Please take a moment and reflect on the activities and lessons from the first semester. Then share what you think we need to have more practice in (obviously grammar, but what specifically?). Do you feel weak in writing introductions? topic sentences? embedding (ICE'ing) quotes? finding those tiny nuances and symbols in your reading? vocabulary?
Then consider what activities and procedures / routines we have in class that do work for you so we can continue (or do more). For example: participation points (believe it or not, some people do not like them); vocab LINGO, walkaround reviews; mailbox system; agendas; what type of extra credit would you like to see?
Use this forum to OPENLY and HONESTLY share your ideas, concerns, questions, and goals for the upcoming semester.
FIRST COMMENT!
ReplyDeleteI think that it would be helpful to try vocabulary LINGO with synonyms and antonyms. By the way, how could people dislike participation points?!
In my opinion, I have a lot of trouble coming up with thesis statements and introductions in general are hard for me, so I think we should practice ideas for intros.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with both Jeremy and Lauren, i think we should do something to practice antonyms and synonyms. When writing a paper or essay, the most difficult part, in my opinion are the thesis statements and the topic sentences. We should do some groupwork to help us with this topic.
ReplyDeleteI would find it helpful to go over thesis statements and topic sentences too. But in addition to in a group, it might help some people to go over it as a whole class too.
ReplyDeleteAnd I liked the persuasive writing better than the informative. But I don't know about everyone else. That's just me.
I tend to have the most trouble in my conclusion while writing an essay. I often feel like I repeat myself too much.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all of the posts so far. Most of all, vocabulary is the biggest difficulty to me because I find it hard to connect with the synonyms and antonyms. In addition to, maybe we could work more on transitions. I find in my essays I am finding difficulties of ways to move smoothly into the next sentence. I find that the review games and quizzes we play help me to understand more and pick up little details I might not have thought of before. The editing of the paragraphs helped me today because I could look from a different perspective at another's writing, and I think we will struggle still with writing essays, reflections, and journals. However, I agree with Erin that writing from a persuasive point of view is a bit easier because it is something you are passionate about while writing.
ReplyDeleteI think all of these posts are pretty much what I want to ask for too but also I have trouble transitioning between paragraphs or sometimes into quotes.I get stuck between paragraphs on finding a way to make it flow smoother into the next and then I get a mental block. There are the basic words like first and overall that you can always use but are there other phrases or techniques? Also, sometimes I have trouble with picking out what the part of speech certain words are in a sentence. In the TKAM grammar packet I think we got over break where you had to pick out the POS not all but some of the questions were tricky but I am not sure if the questions were meant to be hard.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with everyone else on this blog. The bullets below are my opinions, and a lot of them are similar to what people above said, so there are probably repeats:
ReplyDeleteIn vocabulary, I think the synonyms and antonyms are most troublesome just because of they're different from what we've seen before and the wording can sometimes be tricky. Like Jeremy said, I think it'd help to do a Lingo board with synonyms/antonyms instead of straight definitions.
In grammar, pretty much everything just because we haven't done any in so long. Once we get back into it though, I think direct/indirect objects are difficult. However, all of the grammar worksheets and practice we have help a lot because of the examples given, and it's just plain practice.
For essays and daily reflections, transitioning between paragraphs (like stated above) is difficult, but I think the purple Power Verb reference paper given to us in class today will be helpful with that. Like always, a thesis statement is always complicated because it is very important for the paper as a whole. Lastly, I think the conclusion sometimes is very random for me. Last year we were taught to kind of repeat the introduction in different words, but backwards. Backwards meaning specific (thesis) to general (grabber (clincher)). I attempt to do this but it doesn't always work out and I'm mixing up all my thoughts into one poorly planned paragraph.
I generally agree with the statements above. I also need help with synonyms and antonyms and like Jeremy's idea. Like Marissa said, I feel like I need more grammar practice on subject complements, indirect, direct, ect... In essays/daily reflections however, I do not feel like the introduction is really a problem. I hate CONCLUSIONS!!!!! I feel that all I do is repeat my intro. Also, if there is not a prompt provided for what to write in the conclusion, I feel like I have no idea. I feel that I am fine with everything else though.
ReplyDeleteI would like to work on using commentaries to help explian concrete details. I always have trouble usign the proper boody paragraph format.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I would like to work on forming a grabber to begin an essay. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI would like to work on how to organize a paragraph. I think most of the time when i write my journals or essays I have so much to say but when i write it down its very unorganized and sometimes I feel that I don't get my point across. Oh and i agree with all the other posts too.
ReplyDeleteI would like to work on how to ICE a quote. When writing paragraphs that require quotes as concrete details i often an not sure how to introduce the quote especially if it is only of those quotes that explains the whole situation itself.
ReplyDeleteAfter completing the journal, I realized I would like to work on the first sentence of body paragraphs. This is because after I say my thesis statement and am moving on to the first body paragraph, I am at a loss for words. I feel like I am repeating the thesis statement. This goes the same for the conclusion also.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, I'm terrible in grammar. Diagraming is my weakest point, along with remembering all the forms of grammar: adverbs, adjectives, transitive, intransitive, etc. It becomes very confusing to me, is there an easier way other than just "knowing them"? Thanks for your help if you have any :)
ReplyDeleteI'm absolutley terrified of essays in general, but conclusions and introductions are definitley not my strong point when it comes to writing essays. Maybe if we could work on those a little more? Thanks. :)
ReplyDeleteThis truely confuses me, in this sentence I did on a quiz that Miss Arney kindly linked us to, I could not understand why it is an adjective. It says, "We shall leave the room empty." Now, I thought early is an adverb because I asked myself how did you leave the room.In addition, it does not say "We shall leave the empty room."- Please Help... Thanks!
ReplyDeleteActually, I have come to a revelation and figured this one out myself, I will explain if anyone else is having an issue. An adverb cannot desribe a noun, only adjectives can. So if it says "We shall leave the room empty." In my mind it made sense to ask "How" did we leave the room, but it does not actually make sense to say it is an adverb because empty is describing room as an adjective.
ReplyDeleteI'm closing this thread, but Billy: notice you changed the word in your first post...
ReplyDeleteThe room is empty and yes, empty describes what the room looks like.
If it said, early, it would be a time word.
But your personal epiphany was correct.
It really isn't describing HOW YOU left the room; it is describing the condition of the room.
If the sentence was, We left the room hurriedly, it is telling how YOU physically LEFT the room. Does this make sense?
Thread closed.