Course Recap for Monday, March 30, 2015

Homework

• Complete the Essay Outline for Your Literacy Narrative.  You can complete on the sheet on in a Google Doc but you should come in with rough drafts of all your paragraphs written down.

Course Recap for Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Homework

• Aplia Assignments: Narration and Revising for Consistency and Parellelism (Due Monday by Midnight)
• Thursday Blog Post Comment: Reflect on our beginning class exercise.  What movies, TV shows, music, video games, etc have had the biggest influence on your language choices?  What media has had an influence on the way you see the world?
• Write a Narrative Paragraph detailing a pivotal moment in your literacy narrative.  It can be an event that presents the conflict or it can be the event that presents the resolution.  Remember that narrative paragraphs should primarily feature a chronological recounting of the things that happened at a specific time or during a specific event.  Check the Aplia Assignment if there is any confusion.  We will use this paragraph as the jumping off point for the rest of your essay.

Course Recap for Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Mrs. Flowers Discussion Questions

1. What is the thesis of the narrative?  Remember the best way to find the thesis is to first figure out the overall topic and then ask yourself what is the piece saying about the topic.
2. How does she support this thesis?  What details does she use? Give specific examples.
3. What are the lessons Marguerite learns from Mrs. Flowers concerning language?  What are the lessons she learns about life?
4. We talked earlier about what makes a good story.  Is this a good story?  What elements of a good story does this piece have? Give specific examples.

Homework

• Answer the Sister Flowers Questions in a Google doc.  Use complete sentences.  3 sentences for each question.
• Revise 4 of your 6 paragraphs via Google Docs
• Read "Me Talk Pretty One Day" and write the various text structures you find throughout the piece.  Complete the Discussion Questions.  (DO NOT DO THE LANGUAGE EXERCISES.)
• Thursday Blog Post Topic: Tell me a story of a time you were embarrassed.

Course Recap for Monday March 16, 2015

Final Paragraph Portfolio

We have completed the following paragraphs so far this semester.

1. Description-Homework-Significant Person or Place
2. Illustration-In-Class-Commercial
3. Definition-Started In-Class-Slang Word
4. Your Choice-Homework-Good and/or Bad Music
5. Cause and/or Effect-Homework-Break-up
6. Process-Homework-How-To

All of these assignments should have been completed in Google Docs.  For your portfolio, you are going to revise 4 of the 6 paragraphs based on my comments.  Make your changes right in the Google Document.  They will automatically be saved, and I will be able to go back to previous drafts to see how well you revised your paragraph.  Do not just change one word and consider that a revision.  I want to see that you seriously sat down and asked yourself, how can I make this better.  I gave you pointers on each one, but you may make changes that I did not suggest.  

If you never submitted a draft to me for any of these assignments, you cannot do a revision.  Each paragraph will be worth 25 points. 

You may also revise the following blog posts for extra credit.

1. Compare and Contrast-Blog-Best Friend
2. Classification-Blog-Three types of ____I enjoy

Make sure that whichever paragraph you revise, that it follows the rules and organization for the specific text structure.  I should know exactly what type of paragraph you are writing from the first two sentences.  Use the appropriate signal words and pay attention to my comments.

It is important that you master each text structure and understand its uses, so you can pick the right types of paragraphs for your essay based on the information that you want to convey.

Here is a brief reminder of each text structure and what they mean

• Description:  describes a specific noun using sensory details (sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touches)
• Definition: tells what something is.  gives broad overview of a noun.  generalized
• Illustration: when you have specific examples you want to give to prove or illustrate your point
• Classification: when you want to take a group of things and break them into smaller categories.  when you're talking about the types, or classes, or categories, or groups certain things belong to.
• Compare and Contrast-when you want to talk about the differences (contrast) and/or similarities (compare) between two things
• Cause and Effect-when you want to talk about the reasons something happens (causes) or the consequences of a specific happening (effects)
• Process-when you want to explain how something is done.

See Text Structure Examples underneath Class Documents for examples of each.

Homework

• Read Sister Flowers Identify the text structures within the piece.  Then suggest a text structure that isn't included in the piece that you think would fit and what information you would put in it. (Due Wednesday)
• Revision of Paragraphs from today for extra credit (due Wednesday)
• Work On Final Paragraph Portfolio (due next Monday)

Course Recap for Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Homework

• Write a paragraph on the causes OR the effects of a breakup.
• Thursday Blog Post Prompt: Complete the sentence.  "There are three types of ___________________ I enjoy."  Then explain what they are.
• Aplia Assignment: Present Tense Agreement

Course Recap for Monday, March 2, 2015

Writing Quiz

We are going to practice writing paragraphs today.  We have learned four different text structures, Description, Definition, Illustration, Compare and Contrast.  In class, you are going to choose one of these text structures and write me a paragraph on the topic of Good and/or Bad Books.  Your main idea will be based on which text structure you decide to write in.

You will be graded on the strength of your topic sentence and how well you use the text structure (including how well you utilize the necessary transitional phrases).  You should also be mindful of your grammar.  We've discussed fragments and run-on sentences.  Be sure your paragraph is free of these errors.  Any sentence fragments and run-ons will cause you to lose points. 

Homework

• Pick one of the four text structures that you did not write about in class and write another paragraph.  Your topic is still Good and/or Bad Books.
• Aplia Assignment: Cause and Effect