English
This week has seen a subtle shift in emphasis. We are still studying persuasive texts with a firm focus on the use of counter arguments, but the effort is largely being directed at the planning phase. We have been working closely together to collect and sequence ideas as a whole, while I model how to organise and test this on the plan. Through this, the class have noticed a couple of major differences between their own planning and my modelled version. The first is that I talk through it many, many times as I go. Each time a new idea is added and expanded I will return to the beginning of that section and read it through, turning the planning notes into a verbal text. This often highlights new words or phrases which enhance the original and allow me to experiment with different structures on the fly.
The result of this process is that when it is time to begin the composition, the hardest work is over as I am able to recite the text from the plan almost in its entirety. This frees me up to focus on putting some zip and personality into the finished writing rather than thinking about what to write.
As a process, this takes a lot of focus and mental energy but the result is far more effective than a half-way-house plan that contains some good ideas but no real substance. The homework this week reflects this well, placing the emphasis firmly on the construction and verbalisation of the plan as the most important aspect of the written work.
Grammar
This is really starting to emerge in the writing now. The class are far more able to talk about different conjunctions (correlative and co-ordinating at the moment) and are just beginning to experiment with these in their compositions. (see the challenge section of the homework). Similarly, their knowledge of sentence structures has improved to help them identify the difference between active and passive sentences on a very structural level. This is still new and in many cases will take more work to embed fully, but already they are better able to identify passive structures, especially in their depersonalised writing.
E.g.
Tim kicked my shin
In this example of an active sentence, Tim (the subject) is kicking (verb) my shin (the object). We say that the subject is ‘verbing’ the object to show that the subject is actively having an impact in the sentence.
My shin was kicked by Tim
This is now passive. My shin (subject) was kicked (verb phrase) by Tim. Now, the subject is receiving the action rather than doing the action. We say that the subject is being ‘verbed’ rather than ‘actively ‘verbing’. Notice the prepositional phrase, ‘by Tim’. If the question ‘who by?’ can be answered, the sentence is passive.
My shin was kicked.
Who by?
By Tim.
Maths
We had to circle a little bit this week just to double check some understanding on adding and subtracting mixed fractions. We concentrated yesterday on a new technique for subtracting fractions by turning it into an addition. It is a very elegant technique best decribed through the use of a bar model.
For the question:
2 – ½ – 1/3
Imagine the 2 represents two pizzas. Rather than focus on the subtraction, this technique looks at what is left. If ½ is subtracted from one of the pizzas then ½ will be left. If 1/3 is subtracted from the other pizza, then 2/3 will be left.
½ and 2/3 are now added together by finding common denominators,
½ = 3/6 and 2/3 = 4/6,
Then 7/6 are left over = 1 1/6
Therefore 2 – ½ – 1/3 = ½ + 2/3 = 11/6
Hope you found this useful. As always, feedback appreciated.
Enjoy your weekend.
