Using Commas

Comma games online: 
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/grammar/punctuation.htm
-- Select Comma Chameleon

Quiz: http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/language_arts/punctuation_comma/quiz2140.html

or http://www.softschools.com/quizzes/grammar/using_commas/quiz1004.html

http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hme/6_8/grammar/gr6/launcher.html?qid=0605

Here is the packet we did:  COMMA RULES.docx
And the answer key: COMMA RULES Answer Key.docx 

Here are the rules:

p Rule #1. Use a comma after every item in a series except the last one.  The series, a group of three or more, may be made of words, phrases, or clauses.

p Rule #2. Use commas after first, second, third, etc., when these words introduce a series.

p Rule #3.  When there are two or more coordinate adjectives, use commas between them.  .  If you can test the adjectives by putting “and” between them, they are coordinate.  If you cannot use “and” between them, they are probably not coordinate and will not require a comma.  

             Another test you can use is to switch the adjectives, and if you can switch them, and they

             still sound right, they are probably coordinate.
        

Example: He is a strong, healthy man. We could also say healthy, strong man. Example: We stayed at an expensive summer resort. We would not say summer expensive resort, so no comma.   From http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/commas.asp

p Rule # 4. Use commas to separate introductory words, long phrases, and clauses from the rest of the sentence.

Examples:  Actually, he was invited to the party.                         Consequently, Sue wasn’t able to move to New York.                         Unfortunately, Grandmother had to spend several weeks                               in the hospital.             When considering rules 4 and 5, when in doubt use the comma.

p Rule #5. When there are little pauses (after a short introductory word or phrase), the comma may be left out.

p Rule #6.  Use commas to separate words, phrases, or clauses that interrupt the train of thought in a sentence.  This includes interjections and weak exclamations.

p Rule #7.  Set off nouns of direct address with commas.

p Rule #8. Use commas to set off most appositives.  An appositive is a word or phrase that identifies or renames a noun or pronoun.  However, when an appositive is a single name, it is not usually set off with commas.

p Rule #9.  Use commas to set off explanatory words in a direct quote. 

p Rule #10. Commas are not used to set off an indirect quote from the rest of the sentence.

p Rule #11. COMPOUND SENTENCES: When joining two complete sentences (independent clauses) with a coordinating conjunction, use a comma before the conjunction. 

p Rule #12. Commas in dates should separate the day of the month and the year and the date itself from the rest of the sentence.  Commas are not used to separate the month and the day or the month and the year.

p Rule #13.  Commas should separate cities from states and countries.  These items should, as with dates, be separated from the sentence as well.

p Rule #14. When an address is used in the context of a sentence, separate items with commas in the same way they would be separated on an envelope.  Do not, however, separate the state from the ZIP code.

p Rule #15.  Use a comma following the greeting in a friendly letter.  Use a comma after the closing of all letters.

Word Parts 2018-2019

Word Parts for 2018-2019

American Fork English Department Word Roots

Common Latin Roots
audi	hear	auditory, audience, audit, auditorium, audible, inaudible, audition
dict	speak	dictate, predict, dictator, edict, contradict, dictation, indict, prediction
ject	throw	reject,  inject, projection, interjection, eject, objection, dejection
port	carry	transport, transportation, import, export, porter, portable, report, support
rupt	break	rupture, erupt, eruption, interrupt, interruption, disruption
scrib/script	write	scribe,  describe, manuscript, inscription, transcript, description, prescription
spect	see, look	spectator, inspect, inspector, respect, spectacle, spectacular
struct	build	structure, construct, construction, instruct, destruction, reconstruction
tract	pull	tractor, traction, attract, subtraction, extract, retract, attractive
vis, vid	see	vision, visual, visit,  supervisor, invisible, vista, visualize, visionary

          

Common Greek Roots
auto	self	automatic, autograph, autobiography, automobile, autocracy
bio	life	biology,  biosphere, biography, biochemistry, biometrics, biophysics
graph	write	graphite, geography, graphic, photograph, phonograph
hydro	water	anhydrous, dehydration,  hydrogen, hydrant, hydrostatic, hydrophobia, hydrotherapy, hydroplane
meter	measure	speedometer,  odometer, metronome, thermometer, chronometer, perimeter, hydrometer
ology	study of	geology, theology, zoology, meteorology, phonology
photo	light	photography, photocopy, photosynthesis, phototropism, photostat,  photogenic
scope	examine	periscope,  stethoscope, telescope, microscope, microscopic
tele	far	telephone, telepathy, telegraph, television
therm	heat	thermos, thermodynamics, thermostat, thermophysics

tele = far

vis or vid  = see

"John Baird coined the word TELEVISION by uniting the Greek word tele (“distant” or “far”) with the Latin word vision (“to see”). Had the word been all Greek or all Latin, we might be complaining that there’s nothing to watch on the teleopsis or the proculvision." from Brian P. Cleary

What other words can you think of that include the word parts "tele-" or "vid" or "vis"?

therm =  heat

meter =  measure

Projection 

project = throw forward

Interjection 

Inter = between 

ject = throw 

Auditorium

audi = hear
-tory = a place for

 

pre = before

dict = speak

What other words can you think of that include 

the word parts "pre-" or "dict"?

auto = self

bio = life

graph = write
What  words can you think of that include 

the word parts "auto" or "bio" or "graph"?

Since "micro" means "extremely small," what does microscope mean? 

Paul Revere’s Ride    

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807 - 1882

Stanza 1

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive 
Who remembers that famous day and year.              (5)

Stanza 2
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,                       belfry =
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry-arch                        a space for hanging bells in a church tower
Of the North-Church-tower, as a signal-light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;                             (10)
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country-folk to be up and to arm.”

Stanza 3
Then he said “Good night!” and with muffled oar     (15)
Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay,
Where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war:
A phantom ship, with each mast and spar                  (20)
Across the moon, like a prison-bar,
And a huge black hulk, that was magnified 
By its own reflection in the tide.

Stanza 4
Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street
Wanders and watches with eager ears,                        (25)
Till in the silence around him he hears 
The muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, 
And the measured tread of the grenadiers 
Marching down to their boats on the shore.                (30)

Stanza 5
Then he climbed to the tower of the church,
Up the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry-chamber overhead,
And startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made              sombre: dark or dull in color or tone; gloomy.
Masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,
To the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down
A moment on the roofs of the town,                             (40)
And the moonlight flowing over all.

Stanza 6
Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, 
In their night-encampment on the hill, 
Wrapped in silence so deep and still 
That he could hear, like a sentinel’s tread,                    (45)
The watchful night-wind, as it went 
Creeping along from tent to tent, 
And seeming to whisper, “All is well!” 
A moment only he feels the spell 
Of the place and the hour, and the secret dread             (50)
Of the lonely belfry and the dead; 
For suddenly all his thoughts are bent 
On a shadowy something far away, 
Where the river widens to meet the bay, --
A line of black, that bends and floats                              (55)
On the rising tide, like a bridge of boats.

Stanza 7
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, 
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride, 
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse’s side,                                       (60)
Now gazed on the landscape far and near, 
Then impetuous stamped the earth, 
And turned and tightened his saddle-girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search 
The belfry-tower of the old North Church,                      (65)
As it rose above the graves on the hill, 
Lonely and spectral and sombre and still.
And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height, 
A glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns,                    (70)
But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight 
A second lamp in the belfry burns!

Stanza 8
A hurry of hoofs in a village-street,
A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, 
And beneath from the pebbles, in passing, a spark            (75)
Struck out by a steed that flies fearless and fleet: 
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light, 
The fate of a nation was riding that night; 
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, 
Kindled the land into flame with its heat.                            (80)

Stanza 9
He has left the village and mounted the steep,
And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;
And under the alders, that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,                       (85)
Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides.

Stanza 10
It was twelve by the village clock
When he crossed the bridge into Medford town.
He heard the crowing of the cock, 
And the barking of the farmer’s dog,                                      (90)
And felt the damp of the river-fog,
That rises when the sun goes down.

Stanza 11
It was one by the village clock,
When he galloped into Lexington. 
He saw the gilded weathercock                                                 (95)
Swim in the moonlight as he passed, 
And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, 
Gaze at him with a spectral glare, 
As if they already stood aghast 
At the bloody work they would look upon.                             (100)

Stanza 12
It was two by the village clock,
When be came to the bridge in Concord town. 
He heard the bleating of the flock, 
And the twitter of birds among the trees, 
And felt the breath of the morning breeze                                (105)
Blowing over the meadows brown.
And one was safe and asleep in his bed
Who at the bridge would be first to fall,
Who that day would be lying dead,
Pierced by a British musket-ball.                                              (110)

Stanza 13
You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled,--
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farmyard-wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,                                       (115)
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

Stanza 14
So through the night rode Paul Revere;
And so through the night went his cry of alarm                        (120)
To every Middlesex village and farm,-- 
A cry of defiance, and not of fear,
A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,
And a word that shall echo forevermore!
For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,                                   (125)
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.                                (130)

The real story of Paul Revere's Ride:  https://www.paulreverehouse.org/ride/real.html

Andy Griffith tells about Paul Revere's Ride:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QGe9kfqddQ

Super Teacher!

Context Clues Lesson

What happens when we don't have a context for understanding?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybcvlxivscw&nohtml5=False
begin at 37 seconds


Practice with sentences -- using context clues to understand unfamiliar words.

Here is the document to study for Context Clues: LessonAideContextClues.docx







Copy this into your composition book:
Some Types of Context Clues   April 15

• Synonym
• Definition
• Noticing what the word is doing in the sentence: which part of speech it is.
• Antonym
• Familiar Words the unfamiliar word sounds like -- that would help it make sense
• Word parts 
• Repeated words or synonyms

More Examples for the March Book of the Month

From How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg


                     This                           affects this              in this way.

Page	Individual, idea, event, setting, situation that is influencing or affecting something else	Individual, idea, event, setting, situation that being influenced or affected	How is the one influencing or affecting the other?
??	George Washington's doctors.	George Washington	They drained half the blood out of his body. and gave him the blister beetle treatment, so they made him even sicker, and contributed to his death.
??	Beethoven's Dad	Beethoven as a child	His dad forced him to practice the "piano," so Beethoven became a musical genius.

Page	Individual, idea, event, setting, situation that is influencing or affecting something else	Individual, idea, event, setting, situation that being influenced or affected	How is the one influencing or affecting the other?
??	beginning to lose his hearing when he was 27 years old, and eventually going deaf	Beethoven	He had to imagine the music he couldn't hear, and he still composed music, including his famous Ninth Symphony.
??	Being deaf	Beethoven's life choices	It made him not want to be with people, especially ladies, so was a bachelor and didn't have any children to pass his musical talent on to.