Guest Speaker

Guest Speaker
Thanks, Mr. Napierski!

(Thanks to The Provo Herald for image.)

April 23/24 Computer Lab

April 23/24 Computer Lab -- Heroes Assignment

We'll be in a computer lab again on April 23/24 to write an essay on MYAccess. This will be about heroes. We'll use the MYAccess prompt about "Character Traits." Notice that I have modified the prompt from the way it is presented on MYAccess.

Character Traits

Character traits in fictional or real people may have positive or negative effects on the people around them.

Select a person, real or fictional, who possesses character traits that influence others in a positive way. This is someone who could be considered a hero. You may write about a real person (someone you know or know quite a bit about, or one of the real people from Ice Story, or about one of the fictional characters from the class novels we have read this year. You could use a character from The Giver, Words By Heart, The Outsiders, or Stand Tall. Don't use characters from other novels or other books -- only from the ones we've read as a class.

Write an essay in which you describe this person's character traits and provide examples of how these traits affect other people. If you wish to, you may try writing about the character traits you find in several of these characters or people and how these are the traits of a hero.

--- Use the words "positive influence" and/or "positively influence," and the words "character trait(s)."

Your score will be based on how well you:

develop a multi-paragraph response to the assigned topic that clearly communicates your controlling idea to the audience.

support your controlling idea with meaningful examples, reasons, and information based upon your research or readings.

organize your essay in a clear and logical manner, including an introduction, body, and conclusion.

use well-structured sentences and language that are appropriate for your audience.

edit your work to conform to the conventions of standard American English.

Use any of the tools available to you, such as the Checklist, Spellchecker, or Graphic Organizer.

You will have unlimited opportunities to revise until about May 20th.

March 23/24, 2009

March 23/24, 2009

Pick up your composition books.
1. Test Preparation exercise -- Reading for main idea and details. (If you were absent, see me for a copy of the practice test questions.)
2. When finished, write in your composition book: Whom do you consider a hero and why?
3. Receive Book-of-the-Month Approvals and Reading Logs.
Look for a book you could highly recommend to other students.
We will go to the media center next time.
4. Sentenced! (Here comes the Judge! Oh, Brother. . .)
Sentenced to the "chain gang," chaining together words and punctuation to create complete, correct sentences.
Tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to yourself about what you understand and don't understand about sentences.

How much do YOU know about sentences?
Verbs -- the Core of the sentence, the most important part.
Subjects of the sentence (nouns or their replacements) -- Answer (or ask) the question who or what is the verb giving information about?

If you were absent, see me for the worksheet students filled out while watching a PowerPoint about sentences. You may ask a classmate for the answers to fill in your paper.

We played a game to practice identifying subjects and verbs.


Coming Attractions:
-- Heroes and the novel Stand Tall
Superman? Vietnam War, being different, going through hard times, helping others
Who is a hero? Why? What are the qualities of a hero? Can you be a hero?
-- What is the difference between an independent clause (a sentence) and a dependent clause?
-- More test preparation




The etymology of the word Sentence:
c.1290, "doctrine, authoritative teaching," from O.Fr. sentence (12c.), from L. sententia "thought, meaning, judgment, opinion," from sentientem, prp. of sentire "be of opinion, feel, perceive" (see sense). Loss of first -i- in L. by dissimilation. Meaning "punishment imposed by a court" is from c.1300; that of "grammatically complete statement" is attested from 1447, from notion of "meaning," then "meaning expressed in words." The verb meaning "to pass judgment" is recorded from c.1400.