“Horribly Hard Middle School”

1. “Horribly Hard Middle School” Read the beginning of the story, “Horribly Hard Middle School,” from Giggles in the Middle, by Jane Bell Kiester. You will be reading more of this story weekly as part of our editing practice.

2. Caught Ya! Grammar Twice a week, you will read a short passage from the story, “The Bizarre Mystery of Horribly Hard Middle School.” Copy the day’s passage into the right column of your Cornell note form, editing as you go. Correct as many errors as you can find. To earn extra credit, find and correct the day’s “Caught Ya!” error. Your teacher will be moving around the room giving you a hint as to whether you found it or not. You can also earn extra credit by defining the bold print vocabulary in your own words, or looking for special features to locate and markin the passage before time is called.

3. Caught Ya! Grammar How to Check Your Answers Once time is called, you will see the passage written correctly. As your teacher goes over the errors, use a different color pen to put a check mark () over any error that you found on your own. If you found and corrected the day’s Caught Ya! error, put an extra check mark on it. For every error that you missed, use the appropriate editing mark to correct it. If you use an editing mark, you can still receive credit for the correction if you record the rule in the left column of your notes.

4. Caught Ya! Grammar How to Grade Your Answers You will calculate two scores for this exercise. First Score: Count the number of checks and put that number over the total errors. For example, if there were 20 errors, and you found 10, you would write10/20. Then divide the bottom number (denominator) into the top number (numerator) to find your percent. Remember that your answer will be in decimal form. To turn this into a percentage, move the decimal two places to the right. In this example, 10/20 = 0.50. Move the decimal to get 50%. This score tells you how much you know. The rules you recorded in the left column tell you what you need to learn.

5. Caught Ya! Grammar How to Grade Your Answers You will calculate two scores for this exercise. Second Score: Count the number of checks + editing marks that you recorded as the answers were given. Put that number over the total number of errors. Then, divide the numerator (total possible) by the denominator (total points you earned). Remember to move the decimal. If you add all those you got on your own and add the corrected editing marks for the errors that you missed, and you recorded all the rules for those errors, you should make a 100%. The good news is that for the first semester, this is the grade that goes in the grade book!

6. Caught Ya! Grammar How to Earn Extra Credit! Once you have calculated both scores, you can add in your extra credit to the second score. Let’s say that your final grade for the second score is 100%. (Remember, you can only make the 100% if you use the editing marks and record all the rules for the errors that you didn’t catch on your own.) To add extra credit, you can do any of the following: • Correctly define the bold print words in the passage for one additional point per word (e.g., if you defined two words and your second score is 100%, your final grade for this exercise would be 102%!). • Correct the Caught Ya! error before the time limit. If your “got it,” you will receive one extra credit point. • Mark any additional elements of the text as indicated on the exercise. These may include literary devices, figurative language, word structures (prefixes, suffixes, and roots), or other elements. You will receive one additional point for each of these you complete correctly before the time limit.

7. Caught Ya! Grammar Today’s Practice Just to make sure we all understand how this process works, we are going to use the first paragraph of our story as a practice. Copy the passage and make as many corrections as you can find. Try it now. You have 10 minutes.

8. the bizarre mystery of horribly hard middle school isabelleingenuous always animated twirled in nervousness and a excess of energy, paulinepuerile whined in a babyish manner about the tardiness of oliviaotiose about having to return to horribly hard middle school for another year and the homework the teachers loved to pile on her Seven Extra Credit Points Available: Correct the “Caught Ya!” error, define the five bold words, and circle a suffix that changes adjectives to nouns. Passage 7.1

9. “TheBizarreMysteryofHorriblyHardMiddleSchool” ¶ Isabelle Ingenuous,always animated,twirled in nervousness and an excess of energy. Pauline Puerilewhined in a babyish manner about the tardiness of Olivia Otiose,about having to return to Horribly Hard Middle School for another year, and about the homework the teachers loved to pile on her. • Center the title of a short story on the page • Quotation marks around titles of short works (short story, poem, song , article) • Capitalize major words in a title • Indent paragraph • New topic • New speaker • Capitalize the first word in sentence x2 • Capitalize proper nouns x10 (4 are in title) • Comma(s) to separate participial phrase • Adjective Error: Use the article, “an” before a word beginning with a vowel • Run-On sentences x 2 • Separate into 2 sentences • Separate with comma and conjunction • Separate with semi-colon • End punctuation x2 • Commas to separate series x2 • Parallel construction (about…) • Extra Credit: • Add an extra check to the Caught Ya! error if you got it right on your own. • Vocabulary • ingenuous(adj.) free from reserve, restraint, or dissimulation; candid; sincere • animated (adj.) full of life, action, or spirit; lively; vigorous • puerile (adj.) childishly foolish; immature or trivial • tardiness (n.) the state of being late; the quality of being behind time • otiose (adj.) being at leisure; idle; indolent; lazy • Suffix: -ness is a suffix that changes adjectives (i.e., nervous, tardy) to nouns (nervousness, tardiness); -ness means “the state or quality of” Passage 7.1 Errors: 29