Due Friday, September 13, 2013 (FI#1,2 & U. Airplanes, Rafflesia or Mother Tongue)

Your homework is due on Friday, September 13. 

There are 4 assignments that need to be submitted:

1)  KEY WORD OUTLINE  (KWO)

Your key word outline should be handwritten on a lined piece of notebook paper and stapled to the back of your essay. It must be properly headed with your name and due date on the upper right lines. Remember, only 3 words per sentence. Numbers and symbols are free. They do not count as part of the 3 word limit per sentence.

2) ESSAY

Your one-paragraph essay is also due.  Essays must be typed and your  KWO must be stapled to it. Proper formatting is extremely important.   ESSAY FORMAT REQUIREMENTS may be found on the side bar of our website.

Essays should simply re-tell one of the following:
• The Stinking Giant (Rafflesia)
•  Ultralight Airplanes  (younger students) or  
• Mother Tongue (high school or younger students who want a challenge)
The original source paragraphs are included at the bottom. Your essay may have a different number of sentences than the source paragraphs but the content should reflect the source paragraph.  

Using ONLY your key word outline, re-tell the paragraph in your own words. 

3) FIX-IT

Another aspect of your homework is the FIX-IT.  Students should hand write the sentences on lined paper. Read the directions carefully and remember to include proper heading - name and due date on the upper two lines of the paper on the right side.

4) VOCABULARY

Define the bolded words from the weekly FIX-IT assignment on a separate sheet with proper heading and bring to class.  Students will be tested intermittently throughout the year on these words.  If the student uses the vocabulary words correctly in his essay  and indicates it with a blue highlight,he will receive one extra point per word on his score. In order to receive extra credit, vocabulary words must be used correctly and highlighted with light blue in the essay.  

Please be aware that we will sometimes practice timed writing in class with writing prompts for SAT and H.S. application preparation. It is very important for the students to be accustomed to writing an essay in a timed setting even if these tests are not in your student's immediate future. 

If you have questions, please feel free to call, text or send an email. Texting is usually the fastest way to contact me. Mrs. Peggy Cortez 832 766 2172

Tom Sawyer . . . . FIX-ITs

Week 1    There are no mistakes to fix in week 1.
Focus on when to indent. Read about when to indent below.
Underline subjects once and verbs twice.  The subject is who or what the sentence is about, and the verb is what the subject is doing or being. The vocabulary words are bolded.

Tom’s perplexed Aunt Polly punched under the bed with the broom.
She resurrected a cat—but not a boy—from under the bed.
Secretly in the closet Tom gobbled up a sticky jam sandwich.
He burst out of the closet, but not fast enough.

Week 2     Remember that helping verbs need to be underlined twice along with the main verb.

Aunt Polly seized her mischievous nephew by his collar.
“I might ‘a’ guessed your foolery, Tom!”
In a shrill tone Tom yelled, “My! Look behind you, Aunt Polly!”
Aunt Polly reeled around, and Tom fled.

                                         Helping Verbs (all 23 of them!)
may,  might,  must,  be,  being,  been,  am,  are,  is,  was,  were,  do,  does,  did,  should,  could,  would,  have,  had,  has,  will, can,  shall

Indentation

In nonfiction, body paragraphs are organized by topic ideas.

In fiction, especially with dialogue, the rules are more ambiguous, with different authorities citing different rules. Most, however, accept these basic guidelines. If the paragraphs are very short, you might not need

a new paragraph for Rule 2 but should start one for a new speaker (Rule 1).

Rule 1. Begin a new paragraph each time a new person speaks.

Rule 2. Begin a new paragraph to indicate a change of topic, a change of place, or a lapse of time.

NOTE: If a character’s speech continues into the next Fix-It, the passage will end with “quotation continues.” Do not close the first passage with quotation marks. Continue writing where you left off the next week, using close quotation marks only at the end of the character’s speech.

ESSAY SOURCE PARAGRAPH CHOICES:

 

Ultralight Airplanes  (recommended for Younger Students - 7 sentences to outline)

      An ultralight airplane is very different from a conventional airplane. It looks like a lawn chair with wings and weighs no more than 254 pounds. It can fly up to 60 miles an hour and carries about 5 gallons of fuel. Most ultralights are sold as kits and take about 40 hours to assemble. Some models now have parachutes attached, while others have parachute packs which pilots can wear. Flying an ultralight is so easy that a pilot with no experience can fly one. Accidents are rarely fatal or even serious because the ultralight lands so slowly and gently and carries so little fuel. 

The Stinking Giant  (recommended for Younger Students - 7 sentences to outline) 

     The rafflesia is the biggest flower in the world. Its bloom can be three feet wide. It takes two years to form and stays open for a week. Unlike other flowers, it has no stem or leaves. It grows on the root of another plant. You do not want to get too close to this giant flower, though, because its big blossom gives off a big stink! Some people think that it smells like rotting meat. Because of the awful smell, the rafflesia is also called a "corpse flower" or a "stinking lilly."

Mother Tongue  (recommended for Older Students - 10 sentences to outline)

      First language, also known as mother tongue, is generally the language a person learns first.  However, it is possible to have two or more native languages thus being a native bilingual or indeed multilingual. The order in which these languages are learned does not necessarily predict proficiency.  In fact, incomplete first language skills often make learning other languages difficult. Children learn the basics of their first language or languages from their family. The term mother tongue, however, should not be interpreted to mean that it is the language of one's mother. Many first generation Americans have a different mother tongue than their parents. Also, in some paternal societies, the wife moves in with the husband and thus may have a different first language or dialect than the local language of the husband. Yet their children usually only speak their local language. This is a trend that might be changing because being multilingual is a valuable skill.