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lördag 12 september 2015

English: 2 truths and 1 lie!


Hi everyone!

As promised here are the three examples of how you can write your stories, depending on what grades you are working towards.

What you will notice is that there are three main things that I look at when grading your texts:
+ Grammar (Do you conjugate your verbs correctly? Do you remember to add a -s when it's he/she/it?)
+ Variation (Do you use the same phrases/words over and over again, or do you try to vary yourself?)
+ Spelling (In general, to get a higher grade, your spelling needs to be really good, almost perfect.)

- - - - - -

The story of the dead guinea pig and singing in the rain.

This happened on my little brother’s 5th birthday. It was early November and we had a party to celebrate. We invited all of our relatives; our grandparents, uncles, aunts and of course our cousins.

I was 7 at the time and so during the party my cousins and I mostly played games together. We played hide-and-seek, we chased each other around and then later in the evening we took all the balloons and started throwing them around. We also hit each other with them, which obviously, we thought was hilarious. 

One of my cousins was a bit of a troublemaker. He played pranks on people, and sometimes he was even a bit mean. He punched you or hit you and thought it was fun if you got sad.

My brother and I had a guinea pig named Molly. We really, really loved her. She lived in a cage in my brother’s room. During the party my troublemaker cousin ran into the room where Molly was and popped a balloon right in front of her cage!

Of course, Molly squeaked and then she died.

I cried and cried and cried until my dad promised that we would bury Molly in the backyard. So during the birthday party, while all the guests were inside my dad, my brother and I walked outside in the pouring rain to say goodbye to Molly.

We stood outside in our nice clothes as it rained on us and watched my dad dig a small hole. Afterwards he put Molly down in it and we said some nice words about her. We talked about how much we loved her and how we would miss her.

Then I remembered that you usually sing songs during a funeral. So I told my dad we had to sing one as well, but the only “religious” song I knew was the one I sang in church with my classmates before summer break.

So, in the middle of November, in the pouring rain, I sang “Den blomstertid nu kommer” for the guinea pig that died on my brother’s birthday.
 + + +

As you can see, I am using quite a few different verbs in this text (27!):
happened, was, had, invited, played, chased, took, started, hit, thought, punched, loved, lived, ran, popped, squaked, died, cried, promised, would, were, walked, stood, rained, told, knew and sang.

My sentences are not very long, but the sentence structure (the order of the words) is correct.

I am also using a variation of words to show that I have a large vocabulary. For example, I use words like funeral (begravning), troublemaker (bråkstake), celebrate (fira), relatives (släktingar) and so on. When you are writing at home, I want you to use a dictionary to push yourself to learn new words!

- - - - - -

My story about the dead guinea pig.

This happened on my little brothers 5th birthday. We invited all of our cousins to the party.
I was 7 and we played together and then we took all the balloons and started throwing them around.

One of my cousins ran into the room were our guinea pig Molly was and popped a balloon right in front of her cage!

Molly makes a noise and then she died.

I cried a lot. My dad said that we will put Molly in the backyard. Then I walked outside in the pouring rain to say goodbye to Molly.

We stood outside and watched my dad put Molly down in the ground and we said nice words about her.  
Then I remembered that you sing songs when you say goodbye to someone. I said to my dad we had to sing one as well, and I sang “Den blomstertid nu kommer” for Molly.
 + + + 

The differences between this story and the first one is:
1) The length. This story is shorter, because I don't describe what happened in as much detail. This means I use less verbs and I don't vary myself as much. 
2) The grammar. There are some grammatical errors which I have written in red. For example, I forgot to use an apostrophe (brother's birthday) and I didn't conjugate my verbs correctly (Molly made a noise). I also confused the words where and were.
3) The are some words and phrases that I didn't use in this text that was in the previous one. I wrote that Molly "makes a noise" instead of "squeaked" and I didn't write that we had a funeral. I also wrote "said" many times, instead of "told" or "mentioned" or any other words you can use. Variation is important!

- - - - - -

My dead pet.

I had a pet and it died on my brothers birthday. I was very sad and I cryed a lot. My dad sayed we could put her in the ground and say goodbye. We walked behind our house and put her in the ground. My little brother and I said goodbye and we sing a song. It was called "Den blomstertid nu kommer." It rained and I was so sad the hole time!

 + + +

Ok, this story is really the minimum that I ask of you! It is very short and does not have a lot of details. The grammar is mostly OK, but there are a few mistakes (in red).

There are also a few spelling mistakes (in blue), but they are OK because they sound correct when you read them. If someone who only spoke English read this text, they would still understand what you wanted to say.

I have not used a lot of different words in this text. I write the same phrases a few times "say/said goodbye" and I also didn't know the word for "backyard" so I wrote "behind our house" instead. Additionally, I wrote "pet" and not "guinea pig". This shows that my vocabulary isn't very big.

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