Warm-ups Week of 30 Jan 2012

Monday, 8 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: Whitman saw Lincoln often in Washington, D.C., and admires him tremendously. He felt that he represented American democracy in its best and most purest form. Skills practiced: verb tense compatibility, correction of unclear pronoun reference, correction of double comparison.

Tuesday, 8 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: The assassination of president Lincoln effected Whitman deeply. “O Captain, My Captain” expresses the poet’s personal grief for the man who he had loved and admired. Skills practiced: capitalization of title before person’s name, correction of commonly misspelled words, correct case of relative pronoun.

Wednesday, 8 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: In his poem Whitman compares the United States to a ship. He compares Lincoln to the captain who has steered the ship safely through the storm of war. As the people cheer the triumph, the captain lays dead. Skills practiced: combining sentences, use of pronoun to avoid repetition, correction of commonly confused words.

Thursday, 8 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: Settlers who thought they found the perfect place often chose the Greek word eureka, meaning “I have found it”, as a place name. The following states have towns named Eureka, Alaska, California, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Nevada, Utah, Washington. Skills practiced: verb tense compatibility, use of underlining or italics with foreign word, correct placement of comma with quotation marks, use of colon before a list.

Friday, 8 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: English settlers took English place names, Lexington, Cambridge, Leominster, Worcester, Uxbridge to America with them. New York settlers gave towns dutch names like Yonkers, Rensselaer, and Watervliet. Skills practiced: correction of commonly confused words, use of dash to set off additional information, capitalization of proper adjective.

Monday, 7 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: After the poet and Annabel Lee had fallen in love. Then she died. The angels envied both she and the poet. Skills practiced: correction of sentence fragment, correct pronoun case.

Tuesday, 7 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: The poet had gave Annabel Lee their love forever. The speaker is sad after losing his love. Skills practiced: correct past participle of irregular verb, pronoun agreement with antecedent, use of precise adjective to improve style

Wednesday, 7 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: Rhyme is a type of repetition. This is interesting to a listener. Because of all the repetition “Annabel Lee” has a musical sound. Skills practiced: use of relative clause to combine sentences, use of comma after introductory phrase.

Thursday, 7 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: Shakespeare was born on April in an small town called Stratford-on-Avon. Shakespeare is very famous today. He was not so well known in his day. Skills practiced: use of comma after day and year in a date, correct use of indefinite article, use of subordinating conjunction to combine sentences.

Friday, 7 th Grade Please come in, sit down quietly, and correct the following sentences: Scholars think that Shakespeares father was a businessman who also served in the local government. We know hardly nothing about Shakespeare’s life. Skills practiced: correct use of apostrophe to show possession, correction of commonly misspelled word, elimination of double negative.