Blog 6: A Wedding Weekend

I had a crazy long weekend. My sister got married (super exciting) on Saturday, and I decided to take a 3-and-a-half-day weekend to myself to help my sister prepare for the big day. She had me help her with some of her DIY decorations which I’m not particularly great at. Nor do I actually enjoy DIY crafts, mostly because I’m absolutely terrible at crafting. [Starting a sentence with nor] *sigh* Anyway, after class on Thursday, I took off to Spokane, where my sister lives, and spent some quality time with her, the rest of my family, and the groom’s family. Because we live on separate sides of the state, I don’t see them very often; it was nice to catch up and meet some other new family members. [Starting a sentence with because] So Thursday night we all join together for a barbeque and ate and laughed and talked about the wedding.

Friday arrived and the nerves were starting to set in for everybody. But the show must go on! Friday was the day of the rehearsal and the Bachelorette Party that I hosted. Everything leading up to the rehearsal dinner and party consisted of getting the reception space decorated and set up and making sure all the small details were  being taken care of. I have to admit, I was a little cranky at the rehearsal because it was held outside and it was cold, windy and wet. [Using because at the end of a sentence] Don’t worry; I persevered knowing I would be rewarded with a fancy dinner of Pizza Hut afterwards.

The Bachelorette Part was Friday night after the rehearsal and dinner. With the help of the other bridesmaids, I threw a pretty fun party. I’m not sure if this is normal or not, but my grandma and her shenanigans were the life of the party (for real!); she is so fun. [A compound sentence using a semicolon] When the party died down and everyone was getting tired, we put in a movie called Bride Wars, which we thought to be appropriate to end the night that was before the wedding.

Saturday morning started bright and early due to the time of our hair appointments. My sister, though she usually is an early-riser to begin with, woke up at about 4am…5 hours before the hair appointment was scheduled. [Using  though to interrupt a main sentence] I chose not to wake up that early, but was still up before I would prefer to be nonetheless. All of the bridesmaids, including myself, were super excited to get all dolled up for the big day; my sister especially. With freshly styled hair and fantastic makeup, the 6 of us made our way back to finally get dressed into our wedding-day attire. With dresses and heels on, we packed up our umbrellas to get ready to face the rainy weather for hundreds of pictures. I was cold, I was wet, but I was there to help my sister stay warm and dry while we were taking pictures. As a sister, I was unhappy about the weather conditions and wanted to run inside, take my uncomfortable heels off and curl up with a blanket; as a maid of honor, I sucked it up. [A compound sentence using a semicolon, the two sentences mirroring each other, with repeated parallel structure]

After pictures, the ceremony began. It was a really nice ceremony that was short and sweet. By this time I was ready for a big dinner and to sit down for just a minute. The reception consisted of a delicious dinner and some great dancing including square dancing (more or less), jumping up and down, and line dancing; the “Cha-Cha Slide” and “Cotton-Eyed Joe” included. [using a semicolon as a super comma.] It was a great day/night. But I’m happy to be back in Pullman, in my apartment, wearing slippers instead of high-heels.

               

Blog 5: A lot of grammar in a small response

As I was reading the story about Dora, it didn’t occur to me that some readers thought that the teacher did not do enough to help her; I thought the teacher went about teaching Dora in the most appropriate and effective way. I THOUGHT SHE WENT ABOUT TEACHING DORA IN THE MOST APPROPRIATE AND EFFECTIVE WAY [Compounded subject with two or more personal pronouns]. Most people, especially children, do not react to criticism well. It can often be discouraging if you are being corrected over and over again. Dora's story is a great example of how a typical first-grader writes; its content is simple and isn't always in clear-cut sentences. The way the teacher corrected Dora, whose punctuation was not used correctly, was exactly how a young child should be corrected. Not once did the teacher give her students negative feedback about the writing of theirs. I think positivity is an important factor to teaching and to learning [Compound sentence with two or more verbs joined with and]. Instead of correcting her and going on about how her punctuation was wrong, the teacher would ask Dora to read her story out loud which helped Dora see where the periods were supposed to be. When reading her stories, the teacher smiled which gave Dora a sense of confidence and made her feel like she was doing something right.  When she came across a period that was misused, Dora was not scolded or told “that is wrong,” the teacher simply would have Dora look at a picture book she was reading and compare her own work to the book. Dora could easily point out the differences and I think it’s a great idea to have kids compare their own work to something they are familiar with, like a picture book. THE TEACHER WORKED HARD TO HELP DORA AND THE OTHER STUDENTS UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF WRITING [Compound sentence with two or more subjects connected with and].

Dora was showing progress by trying out different methods of using periods. She tried putting them in between words, at the end of lines, at the end of the pages. Grammar is difficult to learn for many young children who are first starting out. The fact that Dora was trying different methods shows that she is trying to get the concept right in her mind; she knows that what she is doing may not be correct so she tries to make her use of periods more logical. Children who are first learning to write, including Dora, don’t understand the concept of sentences [Use of who]. Why shouldn’t they be able to put a period at the end of the line? It looks right to them. Also, there is a big difference between the way we talk and the way we write. THE WAY WE TALK AND THE WAY WE WRITE DIFFER [S-LV-O>>S-V-O]. Sometimes how we talk does not match up with the correct use of grammar. Grammar is complicated and abstract and confusing. It changes with society which makes it hard to keep up with. Reading about Dora was a good eye-opener to see how a child sees grammar and the long process it is to learn.

Dora Learns to Write and in the Process Encounters Punctuation

As I was reading the story about Dora, it didn’t occur to me that some readers thought that the teacher did not do enough to help her; I thought the teacher went about teaching Dora in the most appropriate and effective way. Most people, especially children, do not react to criticism well. It can often be discouraging if you are being corrected over and over again. Dora's story is a great example of how a typically first-grader writes; ITS [possessive pronoun] content is simple and isn't always in clear-cut sentences. The way the teacher corrected Dora, WHOSE [possessive pronoun] punctuation was not used correctly, was exactly how a young child should be corrected. Not once did the teacher give her students negative feedback about THEIR [possessive pronoun] writing. I think positivity is an important factor to teaching and to learning. Instead of correcting her and going on about how her punctuation was wrong, the teacher would ask Dora to read her story out loud which helped Dora see where the periods were supposed to be. When reading her stories, the teacher smiled which gave Dora a sense of confidence and made her feel like she was doing something right.  When she came across a period that was misused, Dora was not scolded or told “that is wrong,” the teacher simply would have Dora look at a picture book she was reading and compare her own work to the book. Dora could easily point out the differences and I think it’s a great idea to have kids compare their own work to something they are familiar with, like a picture book. 

Dora was showing progress by trying out different methods of using periods. She tried putting them in between words, at the end of lines, at the end of the pages. Grammar is difficult to learn for many young children who are first starting out. The fact that Dora was trying different methods shows that she is trying to get the concept right in her mind; she knows that what she is doing may not be correct so she tries to make her use of periods more logical. Children who are first learning to write, including Dora, don’t understand the concept of sentences. Why shouldn’t they be able to put a period at the end of the line? It looks right to them. Also, there is a big difference between the way we talk and the way we write. Sometimes how we talk does not match up with the correct use of grammar. Grammar is complicated, abstract and confusing. It changes with society which makes it hard to keep up with. Reading about Dora was a good eye-opener to see how a child sees grammar and the long process it is to learn.