Example of a Prepositions Poster

SVID and SVPnom/Padj.

Hi class,

Today we took some notes on the indirect objects and direct objects that go with action verbs, and the predicate nominatives or predicate adjectives that go with linking verbs.  See the last post for the information on that.  There are screenshots on the notes on Edmodo.  We will finish exercise 5 in class tomorrow - all you had to do tonight was...

Homework: finish crossing off prepositional phrases from exercise 5... and watch the video about sentence diagramming below.  If you lost exercise 5, I put a copy up on Edmodo.

Revisiting Verbs and Introducing Objects

Hi folks, remember when we talked about action verbs and linking verbs (and even helping verbs)?  Well, we are going to build off that discussion tomorrow!  Today we are going to learn about objects!  Below are the notes that you will need.

Action Verbs – These are things that you do.   They can have Indirect Objects and Direct Objects.  Remember the almighty pattern: SVID

Direct Objects = ask “Who?” or “What?” after an action verb.  They are always afterthe action verb.  They are always nouns or pronouns.

Indirect Objects = ask “To whom?” “For whom?”  or “For what?” “To What?” If you have an indirect object, there always needs to be an action verb and a direct object. REMEMBER SVID!

Linking Verbs – These link the subject to a word that describes (Predicate Adjective, which is an adjective) or renames (Predicate Nominative, which is a noun) the subject.

We have some exercises to do in class, and then we will take it one step further for homework.

Homework:  We are flipping again!  I'm going to be teaching you another lesson by video.  In the video, I will ask you to do do two simple tasks.  Bring those tasks into class the following day!

Dialog Rules (Re-posted)

A) Cap. Quote Rule - A direct quote usually begins with a capital letter.

Right: Mr. Stowell exclaimed, "Grammar rocks!"
Wrong: Mr. Stowell exclaimed, "grammar rocks!"

B) Change-up Rule - Every time you change a speaker, you start a new paragraph...but only do so when you CHANGE the speaker!

Right: 
      Once upon a time there was a teacher who loved grammar.  "I love grammar," the teacher said.  He tried to convince his class grammar was cool.  "Isn't this so much fun?" he asked.
      "No, it is not fun at all!" the class replied in unison.
      "Oh."  Mr. Stowell walked away, dejected.

C) Tag Rule - speaker tags are the typical "he said" or "she said" phrases.  Note the punctuation in the examples.

Right:  "I never know what to say," said Mr. Stowell.
Wrong: "I never know what to say" said Mr. Stowell.
Right:  Mr. Stowell asked, "How do I convince them?"
Wrong: Mr. Stowell asked "How do I convince them?"

D) Continue Quote Rule - When a quoted sentence is interrupted by a speech tag, follow the example on properly punctuating.

Right: "I think I'll have some ice cream," ordered Mr. Stowell, "with my pepperoni pizza!"
Wrong:  "I think I'll have some ice cream," ordered Mr. Stowell, "With my pepperoni pizza!"

E) Inception Quote Rule - When you have a quote inside of a quote, the inside quote gets single quotation marks.

Right:  "I can't believe Mr. Stowell said, 'No more homework ever again!' at the end of class today," Mary exclaimed.
Wrong:  "I can't believe Mr. Stowell said, "No more homework ever again!" at the end of class today," Mary exclaimed.
Right: Mary said, "It was so funny when Mr. Stowell screamed, 'Don't hurt me!'"
Wrong:  Mary said, "It was so funny when Mr. Stowell screamed, "Don't hurt me!""

F) Long Quote Rule - When a quotation goes on for several uninterrupted sentences, you only put the quotation marks at the beginning of the first sentence, and the end of the last sentence - NOT on every sentence.

Right:  Mr. Stowell said, "Teaching grammar doesn't have to be boring.  It can be fun, but it's harder to make it fun.  However, I only teach it because I have to for NECAPs.  I'd rather spend my time teaching other things."
Wrong:    Mr. Stowell said, "Teaching grammar doesn't have to be boring." "It can be fun, but it's harder to make it fun." "However, I only teach it because I have to for NECAPs." "I'd rather spend my time teaching other things."

G) Super-long Quote Rule - If a quotation goes on for several uninterrupted PARAGRAPHS, but the open quotation mark at the beginning of every paragraph, but only put a close quotation mark at the end of the last paragraph.  This is too long to give you an example!

H) Inside Punc. Rule - Periods and commas at the end of quotations ALWAYS go inside the quotation marks.  Put a question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!) inside the quotation marks only if they apply to the quotation itself.  If the ? or ! apply to the WHOLE sentence, place them outside of the quotation marks.

Right: It was funny when the lady yelled, "Where's the beef?"
Wrong:  It was funny when the lady yelled, "Where's the beef"?
Right: Did Mr. Stowell really just say, "OMG"?
Wrong: Did Mr. Stowell really just say, "OMG?"

Commonly Confused Words Quiz on Wednesday

Official Announcement:  You will be taking the quiz on Wednesday, in class, through Edmodo, with some kind of technology (that will be provided).  It will be very similar to the flashcards on Quizlet....so study them!

Day 4: Mnemonic Devices

Hi Class,

Happy picture day!  Today we are going to split up these commonly confused words and create mnemonic devices to help you remember them!

You learned a great mnemonic device last year in science: King Henry Drank My Dad's Chocolate Milk to help you remember the metric system.  ROYGBIV helped you remember the color spectrum!

So, today we will go over some of the basic commonly confused words, and then you will have the rest of the time to do one of two things:

A)  Create a full-color poster for one of the pairs (or triplets) of commonly confused words with a mnemonic device to help us remember the difference in meanings of the words, and the difference in spellings.

B)  Type or write neatly in ink 20 sentences, each sentence using one of the commonly confused words correctly.

Homework:  

1)  Don't forget that yesterday's Edmodo assignment, due at 11:59 tonight!  Don't procrastinate!
2)  Finish your sentences, or your mnemonic poster for this TUESDAY.

Commonly Confused Words, Day 3/180

Today...

• we'll review some handshakes...this time with new partners and have have new questions
• we'll introduce the three levels of quizzes you can take (Standard, CP, and Honors), and what it means
• we'll start to go over the flashcards, and introduce you to quizlet.com...a great flashcard place!

Homework:  

1) Study your chosen set of flashcards...see the posts below!

2) Do another edmodo.com exit card.  You have only until 11:59 pm Thursday this time, because now you know how to do it!  You know where to find it!

Quizlet App.

By the way, if you have an iOS device, you can download the Quizlet App, which will help you study these flashcards.  After you install it, look for the user, cmsteacherstowell, (that's me!) and look for the appropriate flashcard set!

You can find the app here:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/quizlet/id546473125?mt=8

It's free!  There are other flashcard apps out there that can use the website, Quizlet.com, where I post my flashcards...just look around for them.

Commonly Confused Words

Okay folks, we are about to get into the academic stuff.  Time to hit you with some grammar....BOOM!  We are going to go over some words that you commonly confuse with meaning and spelling.  We will create some mnemonic devices to help us...and other than that, you need to practice with flashcards.

Now, there are three levels of quiz you can take, split up according to what level of English class you want to shoot for next year: Standard, College-Prep., and Honors.

Below are the links for the three groups of flashcards to study, along with the embeded flashcards that you can study right from here!

Standard:  http://quizlet.com/_7y1mr 

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards

Here is the link for the college-prep list:  http://quizlet.com/_7y1z0

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study college flash cards

xx

And here is the list for the Honors English list:  http://quizlet.com/_7y2e1

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards

Final English Homework for the Year!

Remember the commonly confused word pairs that we've been working on?  Two assignments:

1)  Develop your own exercise sentences for a "quiz."  Write 10 sentences, based off of the ten word pairs that you have selected to work on.

2)  Create a full-color mnemonic device poster for one of those pairs.  Some kids choose to do an acronym or a imagery sentence to help us be able to remember the spelling and meaning difference between each word in the pair.  The poster must have a picture, though the mnemonic device must be able to make sense without a picture.

Both assignments due Friday!

Acronym example (Affect vs. Effect):

Remember

Affect

Verb

Effect

Noun

Imagery Sentence example (Whole vs. Hole):  Whole Whales Have Holes

Major Things That You Need to Know

There are three versions of the quiz for tomorrow, as explained in class.  There are two things you need to memorize:

1) ,FANBOYS

2) What a simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentence is.

simple = 1 independent clause.

compound =  2+ independent clauses joined by ,FANBOYS

complex  = 1 independent and 1+ dependent clauses (no fanboys)

compound-complex = 2+ independent and 1+ dependent clauses.

Last Practice before quiz - Answer Key

Grammar: Clauses (Notes)

Here are some definitions that you need to know to complete the homework:

Phrase:  a group of words that act like a single thing, and doesn't have a subject or verb.  There are many different kinds of phrases, (appositive phrases, gerund phrases, participial phrases, infinitive phrases) but you only know of one: a prepositional phrase.

Clause: A group of words that have both a subject and a verb.

Independent Clause: a clause that is a complete thought on its own; it doesn't need another clause to make sense.

Dependent Clause: A clause that is NOT a complete thought on its own - it needs another clause to make sense!  (It's usually one word that makes the clause dependent - like "because" or "since")

PLEASE NOTE: , +FANBOYS are never included in clauses.  They are the only words that aren't.  They act as joiners of two independent clauses.

PLEASE NOTE: You can have phrases inside of clauses!

Homework: Do both sides of the worksheet, due Monday.

Fanboys

COMMA+FANBOYS

To combine two independent clauses, put a comma (,) and a FANBOY between them.   This is called a COMPOUND SENTENCE! Be careful:  If you forget to have both the comma and the FANBOY, it will be a run-on!

F:  for

A:  and

N:  nor

B:  but

O:  or

Y:  yet

S:   so

Now try this...

After Speeches: What's Next?

This Friday, we have a couple of speeches to finish off, then we will take a brief grammar interlude to talk about clauses: independent and dependent clauses, to be exact!  Here is a lame video that briefly discusses the matter...I think I could make a much better video whenever I have the time...maybe I will.



Anyways, I have some homework for you...yeah, I know, "homework on the weekend?!"  Come-on kids, you've been listening to speeches all week...get over it.

Homework:  Finish exercises ....

Sentence Diagramming: What To Do with Prep. Phrases and Linking Verbs

So today we did more diagramming.  Below you will find an example of how to diagram a sentence that has a linking verb, and a sentence that has a prepositional phrase.

Today's agenda

Diagramming Simple Sentences

Today we are reviewing indirect and direct objects along with prepositional phrases (don't remember what those are? - Search your notes or this blog for them...search for the tag "grammar").

The next thing we are doing is learning how to diagram sentences!  Check out the Youtube video below:

Indirect and Direct Objects

So, we did a little review of verbs today, and introduced some new terms: indirect and direct objects.

Find the handout below:

Grammar Review Time!

Simple Subject  = The person, place, thing, or idea (main noun or a pronoun) that’s the main focus of the sentence.

In commands, the subject is usually an implied “you”.   (You) Do your math questions!

In questions, rephrase the question as a statement. 

                  Why is Ulrick chewing on that rubber chicken ->  Ulrick is chewing on that rubber chicken.

Sentences beginning with “Here”: Subject comes after the verb.

                  Here is a wicked wombat.

Sentences beginning with “There”: Take the “there” off. 

                  There are little green bumps on your face.

Verbs = There are three kinds: Action Verbs, Linking Verbs, and Helping Verbs.

Action Verbs – These are things that you do.   They can have Indirect Objects and Direct Objects.  Remember the almighty pattern: SVID

Direct Objects = ask “Who?” or “What?” after an action verb.  They are always after the action verb.  They are always nouns or pronouns.

Indirect Objects = ask “To whom?” “For whom?”  or “For what?” “To What?”  If you have an indirect object, there always needs to be an action verb and a direct object.  REMEMBER SVID!

Linking Verbs – These link the subject to a word that describes (Predicate Adjective, which is an adjective) or renames (Predicate Nominative, which is a noun) the subject.

Helping verbs – small verbs that help other verbs.         

will sing, is going, have died, have been…..

BIG THING TO REMEMBER: Subjects, Verbs, IO, DO, Predicate Nominatives, Predicate Adjectives are NEVER, EVER, EVER in prepositional phrases – SO CROSS OFF PREP PHRASES AS SOON AS YOU SEE THEM…IT CLEARS THINGS UP!

Homework:  Do exercise 5, plus write 10 sentences: 5 that have a direct object, 5 that have both a direct and indirect object.

Today in class

Today we went over what a preposition is, what is a prepositional phrase, and how to spot them.  See below for the notes on the board.  You have a few things to do to practice before the quiz.

Homework:

Preposition Poster:  15-16 boxes, all full-color, each with a sentence that has a different prepositional phrase, which is underlined.  See the example below.  Due FRIDAY for EVERYONE

Exercise #1:  Circle all of the prepositional phrases you see.  The exercise is on the back of your Prepositions Song.  Due Thursday (Friday for periods 1 and 3)

Second Exercise:  Circle all of the prepositional phrases you see.  Due Friday (Monday for periods 1 and 3)

Prepositions Quiz: It will be just like exercise 1, where you have to circle the correct prepositional phrases.  MONDAY.