Scent Bottle."  From the mountainsides echoed the harsh donkey bray of gentoo penguins, the screech of skuas, and the bellowing of elephant seals."  (pages 12-13)

Extra Credit for finding an example of very effective description in a book.  Show me. 

Thursday, March 15, 2012

1.  Subject/Verb Agreement Lesson

Subject-Verb Agreement Rules for Seventh Graders

Here is a link to a sight that helps you find the SUBJECT of a sentence:  http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/subject.htm



2. Spelling Test Today:

Vocabulary/Spelling #15           Test March 15

 Prefix to study:   pre -  which means   before 
Extra credit is underlined. 

1.      preposition  - noun -- The word part that "position" comes from means "to place."   Preposition  means “to place before.”  A preposition is placed in front of other words that it is joining to a sentence.  It shows the relationship of those words to the rest of the sentence.  No extra credit. 

2.      preview --  noun or verb -- The word part "view" means  "to see." To preview is "to see before." No extra credit.

3.      predict  -- noun  -- extra credit:  The word part "dict" means  " to say."  To predict is "to say before."

4.      precede -- verb  -- extra credit:   The word part "cede" means  "to go or move.”  To precede is “to go before.”  

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3. Receive handout for Next Spelling Text:  

Vocabulary/Spelling #16           Test on March  March 21

•  Suffix to study:   -ment  which means 

                   action, state of, result of

Notice that -ment turns words (usually verbs)  into nouns.
Extra Credit is underlined.

1.     government       gov -  ern   - ment          

             Extra credit: “Govern” comes from a Latin word meaning “to steer” as in steering a ship.  

2.     equipment      e – quip – ment

                Extra credit:  “Equip” comes from an Old Norse (Scandinavia/Norwegian) word meaning “ship” because it originally had to do with fitting out (preparing everything needed for)  a ship.  

     

3.     environment      en-vi-ron-ment

                    Extra credit: “En” means “in.”   “Viron” comes from  “around, circle, turn.”

4.     amendment    a-mend-ment

                     Extra credit: “Amend” means to “correct, or to free from fault.”  (It has “mend” in it.)

                 Do you know about any of the amendments to the Constitution of the United States?

 

4.  Ice Story and Shackleton 

Name Lifeboats -- First choice given by answering questions.

 A1:  Read from    page 25
Video from  second disk 16:14.

A2:   Read from     page 25
Video from 54:13 killing the dogs

A3:  Read from  page 25
Video from  30:10?

A4:  Read from    page 25
From   second disk  28:00 

 

You can read most of the book at http://books.google.com/books?id=CnSxQ9evsJ8C&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false 

If time:  Purpose and Mood: Poem #2 on  Polar Poetry

 

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Reminders

• The term ends next Friday, March 23, so all late, revised, and extra credit work is due by this Friday, March 16.

• Your project for your Book of the Month (nonfiction) is due by March 29.   You should have already signed up for your book.

Create an external text feature  (one) for your individual book -- one your book doesn't already have.   See the rubrics available in the classroom and also available to download and print here.

Bk of Mnth Rubrics 2 for External Text Features.doc

See more information under the tab above for Book of the Month. 

  Subject-Verb Agreement

 

 

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

 Self-Starter: 

Bell-Ringer:  Subject/Verb Agreement  -- Find ten subject-verb agreement errors in the following passage about Antarctica.  Underline the subject, circle the incorrect verb, and write the correction above the circled verb.

     There are a place on earth where few creatures can survive.  The land are covered with ice and snow, and temperatures is far below freezing for most of the year.   Beyond the warm lands of South America, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand lies the cold waters of the Antarctic Ocean.  If all the ice and snow that covers Antarctica was to melt, the world's seas would rise about 250 feet.

     The only creatures that inhabits Antarctica's interior is insects.  However, thousands of penguins lives on the continent's frozen coasts.  Skuas, which you might remember from the movie Happy Feet, is probably the penguins' worst enemy.  Whales and seals also lives in the waters surrounding the continent. Most of the people who live in Antarctica is scientists.

 

Correct Antarctic Subject-Verb Agreement

Subject-Verb Agreement Rules for Seventh Graders

 

*  Purpose and Mood:  Polar Poetry

2.  Apostrophe Test 

3. Ice Story and Shackleton

More Ice Story and External Text Features
 A1:  Read from  page 16 to  page 25
Video from  1:37 to  finished first disk, to second disk 16:14.

A2:   Read from   page 16 to  page 25
Video from beginning of second disk to 54:13 killing the dogs

A3:  Read from page 15 to  page 25
Video from beginning of second disk to 30:10?

A4:  Read from  page 14 to   page 25
From  1:33:42, sighting of open water to   From beginning of second disk to 25: 06 Start again at 28.  

You can read most of the book at http://books.google.com/books?id=CnSxQ9evsJ8C&pg=PA1&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false

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Reminders
    

 Book of the Month Assignment for March
We talked about the Book-of-the-Month Assignment for March.  Create an external text feature  (one) for your individual book -- one your book doesn't already have.   See the rubrics available in the classroom and also available to download and print here.

Bk of Mnth Rubrics 2 for External Text Features.doc

See more information under the tab above for Book of the Month.  

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 Please note that the State Core test will be given in Ms. Dorsey's seventh grade English classes on April 19 and 23.  Parents, encourage your student to be here, to be well rested, to have eaten a healthy breakfast (and lunch), and to bring clear bottle of water.
You can review the state core for seventh grade language arts  and topics that will likely be found on the test from links under the "Seventh Grade Core" tab on our class blog.
This is the first year the test will be taken online for our language arts classes, so we will be in the computer lab for testing.   Thanks.

Subject-Verb Agreement

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sv_agr.htm

Subject and Verb Agreement in Number

Other links:

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/indefinite-pronouns.aspx  Everybody? 

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/subject-verb-agreement.aspx

http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/were-versus-was.aspx

 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/599/01/

http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/agreement_add1.htm

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/agreement_add3.htm 

http://wwwnew.towson.edu/ows/exercisesub-verb.htm

http://www.studyzone.org/testprep/ela4/o/editingsubjectverbl.cfm 

 

Practice:  http://quizlet.com/7630260/esl-subject-verb-agreement-flash-cards/

http://a4esl.org/q/j/ck/mc-vf02.html

Ha! Parents, do have conversations like this with your children?

Neither do I! However, I will give five points extra credit to the first student who comes to tell me what "ennui" is.

Notes on Ice Story

The Merchant Navy is the maritime register of the United Kingdom, and describes the seagoing commercial interests of UK-registered ships and their crews. Merchant Navy vessels fly the Red Ensign, and are regulated by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).  from Wikipedia 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_Navy_%28United_Kingdom%29