experiences, thoughts, words, FORMS, kernal sentences, September summary

Summary of September online writing classes: 2013

We are all learners – all ways. Our bodies are fine tuned instruments that absorb the sounds, sights, smells, tastes and textures of experiences.  Each learner develops (adds to, modifies) their own filter of understanding by asking their own questions and doing their own research – no two people understand in the same way.

Each learner generates their own thoughts about each experience.

In class we focused on the magic moment when thoughts turn into words: when unseen ideas, dressed in words, are suddenly public.

As Oliver Wendall Holmes put it: “A word … is the skin of a living thought…”.

And… we can only express ourselves within the range of our bank of words…

And… we can empower our expressions by learning the syntactical FORMS offered by our language for structuring relationships among words. We are focusing on recognizing ‘kernal’ sentences.

Here is one example I used with the groups.

It is the first sentence from: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf.

Egg – noun – subject, ‘doer’ of the sentence.

Lay  - verb – action,  done by the doer

Everything else (phrases, adjectives, etc) add detail to the ‘kernal’; like heat, it ‘pops’ the ‘kernel’ into something with greater ‘flavor’ and detail. (Thanks, Smith kids)

Lovin’ words

Mrs J

identifying 'kernal' sentences, base clauses can stand alone, content into FORM

September 23, 2013
Invitation to write! 
Enjoy! 
Mrs. J

Pursuing ‘kernal sentences’! (Base clause)

 Remember you are looking for the - the doer, the doing, and often, 

not always, the done to.

‘Experience’ (read) these examples; ‘feel’ them inside, note new ‘thoughts’ that occur. How could your words add details to these words?? ‘Play’ with the possibilies....expand a few sentences with your own content:

 First - Identify the DOER and the DOING in each sentence.

11.    We launched our boat. (extend how, where, when, why?)

22.    Mom bakes cookies.

33.    Somebody else was able.

44.    Abstract knowledge is unhelpful.  !!

55.    Jenny is painting the fence.

66.    People make mistakes.

77.    He braked his bus.

88.    My dog slurps water.

99.    Everything is expensive

110.                  This gear is not shifting.

111.                  The fire is burning outside.

112.                  Grandma knits sweaters.

113.                  The cherry trees are blossoming.

114.                  Our streetlight went out.

115.                  Bob collects coins.

Begin to realize the VAST content that can fill the ‘kernal’ sentence FORM.

FIND examples from your own reading and writing to share on 
this BLOG.

fall 2013 writing on-line, FORMS, content, power of our own words

 Sept 9/2013           -from Mrs. J

Tomorrow morning! And Wednesday morning!

I get to visit with my writing students. I am excited!

We will begin our discussions called “Words inside of Me”!

We will think about and talk about our experiences and our feelings and our thoughts and the words that ‘bubble up” from all this thinking.

We will talk about the power words have to help other people know what is important inside of us. Our own experiences and feelings and thoughts and the words they generate make up our personal ‘content’, what we have to say about ourselves.

Your words, spoken and written, are very special. Our language uses certain FORMS that help us arrange our words into sentences which let other people know what we want to say.

FORMS ‘give our words the power to relate to each other…… to carry meaning.’ –Virginia Tufte

My goal-as writing teacher- is to help us all gain skill in recognizing the basic noun-verb-object FORM and how writers build on it, by studying the sentences of many authors from numerous books; imitating their example in writing practice FROM OUR OWN EXPERIENCE, deepening our own understanding of relationships among OUR OWN WORDS AND USING THEM WITH COURAGE AN POWER.

Older students, please, read and ponder quotes #1 and #6, for tomorrow, and share some thoughts-words …

All students are invited to think about-choose your favorite summer memory and begin listing all the nouns that ‘bubble up’ from that memory. Remember nouns are words that name *people, * places, *things, and *qualities (Ie. softness), and *ideas (Ie. dignity).

Yours in learning,

Mrs. J