November
25, 2013
Mrs.
J’s Musings On Words….. completed December 17, 2013
”A word is …the skin of a
living thought…” -Oliver Wendall Holmes
“Liesel … was a girl. In Nazi
Germany. How fitting that she
was discovering the power of
words.” -Markus Zusak The Book Thief
“…what a power there was in
words …a healing power, a solution,
like the breaking of a
barrier.” –Ayn Rand The Fountainhead
‘”But words are things and a
small drop of ink, falling like a dew upon a thought, produces that which makes
thousands, perhaps millions think.” –Lord Byron
“Words could be
wizards themselves.”
–Nolan Oler, age 10 Oct. 9, 2013
After adding second and third
sentences: -Caydee Wilde Age 8 Nov 6, 2013
“It is like you
are building a staircase of words.”
Writing class
report:
The power
of words and FORMS………… as espoused by Professor Stanley Fish
In How
to Write a Sentence and How to Read one has greatly influenced this work.
Quoting
Professor Fish:
“Only one rule to follow: make
sure every component of your sentence is related to the other components in a
way that is clear and unambiguous.”
“And how do you know that? Not
by learning the rules, but by coming to know the limited number of relationships
your words, phrases and clauses can enter into, and becoming alert to those
times when the relationships are not established or are unclear……”
“As with any skill, this one
develops slowly. You start small, with three word sentences, and after you have
advanced to the point where you can rattle off their structure on demand, you
go on to the next step and another exercise.”
The
ongoing and long term goal of this class is to prove that learners of all ages
can gain skill in recognizing the basic noun-verb-object FORM in written work
and practice it in personal writing until proficiency is achieved; using this
proficiency as a foundation for deepening understanding of the relationships
among words. –this day, November 25, 2013 Linda AJ Johnson
The
following concepts were introduced and ‘played’ into understanding during
on-line and home visits from September 10 to December 10, 2013.
1. We identified 3 word or ‘kernel
sentence’ in excerpts from great picture books.
2. We identified the subject, the
verb and the object (if used) in the ‘kernel’ sentence and discussed their
roles and relationships.
3. We came to understand that all
other words (determiners, adjectives, adverbs, etc. whether alone or in
phrases) are meant to add detail to the ‘kernel’ sentence.
4. We began to understand the only
rule that matters: all the relationships among the words in a sentence have to
make sense.
5. We realized that FORMS repeat
but content has endless variety.
6. We discussed how content
reveals author style.
7. We had fun pouring our own
content into FORMS.
*We began
to expand our great topic sentences into 3 to 5 sentence paragraph.
*We had
fun creating nonsense sentences – following the example of “The Jabberwocky” by
Lewis Carroll.
*We
also tried our hand at poetic line.
Please
enjoy our efforts as you identify the learning that has occurred.
KERNEL
SENTENCES
The ‘kernel’
sentence is composed of two parts: the subject – whatever is performing the
action, and the verb – whatever action is being performed.
An
object may be receiving the action. Ie. Bill collects coins.
“I am
building Egypt.” Jarom age 5
I am
playing with Lego.
You are talking.
He is
writing. She is making salsa.
They
are happy. -Caleb age 8
I am
writing a sentence.
You are a woman.
She is
(also) a woman.
He is a man.
They
are my friends. -Sean
age 10
I am
drawing a fairy queen. We
are helping flood victims.
I am paying
soccer. She is
washing her hands.
He is
flying his seaplane. You
were asking a question.
–Jianna
age 12 -Nolan
age 10, Cole age 13
EXPANDED
KERNEL SENTENCES
After breakfast the little brown
bunny hopped through the fluffy snow over the hill to visit his friend. –Benson
age 12
Last Friday we dug lots of potatoes
in our rather large garden on our acreage in Welling. –Sean
Tom and Betty carefully ran in the
50-yard dash after really thinking about it.
–Smith family
Last
Saturday we built a rather big dog run in our backyard for our dag, Ebony, and
her eight puppies. –Caleb
The
bright blue elf popped out of the pretty Christmas box in front of the
Christmas tree and surprised the excited kids at the town party at the
community centre. –Nolan
We
went home when the night was darkening and the moon rose and the snow fell to
the ground. –Nyree age 11
My
aunties made alligator cake for my mom’s birthday and delivered it at midnight.
(true!) –Tane age 16
NONSENSE
CONTENT
Every
Tuesday, our gray haired great-grandma races quickly around the big racetrack
in her orange scooter to win snacks for bingo on Wednesday. -Sean
The
thirsty giant clumsily knitted an umbrella for his finger while sitting in the
fridge. –Caleb
On her
birthday, our granny raced wildly through the snow. Her blue scarf fluttered in
the wind. – Jianna
Sometimes
the weird orchestra plays Beethovens’ 5th Symphony hanging from
trees branches. –Nolan, Cole
Usually
the mutant planet sings loudly at midnight during a neutron star apocalypse. –group
effort
After
breakfast my crazy grandma raced quickly to Hawaii with her pink
Snickerdoodles. –Brinley age 10
Every
afternoon the circus clown skillfully cooks steak and rice in a purple pan while
riding his unicycle around the Big Top. –Kingi age 9
POETIC
LINE
The
Christmas presents are lovely,
They
sparkle under the tree.
I
gazed upon their gift tags
Wondering
which one was for me?
They
all looked so different,
So
skinny, fat or tall,
Their
paper, oh, how shiny!
Are
they truly real at all?
-Jianna
My Christmas chicken is a parrot
It has a purple beak,
That looks like a potato
And German it does speak.
He loves to eat chocolates
With caramel inside
And flies around the chimney
Giving me a ride.
- Sean
My Christmas sheep is fluffy.
It hasn't been shaved
And it lives with the dust bunnies
That never behave.
My sheepy eats fish
From a garbage can,
And shares with his bunny friends
In their Dodge Caravan.
- Caleb
Your
Christmas party was great fun.
It
held a big surprise,
Which
came sliding down the chimney
Amid
some startled cries.
He
came up in the pudding
And
sputtered when he spoke,
Here
is your Christmas candy!
And
blew a ring of smoke.
-Mrs. J
Most Christmas' in Canada
Are all magical and white.
All Christmas' are special,
Our parties go into the night.
Nationwide joy floats outside
With it comes trees and lights
Snow and fun hot chocolate when done
As Christmas season comes.
-Peter
age 13
Our Christmas tradition is special
We do it on Christmas Eve;
We go to our Aunties to party,
We serve as we roll up our sleeves.
We love to eat with the “Frenchies”
Chocolate, poutine and treats,
They call it ‘revellion’.
At Christmas it’s hard to beat!
-Nyree
*My
Christmas puppy is from China,
Her
eyes shine like dew.
She
likes to cuddle on my lap.
I call
my panda, Bamboo.
-Brinley
My
Christmas puppy is called Scraps,
He
eats lunch from my shoe
And
takes naps in my stocking.
I love
you Scraps, I do.
-Caydee
Santa’s
elves were wrapping
Tortoises
and Lego,
Wrote
a boy named Sean
On
November 12.
He was
hoping to get them for Christmas
Because
they were pretty much
The
only things on his list.
So he
wrote the sentence
Even
though he knew that
He had
no chance
Of
getting them at all.
EXPANDING
INTO PARAGRAPHS
*Yesterday the fluffy white bunny
hopped in the sparkly
Snow through the woods over the hill
to Santa’s workshop.
She was just in time to see the
hockey game. –Brinley age 10
*This
morning, as the sun rose up above the snow covered earth, Jack Frost sneakily
skipped across the glassy lake, sending arches of frost on all shapes and
sizes, up trees and lampposts and down the street of the sleepy village. He
finished his work with a swish of wind and happily sat on a branch of an old
oak tree and sighed at the beautiful job he had done. –Jianna
*The
North Pole lays quietly in an icy white desert of snow. –Benson
Looking
south, I see a little town hidden in an ice-covered valley. As I get closer a
blue flag appears, hanging limply from a candy cane tower. This is the right
place. I walk to the red wooden door and pull the bell chain. As the door
swings open I hear Christmas music. A mama elf stands in the opening.
“Honey,”
she cries. “I am so glad you are home!”
I
throw down my empty toy bag and hug Mrs. Claus.
–group work by Benson, Brinley and Caydee
*Every
December 17, our whole family goes to the Senior Center to have a big
party. We open presents and eat food. (My grandma is a very good cook) We have
a talent show and then we leave.
On Christmas Eve, my other
side of the family comes to our house. We eat and chat and at the end of the
night we all open the presents we bought each other. Then we go home. -Adam age
13
*Usually the unexpressive
cookie jumps into the cookie jar while wearing a smile. He never breaks after
jumping in because his cookie pals catch him before he hits the bottom; but
this time he fell so hard he broke and his friends now joke, “That’s the way
the cookie crumbles.” –Cole age 13
*As
John saw the school clock tick away his freedom, he pulled out his history book
and sighed in disappointment. It was his birthday and there was a long desert
of time to cross until he could get home to his party. –Nolan age 10
A
thrill of excitement rushed through me as I stepped on the plane with my dad,
my sister, Janae and Josh, my brother. The flight attendant welcomed us on. The
first thing I noticed about him was his shiny baldhead and a patch of blond
hair on the tip of his chin. He smiled and pointed to our seats. We all sat
down. The plane was quite crowed with men, women, babies and children and I
noticed that the man in front of us was really hairy. His head and arms were
covered with thick white hair. I giggled at the thought of a hairy polar bear.
After
the flight attendants demonstrated how to use the safety equipment in case of
emergency, the plane started down the runway, gaining speed as it ascended into
the air. After straightening out from the take off the plane glided smoothly
through the fluffy white clouds as it headed for Whitehorse. –Jianna age 12
