Monday, November 30, 2009

Nov. 30 - Dec. 4

Grade 9:
Root Words:
Mort: death
Example: immortal: live forever
mortal: human, will die, fatal, or lethal
postmortem: autopsy, examine after death
mortuary: morgue

mot, mov, mob: move
Examples: mobile: move easily
motivate: induce to act, encourage to do something
promote: move up, forwrd
emotion: move to feeling
demote: move abckwards

mut: change
Examples: mutation: the process of change or alteration
mutant: a new kind of plant or animal
commute: to change a penalty

neg: not
Examples: negative: to destroy or nullify
negative: to say no
neglect: to not care for something
negigent: showing neglect, remiss, careless

Monday, November 16, 2009

November 16-20

Grade 9:
Parent teacher is this week on Wednesday 6-8, and Thursday, 9-11. Bring student(s) with parent for interview.
Root Words this week:
Loc, loqu: speak
Examples: soliloquy: talking to oneself on stage
loquacious: talkative, talk too much
eloquent: speaking gracefully, fluently
colloquial: speaking informally, native to the district
log: speech, word, reason
Examples: monologue: one person speaking
dialogue: two people speaking
logo: symbol that represents or identifies a product or business
prologue: introductory part of a book or play
luc, lus, lumin: light, source of light
Examples: lumen: unit of measure of light in physics
illuminate: to light up, to make clear
lucid: easy to follow or understand
translucent: Allows light to be seen, but the image is not clearly seen (i.e.frosted glass)
manu, mani: hand
Examples: manual: done by hand
manuscript: a book of paper wrtten by hand
manicure: to care for the hands and nails
emanicapate: to release or set free from slavery (not under the hand of another)

Monday, November 09, 2009

November 9-13

Grade 9

We are continuing to read Maestro.
We have new root words:

ject: throw
Examples: projection: a part that sticks out or projects injection: throwing fluids through a needle into flesh
eject: to expel or throw out (of a plane, or machine)
trajectory: the curve of the path of a projectile.

Leg: law
Examples: legal: lawful
legislature: a law-making body (for provincial laws in Canada) illegal: not lawful, illicit
delegate: a representative with the authority to act on behalf of others

lingua: tongue, or language
Examples: linguist: one who studies languages
multilingual: knowing many languages
language: spoken or written human speech
lingo: jargon of some special group

lith, lite: stone
Examples: megalith: a huge stone used in prehistoric construction (Stone Henge)
monolith: a monument made of one large block of stone Neolithic: later Stone Age
lithograph: a print made from a stone or plate

Definitions of Parts of Speech:

Noun: A noun is a part of speech that names a person, place thing or idea.
Example: The fisherman caught ten lobsters.
Samuel had a thought.

Verb: A verb is a part of speech that expresses an action, or a state-of-being (shows something exists).
Example: The student ran ten kilometers in the cross-country run.
The pie smells great. (It exists in a good smelling state).
The girls were here yesterday.

Adverb: An adverb is a part of speech that modifies (limits the meaning) a verb, adjective or another adverb.
Example: The truck drove past very quickly. “Quickly” modifies the verb “drove”, telling how the person drove the truck, and “very” modifies the adverb “quickly”, telling how quickly. Susan washed the very dirty shirt. “Very” modifies the adjective “dirty.”

Adjective: An adjective is a part of speech that modifies (limits the meaning) a noun or a pronoun.
Example: The tall boy played basketball. “Tall” modifies the noun “boy”.
He is tall. “Tall” modifies the pronoun “He”.

Conjunction: A conjunction is a part of speech that joins words, phrases, or clauses.
Example: The boys and girls all went to health class together. (words “boys” and “girls” joined by conjunction “and”. Conjunctions must modify sentence parts of equal value: words to words, phrases to phrases, and clauses to clauses.

Preposition: A preposition begins a phrase.
Example: Three of the boys were absent. “Of” begins the phrase or group of words that go together, “of the boys”.

Article: An article determines whether a noun is specific or general. There are only three: “the,” signifying a specific noun; and “a” or “an,” signifying a general noun.
Example: The money is on the table. The indicating a specific table.
A banana and an apple are examples of fruit. A and An indicate that any banana and any apple is a fruit.

Pronoun: A pronoun is a part of speech that replaces a noun.
Example: That is my car. “My” replaces the person’s name.
Did John buy his brother’s car? “His” replaces saying John a second time.
When John left, he smiled at Susan. "he” replaces saying John again.
Interjection or Expletive: An expletive is a word that shows strong emotion.
Example: Ouch! I hit my thumb. “Ouch” is the expletive.
Wow! That was great. “Wow” is the expletive.
A phrase is a group of words that go together for meaning, but do not have a subject or a predicate. Example: One of the boys won $20.00. of the boys is a phrase.

A clause is a group of words that have a subject (doer of the action) and a predicate the action or state of being). Example: Susan walked to the bus stop, but she did not get on the bus.

Grade 12:

We shall finish Act II of Hamlet this week. The Polonius paraphrase is past due.
Introduction of Who Am I Essay.