Brave souls who signed up for an 8 am class welcome!

The first thing we need to do is go over the syllabus, look at the book, get to know each other and ask a few questions.Then the class will be pretty much over.

Here is your syllabus:

EN111 Syllabus Winter10

Here is another useful information to support your success in this class:

Tutoring hours in the Learning Center

WEEK ONE: Read Chapter 1 from the book and be prepared to share 3 ideas that you found interesting or important in this chapter. On Tuesday, we will talk about these ideas. On Wednesday, we will write about them in class. For information on what these assignments should look like and how they will be graded, see informal writing assignments handout.

Based on learning from Chapter 2, we will start working our way through the stages of the writing process, using the topic of "cell phones" for modelling and practice in class. On your own, you select a topic from this list and start working on your first, progressive essay assignment.

Topics for progressive writing assignment

WEEK THREE: We start with a snow day.:) Please, do read Chapter 3 and also try to do at least one example from every practice exercise in the chapter. This chapter is very important to help you understand how we go from clustering to outlining, and to writing a good thesis sentence and topic sentences, so we will go over it in class. Chapter 4 about introductions is less challenging, and hopefully by the end of the week, you all will have a good outline, thesis and topic sentences, and an enticing intro paragraph in your folders! Work with the book and be prepared to ask good questions for the class review! See you on Tuesday!

Here we are! Ready to work on the first grammar topic, which is parallelism. This material in covered in Chapter 21.

WEEK FOUR: Chapter 5: Writing body paragraphs. Let's start with writing body paragraphs: Cell phone essay.

WEEK FIVE: The essay is almost done! We just need to add an ending. Now some work to set the foundation for grammar and corrections needs to be done. Review of sentence grammar is a Power Point that should help you. Remember small homework: Exercise 5 on p. 63; Exercise 2 on p. 98, and Exercise 3 on p.99. A nice essay written by Louise Erdrich introduces us to the theme of the next writing assignment, which is learning. Don't forget to answer quedstions after the reading, look up vocabulary and write your 250-word response!

WEEK SIX: We start with some chapter work from Ch8: Exercise 2 on p. 127 is good practice in using all of our senses, not just sight. On p. 129, choose one "dominant impression" sentences from the Examples, and write a paragraph containing supporting details (5-6 sentences). To practice weeding out details that do not support dominant impressions, do Exercise 4 on pp. 129-130. Explain briefly your choice.

Our next grammar challenge: Subject-verb agreement. Subject-verb agreement PP.

WEEK SEVEN: Have a great Spring Break!

WEEK EIGHT: Back to school, catching up. First draft of example and illustration essay on a selected topic from the list "Challenges of learning" is due on Wednesday, March 10. We also work on Chapter 9, understanding new strategies of thinking and writing, which are this time definition, classification and process. For definition, we did some in-class writing and thinking. For classification, we classified a group of odd objects. Homework assignment: Exercise 2 on p. 176-178; Exercise 3 on p.178-179. To practice process writing, write a step by step explatanion of

a. how to brush teeth; b. how to change a tire. Thursday is grammar day: Chapter 19. Here is the Power Point to Pronoun agreement, reference and shift in point of view problems.

WEEK TEN: Definition assignments: first drafts are due. Review of paraphrasing, summary and quotation.EN111 review Homework: Paraphrase one of the two paragraphs on page 242 from your book, or a definition of addiction from Wikipedia (handout in class). Remember to change the words, to add attribution and not change the meaning.

Second practice: Write a 250-word summary of Chapter 9. This time, you focus on covering everything important and explaining it in your own words in a way that shows your understanding. You need to attribute information to its source. A summary is much shorter than the original text, but it is supposed to cover all important concepts.

Next grammar issue:

Fragments

WEEK ELEVEN: Chapter work from Chapter 10: Read Weston's essay "Save big with the flashback budget" and answer questions on p. 201. Do cause or effect Exercise pp. 212-213. Wednesday, April 7: First drafts of cause and effect essay are due. Peer review in class. Fragment quiz in class (Part 1 and Part 2). Fragment practice to turn in.

Comparison: Read sample essay and answer questions. "Working then and now" pp. 208-209. Thursday: Finish peer review and Fragment quizzes. Comparison exercise: Compare efficient and dysfunctional characteristics (in class).

WEEK TWELVE: We are finishing work on Chapter 10, and most of you finished your cause and effect essays. Here is the grammar topic we need to cover next: run-ons and comma splices

WEEK THIRTEEN: Grammar presentations of commas

Introductory commas and Commas separating items in a series: Kathy and Jake

Commas between independent clauses and commas separating interruptors: Joey, Greg and Ann

Commas with direct quotes and commas with dates and names: Deane, Nate and Thomas

This is what your do:

Use Chapter 24 for information and examples

Put the rule on a slide (use your own words and simplify what's in the book)

Show how the rule works on an example

Put a few sentences on a slide for the class to practice

We will go over these rules one at a time as we finish out work.

Don't forget about the ADD reading! Keep reading it very carefully, underlining important details and making notes on the margin!