Happy New Year!
Agenda:
Today we reviewed what we left off with before Christmas Break. Precisely, simple, compound and complex sentences and how to use them when writing a summary. A worksheet was completed in class and students wrote a summary modeled after a sample summary with only simple sentences given in class about the following picture:
Student samples:
The occasional summit of a rocky mountain is blanketed by the ghostly white clouds that lay low in the ominous sky. The valleys sweeped majestically between the mountains covered in green and gold brittle grass. The ripened wheat waltzed in the wind. The river snaked through the valley and shattered like a mirror as the wind hit its surface. The lone whit shed clung miserably to the edge of the water. --Michelle Kim
**Notice Michelles's use of interesting verbs other than "to be" or "to have" and chooses the objects in the image to be the subject of her sentences, and then chooses interesting verbs. For example, clouds blanket, valleys sweep, the river snaked. She also huddles well-chosen adjectives next to her nouns such as lone and white to describe the shed or ghostly and green and gold and brittle to describe the grass.
Sparse clouds dot the dark skyline. Jagged mountains form valleys, their pinnacles piercing the heavens. Parched vegetation, golden and emerald, coat the canyons. Glowing wheat surrounds the lakes and waltzes with the wind. Weaving through the ravines, gentle streams wave with the breeze. A tiny white shed rests by the river. --Hugh Surdeau
**Hugh also uses well-chosen adjectives such as "sparse" to describe the clouds, "jagged" to describe the mountains, and "parched" to describe the vegetation. Additionally he uses interesting verb choices such as the describe the "clouds dot", the "vegetation ...coat the canyons" and the "streams ...wave". He includes complex sentences with dependent clauses interspersed between the independent clauses.
"The gloomy and miserable sky dominates the landscape below it, and the only [things] that are visible above are the thin, white clouds which stand out from the darkness. The rocky mountains summits disappear into the black fog, and in between those ascents are valleys where light shines below. Since the light illuminates whats on the ground, the grass are simply shades of green and yellow, while the wheat appears to be a brilliant shade of yellow. Along the valley lies a river; where its water reflects the sky, and on the side, lies a isolated white hut." --Oliver Newman
"The dark skies, filled with white, wispy clouds, collides with the land, as the mountain peaks dip into the sky and vanish. Glancing upwards from the swaying grass, rough textured mountains stand rooted upon a translucent river saturated under viscous turquoise. Moisture, exasperated from the sun-bathed wheat fields, prevails throughout the picturesque panorama of the Alaskan Mountains. A wan white shed wavers under the grandeur alps. At a cursory glance, it seems almost as if the shed shifts continually under a mysterious force of the water." --Anno Chang
And for your FYI, commas and punctuation are important. Case and point:
Homework:
Re-read A Horse and Two Goats for next class lecture.
Beneath the dark sky dotted with wispy clouds, there lies two rows of rocky mountains with peaks that soar above the into the atmosphere. In between the jagged landforms runs a winding river which ripples from the wind. The green and yellow grass surround the wide stretch of a wheat field that stands tall beside the water. The wheat sways and dances, mimicking the movement of the wind giving off an amber glow which contrasts to the small, white shed that sits on the edge of the water.
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