Imperatives

This website contains a good explantion of how to form/use an imperative.

Here is a video that will show you additional ways that we use imperatives. (This is also a good example of how the British use adjectives differently than Americans. The British host says "politer," but Americans say "more polite." Also, he makes a mistake with the superlative in the middle of the video by saying "more shorter." Did you hear how he corrected himself?)

Prepositions

This website has some good examples of how to use prepositions.

Here is a good explanation of how to use in, on, and at.

Here is a good explanation of how to use on, onto, to, in, into.

Here is a good explantion of the relationship between objects.

Here is a good practice activity with prepositions.

Adjective Clauses

This explanation gives more information about adjective clauses.

Here is a good practice exercise about adjective clauses.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! Don't forget to wear green for good luck!!

TED Talks: Listening and Critical Thinking Practice

"TED Talks" is a small non-profit agency. They "believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world" and the site is dedicated to "ideas worth spreading." Their site offers "free knowledge and inspiration from the world's most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other."

Announcements

Hi Everyone!

Here are a few reminders and announcements:

1. I wanted to thank you for your participation last night! We had a LOT to do with the pronouns! I appreciate everyone giving examples and coming up to the board. I prefer to give you "real life" examples, rather than examples out of the textbook, and the only way that I can do that is with your help. :)

2. I was thinking about Zary's question about word order, and I thought of a better way to explain it. Take a look:

a. CORRECT: I want to play tennis with her. OR I want to play with her.

I want to play tennis with her. (The action that you want to do is to play tennis.)
I want to play with her. (You want to participate in some activity with her.)

ALSO CORRECT: I want to play with her toys. In this case, "her" is possessive adjective. She owns the toys, so you CAN say it this way.

b. INCORRECT: You can't say "I want to play with her tennis." The reason that you can't say this is because "her" is a possessive adjective in this case. She doesn't own/possess tennis, so you can't say it this way.

Great question, Zary!!! I had to think about that one! I hope this explanation helps!


3. I'm also attaching the review of the in-class writing that we talked about last night. Please review this and look at the comments on your paper to see what you did well and what you can improve. In-class writing is always the most difficult type of writing. If you did well, you should be very proud! If you did not do as well as you would like, just consider this a learning experience and try to practice a bit more before the midterm.

4. On Thursday, we will do a midterm review. I will give you a study guide, and we will talk about your binders. I will give you time in class to complete the study guide and ask questions. And, I will also give you time to work on your binders.

5. Homework for Thursday:

a. Complete your edited C-3 about your favorite place (if you choose to fix it)
b. Review your binder – see if you are missing any papers or if any papers are incomplete (to get an “A” you must have all the papers and they must be complete)

Schedule

Thurs (3/10): Midterm Review & Binder Preparation

Tues (3/15): Grammar Midterm

Thurs (3/17): Writing Midterm + Binder Evaluation

Pronouns

Here is a list of the English pronouns. Remember that some of these can be used as adjectives if they are followed by nouns!

His car is red. (his = adjective)
His is orange. (his = pronoun)


Be careful about some common mistakes with pronouns. A pronoun REPLACES a noun in the sentence, so we can't have a noun and a pronoun together.

INCORRECT: My brother he is a doctor.
CORRECT: My brother is a doctor.