Evaluating - Review

Thinking about evaluating: Read below to help reinforce today’s session


An 'Evaluation' is an opinion about a piece of writing. It is not a summary of a story.

How do you develop an opinion?

Pretend you are a food critics who have been asked to evaluate a restaurant. What will you be looking for to make a decision about whether or not the restaurant is a good one??

Think about CRITERIA (categories)


Service; Tasty Food; Cleanliness of place; Popular or not; Variety of food; Price to value; Looks like; smells; appearance of store; Healthy food?

Next, you prioritize your categories! What is the most important category to make your final decision about the restaurant?

Once you have categories to think about your opinion, you can back up your opinion with Proof—proper nouns, “quotes”, facts, numbers, dates, names, vocab. Take notes about the Details! Such as Service: The waiter brought us snails when we ordered shrimp. Waiter was rude—he did not seem interested in us at all. He was grumpy. Cleanliness: Roach in the booth. Gum under the table. Hair in the food.

Don’t forget your opening hook and topic sentence. You are on your way to evaluating!

Lesson Review

It is important to reflect on everything we covered today.

1) Can you remember the 6-traits of effective writing?

2) If you can answer question, you will know how your next writing assignemnt will be graded!

3) Do you know the difference between power 1s, power 2s, power3s?

4) What are you doing when asked to give your opinion?

5) Why is selecting p2s the hardest for writing?

If you can answer all of the above, you have a good grasp of today's work.

Social Studies

What is the difference between a direct democracy and a representative democracy?

Do not forget your newspaper article for tomorrow? What categories do you think you will use to evaluate the article?

Try putting some of your simple sentences on the blog. Maybe friends can comment on them.

Have a nice evening.

SAT Practice - FOR FUN!!!!

I am adding this link to the blog on the right side of the page.
http://sat.collegeboard.com/practice/sat-question-of-the-day

These are SAT questions from real tests. For those who don't know, SATs are the tests that you take at 18 years old that 'help' determine which university you enter. What I want to show you is how the questions they ask are very similar to the types of language skills we are learning. There is only one multiple choice question each day. Try doing one each day for fun. You might be surprised how many you can get correct. You might need to refresh the page once you open the link...
Don't worry...I got the first one wrong 3 times!

Simple Sentences

Links to Ms. Graham's Science H/W
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/index.html


Again ...Kudos to  Scott and Austin. F for their 100% scores on the first spelling test and correct bonus question.
Well done to Andrew and Lindsey for your 100% scores

 It is clear that some of you are still confused about appositives.  I have  an extra worksheet on this topic if you would like a little more practice. Please come and see me tomorrow if you would like one for extra credit.

It is VITAL  that you spend a few minutes thinking about the 'simple sentences' techniques we introduced in class today. Maybe you can use a few of them to tell me your opinions about the 'traits' of effective writing. Plus points for any notable contributions. Make sure you are comfortable with the terms
'participle phrase' and 'infinitives' and how they are used to open sentences.

From today's session....
Always avoid starting sentences with these words
There is/are -There was/were - Then – And – Because
Pronouns (I We They etc.)
Start sentences instead with:
Technique 1: Starting with a Noun
Mary played tennis with her friends. OR The boys enjoyed the food.
Your example
________________________________________________________________________

Technique 2: Starting with an Adjective
Beautiful trees line both sides of the road. OR An incessant noise droned in the background.
Your example
________________________________________________________________________

Technique 3: Start with an Adverb + Comma
Gradually, the incessant noise began to diminish. OR Slowly, the children headed out to recess.
Your example
________________________________________________________________________

Technique 4: Start with a Verb (known as a participle phrase) verb + ing + noun
Working with their partners, the students finished the assignment.
Your example
________________________________________________________________________

Technique 5: Starting with an Infinitive (to + verb)
To live in Hawaii is the dream of my life. OR To help others is a noble occupation.
Your example
________________________________________________________________________
Technique 6: ‘Doubles and Triples’

Your sentences will be descriptive from now on...won't they?

Homework Sheet - Week 4

Over the weekend, review your folder. Is it tidy? Is it organized?
Maybe you want to make a list of the new skills/strategies/techniques you've learned so far on a page of your day book e.g. proof reading techniques, appositives etc.

Our 'journey' has begun...We are still in first gear, but we are about to charge up those engines... Hold on tight!

Phrase of the Week
A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor

Vocabulary of the Week
stereotype