Pronoun / Antecedent Agreement - Part 2

TPG Survey: click here

Aim:
IWBAT ensure that antecedents agree with their pronouns.

Who and me are both pronouns.

video (the antecedent chant): pronoun/antecedent agreement

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Complete the following activities (in order):

• A: Select the correct pronoun: Pronoun Poppers 1 (mild)
• B: Select the correct pronoun: Pronoun Poppers 2 (mild)
• C: Write the correct pronoun: Pronoun Clubhouse (mild)
• D: Select the correct pronoun: Which Pronoun? (medium) 
• E: Select the correct pronoun: Battleship (mild)
• Finished early? Select the correct pronoun: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (medium)

2. Review: Pronouns & Antecedents:
 
3. Review: Practice Identifying Pronouns & Antecedents: Socrative

4. Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement:

• Need more help? Use this resource

5. Practice Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement:

• Practice 1
• Practice 2

6. Correct Pronoun/Antecedent Agreement Errors:

Ring the Alarm!

•  Pronouns must agree in PERSON:
• It’s a PERSON alarm when you start out in first, second, or third person…but then switch to something else in the middle! Like if you are talking about “them” but then use a word like “your” in the middle. You went from third to second person.  
• PERSON ALARM! If a person wants to succeed in baseball, you have to know the rules of the game.
• pronoun: you (second-person)
• antecedent: a person (third-person)
• Pronouns must agree in NUMBER:
• It’s a NUMBER alarm when you are starting out as singular or plural, and then you switch in the middle. Like if you are talking about ONE person and then start using the word “their” which means a lot of people.  
• NUMBER ALARM! If anybody wants to succeed in baseball, they have to know the rules of the game.
• pronoun: they (plural)
• antecedent: anybody (singular) 
• Pronouns must agree in GENDER:
• It’s a GENDER alarm when you start talking about a boy or a girl but then use the opposite pronouns. Like using the word “his” when it’s about a girl. Or if you use a word like “someone” that can mean both but you don’t make it equal by saying “his or her.”
• GENDER ALARM! If a person wants to succeed in baseball, he has to know the rules of the game.
• pronoun: he (only for males)
• antecedent: a person (for males or females) 

7. Practice Correcting Pronoun/Antecedent Errors: Socrative

8. Exit Slip: Socrative 


Homework: Pronouns #2

Pronoun / Antecedent Agreement

Aims:
1. IWBAT identify personal pronouns.
2. IWBAT identify antecedents to personal pronouns.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Complete the following activities (in order):

• A: Identify the pronoun in the sentence: Treasure Hunt (mild)
• B: Select the correct pronoun: Pronoun Poppers 1 (mild)
• C: Select the correct pronoun: Pronoun Poppers 2 (mild) 
• Finished early? Select the correct pronoun: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (medium)

2. BrainPop: Pronouns

• Afterwards, take the quiz on Socrative

3. Pronouns & Antecedents:

4. Identify Pronouns & Antecedents: Socrative

5. Practice Substituting Nouns for Pronouns:

• Write the correct pronoun: Personal Pronouns - Subject Form (medium)
• Write the correct pronoun: Personal Pronouns - Object Form (medium) 

Homework: Pronouns #1

video: pronoun/antecedent agreement

Revising/Editing: A Testing Disaster (Narrative) - Part 4

Aims:
1. IWBAT revise, edit, and publish my creative narrative about a testing disaster.
2. IWBAT demonstrate mastery of how to correctly capitalize and punctuate dialogue.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: Review for your quiz by completing the following activities (in any order):

• Review: Read how to capitalize and punctuation dialogue correctly: Conventions Review 
• Mild: Determine where quotation marks should go: Practice Activity 1
• Mild: Select the choice that shows proper capitalization and punctuation: Practice Activity 2
• Medium: Play rags to riches with quotations: Practice Activity 3
• Medium: Complete three different activities with quotations: Practice Activity 4
• Spicy: Edit and rewrite sentences with correctly written quotations: Practice Activity 5
• Spicy: Add commas everywhere they belong: Practice Activity 6

2. Quiz #32: Capitalization and Punctuation of Dialogue

3. Revise Your Narrative

• Use the ideas/organization revision checklist to set priorities for revision: directions here (Task #3)
• Convert telling to showing to make the reader feel like he/she is there: directions here (Tasks #3 & #6)
• Add more dialogue: directions here (Task #4)
• Use synonyms for said: directions here (Task #4)
• Edit dialogue for correct capitalization & punctuation: directions here (Task #3)
• There is always more to do! Keep going, and you will continue to improve your writing!

4. Edit Your Dialogue:

• Edit dialogue for correct capitalization & punctuation: directions here (Task #3)
• Check for the following things: (and correct errors!)
• you have capitalized the first word of each sentence
• you have a punctuation mark at the end of each sentence
• there is a space after each period and each comma
• you have indented each paragraph using the TAB key
• you have skipped to next line when starting a new paragraph
• there are no misspelled words (no words with squiggly red line underneath)

5. Narrative Share: Read and comment on 2-3 different teammates' narratives. For each narrative, write at least 2 pieces of feedback: 1 positive (Something I loved...) and 1 constructive (Something you could improve...).

• Find links to your teammates' narratives here.
• Remember, you can make comments by clicking Comment in the Insert menu, or you can just click Ctrl + Alt + M.
• Make your feedback about our revision topics: adding dialogue, correct writing of dialogue, showing (not telling), or the revision checklist from Tuesday 

6. TeenBiz3000: Complete today's activity on TeenBiz3000. If you finish early, complete other activities while staying on the TeenBiz website.



Homework: Disney Dialogue

Revising/Editing: A Testing Disaster (Narrative) - Part 3

Aims:
1. IWBAT add more dialogue to my narrative, in order to show, not tell, characters' actions and feelings.
2. IWBAT edit my narrative for correct capitalization and punctuation of dialogue.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: capitalizing and punctuating direct dialogue:

• Mild: Determine where quotation marks should go: Practice Activity 1
• Medium: Complete three different activities with quotations: Practice Activity 2
• Spicy: Edit and rewrite sentences with correctly written quotations: Practice Activity 3
• Spicy: Add commas everywhere they belong: Practice Activity 4

2. BrainPop: Dialogue

• Watch a BrainPop video about correctly writing dialogue.
• Answer the quiz questions on Socrative.

3. Practice correctly writing dialogue: 

• Open "Dialogue Practice" in the Writing Portfolio of your Google Drive 
• Remember these rules:
• start new paragraphs when a speaker changes
• add quotation marks before and after a character's direct words
• use a comma between the speech tag and the dialogue
• place punctuation marks (commas, periods) inside the quotation marks
• capitalize the first word of dialogue
• do not capitalize the second part of interrupted dialogue
• do not use quotation marks when describing a character’s inner thoughts

4. Revise & Edit for Dialogue:

• Now reread your own narrative and find places where you could add dialogue in order to show, rather than tell. T
• Use words besides say and said.
• For a list of over 100 synonyms for said, go to this link
• Remember, you can also use dialogue to add sounds or noises.
• Edit for the capitalization and punctuation rules listed in Task #3.
• Remember, each time a new character speaks, you need to begin a new paragraph (press Enter to skip to the next line and Tab to indent)

• Remember, you are never finished revising! If you think you are done, keep going! If you think you are done again, still keep going. If you think you are done again again, then start revising for other skills. (Look for places to add details, take out things that are boring or unimportant, or work on your revision goals from the end of class yesterday).

5. Narrative Share: Read and comment on 2-3 different teammates' narratives. For each narrative, write at least 2 pieces of feedback: 1 positive (Something I loved...) and 1 constructive (Something you could improve...). Today, give targeted feedback regarding showing, not telling and dialogue.

• Find links to your teammates' narratives here.
• Remember, you can make comments by clicking Comment in the Insert menu, or you can just click Ctrl + Alt + M.

6. Show Off Your Dialogue Revising/Editing Skills: Click Here



Homework: Dialogue #2

Revising: A Testing Disaster (Narrative) - Part 2

Aim:
IWBAT revise my narrative, in order to show, not tell my characters' feelings and actions.

Showing is making it feel like the reader is actually there, like in a gripping story.
Telling is a list of actions and feelings. It's more like giving a summary of a story.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: capitalization and punctuation of dialogue:

• A: Review how to capitalize and punctuation dialogue correctly: Conventions Review
• B: Complete three different activities with quotations: Practice Activities
• C: Finished early? Then (and ONLY then), play Rags to Riches

2. BrainPop: Show, Not Tell

• Watch a BrainPop video about showing, not telling in writing.
• Answer the quiz questions on Socrative.

3. Showing, Not Telling: In writing, it's important that we show, rather than tell, our readers the action. Ways to show include:

• give sensory details (what you see, hear, feel, smell, and taste)
• add figurative language (similes, metaphors, hyperboles, etc.)
• use strong action verbs
• write with precise language (say more with fewer words)
• don't state characters' feelings
• make it feel like the reader is there

4. Practice Revising to Show, Not Tell: Click Here


5. Narrative Share: Read and comment on 2-3 different teammates' narratives. For each narrative, write at least 2 pieces of feedback: 1 positive (Something I loved...) and 1 constructive (Something you could improve...). Today, give feedback regarding places the author has done a good job of showing and places he/she has told and needs to do a better job of showing.

• Find links to your teammates' narratives here.
• Remember, you can make comments by clicking Comment in the Insert menu, or you can just click Ctrl + Alt + M.

6. Revise Your Narrative to Show, Not Tell: Now reread your own narrative and find places where you have told, rather than showed. Then, replace this language to better show. Use the tips listed in Task #3 above.

• Remember, you are never finished revising! Of course, there are always better ways to continue showing, not telling. When you review your narrative, look for places to add information or take out feelings and show them.
• If you think you are done, keep going.
• If you think you are done again, still keep going.
• If you think you are done again again, then start revising for other skills. (Look for places to add details, take out things that are boring or unimportant, or work on your revision goals from the end of class yesterday).

7. Show Off Your Revising Skills: 
 

Homework: Dialogue #1

Revising: A Testing Disaster (Narrative)

Aim:
IWBAT revise my narrative, in order to improve my ideas and organization.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: capitalization and punctuation of dialogue:

• A: Read how to capitalize and punctuation dialogue correctly: Conventions Review
• B: Select the choice that shows proper capitalization and punctuation: Practice Activity 1
• C: Play rags to riches with quotations: Practice Activity 2 

2. Homework Check & Share: Read and comment on 2-3 teammates' narratives. For each narrative, write at least 1 positive (Something I loved...) and 1 constructive (Something you could improve...) piece of feedback. Remember, you can make comments by clicking Comment in the Insert menu, or you can just click Ctrl + Alt + M.

• Find links to your teammates' narratives here.

3. Complete Revision Assessment Checklist: 

• Read through your teammate's narrative carefully. 
• Then, complete the revision assessment checklist to identify strong and weak parts about the writing. 
• Please be honest in your assessment! Your teammate will only improve his/her writing if you give feedback that is not all positive. Plus, checking no does not mean the writing is not good; it means it could be even better by changing something. 
• Afterwards, your partner (the one who wrote the narrative) will select three things to focus on when revising. 
• Directions for the Revision Checklist:
• Click Here to open the checklist.
• Copy everything in the document:
• Ctrl + A to select all
• Ctrl + C to copy
• Open your narrative (A Testing Disaster in the Writing Portfolio of your Google Drive)
• Scroll down past the prewriting five things table in your document.
• Press enter to skip down to the next page.
• Press Ctrl + V to paste the checklist into the end of your document.

4. Revise Your Narrative: Now that you have set your revision priorities, you will use the remaining time in class to improve your writing.

• You are never finished revising! Continue working to improve things, add interesting details, or remove things that are not important.

Homework: Capitalization and Punctuation of Quotes

Drafting: A Testing Disaster (Narrative) - Part 2

Aims:
1. IWBAT create an interesting opening (hook), in order to grab the reader's attention at the beginning of my creative narrative.
2. IWBAT draft my creative narrative about a major disruption that occurs during testing.

A hook grabs the reader's attention at the start of a piece of writing.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: On Google Moderator, type the beginning (just the beginning!) of a narrative, according to the following prompt:

There is smoke filling the room. Where is it coming from? You investigate and are surprised by what your find. Describe what you discover.

2. Learn about Narrative Hooks:

• A hook is the beginning or opening of a piece of writing.
• The purpose of the hook is to grab the reader’s attention and make him/her want to continue reading.
• It's best to jump right into the story.
• You can also try to surprise the reader with how you begin.
• You’ve learned various ways to write hooks for essays, and today, we are going to review two styles of hooks that you could use to begin your short story:
• SETTING: Giving your reader some sense of time or place in which your story takes place. An easy way to begin is to use the words, “It was...” (but we don’t always have to do this)
• example: It was a cold December morning… 
• example: It was 7:30 on October 31st, Halloween day. 
• CONVERSATION: Beginning with someone talking (direct dialogue) or some kind of other noise/sound.
• example: “David, you’re going to be late for school!”
• example: “I can’t believe it’s already time to get up,” I said to myself that morning.

3. Practice Writing Hooks:

4. Finish Drafting Your Creative Narrative: 

• In the Writing Portfolio of your Google Drive, open A Testing Disaster.
• NOTE: If you haven't yet completed "the five things" prewriting on the second page of the document (from class on Friday), you should first finish this. You should also be sure to submit your work to Mr. T using the form on Friday's lesson (even if you're just starting)! Click here to return to Friday's lesson.
• Your main task in class today is to draft your creative narrative. When drafting, be sure to meet these guidelines:
• narrative begins with a hook
• plot includes standardized testing and some sort of disruption/disaster/major conflict
• include 1-3 major characters
• include dialogue (characters directly speaking to one another)
• 1-3 typed pages total (please don't change the font, text size, or margins

Finished early? Complete today's activity on TeenBiz3000.


Homework: Finish your rough draft (should be 1-3 typed pages), on Google Drive

Drafting: A Testing Disaster (Narrative)

Aim:
IWBAT draft a creative narrative about a disaster that occurs during standardized testing at school.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: While you watch the Flocabulary music video, "The Five Things," define the five things (or elements of a story).

2. Prewrite:

• In the Writing Portfolio of your Google Drive, open A Testing Disaster.
• Update the heading on your document.
• Scroll down to the second page of the document.
• Using your classwork/homework from yesterday, describe the five things (elements of a story) that will be in your creative narrative. 

3. Draft:

• In the same Google document ("A Testing Disaster"), scroll up to the first page. 
• Delete the instructions text and begin drafting your creative narrative in this space.
• Make sure to meet these guidelines when drafting:
• plot includes standardized testing and some sort of disruption/disaster/major conflict
• include 1-3 major characters
• include dialogue (characters directly speaking to one another)
• You will continue drafting your narrative during class on Monday. Your draft will be due Tuesday morning (for Monday night's homework).

4. Submit your Draft to Mr. T using this form

• While in your Google document, click Share in the upper-right corner of the window.
• In the dialogue box, click Change under Who Has Access.
• Then, click Anyone with a link.
• Next to Access: Anyone (no sign-in required), select Can comment from the drop-down list.
• Click Save.
• The web address for your essay should already be highlighted (under Link to share). Press CTRL + C to copy the web address.
• Click Done.
• Open this form.
• Type in your first and last name and select your homeroom.
• Then, paste your the web address to your essay by pressing CTRL + V.
• Click Submit.
• Make sure you see the confirmation page with a note from Mr. T.

Homework: Free Write

Prewriting: A Testing Disaster (Narrative)

Aim:
IWBAT brainstorm topic ideas for, prewrite, and draft a creative narrative about a disaster that occurs during standardized testing at school.

Tasks:
1. Brainstorm a list of disasters that could occur during standardized testing: What is the absolute worst thing--though realistic--that could happen while students are testing?

2. Watch a short video about a terrible event that happens during standardized testing. While you are watching, think about:

• What is the main conflict?
• How is the conflict resolved?

3. Develop your ideas by talking with a partner. Then, select one disaster or terrible event from your brainstorm list that you will write about in your creative narrative. Think about:

• What will the main conflict be?
• Why will this happen?
• How will it resolve?

4. Develop the setting: Describe the ideal testing environment (perhaps what your teachers would describe at the best conditions for testing) and contrast this with the environment in your story. (That is, how is it or does it become not an ideal environment.)

5. Develop the plot: You've already decided what the central conflict in your story will be. Now, expand the conflict by describing what events will happen before the conflict, during the conflict, and afterwards.

6. Characterization: Your story must have at least one major character, but you may have more than one. For each character, describe his/her role, internal characteristics (personality), and external characteristics (appearance).


Homework: Finish your classwork packet from today, including steps #4, #5, and #6.

CST Review

Aim:
IWBAT read passages carefully, in order to correctly answer questions and show I am ready to ROCK THE CST tomorrow!

You've grown A LOT!

Today, you will complete a CST review on Socrative: click here


If you finish early:

• Task #1: Reading details in advertisements: click here
• Task #2: Practice reading comprehension: click here (choose any of the passages)
• Task #3: Drawing conclusions: click here
• Task #4: TeenBiz 3000: click here

Main Idea and Theme

Aim:
IWBAT identify the main idea and theme of a passage.
IWBAT connect the main idea of a passage to other texts and ideas.

Go to Socrative.

Context Clues & Multiple-Meaning Words

Aim:
IWBAT use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words and words with multiple meanings.

Tasks:
1. Do Now: mixed review of WS 1.1, WS 1.4, ELC 1.2, and ELC 1.3

2. Context Clues Group Challenge: Passages and Questions

3. Multiple-Meaning Words:

• A) Practice 1: Click Here
• B) Practice 2: Click Here
• C) Homograph Jeopardy: Click Here

4. Correct Run-on Sentences:

• A) Practice 1: Click Here
• B) Practice 2: Click Here

5. Grammar Review:

• A) Proofreading for Usage: Click Here (select Usage)
• B) Select the Correct Verb: Click Here
• C) Verb Tense Jeopardy: Click Here
• D) Present Perfect Verb Tense Quiz: Click Here

Finished Early?

• Practice proofreading for other types of errors here. 
• Practice any of the reading/language arts skills at this site.

Homework: CST Prep #1

Shades of Meaning - Part 1

Aim:
IWBAT understand and explain "shades of meaning" in related words (e.g., softly and quietly).

Tasks:
1. Complete this link to set your fourth quarter AR goal: Click Here

2. Read this introduction to Shades of Meaning:

Humans live in a “color-drenched world.” In fact, there are one million colors that the human eye can distinguish. Other researchers put the number as high as seven million. How we translate colors into language is a challenging and endless task. 

Did you know that the Inuit people have over 300 words for snow? Why do you think that is? It is because they want to distinguish between subtle, but important differences in color, texture, composition and origin. 

Although there may be many different words for the same thing, there are usually slight differences in meaning. For example, “cross” and “furious” both mean angry, but “irate” is more intense than both of them.

Words that seem to mean the same thing often have different shades of meaning. If you study their definitions carefully, you will notices slight differences in meaning from one to another.

3. Review these examples of shades of meaning:

The words fast, rapid, speedy, and hasty are all very close in meaning. Yet their shades of meaning are important to catch if you want to understand and use them correctly. 

• Fast is often used to refer to a thing that moves, such as a fast car 

• Rapid usually describes the movement itself, such as a rapid current 

• Something speedy is quick, but often the word adds the idea that something is good or successful, too, such as speedy service 

• Hasty suggests that something is hurried and done carelessly, such as hasty inspection

There’s no magic way to learn all the shades of meaning that different words can carry. The best way is to read a lot and see how different words are used.

4. Try a sample problem on Socrative: Here's how these problems will look on the CST:

Which word best completes the following paragraph?

Some felt that Mayor Walsh made a _________ decision. Perhaps she should have thought more carefully before cancelling the annual cheese festival, which would have brought in millions of tourism dollars.

A)  fast          B)  hasty          C)  rapid         D)  speedy

5. Learn key terms and ideas:

• Denotation: the literal meaning of a word
• nosey and curious both mean having an interest in someone else's concerns
• Connotation: the feelings associated with a word
• Being nosey is thought of as a bad thing -- someone who is looking into someone else's business without their permission.
• Being curious is more likely to be thought of as a good quality that goes along with someone who likes to learn.
• Synonym: words with similar meanings
• When we look at "shades of meaning," we are examining words that are considered synonyms (same denotation) but have different feelings that go along with them (different connotations).

6. Sort words into synonym pairs with positive and negative connotations.

• Open your Google Drive.
• Click your Writing Portfolio folder and open the file called Shades of Meaning.
• Follow the directions at the top of the page, to sort the words by shades of meaning.

7. On Socrative, generate synonyms with different connotations: For each of the words that Mr. T prompts, type a synonym with the same denotation but a more positive connotation.

8. Practice CST-type questions on Socrative.

9. If time allows, review frequently missed questions on the Practice CST: #15-19, #78-83


Homework: Shades of Meaning

We've come a long way since October! (Red --> Blue)

However, we can still do better! (Blue --> Green)