Caught Ya! Grammar Twice a week, you will read a short passage from the story, “The Bizarre Mystery of Horribly Hard Middle School.” Copy the day’s passage into the right column of your Cornell note form, editing as you go. Correct as many errors as you can find. To earn extra credit, find and correct the day’s “Caught Ya!” error. Your teacher will be moving around the room giving you a hint as to whether you found it or not. You can also earn extra credit by defining the bold print vocabulary in your own words, or looking for special features to locate and mark in the passage before time is called.

Caught Ya! Grammar How to Check Your Answers Once time is called, you will see the passage written correctly. As your teacher goes over the errors, use a different color pen to put a check mark () over any error that you found on your own. If you found and corrected the day’s Caught Ya! error, put an extra check mark on it. For every error that you missed, use the appropriate editing mark to correct it. If you use an editing mark, you can still receive credit for the correction if you record the rule in the left column of your notes.

Caught Ya! Grammar How to Grade Your Answers You will calculate two scores for this exercise. First Score: Count the number of checks and put that number over the total errors. For example, if there were 20 errors, and you found 10, you would write 10/20. Then divide the bottom number (denominator) into the top number (numerator) to find your percent. Remember that your answer will be in decimal form. To turn this into a percentage, move the decimal two places to the right. In this example, 10/20 = 0.50. Move the decimal to get 50%. This score tells you how much you know. The rules you recorded in the left column tell you what you need to learn.

Caught Ya! Grammar How to Grade Your Answers You will calculate two scores for this exercise. Second Score: Count the number of checks + editing marks and rules that you recorded as the answers were given. Put that number over the total number of errors. Then, divide the numerator (total errors) by the denominator (total points you earned). Remember to move the decimal. If you add all those you got on your own and add the corrected editing marks for the errors that you missed, and you recorded all the rules for those errors, you should make a 100%. The good news is that for the first semester, this is the grade that goes in the grade book!

How to Earn Extra Credit! Caught Ya! Grammar How to Earn Extra Credit! Once you have calculated both scores, you can add in your extra credit to the second score. Let’s say that your final grade for the second score is 100%. Remember, you can only make the 100% if you use the editing marks and record all the rules for the errors that you didn’t catch on your own. To add extra credit, you can do any of the following: Correctly define the bold print words in the passage for one additional point per word (e.g., if you defined two words and your second score is 100%, your final grade for this exercise would be 102%!). Correct the Caught Ya! error before the time limit. If your “got it,” you will receive one extra credit point. Mark any additional elements of the text as indicated on the exercise. These may include literary devices, figurative language, word structures (prefixes, suffixes, and roots), or other elements. You will receive one additional point for each of these you complete correctly before the time limit.

Caught Ya! Grammar Today’s Practice Initially, you will use the Caught Ya! note page to record your answers. After you have mastered this format, you will recreate it on your own notebook paper. Take a look at the parts of the note page.

Caught Ya! Grammar Complete Header Required! Continue the passage on the back if you need more space. Rules here Copy the passage here. Remember to skip lines (write in the white, skip the gray). You will use the gray lines for editing and checking. Use the left column to record the rules for any editing mark you added. Remember, no rule, no credit! On the back, there is a place to record the definitions of the bold print words for extra credit. Explain a new rule here.

Caught Ya! Grammar Today’s Practice Just to make sure we all understand how this process works, we are going to use the first paragraph of our story as a practice. Copy the passage and make as many corrections as you can find. You will write the passage in the right-hand column of the Caught Ya! notepaper. Skip lines as you write to give yourself plenty of room for the check marks and editing marks later. Try it now. You have 10 minutes.

the bizarre mystery of horribly hard middle school horribly hard middle school did not look much different from there elementary school which was nearby in their town of tedious texas a big one story brick building set nestled among large trees and a verdant lawn and a small city of white portables dotted the field behind the school like white lily pads in a green pond Six Extra Credit Points Available: Correct the “Caught Ya!” error, define the three bold words, [bracket the metaphor], and underline one simile. Passage 1

“The Bizarre Mystery of Horribly Hard Middle School” ¶ Horribly Hard Middle School did not look much different from their elementary school which was nearby in their town of Tedious, Texas. A big one-story brick building set nestled among large trees and a verdant lawn, and [a small city] of white portables dotted the field behind the school like white lily pads in a green pond. Center the title of a short story on the page Quotation marks around titles of short works (short story, poem, song , article) Capitalize major words in a title Indent paragraph New topic New speaker Capitalize the first word in sentence x2 Capitalize proper nouns x10 (4 are in title) Homophones (there, their, they’re) Comma between city and state Run-On sentences x 3 Separate into 2 sentences Separate with comma and conjunction Separate with semi-colon End punctuation x2 Hyphenated compound word (one-story) Extra Credit: Add an extra check to the Caught Ya! error if you got it right on your own. Vocabulary tedious (adj.) causing fatigue or weariness; monotonous nestle, nestled (v.) to be in a sheltered or protected position verdant (adj.) green with vegetation; covered with growing plants or grass [Metaphor: a direct comparison of unlike things without the use of comparing words] Simile- a comparison of unlike things using comparing words (e.g., like, such as , as, than) Passage 1 Errors: 24