9/12/22

We began by looking at the Sentence Structure Cheat Sheet which I emailed one to everyone. The focus, today, was on understanding what makes a "clause" a "clause" as well as the difference between independent and dependent clauses. After discussing the clauses and their differences, I asked everyone to create two independent clauses. These clauses cannot have the subject "I" or use the same subjects and/or verbs in the two different clauses. For example:

  • Birds eat worms

  • Tammy fell into the pool

After checking everyone's clauses, I explained that the only difference between an independent and dependent clause is the subordinating conjunction that the dependent clause has, which is what keeps it from being able to stand on its own. I point out all of the subordinating conjunctions at the bottom of the cheat sheet, and I ask students to turn their independent clauses into dependents. For example:

  • Since birds eat worms

  • After Tammy fell into the pool

To try and help this make more sense, I discuss the difference between phrases and clauses, and I write the following word groups on the board:

  • After the party VS. After the party ended

The first is a phrase because it lacks a verb to go with "party", but the second is a dependent clause.

After this, we began the first MyPerspectives Unit entitled "Inside the nightmare". We watched a video that says that Americans collectively spend over a billion dollars a year on Halloween. I pose the following questions and have everyone type their responses for four minutes.

  • "Why is Halloween such a big business in the US? Why are people so obsessed with this holiday?"

We talk this over as a class for a while.

Upon completion, we circle up. I ask the following question:

Are the mind/consciousness and the body inexorably connected or does the mind/consciousness continue to exist once the body dies.

I moved around the circle from right to left so that everyone was given a turn to respond.