Agenda of the Day:
1. Choose a paragraph topic and brainstorm ideas for
paragraph in page 11, then create a topic sentence
for this paragraph:
a. The best day of my life
b. How cell phones are changing our society
c. Why I like a movie
d. A place I would like to visit one day
e. Some dangers of going to the beach
f. A person who changed my life
2. Learn about supporting sentences, details, and
examples
3. Textbook pg. 13 #2-3. pg. 15
4. Learn about Word Forms
5. Learn about count vs. noncount nouns and adjectives
to use with them
6. English Irregular Verb list
7. Write final paragraph using supporting details on
topic you chose
8. Rewrite/correct your paragraphs on “favorite time of
the year” and record in “Peer-Self Editing
Worksheet.”
In this box, write as many ideas as you can- as soon as they
come to your mind. This is called brainstorming.
TOPIC: The best day of my life (When I graduated from
college):
- June 24
- My parents were there
- I had a big party
- I was wearing a red dress
- I felt so happy and proud of myself
- It was sunny and hot and I love that kind of
weather
- It was the last day I saw my best college friend
and I was crying, after that she moved to New
Zealand
- I felt that all my hard work had paid off
TOPIC SENTENCE: A topic sentence includes 1) a topic
and 2) a controlling idea/focus:
1) It should guide the whole paragraph
2) It should not be well-known fact
3) It should not be too specific or too general
4) It must have a controlling idea and a topic.
The best day of my life was the day I graduated from college
for many reasons. First, there were a lot of people there and
many happy faces.
Supporting Ideas
Supporting Ideas are the helpers for
the topic sentence that describe,
explain, clarify, or give examples of
the main idea in the topic sentence.
The mother is the topic sentence and
her babies are the supporting ideas.
Supporting ideas do the following to
HELP the topic sentence:
1) Give an example of the topic
sentence. For example, whenever
I meet a friend somewhere, I can
call him/her to find out where
he/she is.
2) Give a fact about the topic
sentence (something that is true).
According to my research, more
than 1 billion people use cell
phones in the world.
3) Describe/explain more about the
topic sentence. Cell phones make
a long distance seem shorter.
Examples:
Cell phones are a great invention because they are
changing our society in many ways. For example, now it
is easier to move from place to place. Also, cell phones
make it easier to communicate with others.
I believe that health care should be free in our
society for many reasons. The first reason is that if
everybody has health care, there will be less disease
and sickness, and everybody will live longer. Also,
people won’t have to spend the rest of their life paying
medical bills. For example, my grandmother got cancer
15 years ago and she lost everything (her house, her car,
etc.) to pay the doctor’s bills.
Transition words- they move the
sentences from one idea to the next.
For example: first, second, third, next,
also, for example, finally, last.
Base Past simple Past participle
Buy Bought
Bought
3rd person Singular Present participle
Buys
Buying
The beaches along the Mediterranean
Sea are some of the best beaches in
the world.
What are some questions that the
supporting ideas could answer?
Questions: WHY are they the best
beaches? What makes them great?
What do they offer? How many
people visit them? Are they clean?
Do they have mountains?
Although few people realize it,
country music and rock music have
some similar characteristics.
What are some questions that the
supporting ideas could answer?
Questions: How are they similar? In
what ways are they similar? Do they
use the same instruments? Are the
people who play them similar? Can
you dance using the same steps?
Are the sentences good supporting
sentences OR are they unrelated to the
topic sentence?
TOPIC SENTENCE: One of my
greatest vacations was spent in
Washington, D.C.
1. The first thing I did on my arrival
was to visit some of the
Smithsonian Institution’s
museums.- GOOD because it’s an
example of the topic sentence,
which is about a vacation in
Washington, D.C.
2. My final day in Washington was
spent just walking around.GOOD because it’s another fun
thing the writer did on his/her
vacation in Washington, D.C.
3. Although April is a spring month,
some types of trees do not bloom
until late summer.UNRELATED
Explain why it’s unrelated:
Because…..
Word Categories
Noun: A person, place, thing, or idea.
Often preceded by “The, a, this, that,
of, an, those.”
“She wrote a letter of love to her cute
classmate.”
Singular: 1 noun (1 boy, 1 girl, 1 baby,
1 family, 1 book)
Plural: 2 or more nouns (2 boys, 10
girls, 5 babies, 20 families, 3 children,
50 people).
Plural count nouns: computers,
students, chairs, ducks, hairs, papers,
pens
Plural noncount nouns: a lot of
children, a large amount of happiness,
a lot of energy, a lot of cereal, a lot of
gasoline in my car, I feel a lot of love
for you,10 children
Homework:
1. Finish making corrections to
your essay about “my favorite
time of year” and
2. Finish writing the paragraph
about your own topic using 1)
topic sentences 2) supporting
sentences and 3) plural
count/noncount nouns correctly.