Today is our Thesauri Party!

Students are using their thesauri to broaden their vocabularies and become better writers. Our on-demand writing has improved this year. However, student writing can continually improve when new vocabulary words are incorporated into their writing! Students have been faithfully using their dictionaries all year and occasionally used the thesaurus to give their writing a little 'spice'.

Some of the words we investigated today are: get-gave, take, receive, obtain, gain (examples from one thesauri we used...)

good great stuff myth real ready quick tease tempt go joy loud mad loose look move narrate open opinion realize imagine improve fable cooperate

Word challenges: meager mediocrity renown honor humanity final fop fiendish exonerate blame

Spare words: boast baffle pretend prefer discipline ready hint color cheer angry announce ample

Writing Prompt: Formal Letter

Situation: During the upcoming (2001-2012) school year, Wellness will not be an option as part of the school day. Write a letter to Mrs.Biever concerning your position about wellness.




Situation: Dur to a decrease in funding, field trips will no longer be funded. Write a letter to the Hancock County Board of Edcation stating why field trips should continue to be funded.

Propaganda Techniques:

Bandwagon-suggests that you need something or you should believe something because everyone else is already has it or believes it. "Joining the crowd, climbing on the bandwagon and joining the parade" are examples of 'bandwagon' lingo.
Testimonial-uses a famous person, such as an actor or an athlete, to promote an idea or a product. People who use snob appeal associate the product or idea they're promoting with power, wealth, or membership in a special group.
Stereotypes-refer to members of a group as they were all the same. For instance, an article stating that all professional wrestlers have limited intelligence is unfair.
Stereotypes often lead to prejudice or forming unfavorable opinions with complete disregard for the facts.
Name-calling-offers no reasons or evidence to support their position. Instead, they attack opponents by calling them names, such as "busybodies," "nitpickers," or "rumormongers."
Emotional appeals-get the reader's feelings involved in the argument. Some writers use vivid language and give reasons, examples and anecdotes.
Logical appeals-makes sense because they're based on correct reasoning. They appeal to your brain with reasons and evidence. Make sure the writer has good reasons to support each opinion or conclusion. (Facts, personal experiences, examples, statistics and statements by experts on the issue should back up each reason.)
Hasty generalization-valid generalizations are based on solid evidence. Not all generalizations are valid.

Combination Test on April 15 (Literary Terms/Propaganda Techniques)

Literary Terms:
Alliteration-The repetition of the same or very similar consonant sounds in words that are close together.
Allusion-A reference to a statement, a person, a place, or an event from literature
Autobiography-The story of a person's life, written or told by that person.
Biobraphy-The story of a real person's life, written or told by another person.
Character-A person or an animal in a story, play or other literary work.
Conflict-A struggle or clash between opposing characters or opposing forces.
Connotations-The feelings and associations that have come to be attached to a word.
Description-The kind of writing that creates a clear image of something, usually by using details that appeal to one or more of the senses: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, and Touch.
Dialect-A way of speaking that is characteristic of a particular region or of a particular group of people.
Dialogue-Conversation between two or more characters.
Drama-A story written to be acted in front of an audience.
Essay-A short piece of nonfiction prose.
Fable-A very brief story in prose or verse that teaches a moral, a practical lesson about how to succeed in life.
Fantasy-Imaginative writing that carries the reader into an invented world where the laws of nature as we know them do not operate.
Fiction-A prose account that is made up rather than true.
Figurative Language-Language that describes one thing in terms of something else and is NOT literally true.

Vocabulary (Continued) For Friday's Test!

25) Rhyme-The repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them.
26) Rhythm-A musical quality produced by the repetition of stressed and unstressed syllables or by the repetition of other sound patterns.
27) Setting-The time and place of a story, a poem, or a play.
28) Short Story-A fictional prose narrative that is about five to twenty book pages long.
29) Simile-A comparison between two unlike things using a word such as like, as, than or resembles.
30) Speaker- The voice talking to us in a poem.
31) Stanza-In a poem, a group of lines that form a unit.
32) Suspense-The anxious curiosity the reader feels about which will happen next in the story.
33) Symbol-A person, a place, a thing, or an event that has its own meaning and stands for something beyond itself as well.
34) Tall Tale-An exaggerated, fanciful story that gets "taller and taller," or more and more far-fetched, the more it is told and retold.
35)Theme-A truth about life revealed in a work of literature.
36)Tone-The attitude a writer takes toward an audience, a subject, or a character.

Huge Vocabulary Test on Friday! Are you ready?

1) Flashback-A scene that breaks the normal time order of the plot to show a past event.
2) Folk Tale-A story with no known author, originally passed on from one generation to another by word of mouth.
3) Foreshadowing-The use of clues or hints to suggest events that will occur later in the plot.
4) Free Verse-Poetry that is "free" of a regular meter and rhyme scheme.
5) Imagery-Language that appeals to the senses--sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell.
6) Irony-A contrast between what is expected and what really happens.
7) Legend-A story, usually based on some historical fact, that has been handed down from one generation to the next.
8) Limerick-A humorous five-line verse that has a regular meter and the rhyme scheme (aabba).
9) Main Idea-The most important idea expressed in a piece of writing.
10) Metaphor-A comparison between two unlike things in which one thing becomes another thing.
11) Mood-The overall emotion created by a work of literature.
12) Myth-A story that usually explains something about the world and involves gods/superheroes.
13) Narration-The kind of writing that relates a series of connected events to tell "what happened."
14) Nonfiction-Prose writing that deals with real people, events, and places without changing any facts.
15) Novel-A long, fictional story that is usually more than one hundred pages in length.
16) Onomatopoeia- The use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning.
17) Oral Tradition- A collection of folk tales, songs, and poems that have been passed on orally from generation to generation.
18) Paraphrase-A restatement of a written work in which the meaning is expressed in other words.
19) Personification-A special kind of metaphor in which a nonhuman or nonliving thing or quality
is talked about as if it were human or alive.
20) Plot-The series of related events that make up a story.
21) Poetry-A kind of rhythmic, compressed language that uses figures or speech and imagery to appeal to emotion and imagination.
22) Point-of-View-The vantage point from which the story is told.
23) Prose-Any writing that is not poetry.
24) Refrain- A repeated word, phrase, line or group of lines in a poem or song or even in a speech.
*Continued on the next post!!!

Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog

Somtimes love just wants to go for a nice long walk.
It runs you around the block and leaves you panting.
It pulls you in several different directions at once,
or winds you around and around you
until you're all wound up and can't move.

But love makes you meet people wherever you go.
People dwho have nothing in common but love
stop and talk to each other on the street.

Throw things away and love will bring them back,
again and again, and again.
But most of all, love needs love, lots of it. And in return, love loves you and never stops.

By: Taylor Mali