October 25 and 26, 2023 Skills

Welcome to the Skills Handout for October 25 and 26! I am so happy to see how hard you are working (and how much you are remembering during each class!)! This is a testament to how dedicated you all are, and I know it will bring you the success you deserve!

Part One.
Idioms of the Day:
1. Actions speak louder than words!
2. I would run over to help you at the drop of a hat.

1. Let's look use the first idiom within a few sentences so that we can get a good idea of its meaning. 

Sherry often promised to visit her aunt and uncle in Rhode Island. In fact, she made many plans to see them on specific weekends and holidays. But somehow, she never made it there. So last week, when Sherry had her aunt on the phone, Sherry again told her she would see her soon. But her aunt surprised her and said, "I hope so, Sherry. But actions speak louder than words. I'd like to believe you, but you've said this so many times, and you haven't visited us in months now."

Let's discuss what this idiom means, and what we can learn from it! Is Sherry wrong in this situation? How can she improve her relationship with her aunt and uncle? 

2. Now let's put Sherry into another sentence with a different idiom in which she does the right thing!

Sherry learned her lesson that day; in fact, Sherry had an epiphany. She knew that her aunt and uncle had stopped believing her when she told them she would visit, and that this was not the way she wanted them to feel about her. So Sherry began going to Rhode Island--in fact, she went more often than she told her aunt and uncle she would, even surprising them at times. This caused her aunt to say something wonderful to her one day. She told Sherry, "Now we know we can count on you. In fact, I'm sure I could tell you I needed something right now, and you would be here at the drop of a hat!" Sherry was happy that she was now someone whose words could be trusted!

Is this a more positive outcome? How can we tie the two idioms together? Did Sherry also change what the words "actions speak louder than words" meant to her aunt and uncle by her behavior in the second situation? 

Take out your notebooks and quickly write down a situation that you can recall in which you did not do what you said you would OR when you were able to help someone immediately, which would be "at the drop of a hat." 

Part Two.
Question and Answer
Directions: Remember, I will give you the answer, and you will provide a question that will fit!! 

Answer: There are six days left.
Question: ________________________________________________________________________________________

Answer:  It's the literary device that is used when you give human qualities to an inanimate object?
Question: ________________________________________________________________________________________


Part Three.
Cause and Effect
Directions: In the following sentences, I will provide a cause, and you can provide an effect!

1. Cause: Sandro practiced driving for months before attempting to get his driver's license.
Effect:

2.Cause: Jen realized it was only 25 degrees one morning in December.
Effect:

3. Cause: Tomas bought six books at the local Barnes and Noble before he went up to his cabin in Maine.
Effect:

4. Cause: The coach gave his team a pep talk before the game; he told them he believed each one of them was a great player and would do well.
Effect:

Now let's try one in reverse!
Cause:
Effect: Everyone enjoyed their vacation in Florida.
Remember: The cause is what happened first!

Part Three.
Fact or Opinion
Directions: When we present a fact, we are sure that what we are saying is the truth. It is reality. If we had to, we could prove what we are saying is true. 

Fact Example: The season we are currently in is autumn (or fall).
Note: No opinion is attached to this statement. We can prove this is true by using a calendar that shows the exact dates of the fall season in 2023. We could go further and research the origin of the four seasons and how they came to be divided. 

When we present an opinion, however, we know what we are saying is our point of view (or a point of view from someone else). Your statement may contain an adjective, that often differentiates it from a fact, or it may simply express the way you feel about something.

Opinion Example: Fall is the most beautiful season of all.
Note: This sentence presents a point of view. Even if you agree with it, you are still agreeing with an opinion. The adjective beautiful helps us in deciding this is an opinion; people have various ideas on what is beautiful and what is not. Such an idea would be an opinion.

Your turn:
Decide which sentences are facts and which ones are opinions. Be prepared to defend your answer, which means you can provide a reason for why your answer is correct.

1. Dogs are the best pets you can have.                                                         fact                        opinion
2. Some scientists believe dogs evolved from wolves.                                  fact                        opinion
3. SCALE is a place where students study and pass HiSETS and GEDs.        fact                        opinion
4. SCALE is filled with wonderful students who work hard.                         fact                        opinion
5. The main character in the story is called the protagonist.                        fact                        opinion
6. The protagonist is always an interesting person.                                      fact                        opinion
7. The mechanic gave me a great report on my car.                                       fact                        opinion
8. The mechanic gave me news about my car.                                               fact                         opinion

Part Four
Paraphrasing
We are paraphrasing when we use our own words to retell a story, relay a message or provide facts about a situation without attaching meaning to it. 

Example: Jonah studies the definition of a vocabulary word. His teacher wants to see if he understands that word's meaning, so she asks Jonah to tell her this definition in his own words. She does not want Jonah to give an example of the word or what it means to him.

Jonah's word is epiphany. 

The dictionary meaning for epiphany is a sudden perception of the essential meaning of something.
Jonah's paraphrased answer for his teacher is: An epiphany is when a person suddenly realizes something important that he may not have realized before.

Jonah did not add meaning or his own point of view to his answer. He simply restated what the dictionary entry had provided to him, but he said it in his own words. This is what it means to paraphrase.

Can you paraphrase the following sentence that contains a few literary terms? Let's try it!

a. A conflict is a serious disagreement or argument that can occur between the protagonist and antagonist in a story.
b. Your paraphrased definition: ______________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Did you change the meaning of the word? Did you attach your own opinion to it? A paraphrase is simply something that has been restated using other words. That's it!!

Let's try another way of paraphrasing! But let's use a photo prompt to help us out this time! 
Directions: Take a look at this picture. Instead of using it as a story prompt just yet, let's simply talk about exactly what is in the picture. Use facts only! 

Take a brief moment to write down what you see on the lines below. Do not ADD anything more!
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________

If you left out any meaning at all and simply stated the facts, you have paraphrased! Since comprehension also includes making sense out of visuals, we are using a comprehension tool to understand this photograph!

Part Five.
Inference Enters the Room!
(By the way, what literary device did I just use when I gave an inanimate literary term a quality a human being has?)

Paraphrasing deals only with restating something in your own words; I like to think of it as a surface tool! 
Inferencing, as you know, gets below the surface and allows for analysis while attaching meaning to something. I think of this tool as an underwater device!

An inference, therefore, may start with a fact, but it may then add an opinion!

Let's go back to that photo we paraphrased and see if we can now make an inference about it.

Note: Any time you use a photo prompt to write a story, you begin by paraphrasing exactly what is in the picture, but in order to create a story, you then must make an inference about could be happening and attach meaning to this.

To make an inference in the photo we have just seen, we could ask ourselves the following questions:

Who is this lady? 
Why is she packing a suitcase?
Why did she put so many clothes in this suitcase?
Where is she going?
How does she feel about this situation?
What will happen next in her life?

How is this different from paraphrasing what you have seen? 

A paraphrase deals with the factual nature of something. We simply restate the facts in our own words.         
An inference is our way of getting to the heart of the matter and making sense of what has been presented to us by attaching meaning to it!

Let's look at one more photo in which you will work with a partner or two to paraphrase what the photo contains  and then to create an inference about it. You can write the ideas you reach together in the spaces below!

Our Paraphrase:


Our Inference:



And now for our extension activity! Almost every day, we use our Writer's Notebooks to copy an inspiring quotation or poem on the left page and to write an inference on the right one. Well, guess what? We are adding a new element to our notebooks tonight! 


Our Writer's Notebook will now have two elements on the left page. Here is an example from a quotation we used last week:

Quotation: "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

Paraphrase: You will not make any shots if you do not try at all to make one.
Remember: You will not think about what the quotation means; you will simply restate it in other words!

The right page will remain an Inference page! 

Inference: It is important to always try hard and to never give up, even if you fail often!