300-2 Spring 2009

Monday, April 27, 2009

In-Class Activity, Apr. 27: Limericks

Objective:

(C) given the history of limericks, and the guidelines of how to compose them,

(A) the ENG300 students

(B) will get together in groups of 2-3 and compose a limerick on their own and post it on this blog,

(D) having used the correct rhyme pattern (AABBA) and rhythm.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Haiku and Grammar

Haiku reflects human nature and is supposed to be an intuitive experience. A persons feelings should be directly connected to the haiku.

The phrase structure is the most important in haiku grammar.

Most people think that the universal structure of a haiku is the 5-7-5 form. It's grounded on the prosodic grammatical nature of Japanese language. It's a Pythagorian misconception that the numerology is real.

The form of the haiku depends on the nature of the phrase construction of the language in which the haiku is written.

The haiku structure is geared towards expressing feelings and not to explain logical concepts.

Beacause the seasons in Japan are different from the western seasons, the feelings expressed about them are going to be different than if someone who lived in the west had written them.

A sentence has a propositional structure and by breaking that structure down in haiku, the poem becomes even more abstract and intellectual, which is not what a haiku should be.

There are three modes of being, Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness. Firstness is the quality of feeling or suchness. It's a positive qualitative possibility. Secondness is the being of actual fact; like what's happening then and there. Thirdness is the being of law that will govern facts in the future.

Did you read anything in the article that you didn't know about haiku's before? Did reading this article make you want to try writing a haiku?

P.S. Here's a "grammar haiku"!

In-Class Activity on Apr. 24th: Tom Swifties

Using Adverbs Abundantly -- "Tom Swifties"

After today's Readability Presentation and after taking the last survey of our class (about Alzheimer's & Grammar), we are going to work on our last grammar topic of the semester: the overuse of adverbs!!!!

First task (everyone on his/her own):
Go to the following website and learn what "Tom Swifties" are.

Task 2:

Get together in groups of 3-4. Go to the following webpage. Your group's task is to create a 5-item test for another group that this group has to solve. Get the emails of the other group's members, and email them your quiz. The group that solves most of the 5 items it gets from another group wins!! You need to retype the Tom Swifties that you find on the webpage, but you leave out the last word, i.e., the pun, for the group to fill in the blank. Don't invent them yourself yet!!!

Examples:

1. How do you start a model-T Ford without a battery?" asked Tom _____________ .

(answer: CRANKILY)

2. "I have to wear this cast for another six weeks," said Tom _________________ .

(answer: DISJOINTEDLY)

3. "I'm shocked," said Tom _____________________ .

(answer: ELECTRICALLY)

You should select sentences that people are able to guess when they think hard.

EMAIL me your 5-item quiz (with solutions). Only one per group, please! Indicate your group members names in this email (because you'll all get participation points for the quiz).

Task 3:

Now, invent 1-3 Tom Swifties on your own!!! Publish them as a comment to this blog. If you work in groups, indicate all your names on your blog entry. If you can't finish in class, do it as homework for Monday, Apr. 27th.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Another planned languge: Klingon

Due Date: Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
______________________________________________

Please post your comments about the Klingon language (another "planned language," next to Esperanto....) on this blog!

Prompt was on Livetext. Here's the reading again.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Good/Better/Best

Hello 6th graders! Today's mini lesson will be over comparative and superlative adjectives.Examples: good/better/best and bad/worse/worst.

Engage- The class will be engaged while we watch a school house rock video over comparative and superlative adjectives. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obQzaU5FN7Y&feature=related

Explore- The students will explore what they have learned during the mini lesson in a game created using comparative and superlative adjectives.

Expand- The class will be given a hand out with the adjective usage rules and we will look at examples together.

Explain- I will explain the difference between comparative and superlative adjectives.

Evaluate- The class will be split up into 3 groups for the game. This evaluation is different because there will not be a quiz. If they can answer the game questions right then I will know they learned what they needed to. The group with the most points will win candy.

E-search- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHad_GVnpgQ click on this link and watch this video for homework. Make sure you have a piece of paper and a pencil ready. Follow the directions in the video by comparing the objects using comaparative and superlative adjectives.Due date is the next class period.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Mini Lesson: That vs. Which

This lesson is for 10th grade students.

Engage: The students will be engaged in this lesson by viewing a short video featuring Jane Straus discussing some rules of THAT vs. WHICH.

Video 1

Video 2

Explore: Students will explore the usage of that and which and their relationship to restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses.

Explain: I will explain to the class the correct way of attacking THAT and WHICH.

Expand: Along with the grammar guidelines, sentences of examples will be used to help understanding.

Evaluate: The class will finish the lesson with a quiz in order to evaluate their comprehension.

E-Search: Students will be asked to write six sentences for homework; three using the correct form of that and three using which.