Hello everyone, Today we're going to learn Unit 3 Celebrations, Writing Workshop, and Event Description. In this class, you'll analyze the structure and features of an event description, learn how to use linkers to make an event description more logical, learn how to add appropriate details to convey feelings and highlight the most memorable event, write an event description to show true emotions to loved ones, and edit your partner's article.
Today, you're going to write about a celebration event. What celebration do you want to write about? And why? Good. You might want to write about Spring Festival, a birthday party, or a graduation ceremony, because these events hold special meanings for you.
Our friend Tom chose to write about a birthday party. Look at the picture and guess whose birthday it is. What activities would be mentioned in the article? From the picture, we can see an old man blowing out candles, so it must be his birthday. And the article might mention activities like eating the birthday cake, giving gifts, etc. To check your predictions, read the article on page 62. Summarize the main idea of each paragraph and list the major activities on your handout. Okay, guys, time to check answers.
Paragraph 1 is a brief introduction of the event. Paragraph 2 mainly talks about the preparations for the birthday party. Paragraph 3 is mainly about the celebrating process of the birthday party. And paragraph 4 describes Grandpa's feelings. The major activities, as shown on the slide, indicate that the event is described in time order, and we can use time order in our own event description. Then, how do we connect different activities logically in time order? Yes, by using time linkers.
Now, please list the time linkers used by the author. Okay, guys, time to check the answers. To connect the paragraphs, the author used “The whole family had been preparing for it for quite some time.” And the phrases “early in the morning,” “just before lunchtime,” and “towards the end of the party.”
In paragraph 2, the author used “Mom was already in the kitchen” and “after a quick breakfast” to connect different activities. In paragraph 3, the author used “as soon as the guests took their seats” to shift the reader's attention from the guests to the video. Can you think of other time linkers? Good, “first,” “then,” “after that,” etc.
Now, use proper time linkers to complete the paragraph describing the preparations of the Spring Festival Eve dinner. On the left are some words for your reference. Okay, guys, tell me your answers. In the first blank, we can fill in “early in the morning” or “in the morning.” In the second blank, we can fill in “as soon as.” In the third blank, we can fill in “first.” And in the fourth blank, we can fill in “then.” Do you get all the answers correct?
Now, let's look at the diagram again. If we write an article with only the information in the diagram, will it be attractive? Of course not. What are we missing?
Yes, details. Now, please underline the details in paragraph 2 and paragraph 3 and try to categorize them. Time's up. Please tell me your answers. The first category of details are some adjectives or adverbs to describe or imply the feelings of the participants. For example, in the sentence “After a quick breakfast, I checked the special gift for Grandpa for the last time,” the word “last” implies that the author had checked the video several times, and this video was very special to him.
The second category of details are some verbs to describe how the activity was done in specific ways. For example, “listening to grandpa's stories,” “selecting his favorite music,” and “collecting photos from the family album” show how the author made the video. “As soon as the guests took their seats, Grandpa's favorite music began to fill the room with memories of the old days,” and “The best part came when Grandpa and his friends appeared in an old photo in their school uniforms” show what the video was like.