September 22, 2012 Middle School English

11:00-11:10 R, R, O 11:10-11:25 Punctuation 11:25-11:40 Practice 11:40-11:50 Administrative stuff (candy). Today I can…. Explain when to use periods, commas, semi-colons and capitalization

Periods . Question Marks ? Are used at the end of any sentence that is not a question. Are used in shortened words like Mr., Prof., or etc. Are used in acronyms like U.S.A., F.B.I. or D.F.T.B.A. * Are used at the end of direct questions. Explicit questions that ask someone something. Like this: “Do you have piano practice on Tuesday?” Indirect questions use periods instead of question marks. “I wondered what my mom would do if I didn’t go to piano practice on Tuesday.” Periods . Question Marks ?

Commas are used like glue to bring two “clauses” together. Often they need a conjunction to work correctly. My aunt has smelly feet, but I still love her. It is used to separate words in lists. I love to eat apples, bananas, and rutabagas. Are used before and after quotes to separate them from the rest of the sentence. Semi-colons are used like superglue to bring two “clauses” together to make a compound sentence. No conjunctions allowed with semi-colons My aunt has smelly feet; she has not washed in a year It is used to rarely in lists when words use commas already. I lived in Seattle, WA; Washington, D.C.; and Portland, OR. Commas , Semi-colons ;

I love to eat cheez-whiz because I can shoot it straight into my mouth WHAT IS A CLAUSE??? Examples of clause: I love to eat cheez-whiz because I can shoot it straight into my mouth I want to sleep for 100 years and this would be a good thing Which of these is a dependent or independent clause? A clause is like a mini-sentence. It must have a noun and a verb. In some cases, one sentence can be only one clause long.! Often sentences are made up of many clauses. There are two types of clauses: independent and dependent. Independent clauses are fully formed ideas that could be their own sentences. Dependent clauses rely on other clauses in a sentence to give it meaning. They would mean something else if they were a separate sentence.

Compound Sentences: Independent clauses: I love to eat cheez-whiz I want to sleep for 100 years Dependent clauses: because I can shoot it straight into my mouth and this would be a good thing Compound Sentences: I love to eat cheez-whiz because I can shoot it straight into my mouth. I want to sleep for 100 years, and this would be a good thing. I love to eat cheez-whiz because I can shoot it straight into my mouth; this would be a good thing

What and when do we capitalize? Capitalization What and when do we capitalize?

Capitalization First word in a sentence First word in a quote even if it is in the middle of a sentence Proper nouns The board is green. Ming turned to Karen and said, “A woodchuck could chuck close to 320 board feet of wood per year if woodchucks could chuck wood.” President Obama is travelling to Ohio soon. Capitalization

My three favorite foods are pizza pho and hotpot president obama also likes pizza. In late august most Students are back at School elizabeth asked wen When do you go back i wonder when i can go back home. Write down what you think the proper sentences look like. When you have the correct looking sentences, compare with a partner Corrections

My three favorite foods are pizza pho and hotpot president obama also likes pizza. In late august most Students are back at School elizabeth asked wen When do you go back i wonder when i can go back home. My three favorite foods are pizza, pho and hotpot; President Obama also like pizza. In late August most students are back at school. Elizabeth asked Wen, “When do you go back?” I wonder when I can go back home. Corrections

The power of clauses: this is two sentences. I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called-nay we call ourselves and write our name- Crusoe; and so my companions always called me. The power of clauses: this is two sentences.

Write the longest sentence you can think of using commas, semi-colons, periods and question marks.

Mr. Peterson goofed last week: alex. peterson@nwchinese Mr. Peterson goofed last week: alex.peterson@nwchinese.org is my school email. Passing out the syllabi Register! Get Vocabulary from Ancient Roots if you don’t already have it! The first email update I send is going out today! Administrative stuff

Homework – Due next Saturday Students with purple book: Lesson 1 in Vocabulary from Ancient Roots ready to be corrected in class! Students without the purple book: ½ page description of what happened the last time you went to the grocery store. Use at least one comma, semi-colon, period and question mark. Homework – Due next Saturday