Tuesday/Wednesday, January 3/4, 2017

Announcements and Reminders:       Pick up your composition book for today. I will still accept  your December book assessment,       or a revision of it by Friday, January 6.  Staple your typed assessment to the front of the rubric.   Make sure you have a central idea (or two) and seven to ten supporting details with their page numbers.  These are the assignments  you should have completed for How They Croaked.  You may still complete and hand in these in by Friday:   Henry VIII HTC.docx ,    tone in HTC-Cleopatra.docx with Columbus,     I am no longer accepting these:   King Tut Questions - Adapted.docx --        Create the Caesar "doughnut" graphic organizer on the back of King Tut assignment.

Targets for Today: Reading Informational Text Standards 1 and 2 I can recognize and create a central idea. I can recognize and create supporting details for a central idea. Language Standards 1 and 2 I can recognize and use the conventions of writing in English. I can recognize and write simple and compound sentences.

Today’s  Agenda: In your composition book, under Writing Prompts -- Include today's date. 1. Write a paragraph comparing and/or contrasting your Christmas celebration with your New Years celebration. Make sure you have a topic sentence.  Use transitional expressions for comparison and contrast.   Contrast although whereas but however conversely on the other hand in contrast while yet unlike a clear difference instead of  Comparison in the same way, in the same manner and, also, in addition as well as both, neither each of  just as. . . so similarly like too the same likewise again Example Comparison/Contrast Paragraph Pair Share Under your partner's paragraph, sign your name. Write TS and put a ✔ if that person has a good topic sentence. Put a ➖ (minus sign) if not. Write TR and ut a ✔ if that person has used two or more transitional words or phrases. Put a ➖ (minus sign) if not. Conventions in Sentences Investigation  Label this assignment "C.S.I. 2-3" with today's date:   Copy the following sentences into your composition book.   The sentences are labeled correctly.  Judging by these examples, what makes one a "simple sentence" and the other a "compound sentence"?   Also look for other conventions/grammar observations you can make. Simple : Elizabeth was a princess.  Compound: Elizabeth liked her head, and she wanted to keep it. Central Idea and Writing Paragraphs How They Croaked Your central idea needs to be broad enough to cover the supporting details. Non-example:   You want to write about the food, the activities, and the gifts you got on Christmas, and you start the paragraph with this: "For Christmas dinner we had ham, potatoes, and lots of delicious side dishes."   NOT! The supporting details you choose need to support the central idea.  Do all of your details fit under the umbrella of your topic sentence/central idea? If not, you need to adjust/change the umbrella, or change the details.  Let's try it with Mr. Charles Dickens (How They Croaked, pp. 117-123). Central Idea:  Charles Dickens was cruel.  Possible supporting details: Is each of these a supporting detail for the above central idea or not? Yes He kicked his wife out of the house No Yes He wrote A Christmas Carol. No Yes He called his children disrespectful names. No Yes He considered his ten children to be disappointing, expensive, and messy. No Yes He walked ten to twenty miles a day before he sat down to write that day. No Yes He threw a raging fit when his manager tried to help improve Dickens' health by cutting down on his speaking engagements. No Yes He drank a lot while on tour. No Yes He had to go to work when he was twelve years old. No Read How They Croaked, the chapter about  Elizabeth I pp. 43 -47 In your composition book under  "Notes,"  write a central idea sentence and three supporting details for that central idea.

If You Were Absent: See above.

Vocabulary: Notes on Finding or Creating a Central Idea  (aka Main Idea)  Central Idea = topic + the idea the author is stating about the topic Central Idea and Topic Sentence are synonyms. We usually talk about the "Central Idea" when we are talking about nonfiction. The "central idea" in fiction is called the theme. The Central Idea must be a complete sentence. The Central  Idea will NOT be a question.  It must be a statement. Supporting Details: Details, facts, ideas that support the central idea.

Later: How Big is Your Topic?  

A Narrow or a Broad Topic?