Article Writing: What Good Writers Do with Headlines and Headings

Today we read about plug-in hybrid electric cars.  Santiago from Red Midnight would have such an easier job in escaping with one of those bad boys.  :)  Well, he doesn't, but he's got a horse at least. :)  Before we began to read the article, we talked about two good things article writers can do:

1)  Good writers pick fun, clever, and interesting headlines to draw in the reader's attention.

2)  Good writers pick fun, clever, and interesting headings that summarize the section and capture the reader's attention.

You'll be using these skills when you write your article for Ms. Helms.

DD

Red Midnight Chapters 1-4 Summary from Students

I had some great students come in today to help us all to understand what was going on in each chapter.  Jared S., Jake L.,  Tanner Z., and Raffi S. all gave their time to help out!  These are their explanations of Chapters 1-4 in Red Midnight:

Chapter 1, "Soldiers in the Night" 

In Chapter 1, the soldiers in Guatemala attack Santiago's Village, Dos Vias.  Santiago sees his whole family die and he and his sister were the only ones to survive.  He found his Uncle Ramos in the bushes who was shot.  Ramos said to leave Guatemala and go to America.  They'll do this by going to his farm house on Lake Izabal.  When they get there, they'll take Ramos' cayuco, a sailboat, to escape Guatemala. 

Chapter 2, "The Cayuco"

Santiago thinks about the past and has a flashback.  He remembers going to visit Uncle Ramos at Lake Izabal and picking maiz, corn.  Ramos talks to Santiago about the cayuco and how it works.  Ramos tells Santiago that knowing how to read and write is very important, especially in Guatemala.  He says that soldiers tricked him into giving his land away because he could not read.  They used his trust to take advantage of him.  Later in the chapter, Santiago's dad wants him to stay away from the cayuco, but Santiago is still caught up with the cayuco.  When the chapter ends, Santiago sneaks out and pretends to be sailing the cayuco.  Then, a deep voice asks him, "Are you afraid to raise the sail?"

Chapter 3, "Learning to Sail"

In the third chapter, we find out that the voice was Uncle Ramos.  He was watching Santiago with his "clear, dark eyes" and seems to be angry.  Santiago apologizes, Ramos forgives him then teaches Santiago how to sail.  Ramos begins to tell Santiago how far he can sail with the boat.  He says that he can go "'To Honduras, Belize, the Yucatan, Cuba, or even the United States of America.'"  Santiago is astonished that you can actually sail to America.  Ramos then teaches him how to lift the sail, how to paddle, how to sail with the wind, and how to navigate using the North Star.  After this, Santiago learns how to sail to America.  At the end of the chapter, Santiago begins to hear about the killing of villagers across America.  The people of Guatemala are in a bad predicament:  if they help the soldiers, the guerrillas will kill them; if they help the guerrillas, the soldiers will kill them.

Chapter 4, "The Coconuts of Los Santos"

Santiago and Angelina find a horse and begin to ride it.  The horse is very hard to ride because there is no saddle and Angelina was crying.  They arrive at Los Santos and Santiago thinks he sees coconuts on the ground.  He picks one up and realizes that it's a skull.  Then, he sees his friend Carlos with his legs cut off, right next to him.  Santiago remembers kicking a football (soccer to us Americans) around with him and he's sad to think about how those legs were innocent and did nothing to deserve death.  Santiago wonders why God isn't protecting his people.   

Chapter 3, How Does Setting Affect Characters?

In class today we all read Chapter 3 of Red Midnight to ourselves.  Before the reading, I talked to you about how setting can really affect characters.  This is very true of historical fiction novels because the background plays a very important role in the action.  In other novels, the setting sometimes isn't as important or doesn't play such a major role. 

Well, in Chapter 3, we see how setting affects Santiago and Angelina.  Along their long journey to America, they will have to pay close attention to the setting.  For example, they'll need to observe the North Star to make sure they are heading in the correct direction.  If they don't pay enough attention, they could end up lost and die.  Also, they have to be aware of sharks and pirates along the way.  So, setting can help them, but the setting can also affect them in a negative way such as causing death by being eaten alive by a man-eating beast! :)

Chapter 1, Historical Fiction, and Setting

In class today, we talked about historical fiction because Red Midnight fits this genre.  We looked at examples from the book that showed us what good readers do with historical fiction:

1)  Good readers look at conflicts in stories and figure out what those conflicts reveal.

* So, we look at the conflicts going on in historical fiction stories.  When we examine them closely, we should notice many things.  For example, today we noticed that the soldiers who were attacking the village and killing people were heartless and ruthless.  We saw death and destruction on a massive scale.  This reveals that there were major problems in Guatemala in 1981.

2)  Good readers see how setting builds the story and moves it along.  

* Setting is very important in historical fiction.  In fact, setting makes historical fiction!  We talked about the scene from Chapter 1 where the forest lights up and the soldiers see Santiago.  They fire away at him, missing him and Angelina by mere inches.  This helps to push the story along because they need to escape, and they need to escape fast!  The setting here gives them all the more reason to get out, but also leads them ahead with great fear and danger.

Survival Skills

Well, today was a fun class, huh?  Fun, that is, until your boat crashed and you had to pick the five items, oh, then four, oh, then three.  :) hahahahaha  Fun to mess around and make you think hard.

Overwhelmingly, these were the favorites to keep if you had to survive on an island:

1)  Rowboat
2) Knife
3) Freshwater

I agree with those three choices, no doubt.

Tomorrow we begin Red Midnight by Ben Mikaelsen.  So excited!  Love this book!

The basics of using a comma

Meet our friend the comma. He's really awesome! We need to use him in three situations:

1) When we have a list, we need to use a comma. Commas are great because they are cute, sweet, and they make me happy.

2) When we have an introductory phrase, we need to use a comma. After eating his dinner, John fell asleep. Some words that might start off introductory phrases: after, before, during, and if.

3) When we have two separate things going on in a sentence, we need to use a comma. John was asleep, but I was awake eating the rest of the ice cream.

Run-ons and comma splices

Well, we're on to that part of the year when we learn about making our writing sound and look better.  One way to make our writing better is to write complete sentences! :-P  hahahahaha  Yeah, that always helps.  Seriously, though, we want to write nice sentences.

As you remember, we need a subject and a verb to create a complete sentence.  Sometimes, though, we want to create a more complex sentence so we might have two or three different things going on at the same time.  This is great and adds variety to our writing.

The first mistake that we can create is a run-on sentence.  Basically, you are taking two parts of a sentence and smashing them together, but you don't use any kind of joining word.  This looks and sounds bad:

I am happy John is sick.

Are you really that mean that you're happy that your best friend is sick?  No, you just forgot to use a comma or didn't make two sentences.  Let's rewrite that so it's clear:

I am happy, but unfortunately John is sick.

Now, that makes so much more sense.

Next up to bat:  comma splices.  This is the same thing as a run-on, but we end up putting a comma between our two phrases in the sentence.  Once again, this needs a joining word or needs to become two sentences:

Daniel played all day with his parrot, he didn't get his homework done.

To fix this, we'll try both ways:

1) Daniel played all day with his parrot, so he didn't get his homework done.

2) Daniel played all day with his parrot.  He didn't get his homework done.

I tend to like putting commas into the sentence to separate the phrases then add in a joining word.  I think the sentences sound better and they are definitely more complex.

Here are some joining words to use:

And, or, if, but, also, so, expect, while

How to fix sentence fragments

You need to remember that a sentence contains a subject and a verb. If we're missing a subject or a verb then we have created a fragment. To fix this mistake we can add in the subject or verb or find a way to combine two sentences. Here's a review of what you worked on with your partners today.

D

Subject and Verb Agreement

Sometimes it's very easy to figure out how to make sure the subject and verb match, but sometimes it's not so easy.  Here are some tricks to help us out:

1)  Look at the sentence and figure out what the action or verb is.

2)  Look over the sentence and figure out what is doing the action or verb.

3)  Read the subject then read the verb.  If it makes sense, you're are good.  If it doesn't make sense, use the other form--with or without the s.

Let's practice:

The dog that is sitting over there by the trees are barking.

Well, the main action in this sentence is "are barking."  

What is doing that?  Dog!  

Now, put them together:  dog are barking.  Huh?  That doesn't make sense.  Let's change it:

The dog is barking.  Yes, that makes sense.

Now, let's rework the sentence:  "The Dog that is sitting over there by the trees is barking."

Another one to practice is sneaky--those pesky and annoying compound subjects.  Here's an example

The bone and the ball is on Maynard's bed.

The main action or verb in this sentence is "is."  

What "is" on Maynard's bed?  The bone and the ball.

Bone and ball...those are two things, not one.  We call that a compound subject. 

So, if it's a compound subject, we need to change "is" to "are"

HINT:  Put pronouns in place of the subject to help you.  If I wrote "They are on Maynard's bed," that makes perfect sense.  If I wrote, "They is on Maynard's bed," that doesn't make sense.  

So, the right way to write it:  "The bone and the ball are on Maynard's bed."

Good luck and let me know if you have questions.

Capitalization Rules

Well, here we go again!  Time to attack those grammar monsters that haunt us!  With better grammar we'll be able to become better writers and that's our goal!  Here are the six important rules to remember:

1)  Capitalize the first word in a sentence or in a direct quotation.

* My friend John said, "Hey, you forgot your game."  I laughed and thanked him. 

2) Capitalize "I" and names

* John Smith, Julia Potter, and I went to the store to buy some candy. 

3) Names of specific places, businesses, and languages

* My friend Rob is from Hauppauge, New York.  He took Spanish with my at Hauppauge High School.  Recently, I found him on Facebook and friended him. 

4) Product names

This one is a tricky one!  Just capitalize the name of the product, but not the kind of product.  This takes a lot of practice and careful thought.

* I don't really like Pepsi soda too much.  Mountain Dew soda, though, is great!  I just wish that 7-11 sold it for their Big Gulps.  

5) Days, weeks, months, and holidays

* On Groundhog's Day this past Tuesday, the little guy predicted that spring would come early.  Isn't that great?  Now that February is over I'm hoping for a much warmer March. 

6) Titles of books, movies, songs, books, poems, and stories.  Please note that the first word of titles are capitalized, but articles, conjunctions, and short prepositions are not capitalized.

* The Red Pyramid is a great book where the Egyptian gods come to life.  Another great book that I love is a classic:  The Old Man and the Sea.