Spring Writing, Week 7

Hour 1

Exam Schedule (5)

In the first hour this week, let’s do 2 things.

Make the exam schedule

• Monday – April 22
• Thursday – April 25

Sooner the better, right?

Exam Grade (5)

Here is the syllabus. The midterm exam will be 50 minutes. It is worth 25% of your final grade. The midterm exam has 4 parts.

I estimate the time requirements as follows:

• Part 1: 10 minutes – rewrite one story
• Part 2: 10 minutes – describe a person, place, or activity
• Part 3: 5 minutes – answer a logic puzzle question with bullets
• Part 4: 10 minutes – write a few sentences with no mistakes
• Total: 35 minutes

Some people will be a little faster and some a little slower.

Here are the exam questions on a pdf, which you can print.

Question 1 Rewrite one short story. (10 min)

That will be either #1 Room 8 (summary) … or … #2 A Memorable Day (time organisation).

My choice.

Why rewrite an old story on the test? Show me your best long writing.

It will be graded as follows:

• 2-4 paragraphs (max) in length
• use 6+1 writing traits
• no major grammar or spelling errors
• no major missing details (all main questions should be discussed in the text like who, what, where, when, why and how)
• strong first sentence, good flow and a good ending
• it’s interesting
• use the writing elements we studied in class (e.g. complex sentences, complex sentences with one subject, sentences with prepositional phrases).
• good presentation with paragraphs and margins

Question 2 Describe a person, place or thing (10 min)

You choose one.

Your writing should be 2-3 paragraphs. Well organized. Same grading system as above.

1. Write about someone you think is important from history. Discuss what they did and why you feel they should be remembered.  Include examples. Please do not choose Lee Sun-shin.
2. Talk about a place you have visited. Be specific. Describe the place with lots of details.
3. Describe in something you know a lot about.  This can be a hobby, something you have been interested in for some time, or something that you have studied in the past.

Question 3 Write a short answer with bullets (5)

The purpose of this question is to show me that that can write a short report with proper bullet formatting. We talked about how to format an ordered or unordered list. Now show me you remember you know how to do that.

You’ll get one logic puzzle. Find the answer and write the solution. Your answer will should include these parts:

• one or two sentences to introduce and summarize the problem
• a few bullets to describe the actions or steps to take
• a few sentences to conclude

Here are the three possible questions. One of these will be on your test paper.

Puzzle 1

Upstairs, there is a room with one light, one door and one chair. Downstairs, there are three light switches – A, B and C. One switch is connected to the light in the upstairs room.

How can you find out which switch is connected to the upstairs light? You can enter the upstairs room one time. There are no windows and it is impossible to see inside the room unless you open the door. Turn the switches on and off as much as you like.

Puzzle 2

You are standing beside a well with 2 buckets. One bucket holds 5 liters of water. The other bucket holds 3 liters of water. How can you get exactly 4 liters of water using only these 2 buckets?

You have no other tools and the buckets have no measurement lines.

Puzzle 3

Question 4 Short Sentences

You will be asked to write a few sentences. To get points on this question, you have to write with zero errors. This questions is scored hard because we spent a lot of time looking at these sentences and you had lots of time to ask me questions.

Part 1 Compound Sentences

I will give you a hint word and you write a perfect compound sentence. For example:

• milk
• She doesn’t like to drink milk, but she likes to eat butter.

Practice

• fish
• tetrapod
• shopping mall
• fishing
• Harry Potter

Part 2 Complex sentences

I will give you a hint word and you write a perfect complex sentence. For example:

• pork and rice soup
• While eating a bowl of pork and rice soup, he drank 2 bottles of soju.

Practice

• human brain
• Santa Clause
• key money
• parking spot
• grilled pork chops

Part 3 Tiny Story

You watched a video called Tiny Story. Write sentences with good verbs to describe the movement of the dots and lines.

Please note we will not watch the video during the exam, nor can you watch the video on your smartphone. Anybody who watches a video on the phone during the test gets an automatic zero on the whole exam.

I will give you a concept. You write the sentence with a good verb to describe the action. Here are the concepts you should know for the exam:

• dream
• listen
• learn
• love
• respect
• trust
• enjoy

Jeopardy