September 9, 2013

When you enter the classroom, label page 35 in your composition notebook “Sentences.” Write this question at the top of the page:

What makes something be a sentence?Then, answer the question.

Is this a sentence?

Julie ate the pie.After they went shopping.Played football.He laughed.

A verb is a word that shows action or a state of being.

Action verbs are easy—if you can do it, it’s an action verb.

Linking verbs—am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been—join two halves of a sentence

together

…He climbed towering mountains and trekked across sweltering deserts…and he battled frigid snowfalls and skin-piercing sandstorms, but to young Marco Polo, the hardship was worth it. He was on an expedition through strange foreign lands, and the sights were dazzling! Marco Polo was from Venice, Italy. Venice was a gateway between the East and the West, where trade routes from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa intersected. Venice’s magnificent marketplaces offered just about anything people wanted…

Who or what is the sentence about?

That’s your subject! Who or what did the action of the sentence?

That’s your subject!

…He climbed towering mountains and trekked across sweltering deserts…and he battled frigid snowfalls and skin-piercing sandstorms, but to young Marco Polo, the hardship was worth it. He was on an expedition through strange foreign lands, and the sights were dazzling! Marco Polo was from Venice, Italy. Venice was a gateway between the East and the West, where trade routes from Europe, the Middle East, and Africa intersected. Venice’s magnificent marketplaces offered just about anything people wanted…

Take a closer look at your own writing.

Open up to your personal narrative. Highlight all of your verbs!

This is an excerpt from Laura Dekker’s blog. Good readers read with a pencil in their hand! Show me your thinking as you read.

Bam, splash, congratulations! I know you can turn my life onboard upside down, but could you calm down a little? WHAM!... No go! The waves have grown from annoying to ultra annoying. They are taller and because the sea is very shallow it makes for a very choppy and short swell. Guppy repeatedly surfs down a wave, and as soon as she gets to the bottom a side wave comes in to engulf the entire boat all the way up to half mast!

I came in unscathed, but I can't say as much for the sails... Sailing across the Van Dieman Gulf the mainsail just ripped to shreds too...

Of course coming in I first had to clear customs as usual but this time I had to go to the pier to do so. And so I filled in form after form and answered the officer's questions, the letters just dancing in my head and unable to find their right places. It felt suddenly very warm inside the cabin, probably in part because I still had my sailing clothes on... Guppy lay quietly at the dock but for me it was not quite like that, the ground felt like it was moving!... Then the officer from the Quarantine office took one and a half hour inspecting the entire boat as I kept filling in the forms.

But I also longed to sleep... a long sleep in one stretch.... A night without shredding sails, without islands, without reefs or sandbanks, without buoys or ships... How wonderful! But my brain was still running at full speed... then slowed down, slowed down until this most active part of myself fell asleep, fell asleep into a deep and long sleep…

But my brain was still running at full speed...

But I just kept thinking about stuff…

He ate the meatloaf.

What a difference a word makes!!!!

Vivid verbs make a real difference!

ClimbedTrekkedBattledEngulfed

As you read today, look for VIVID VERBS!! Action words

that are very specific and that help you really visualize! Jot down the best ones that you find on a post-it note.

Your Turn!

Rewrite a portion of your personal narrative using VIVID

VERBS! Choose the BEST word to help your reader visualize what

happened.

What’s coming tomorrow… Spotlight dayGet back your social

studies testHow to read a mapBring

earbuds/headphones if you have them

PROGRESS REPORTS

Friday…Cold read test