Potential

      A woman walks into a train station and sees potential. She sees potential for a plethora of stories. In that old man with the yellow hat, in that young couple looking dangerously in love, even in the graffiti on the front of the restroom door. Perhaps that man just found out that he won the lottery and is taking a great vacation around the globe. Maybe that couple is running away to elope and start their new life together. Suppose that graffiti was drawn by a young man torn apart by his parents divorce. to her, everyone and everything has a story. Everyone and everything has a reason or explanation for their actions; for their existence. That is, everyone, but her.

Vocabulary

potential (noun)
plethora (adjective)
graffiti (noun)
elope (verb)
suppose (verb)
existence (noun)

Vocabulary Exercise

 

Grammar Point

  Pronouns are used to take the place of a noun. They allow for our writing to be less repetitive and to have a better flow. Instead of constantly saying, "Ms. Werther went to the supermarket. Ms. Werther bought some fruit. Ms. Werther used a credit card to pay for the food", we could say, "Ms. Werther went to the supermarket. She bought some fruit and she used a credit card to pay for it". In this case, she and it are pronouns taking place of the nouns 'Ms. Werther' and 'fruit'. 

 Grammar Practice

Use the following link to practice identifying pronouns. Then, write your own paragraph that includes at least five pronouns.

Pronoun Practice 

      The hills at the edge of the city were long and white. In the heart of the city on a hot summer's day, there was no shade and no trees and the station was filled with summer vacationers waiting to get on the train heading east. Lurking by the steps, there was the warm shadow of a long brimmed hat and a curtain, made of cotton, hung over the stroller, to keep out flies. The American and the girl of his dreams sat on the steps of 'The Garden' fawning over their beautiful new baby. It was very hot and the express to the Hamptons would come later that afternoon. It stopped at Pennsylvania Station and went all the way out to the very tip of their little universe, where all you could see was ocean for miles and miles.

 Vocabulary

vacationers (noun) people who travel to a different place for fun
lurking (verb) to be present, but hidden from plain sight
brimmed (adjective) to be full; the full part of the hat
stroller (noun) something that you can push to move a baby from place to place
fawning (verb) displaying affection or a lot of love
universe (noun) a special sphere of activity, interest, or experience

Vocabulary Exercise

 Complete the crossword puzzle by filling in the vocabulary words that each clue defines.

Summer in the City

Across
2. displaying affection or a lot of love
5. something that you can push to move a baby from place to place
Down
1. people who travel to a different place for fun
3. a special sphere of activity, interest, or experience
4. to be full; the full part of the hat
6. to be present, but hidden from plain sight

Grammar Point

Prepositional phrases typically begin with a preposition and end with a noun, pronoun, or clause, which is the object of the preposition. The object of the preposition may have one or more modifiers that describe it. Some examples of prepositional phrases are: at home, in time, with me, from my grandmother, under the warm blanket, and in the weedy, overgrown garden. Prepositional phrases function as adjectives in a sentence, essentially answering various questions such as where, when, how, with whom, etc.

Grammar Exercise 

There are many prepositional phrases throughout my post. Please re-read the post and identify all of the prepositional phrases as well as their purpose within each sentence. Then, write a short story of your own using as many prepositional phrases as you can. Remember to vary their purpose.

The Worst Experience of My Life

 

            It was a bright and sunny day in Sanford, North Carolina and I was just enjoying some quality family time with my newborn nephew, Joey, and the rest of my family when we got the alert. A major hurricane was about to hit the coast of Long Island in just two days time. We had only arrived one day earlier to welcome Joey into the world and already our trip was cut short. My sisters Erika, Sara, and I hurried to pack our belongings, purchased some flashlights and other “hurricane gear”, and sadly said our goodbyes as we headed out to drive the eight hours back home to New York.

            My oldest sister Erika and I live together in a small ranch house in East Rockaway, New York. Little did I know, several canals on either side of our street are surrounding our house. Upon our arrival back home, we began to attempt to raise whatever belongings we could both in our house and in our garage. As we were doing that, men were coming through the streets with megaphones insisting that everyone must evacuate to higher ground.  While I was already panic stricken and quite upset, little rain droplets began to fall from the sky. I knew it was time to go; we had no more time to save our precious belongings. I grabbed my cat and some of my things and headed out to stay with my best friend in Franklin Square. Meanwhile, my sister sent her two cats to stay with a friend and she went to stay at her boyfriend’s house in Oceanside.

            I spent that entire night and the following two days at my friend’s house just worrying. Worrying about my house, worrying about my sister, worrying about what I would come home to when I was finally able to return. In the days following Hurricane Sandy I felt numb. My life as I knew it was about to change for quite some time. We went home a few days after the storm and discovered that our house and garage had been filled with about four feet of water. The damage was absolutely devastating. After crying and crying my sister and I began to sort through all of our stuff. Years of memories washed away in an instant. I didn’t know what to do.

            Hurricane Sandy hit us hard. It kept us out of our house for almost two whole years. It washed away years and years of memories that we had both collected throughout our lives. While I will never be able to retrieve those belongings, and while I felt pretty much homeless as I floated between friends’ homes until our house was rebuilt, I did learn a lot about myself from this storm. Hurricane Sandy taught me that stuff is just that, stuff. The memories are still ingrained in my mind and that is worth more than the “stuff” that I had collected. Also, Sandy showed me that I am a lot more resilient and strong than I ever thought I could be. My sister and I went through a lot because of Hurricane Sandy and I will never be the person that I was prior to the storm, but I am a better person and now I can be an even better mother to my baby when I teach her all about the power of resilience and fighting back.

Vocabulary

evacuate (verb) to leave or go away

damage (noun) something that has been physically harmed or changed in a bad way
devastating (verb) very damaging and causing a lot of sadness or despair
retrieve(verb) to get something
ingrained (verb) stuck deeply and hard to remove
resilient (adjective) able to bounce back or recover from a difficult problem

Vocabulary Exercise 

Match each vocabulary word to the phrase that best defines it.

1. resilient                                                       a. the act of leaving an area

2. retrieve                                                       b. to be difficult to get rid of 

3. evacuate                                                     c. the act of getting something

4. damage                                                      d. something that has been harmed or hurt

5. ingrained                                                   e. something that is extremely harmful; causes sadness

6. devastating                                                f. able to overcome a difficult situation

Grammar Point 

This particular blog post is talking about an event that happened in my past. Adding -ed to the ending of most words will make it past tense. For instance, let's look at the word evacuate. To make evacuate a verb in the past tense we simply add -ed to the end of the word, thus making it evacuated. However, there are times where this rule does not apply. For example, certain words are what we would consider exceptions to the rule, such as, begin. The verb begin becomes began when written in the past tense. Instead of adding -ed, you change the 'i' to an 'a'. Understanding these exceptions is a skill that will be learned with practice. 

Grammar Exercise 

Complete this worksheet for extra practice using simple past tense verbs

 Go to the following link to play a fun game and practice irregular past tense verbs!

Irregular Past Tense Jeopardy Quiz Game