Below are the slides we used for our clocking activity this week. If you were unable to participate because you did not have a finished essay, please look through it and complete these activities on your own paper so you will be ready to rewrite your draft in class on Monday.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
Thesis Practice and Emotive Language
For the past two days in class, we have been focusing on revising and improving our essays that we wrote at the end of the 3rd quarter for our "Anthem" test. Here is the prompt we originally addressed.
To begin, we took a look at our thesis. Many of us had great thesis statements, but a few needed some work. So, to review, we practiced thesis writing with the handout below. (The notes written in are from working together as a class; they are not my personal opinions, but examples)
A thesis can be written many different ways, but it should include 3 big things:
Next, we took a look at how we could possibly improve our word choice to increase our emotional appeal. We discussed how an essay should not maintain the same scope of focus throughout the essay, but should have more of an hourglass shape.
The beginning of your essay should be a broad view of the topic and position, giving reasons that apply to many possible examples and scenarios.
In other words,
Instead of: Stealing is sometimes acceptable because a person could be hungry.
Try: Stealing is sometimes acceptable because it could mean the difference between life and death for some.
The second thesis could apply to MANY examples, not just those involving food or starvation. The writer wants to take a broad look at all the possible reasons it may be acceptable to steal.
However, when the writer begins their body paragraphs, they narrow their focus down to one or two SPECIFIC scenarios and examples and gives specific details. Then, the focus begins to widen again as the writer gives their analysis and commentary, explaining how the example relates back to and proves the thesis.
Then, we move into the conclusion and restated thesis, where the focus broadens out again.
So what does this have to do with emotive language?
Well, your introduction and conclusion are the best places to add this emotive language.
Of course, you can add emotive language to any point in your essay, but it has the most impact as an attention grabber and a clincher.
At the beginning of your essay, your reader is still trying to figure out where you stand on a topic and why. In the body paragraphs, you are trying to prove your point. But by the end of the essay, you should not have only convinced your reader that you are right, but you should transfer your passion to them as well! You don't just want them to agree, you want them to be your ally!
To examine how we can use emotive language, we watched three different motivational speeches from classic movies. While we viewed them, we filled out the handout below.
You can view the movie clips below:
Braveheart (Begin at 3:30 to 5:10)
Rocky (Begin at 1:45 to 3:55)
Pursuit of Happyness (sic) (Begin at 0:24)
On Wednesday, we will discuss how we can add emotive language into our on writing and begin our revising and editing activities that will take us through class on Thursday and help us rewrite our final essays.
To begin, we took a look at our thesis. Many of us had great thesis statements, but a few needed some work. So, to review, we practiced thesis writing with the handout below. (The notes written in are from working together as a class; they are not my personal opinions, but examples)
A thesis can be written many different ways, but it should include 3 big things:
- Topic (what the prompt is asking you to write about)
- Position (which side you are taking)
- Reasons (these should not be specific scenarios, but rather general reasons or benefits/consequences of the position)
- First and second person pronouns (I, me, my, you, your)
- Personal opinion statements (I think, I believe, personally, in my opinion)
- Any reference to the quote in the prompt
Next, we took a look at how we could possibly improve our word choice to increase our emotional appeal. We discussed how an essay should not maintain the same scope of focus throughout the essay, but should have more of an hourglass shape.
The beginning of your essay should be a broad view of the topic and position, giving reasons that apply to many possible examples and scenarios.
In other words,
Instead of: Stealing is sometimes acceptable because a person could be hungry.
Try: Stealing is sometimes acceptable because it could mean the difference between life and death for some.
The second thesis could apply to MANY examples, not just those involving food or starvation. The writer wants to take a broad look at all the possible reasons it may be acceptable to steal.
However, when the writer begins their body paragraphs, they narrow their focus down to one or two SPECIFIC scenarios and examples and gives specific details. Then, the focus begins to widen again as the writer gives their analysis and commentary, explaining how the example relates back to and proves the thesis.
Then, we move into the conclusion and restated thesis, where the focus broadens out again.
So what does this have to do with emotive language?
Well, your introduction and conclusion are the best places to add this emotive language.
Of course, you can add emotive language to any point in your essay, but it has the most impact as an attention grabber and a clincher.
At the beginning of your essay, your reader is still trying to figure out where you stand on a topic and why. In the body paragraphs, you are trying to prove your point. But by the end of the essay, you should not have only convinced your reader that you are right, but you should transfer your passion to them as well! You don't just want them to agree, you want them to be your ally!
To examine how we can use emotive language, we watched three different motivational speeches from classic movies. While we viewed them, we filled out the handout below.
You can view the movie clips below:
Braveheart (Begin at 3:30 to 5:10)
Rocky (Begin at 1:45 to 3:55)
Pursuit of Happyness (sic) (Begin at 0:24)
On Wednesday, we will discuss how we can add emotive language into our on writing and begin our revising and editing activities that will take us through class on Thursday and help us rewrite our final essays.
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Revising and Editing + Sentence Notes: Compound-Complex
Today, we discussed two different topics: sentence structure and how to approach revising multiple choice questions. Below is a handout regarding the fourth sentence type to add to your quincunx: compound-complex sentences
If you have your quincunx: Review the powerpoint below and then copy the information from the picture of MY quincux below that.
If you don't have your quincunx: Review the powerpoint below and fill in the blanks on the handout above with the information from the powerpoint.
Everyone: Complete the short practices on the second page of the handout above. Then complete the sentence identification practices on the third page. We will be going over these together on Friday, March 23rd.
Then, we began our practice of revising passages and how to approach these multiple choice questions. Instead of focusing on grammar, spelling, and changes to individual sentences, we have to consider the essay as a whole to accurately answer the questions. So, we began with a strategy called chunking.
Chunking is a strategy where you summarize "chunks" (usually paragraphs) of a passage into a sentence or a single subject. This gives you a sort of outline of a passage that you can use to get a general overview of the focus and organization of the passage itself.
We chunked the first passage of our two revising practices together. When I chunked this passage, I skimmed each paragraph and tried to get an overall idea of what each paragraph discussed.
Then, we moved on to answering the questions with a partner. If you were not in class on block day, print out these practices below and be sure to answer the questions as best as you can. Be ready to discuss and check them over on Friday, March 23rd.
If you have your quincunx: Review the powerpoint below and then copy the information from the picture of MY quincux below that.
If you don't have your quincunx: Review the powerpoint below and fill in the blanks on the handout above with the information from the powerpoint.
Everyone: Complete the short practices on the second page of the handout above. Then complete the sentence identification practices on the third page. We will be going over these together on Friday, March 23rd.
 |
| Sorry for my messy handwriting! |
Then, we began our practice of revising passages and how to approach these multiple choice questions. Instead of focusing on grammar, spelling, and changes to individual sentences, we have to consider the essay as a whole to accurately answer the questions. So, we began with a strategy called chunking.
Chunking is a strategy where you summarize "chunks" (usually paragraphs) of a passage into a sentence or a single subject. This gives you a sort of outline of a passage that you can use to get a general overview of the focus and organization of the passage itself.
We chunked the first passage of our two revising practices together. When I chunked this passage, I skimmed each paragraph and tried to get an overall idea of what each paragraph discussed.
Then, we moved on to answering the questions with a partner. If you were not in class on block day, print out these practices below and be sure to answer the questions as best as you can. Be ready to discuss and check them over on Friday, March 23rd.
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Revising and Editing Practice + Multiple Choice Practice
Today, we began our STAAR prep and practice over revising and editing.
We've been working on revising and editing all year and applying the skills we've learned to our essay, so the purpose of our practices this week is less about learning new skills and more about choosing the right skills to solve the problems we may encounter on the STAAR.
First, we watched the video below that explains the difference between revising and editing because some people thing that revising and editing are the same thing! Can you believe it?!
Actually, revising and editing focus on different aspects of the essay and even utilize different tools and resources.
(We stopped the video at about 1:22 as the rest of the information only relates to research papers)
Then, as a class, we made a list of the differences between revising and editing. Here are the examples below.
Notice that revision is more about large-scale changes. It's about making the essay better as a whole. For revising, the tools you may want to use could include:
When you revise, you may find yourself changing large chunks of your essay. That's okay! That's the whole point! Revising is hard, because it requires you to think of your essay not just as a bunch of separate sentences that are squished together on the page, but as a single thread of thought that you must expertly weave into a tapestry of effective communication.
Editing is about small-scale changes. It's more about the nitty-gritty. Ultimately, editing is easier because it is about making small changes within individual sentences. The tools you may use in editing is:
Editing will make your essay look good, not necessarily sound good. An essay that has been edited but not revised will look beautiful, but say nothing at all. That is why we use BOTH to make our essays effective.
But today, we aren't going to be revising or editing our writing. Instead, we are going to be practicing using our knowledge of editing and revising to determine the correct answer to STAAR formatted problems.
To start, we need to talk about how to tell the difference between revising questions and editing questions.
On the STAAR test, revising and editing are both lumped together in the same section. The only way to quickly and accurately identify if it's an editing passage or a revising passage is to READ THE DIRECTIONS!
Yep, they tell you in the directions which skill they are going to be assessing!
STAAR is ultimately a test of skill and stamina. 5 hours is a LONG time to sit and test! And we know revising is a more difficult skill than editing. Therefore, we don't want to end up wasting energy trying to apply our knowledge of revision to an editing question and vice versa.
For our in-class practice today, we determined it was an editing practice.
That means I really don't have to waste time reading the whole essay, so instead, I skip straight to the questions and only highlight the specific sentences the questions ask about!
And, of course, I made sure to grab my handy dandy dictionary!
In class, we went through and modeled the thinking process for each question in this packet. Here, I will only be doing that for one question.
STAAR questions are usually written to follow a specific format: 2 answer choices are obviously wrong or have a serious flaw, 1 answer choice is close to being correct or seems correct on the surface, and 1 answer choice is flat out the right one.
Looking at A, I can say pretty confidently that A could be the correct answer. "Filed" doesn't seem like it is the word the writer was looking for. It should probably be changed to "filled."
But what if it's supposed to be a fishing term? Hmm...let's check the other answer choices just to make sure.
B might also be right, but only if the word after water - "and" - is acting as a FANBOYS to make a compound sentence. But that would mean that both clauses on either side of the word "and" are independent clauses. But if I look at them, the second phrase after "and" is missing a subject, which means it isn't an independent clause, so it doesn't need a comma.
This means B is incorrect.
Looking at C, I can say that answer choice is incorrect as well, because the "it" is referring to the fish that the writer caught, but the fish is already mentioned in the sentence. Adding "it" would make the sentence repetitive, so C is incorrect.
Answer choice D has me uncertain. I'm not sure if the word "red-bellied" needs a hyphen or not. So, I referred to my dictionary to see if maybe I could find it.
There isn't an entry for "red-bellied," but there IS a definition for red-faced and red-handed. Both refer to parts of the body, so it seems like it would be grammatically acceptable. So I can say that D is also incorrect.
Therefore, answer choice A must be correct.
Seem tedious and extra?
Maybe, but it is important! STAAR questions want to see if you have MASTERED a skill, not just learned a little about it but can't remember the specifics. There will be answer choices that seem right at first glance (like answer choice B) and answer choices that you may not be completely certain about (like answer choice D), so it's best to try to prove why your answer is right and all the others are wrong!
Doing this can also help you eliminate an answer choice such as "Make no change." If you can prove that one of the other answer choices is grammatically correct, then you can be certain that "Make no change" is not a correct answer!
On block day, you will be working with a partner to create a how-to guide about how to select the write answer choice to ONE question from our next in-class multiple choice practice.
We've been working on revising and editing all year and applying the skills we've learned to our essay, so the purpose of our practices this week is less about learning new skills and more about choosing the right skills to solve the problems we may encounter on the STAAR.
First, we watched the video below that explains the difference between revising and editing because some people thing that revising and editing are the same thing! Can you believe it?!
Actually, revising and editing focus on different aspects of the essay and even utilize different tools and resources.
(We stopped the video at about 1:22 as the rest of the information only relates to research papers)
Then, as a class, we made a list of the differences between revising and editing. Here are the examples below.
Notice that revision is more about large-scale changes. It's about making the essay better as a whole. For revising, the tools you may want to use could include:
- An outline! (If you made one...and you should have.)
- A highlighter
- An eraser
- Scrap paper (to write out new ideas, to rewrite new sentences, to rearrange paragraphs)
- Your knowledge of the purpose of the genre and of the prompt you are writing for
When you revise, you may find yourself changing large chunks of your essay. That's okay! That's the whole point! Revising is hard, because it requires you to think of your essay not just as a bunch of separate sentences that are squished together on the page, but as a single thread of thought that you must expertly weave into a tapestry of effective communication.
 |
| Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm being extra again. :) |
Editing is about small-scale changes. It's more about the nitty-gritty. Ultimately, editing is easier because it is about making small changes within individual sentences. The tools you may use in editing is:
- A dictionary (it is more helpful than you think!)
- Your knowledge of sentence structure, grammar, punctuation, and capitalization (and maybe parts of speech) (all of this should be in your writing folder or your class binder, by the way!)
Editing will make your essay look good, not necessarily sound good. An essay that has been edited but not revised will look beautiful, but say nothing at all. That is why we use BOTH to make our essays effective.
But today, we aren't going to be revising or editing our writing. Instead, we are going to be practicing using our knowledge of editing and revising to determine the correct answer to STAAR formatted problems.
To start, we need to talk about how to tell the difference between revising questions and editing questions.
On the STAAR test, revising and editing are both lumped together in the same section. The only way to quickly and accurately identify if it's an editing passage or a revising passage is to READ THE DIRECTIONS!
 |
| The directions on STAAR for revising passages |
 |
| The directions on STAAR for editing passages |
Yep, they tell you in the directions which skill they are going to be assessing!
STAAR is ultimately a test of skill and stamina. 5 hours is a LONG time to sit and test! And we know revising is a more difficult skill than editing. Therefore, we don't want to end up wasting energy trying to apply our knowledge of revision to an editing question and vice versa.
For our in-class practice today, we determined it was an editing practice.
That means I really don't have to waste time reading the whole essay, so instead, I skip straight to the questions and only highlight the specific sentences the questions ask about!
And, of course, I made sure to grab my handy dandy dictionary!
In class, we went through and modeled the thinking process for each question in this packet. Here, I will only be doing that for one question.
STAAR questions are usually written to follow a specific format: 2 answer choices are obviously wrong or have a serious flaw, 1 answer choice is close to being correct or seems correct on the surface, and 1 answer choice is flat out the right one.
Looking at A, I can say pretty confidently that A could be the correct answer. "Filed" doesn't seem like it is the word the writer was looking for. It should probably be changed to "filled."
But what if it's supposed to be a fishing term? Hmm...let's check the other answer choices just to make sure.
B might also be right, but only if the word after water - "and" - is acting as a FANBOYS to make a compound sentence. But that would mean that both clauses on either side of the word "and" are independent clauses. But if I look at them, the second phrase after "and" is missing a subject, which means it isn't an independent clause, so it doesn't need a comma.
This means B is incorrect.
Looking at C, I can say that answer choice is incorrect as well, because the "it" is referring to the fish that the writer caught, but the fish is already mentioned in the sentence. Adding "it" would make the sentence repetitive, so C is incorrect.
Answer choice D has me uncertain. I'm not sure if the word "red-bellied" needs a hyphen or not. So, I referred to my dictionary to see if maybe I could find it.
There isn't an entry for "red-bellied," but there IS a definition for red-faced and red-handed. Both refer to parts of the body, so it seems like it would be grammatically acceptable. So I can say that D is also incorrect.
Therefore, answer choice A must be correct.
Seem tedious and extra?
Maybe, but it is important! STAAR questions want to see if you have MASTERED a skill, not just learned a little about it but can't remember the specifics. There will be answer choices that seem right at first glance (like answer choice B) and answer choices that you may not be completely certain about (like answer choice D), so it's best to try to prove why your answer is right and all the others are wrong!
Doing this can also help you eliminate an answer choice such as "Make no change." If you can prove that one of the other answer choices is grammatically correct, then you can be certain that "Make no change" is not a correct answer!
On block day, you will be working with a partner to create a how-to guide about how to select the write answer choice to ONE question from our next in-class multiple choice practice.
Monday, March 19, 2018
Vocabulary Unit 5
On Monday, March 19th, we will be completing our notes for vocabulary unit 5. Below are all of the links needed to complete these notes at home and prepare for the quiz on Friday, April 6th.
Please remember that I WILL be collecting the vocabulary notes and context clues sentences activity as well on the day of the quiz.
Please remember that I WILL be collecting the vocabulary notes and context clues sentences activity as well on the day of the quiz.
These links can also be found under the Vocabulary tab.
Vocabulary Unit 5
- Context Clues Sentences - due Friday, April 6th.
- Notes Chart
- Vocabulary Powerpoint to fill out the Notes Chart above
- Quizlet to study
- Extra credit Frayer model handout (complete 1 model for each word for a total of 10 points extra credit) - due Friday, April 6th
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
"Anthem" Last Minute Review!
Need to study for our "Anthem" test tomorrow and Thursday? Check out the resources below! One is our jeopardy game for today. You can scroll through and test your own knowledge by quizzing yourself or a classmate with the questions!
The other slideshow is from our cram session today. You may not get the face-to-face teacher time to go with it, but it's still a good resource for a last minute refresher.
And don't forget about our notes over plot from our warmup today!
The other slideshow is from our cram session today. You may not get the face-to-face teacher time to go with it, but it's still a good resource for a last minute refresher.
And don't forget about our notes over plot from our warmup today!
Friday, March 2, 2018
"Obsolete Man" and Analysis Questions
Below is an episode of the "Twilight Zone" called "Obsolete Man." We will watch this episode in class and complete analysis questions to show similarities between this story and "Anthem."
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Warm Ups Set #6
Here are all the warm ups due tomorrow, March 2nd!
Oh, by the way...
TOMORROW'S FRIDAY! :D
Oh, by the way...
TOMORROW'S FRIDAY! :D
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| Know what show this is from? It's one of my absolute favorites. And this week's bonus question! Yes, I'm bringing it back! Let me know tomorrow on your way in and I'll give you candy! |
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Sophomores got their PSAT results back this week through English classes. If you were absent when they were given out, please check with me....
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Below are the slides we used for our clocking activity this week. If you were unable to participate because you did not have a finished essa...
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Today, we discussed two different topics: sentence structure and how to approach revising multiple choice questions. Below is a handout rega...
