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Unit I: Recognizing Complete Sentences
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A. Write 10 simple sentences about “Looking Out the Window.” Three sentences must make a statement.
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Three sentences must ask a question.
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Two sentences must give a command.
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Two sentences will be free choice.
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B. Write 10 simple sentences on “Going to the Neighborhood Store.” Write three simple sentences.
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____
Write three simple sentences with a compound subject.
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Write two sentences with a compound verb.
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Write two sentences with both the subject and the verb compound.
Unit II: Using Verbs in Building Sentences
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A. Write 10 sentences on “The Snowball Fight.”
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____
Five sentences will contain action verbs.
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Five sentences will contain compound action verbs.
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____
Extra Credit: Five sentences on the same subject that contain state-of-being verbs.
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B. Write 10 sentences on “Late at Night.”
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____
Write five sentences in the present tense.
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____
Write two sentences in the past tense.
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Write three sentences in the future tense.
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C. Write five sentences on “My Favorite Animal.”
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Use an auxiliary or state-of-being verb in each sentence.
Unit III: Using Nouns
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A. Using the letters of your name as the first word of each sentence, write sentences containing nouns, underlining the nouns.
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B. Write 20 sentences on “The Car of my Choice.” You have just won your dream car; but in order for you to drive it off the lot, you must create a message telling why you want the car. Your message must contain: five nouns in direct address, ten direct objects, and five predicate nominatives. If you want an eight-track, you must write five sentences containing appositives.
Unit IV: Agreement of Subject and Verb
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A. Try a timed writing assignment. Have the students write one minute on any subject to see how many words they can generate. Have the students then locate the subjects and verbs and test for agreement.
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B. The students write on “Going to a Party.” Provide certain difficult subject-verb combinations which have to be worked into the writing.
Unit V: Pronouns
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A. Write 10 sentences on “Giving a Gift” which include all the personal pronouns.
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B. Give al least three examples of the other kinds of pronouns in short composition entitled “Where the Class Wants to Go This Year.”
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C. Write 10 sentences for each section below. Keep the sentences to one topic which you may choose yourself.
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1. pronouns as compound parts
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2. possessive pronouns
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3. pronouns as the subject of a sentence
Unit VI: Adjectives
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A. Use sentence starters.
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B. Have the students pick an object at random out of a box, and then have them describe the object so that someone could draw that object.
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C. Students should include adjective phrases in a composition entitled “Standing on a Corner.”
Unit VII: Adverbs
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A. Write out the directions, step-by-step, for going to your home.
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B. For some reason you cannot sleep one night; describe how you attempt to fall asleep and what you do.
Unit VIII: Using Prepositions
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A. Read some of the more unique headlines from your newspaper and ask the students to write a story that might accompany one of them. Have them include 10 prepositional phrases.
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B. Give the students magazine articles and have them locate all the prepositional phrases. Write another article using the prepositional phrases located in the first article.
Unit IX: Using Conjunctions to Build Compound and Complex Sentences
Almost any writing assignment will do at this point. Be specific about the number of compound and complex sentences you want the students to write.
Ex. Write a response to a “Dear Abby” letter. Include only compound sentences in your special response. The children may also write a letter to Dear Abby.
Rules For Capitalizing: I
Rule 1. Capitalize only proper nouns. (See Rule 3, however.) The seasons of the year are common nouns; do not capitalize them.
Common
|
Proper
|
Common
|
Proper
|
girl
|
J
ane
|
nation
|
F
rance
|
day
|
T
uesday
|
nationality
|
D
anish
|
month
|
M
arch
|
newspaper
|
New York Times
|
country
|
I
taly
|
magazine
|
Boys
’
Life
|
city
|
C
leveland
|
organization
|
B
oy
S
couts
|
state
|
O
hio
|
document
|
M
agna
C
arta
|
holiday
|
E
aster
|
period of history
|
W
orld
W
ar II
|
Rule 2. Do not capitalize prepositions, conjunctions, or the articles
a
,
an
or
the
that come within a proper noun.
University of Connecticut
|
|
Bowman and Sons
|
Rule 3. Capitalize a common noun when it is part of a proper noun.
Common
|
Proper
|
a river
|
O
hio
R
iver
|
a church
|
P
enfield
B
aptist
C
hurch
|
a street
|
L
incoln
S
treet
|
an uncle
|
U
ncle
G
eorge
|
a high school
|
H
illhouse
H
igh
S
chool
|
a superintendent
|
Superintendent Tirezzi
|
Rule 4. Capitalize references to
religions
and
denominations
, to the
Bible
and
its parts
, and to the
Deity
.
M
ethodist
|
|
M
ohammedanism
|
C
hristianity
|
O
ld Testament
|
G
od and His word
|
the
B
ible
|
Rule 5. Capitalize the specific names of
trains
,
ships
,
planes
, and
buildings
.
E
mpire
B
uilding
|
P
rudential Building
|
M
ayflower
|
|
S
pirit of
S
t.
L
ouis
|
Rule for Capitalizing: II
Rule 6. Capitalize the first word of a sentence.
T
he game begins at four o’clock.
Rule 7. Capitalize the first word of a quotation.
“If you need he1p,” said Jean, “call me.”
Mary asked, “
J
ust when are you leaving?”
Rule 8. Capitalize the first word of a line of poetry.
“
T
he sun that brief December day
R
ose cheerless over hills a gray.”
Rule 9. Capitalize titles of names of people. Sometimes these titles are abbreviations:
Mr
.,
M
rs.,
D
r.,
S
t. (Saint). Capitalize also initials that stand for names of people.
D
r. Gray
|
M
r.
J
.
J
.
T
horne
|
M
iss Bell
|
C
aptain Dillon
|
Rule 10. Capitalize such words as
Mother
,
Father
,
Grandmother
,
Grandfather
,
Sis
,
Son
, and
Daughter
when they are used instead of the person’s name. Do not capitalize them if a word such as
my
,
your
,
his
,
her
,
our
, or
their
is used before them.
I must ask
F
ather.
|
I must ask my
f
ather.
|
Oh,
M
other, you don’t understand.
Rule 11. Capitalize the word
I
, either alone or in a contraction.
Shall
I
go with you?
|
I
don’t know why
I
’m late.
|
Rules for Capitalizing: III
Rule 12: Capitalize the
first
word, the last word, and every important word within a title. Titles include names of books, stories, poems, musical compositions themes, articles, motion pictures, and works of art. Unimportant words not to be capitalized within a title include
the
,
a
,
an
,
at
,
of
,
for
,
to
,
on, with
,
by
,
from
,
and
,
or
.
“The
C
harge of the
L
ight
B
rigade”
|
“
M
elody in
F
”
|
“The
L
egend of
S
leepy
H
ollow”
|
“
T
he
L
ast
S
upper”
|
The Old Man and the Sea
|
|
The King and I
|
Rule 13. Capitalize
North
,
West
,
South
,
East
, and such words as
Southeast
when they indicate a particular section of the world or of a country. Do not capitalize them when they indicate direction only.
We think of the
N
orth as a region of ice and snow.
You should turn
n
orth at the next corner.
Here is a good book about the Indians of the
S
outhwest.
Rule 14. Capitalize the name of a school subject when it comes from a proper noun. Do not capitalize the names of other subjects except in the headings of your papers.
We had tests in
E
nglish, arithmetic, and
A
merican history.
(Note that the word “history” is not capitalized.)
My cousin likes science and
L
atin.
(
Latin
comes from
Latium
, a region of central Italy.)
What To Remember About Predicate Nominatives
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1. (Definition) A noun that follows the verb and renames, or means the same thing as, the subject is a predicate nominative, or a predicate noun. Example: John Scott is an honest
man
. (The word
man
renames
John Scott
, the subject.)
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2. To decide whether a noun is used as a predicate nominative, replace the verb with equals (-). If the sentence then makes the same sense as before, you have a predicate nominative.
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My dog is a collie. (dog-collie)
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3. Predicate nominatives, like subjects, may be compound.
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My father is a
plumber
, a
bowler
, and a White Sox
fan
.
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4. (Definition) A verb completed by a predicate nominative is a linking verb. It links the subject and the predicate nominative. The main linking verbs are these:
is
,
am, are
,
was
,
were
,
be
,
being
,
been
, and the forms of
become
,
seem
and
appear
.
|
Earl
has become
a Scout.
|
Pam
seems
a friendly girl.
|
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5. (Definition) A sentence containing a predicate nominative is a
Pattern 2
sentence. Here is the formula: N / LV / N. (LV is the symbol for linking verb.)
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N / LV / N
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The first boy is Jack.
What To Remember About Compound Sentences
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1. (Definition) A compound sentence joins two or more independent clauses. (Definition) An independent clause (a) contains a verb and its subject, and (b) can stand alone as a sentence.
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(The whistle blew shrilly), and (the game began).
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(I rang the bell), and (Ed pounded on the door), but (no one came).
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Note that each clause could stand alone as a simple sentence.
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2. Only clauses closely related in thought should be joined.
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Good: Tom sent to the game, but Fred could not go.
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Poor: Tom went to the game, and I like him.
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3. A compound sentence divides into independent clauses.
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Mother was canning peaches,/and/I helped her.
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A simple sentence with a compound subject or verb cannot divide and have each part make sense by itself.
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The car sped down the hill and / turned the corner.
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(Turned the corner has no subject.)
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My oldest brother / or / my father will meet you.
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(My oldest brother is not a clause by itself because it has no verb.)
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4. The conjunctions used most often in compound sentences are the co-ordinate conjunctions
and
,
but
,
or
,
nor
.
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(Definition)
Co-ordinate conjunctions
join words, phrases, or clauses of equal value.
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5. A co-ordinate conjunction merely joins; it is not in any clause.
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____
Henry has a baseball,/
and
/ Robert has a bat.
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6. Independent clauses are separated by a comma.
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Henry has a baseball, and Robert has a bat.