Paint with Action Verb Brush Strokes Resources: Glencoe Literature, Listening and Speaking Activities, Pg 17 Glencoe Literature, Writing and Proofreading Practice, Pg 20 (great list of verbs for walking, talking, attitude, personality, and expression)

What are action verbs? An action verb is a word that expresses action. It may be made up of more than one word. An action verb can be physical (shout, arrive) or mental (memorize, forget). Day 1

Examples The director shouts at the members of the cast. The lights are flashing above the stage. The audience arrived in time for the performance. Several singers have memorized the lyrics of a song. Day 1

Day 2

Close eyes and visualize what I am telling you. Day 2

Visualize the core sentence Visualize the core sentence. Visualize the sentence with the action verb. “transforms the still picture into a motion picture” Day 2

Rewrite this passage eliminating as many of the being verbs as possible. Do not use linking and helping verbs: is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been, has, have, had, do, does, did, shall, will, should, would, may, might, must, can, could. Have them share their rewrites. Day 2

Specific and General Nouns

What is a noun? A noun is a word that names a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.

Examples Persons: sister, mayor, coach, children, George Washington, Jessica Alba Places: park, lake, playground, city, Houston, Alabama, America, France Things: magazine, boots, rose, peach, Titanic, ship, Statue of Liberty Ideas: honesty, truth, democracy, pride, maturity, progress, courage

How can you make this sentence more specific? The person jumped along the street. Sally jumped along Sunset Boulevard.

Paint with Adjectives Out-of-Order Resources: Glencoe Literature, Listening and Speaking Activities, Pg 17

What are adjectives? An adjective is a word that describes, or modifies, a noun or a pronoun. They answer one of three questions: What kind? We studied ancient history. How many? I read four chapters. Which one? That invention changed history.

Explain how putting the adjectives out of order adds drama and emphasis.

Brainstorm adjectives that could be used to describe a pit bull Brainstorm adjectives that could be used to describe a pit bull. Have students choose their three favorite and insert them in the blanks.

Rearrange the sentence showing students how putting the adjectives out of order is more powerful compared to placing them before the noun.

Brainstorm adjectives that could describe this leopard cub.

Adding one adjective makes the sentence better, but…

Adding one before the noun and two out of order after really makes a difference. Using images in the classroom individually or as a group to write some other sentences using adjectives out of order.

Paint with Appositive Brush Strokes

What is an appositive? An appositive is a noun that is placed next to another noun to identify it or add information to it. Appositives can appear anywhere in a sentence as long as they are right next to the noun they identify.

Examples James Madison’s wife, Dolly, was a famous first lady. The noun, Dolly, tells us James Madison’s wife’s name. Dolly is an appositive. Notice how it is set off from the sentence by commas. This is how we punctuate appositives.

Examples, cont’d Sometimes you can use more than one word to make an appositive. Madison, our fourth president, held many other offices. “Our fourth president” tells us more information about Madison and it is set off by commas. “Our fourth president” is an appositive.

Notice how the appositive makes the sentence more specific.

How might we add an appositive to make this sentence more interesting? Explosion, eruption, detonation Characterization: god, beast, creature, weapon, machine

Or “a mindless beast with flaming tentacles” Practice writing appositives using pictures and sample sentences

Revising with Appositive Brush Strokes If you have two sentences and one of them has a being verb you can combine them with an appositive in place of the being verb.

Paint with Participle Brush Strokes Glencoe Literature, Writing and Proofreading Practice Pg 59

What is a participle? There are two kinds of participles present and past. Present participles are verbs that end in –ing. Past participles are verbs that end in –d or –ed. In order to use a participle as a brush stroke the participle cannot be the main verb in the sentence.

Examples Sitting quietly, Erik loses himself in the music. Playing the piano, Eric taps his foot along to the beat. Dreaming of fame, Eric sits at the piano. Lingering at the door, Brent waited for his friend.

Point out how adding a participle makes the sentence more interesting

Ask the students to write a basic sentence (no brush strokes except action verbs) about this picture.

Now ask them to add a participle to the beginning of their sentence.

Compare and share sentences.

One word Participles Instead of using a phrase (Jumping in place) you can use a combination of one word participles at the beginning or end of a sentence to create drama. Jumping in place, Mike skipped rope. Leaping, sweating, smiling, Mike skipped rope.

Warning! Make sure that your participle brush stroke comes right before or right after the noun that you are describing. Singing, splashing, and laughing the swimmer attracted the shark. The swimmer is the one singing, splashing and laughing so it is the noun closest to the participle brush stroke.

Warning! Cont’d Singing, splashing, and laughing, the shark was attracted to the swimmer. Is the shark singing, splashing, and laughing? MAKE SURE THAT YOU PUT THE CORRECT NOUN NEXT TO YOUR PARTICIPLE BRUSH STROKE! Practice writing participle brush strokes with images and sample sentences

Paint with Absolute Brush Strokes

What is an absolute? An absolute is a noun followed by a verb that ends in –ing.

Examples Mind racing Anxiety overtaking Jaws cracking Tongue curling

Examples Cont’d Don’t think that you have to stick to two words if you have something more involved in mind

Digits glowing florescent blue in the inky darkness of my room, my clock edged its way toward midnight. Notice that it still begins with a noun and an –ing word

Helpful Hint! It is always a good idea to create your simple sentence before adding your absolutes! If you do this, then you know that you have used your brush stroke correctly!

Good writers use both the visual eye and the imaginative eye to paint an image with words. Visual eye: things they can see in the still picture Imaginative eye: things they can imagine when they see the image they wish to paint as a motion picture Have students write a simple sentence using only their visual eye. Remind them to use a good action verb.

Now have them image the climber in motion Now have them image the climber in motion. Ask them to specifically imagine what their hands, feet, lips, eyes, etcetera are doing. Example thighs straining There are hundreds of possibilities.

Revising to add Absolute Brush Strokes Remember that when revising you can combine a few short sentences using absolutes.

Look at all of those being verbs Look at all of those being verbs. Try to combine these sentences into one sentence using participles and action verbs.

Share some of the student sentences

Have them try this one on their own Have them try this one on their own. Bonus points for my favorite and class favorite?

Helpful Hints when using Brush Strokes Never use more than 3 brush strokes per sentence. Try not to put more than 2 brush strokes right next to each other. You don’t have to use brush strokes in every sentence. Varying the types, location, and frequency of the brush strokes will make your writing more interesting.