February 10/11, 2009

February 10/11, 2009

Don't forget to bring your change for Penny Warz.

Especially -- notice how close we're getting to the due date for the Book-of-the Month Assessment. You're doing this on your own. Carefully study the assignment, and follow directions. Notice the example on the bulletin board near the classroom door.

1. Capitalization/Punctuation exercise (If you are absent, copy this, double-space it, and show how you would punctuate it. -- Or ask for the worksheet -- Follow the directions! Hint: There are two entirely different ways to interpret this letter, and the difference is in the punctuation!)

Punctuation Counts!
Directions: Do your best to correctly punctuate this letter without adding, subtracting or changing any of the words.
Dear John,
I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I yearn for you I have no feelings whatsoever when we are apart I can be forever happy will you let me be yours Gloria

2. Read chapter 7 and 8 of Words By Heart. Write down questions, observations, unfamiliar words, predictions, and perhaps draw a picture to illustrate.
Examples of questions like those you could ask for your own Book-of-the-Month:
p. 56 What is a sickle?
p. 61 What is a "kangaroo pocket"? (think and search) -- You need to look back at page 56-57.
p. 65 What is a piano roll, a player piano?
p. 68 What is molasses?
p. 69 Were the books mentioned on page 69 real books that people would have been reading in 1910? Cook's Voyages, Mr. Dickens, Mr. Alger, Mrs. Fanny Fern?


3. Begin drafting your personal narrative essay. You need a rough draft for our next class time when we will go into the computer lab to type the essay. See nearby post.

March 24, 2008

March 24, 2008
Self-Starter:
Copy these sentences onto a sheet of lined paper under "word work" :

1. Mrs. Kwan later became the director of the museum.

2. It rained hard during the night.

3. The boy climbed carefully up the tree.

Now,
a. Label any prepositions.
1. Mrs. Kwan later became the director of the museum.
The preposition is "of."

b. Put parentheses around the prepositional phrase, and label any nouns or pronouns and adjectives or articles in the prepositional phase.
1. Mrs. Kwan later became the director (of the museum).
The preposition is "of," the adjective/article is "the," and the noun is "museum."

c. Find and label the verb.
1. Mrs. Kwan later became the director (of the museum).
The verb (predicate) is "became."

d. Find and label the subject (noun or pronoun).
1. Mrs. Kwan later became the director (of the museum).
The subject (proper noun) is "Mrs. Kwan."

e. Label any other "a's, an's, or the's" as articles or adjectives.

f. In sentence #1 you have another noun which is "director." (A director is a person, right? So it is a noun.) It is a predicate noun, linked to the subject by the verb "became."

g. Check any words left over to see if they are adverbs or adjectives. If a word gives more information (describes) a noun, it is an adjective. If it gives more information (describes) a verb, it is an adverb.

After you have marked sentence #1, go ahead and mark the parts of speech for sentences #2 and #3.

Today we also worked on learning how to better write a personal narrative.
If you were absent, use the textbook Write Source 2000, pages 153-157 to fill out the blanks on the handout.
We read two sample stories, one in the Write Source 2000 book on page 154, and the other in our literature textbook on pages 136-137.
What did you learn from Write Source 2000 about writing a personal narrative?

Next time, you will need to write (and basically finish) a personal narrative about a time when you were either
frightened, embarrassed, proud, laughing a lot, sick or hurt, lost or separated from your group, forgetful, ashamed, stressed, or really happy.
Come prepared.

On Friday, you will do a writing test (assigned by the District) on GoMYAccess. It will be on a different topic than the personal narrative you are writing today and Wednesday.