Given Language Review

Students completed the first part of this “Given Language” Practice.  The passage is from “The Women Who Made Me” by Donna Marganella.  Students highlighted and labeled the specific writing techniques located in the passage: verb tense consistency, parallelism, prepositional phrases, commas in a series, and comma with a coordinating conjunction.

 I encouraged the students to refer to their notes if they were unsure of the specific grammar techniques. 

By providing a sample writing piece, students are given the opportunity to see grammar incorporated in multiple ways.  They realize that grammar works together and should not be used in isolation.

As a whole class, we reviewed each sentence and identified specific techniques – verb tense consistency, parallelism, prepositional phrases, commas in a series, and comma with a coordinating conjunction..  Refer to the key.

After reviewing the grammar and writing techniques, students were given an opportunity to model this style of writing.  I provided the pattern and students successfully wrote their reflections about gifts received.

The students needed to be reminded (especially struggling writers), that it is not just a fill-in-the-blank activity, but a chance to think about their own gifts received (abstract nouns) and personal lessons learned.  The gifts are not necessarily all a materialistic product.

Our discussion also included the use of abstract vs concrete nouns in this writing selection.