The Board Today

Hello All,

     In case you need the help to finish today's assignment, here is a series of pictures of the board.

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

The Week in Preview

Hello All,

     This week we will review classroom rules and policies, and then jump into a new weekly schedule as identified below.

     This week's standard is L.8.2:  "Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing."

     This week's story selection is "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry.

Monday——Make a list!

Take the content prequiz, quickly review last week’s skills as needed, and introduce the Words of the Week. These are the words you must be able to spell, identify parts of speech for, and define by Thursday. Then, introduce the skills and story selection.

Tuesday——Time for work!

Cover skills and story selection for the week. Students who demonstrated proficiency in the skills on the content prequiz may sit in the back of the room today and begin reading the story selection as a group. The majority of students will take notes on the skills and practice their use individually and as a class.

Wednesday——Write!

This is writing day in Language Arts. Spend all class writing about the current material and story. The assignment may be an essay, a series of questions, a poem, a story, or any combination of the above, depending on the week. The Wednesday Write will always relate to both the skills and the story selection.

Thursday——Think it over!

In the first ten minutes of class, take the Thursday Think, a quiz on the Words of the Week; use it to spell, identify part of speech for, and define each word. After that, review the Wednesday Write in groups or, sometimes, as a class.

Friday——Finish!

First, complete the Friday Finish, a review or quiz on the week’s skills and the story selection. Then, write a letter to Mr. DeMaris about your week; this Week in Review letter is only graded on completion, not on grammar or spelling.* Once complete, you may Review and Improve any missing or inadequate work. If you have none, you may read or write quietly or help a classmate with his or her work.

Each week is graded as follows:

Ten         (10) points apply to the     …    …    Wednesday Write.

Fifteen     (15) points apply to the     …    …    Thursday Think.

Twenty     (20) points apply to the     …    …    Friday Finish.

Five         (5) points apply to the     …    …    Week in Review letter.

This is a total of fifty (50) points per week. Extra assignments may be added or adjusted as negotiated by individual students and the teacher.


Sincerely,



Mr. DeMaris
*——Mr. DeMaris always encourages proper spelling and grammar, though—— so try!

 

Commas, Ellipses, and Dashes

Hello Everyone!

     I tried a new idea today! Modern technology is great for absent students, interested people, and everyone out there on the internet.

     I uploaded a video containing the basic information of today's lesson; hopefully, you can use this to review if you are absent or need to check the information later. Here is the video explaining the basics of commas, ellipses, and dashes.

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

"There Will Come Soft Rains"

Hello All,

     Kam C. did a fantastic job reading the entire second half of a story in Language Arts; he read with passion and feeling and great enthusiasm!  Today, he was an excellent and inspiring student who earned extra credit for his work. I look forward to having him read again.

     Well done, Kam! Watch the video below if you want to see him in action.

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Prepositions and Conjunctions

Hello All,

     For your convenience, here is every single preposition out there:

about above according to across after against along along with among apart from around as as for at because of before behind below beneath beside between beyond but* by by means of

concerning despite down during except except for excepting for from in in addition to in back of in case of in front of in place of inside in spite of instead of into like near next of off on

onto on top of out out of outside over past regarding round since through throughout till to toward under underneath unlike until up upon up to with within without

     * "But" is usually used as a coordinating conjunction; it is only used as a preposition when used in the place of "except." For example, consider these sentences:

I ate everything but the Doritos.
Everyone is wrong but me.

In this case, you are speaking about all times but once, or all locations or items but one. I just used "but" as a preposition twice in that sentence, too.


     Now, concerning conjunctions, there are three categories:  coordinating, correlative, and subordinating. Here is the breakdown by category.

Coordinating Conjunctions:  For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So
     You can use the acronym FANBOYS to remember all seven of them.

Correlative Conjunctions:  both, and; not only, but also; either, or; neither, nor; whether, or; as, as; such, that; scarcely, when; as many, as; no sooner, than; rather, than.
     Correlative conjunctions work in pairs to connect related ideas. There are many combinations.

Subordinating Conjunctions:

Common Subordinating Conjunctions

after although as because before even if even though how if in order that

no matter once provided that rather than since so that than that though unless

until what when whenever where whereas wherever whether while why

Subordinating conjunctions start dependent clauses, and they answer the questions when, why, and if, or they show opposition.

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

Quiz Tomorrow!

Dear Students and Parents,

     Tomorrow, February 4, we have a quiz on Parts of Speech. These are all the different categories of words. You need to differentiate between each type to communicate clearly about more complex ideas than just simple sentences and basic thoughts. If you don't already have the notes, the terms are listed below with definitions.

1. Article - tells you which noun (thing) you are talking about
2. Noun - person, place, object, or idea (thing)
3. Pronoun - general word that replaces a noun
4. Adjective - describes a noun or pronoun (may be color, shape, size, age, origin, etc.)
5. Verb - action
6. Adverb - describes a verb; usually ends in -ly
7. Conjunction - connecting word
1. Coordinating Conjunction - connects equal ideas or clauses; FANBOYS
2. Correlative Conjunction - connects related ideas; works in pairs
3. Subordinating Conjunction - starts dependent clause; answers why, when, if, or opposition
8. Preposition - identifies time or location relative to another noun (thing)
9. Interjection - a word or phrase used to exclaim, protest, or command

     The first half of the quiz involves picking the proper definition out of multiple choices for each part of speech. The second half of the quiz involves reading a paragraph and correctly identifying at least one example of each part of speech from it. Today in class the students practiced this with one paragraph; we will use another for the quiz. Students will not be allowed to use notes for the quiz.

     For your convenience, I have included a list of examples for each category below.

Sincerely,

Mr. DeMaris

1. Article - a, an, the
2. Noun - Mr. DeMaris, chairs, table, thought, dream, cat, dinner, steak
3. Pronoun - he, it, they, we, she, them, us, her
4. Adjective - red, blue, green, fuzzy, cold, ancient, new, frozen, American
5. Verb - run, jump, think, fall, cry, repair, stand
6. Adverb - quickly, clumsily, carefully, foolishly, noisily, successfully, abruptly
7. Conjunction
1. Coordinating Conjunction - for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
2. Correlative Conjunction - either, or; neither, nor; if, then; but, so
3. Subordinating Conjunction - because, after, when, if, rather than, though
8. Preposition - before, during, after, on, in, beside, for, from, to
9. Interjection - Breakfast time! Stop! No! Wait! Sit down! Well, Um,