Friday, February 19, 2016

Monday/Tuesday, February 22/23, 2016



Announcements and Reminders:
      
If you did not yet pass off with me your sentence with an 
independent clause,
dependent clause, and 
prepositional phrase,  
see me with it as soon as you can. 

Example:
Santa delivered all the gifts even though Rudolph was sick with the flu.
independent clause:  Santa delivered all the gifts
dependent clause:  even though Rudolph was sick
prepositional phrase:  with the flu

Prepositions  
at 
by
for
from 
in
of 
on
to
with



Here is the handout: Practice with Clauses and Phrases.docx
See the end of this post for another way of looking at phrases and clauses.



You will need to complete, revise, and edit your argument and informational essays on your time now.  Get those done as soon as possible.  Use  the rubrics and graphic organizers to check your own work.  Email me to let me know what you have changed. 

This post provides samples and directions to help you as your work on your essays.  Also, be sure to read the messages I have left you on UtahCompose.

Handouts and Links for Your Essays


About the Informational Essay

Writing an Informational Essay


If you do not have a central idea for your informational essay and do not have it organized already, make sure you pick up a graphic organizer today, and fill it out. 

Your informational essay is not intended to repeat what you read in How They Croaked.  It is to present additional information about that person.

We've added another sample informational essay:  Sample Informational Essay by Adeleigh W.






Do not forget to register for 8th grade by Thursday, February 25.


                                                                  


This Tuesday during Cavetime, all seventh graders will go to the talent show. 

Ms. Dorsey will be working with the Mock Trial Team during Cavetimes for the rest of the week, but will be back to a regular Cavetime schedule next week.



Next time we will go to the computer lab to take the district/school writing test -- argument writing - on Utah Compose.  
The class with the biggest improvement will have a party.  How do root beer floats sound?
                                                           




Targets for Today:

  • I can recognize and write with clauses and phrases.
  • I can use comma rules for items in a series,  for ordinal numbers (first, second, third. . . ., and for coordinate (equal) adjectives.  
  • I can pick out and elaborate on evidence found in articles and other texts about a topic.




Today’s  Agenda:
Pick up your composition book.

Pass off your clauses and a phrase sentence with Ms. Dorsey.

1. Comma Rules -- DO ONLY THE FIRST PAGE.
Designated students will check your work.  Make sure you understand the comma rules on that first page of the packet. 

2. Practice for picking out evidence from texts and elaborating on it. 
Place the quotes you select in quotation marks.
Example:  
"It rots the sense in the head! It kills imagination dead!  It clogs and clutters up the mind!  It makes a child so dull and blind" (Dahl).
Then add some elaboration:  
Dahl sees things as they are.  Television is harmful! 

3. If time, work on recognizing Argument Vocabulary
A1 did not.




If You Were Absent:
See above.

Pick up the handouts or download and print them:

 Quotes and Notes -- Mining evidence from texts. 


Do only the first page:
COMMA RULES.docx




Another way of looking at phrases and clauses -- (The phrase is compared to only part of a person. Gross, huh?)


2. Phrases, Dependent Clauses, and Independent Clauses 
Not all groups of words are sentences!
Some are phrases.
Some are dependent clauses.
Some are independent clauses
which can also be called sentences.
A phrase is a group of words that does NOT have both a subject and a verb.
A dependent clause has both a subject and a verb, but something (usually a conjunction at the beginning of it) keeps it from being a complete thought (sentence).
An independent clause has both a subject and a verb and states a complete thought.
Examples:
Just going out and having fun

in the rain

laughing uncontrollably

three seventh graders
Examples:
because there is an elephant in the hallway



Example:
The boy is running.