Playing with Words
Musings by Linda A.J. Johnson Jan 20. 2014
Sentences
are made of words. Words supply endless variety of content for writing. Words
are formed in our minds to make thoughts visible. We can only make our thoughts
visible to the extent of our available words.
Reading
and questioning and researching and note-taking
are important steps in expanding our supply of words – words that have
meaning for us and add to our base of understanding.
Words
are discrete elements that supply meaning only when arranged according to FORMS
– in relationships (syntax) within a sentence. When words that name nouns
(people, places, things, ) are placed by verbs (words that describe a state of
being or an action) a sentence is born.
This noun-verb, kernel sentence (Ie. Dogs play.) can be
expanded with other words that add details and grant deeper meaning to the
reader; including adjectives, (brown dog), adverbs (is happily playing ),
determiners, (a brown dog), prepositional phrases (in the backyard,) etc. (A
brown dog is happily playing in the backyard.)
The
writing process is a vital part of the Learning Journey. Our first goal is to
learn how to write a well-crafted sentence because if we can write well-crafted
sentences we can write anything!
Review
the steps of The Learning Journey to review the importance of the writing
process.
