"good *ning, *rybody!" said the teacher, donna. "where is *rybody?" that was sort of a daily joke by donna. usually the class started with only two or three students present, and then filled up as the minutes went by. it was summertime. summer school was only eight weeks long. class attendance1 was always smaller than during fall and spring semesters2.
"i don't know, teacher. maybe they late or no come," said one student. "maybe watching tv football tonight."
"is there a soccer * tonight? it seems like there's a soccer * *ry night. oh, well. let's get started, okay? we're on page 36 in the workbook. tonight we're studying participles as adjectives3. students are always confused when they learn about the present and past participles, so we will practice this a lot. tonight, we're just going to practice the present participle.
"the present participle tells us what emotion or feeling the subject is causing. for example, 'grammar is boring' means that the subject—grammar—causes an emotion of boredom4. if we say, 'the movie is interesting,' we are saying that the movie causes a feeling of interest. if we say, 'the roller coaster is exciting,' we are saying that the roller coaster causes a feeling of exc*ent. any questions so far? am i confusing you? is *ryone confused?"
the classroom was quiet. donna looked at blank faces. they were confused. she knew this would take a while. but *ntually, the faster students would grasp it, and then they would * the slower students. by the end of the *ning, most of the class would feel comfortable using the present participle.
donna erased5 the board and put some new examples on it. she loved guiding her students through difficult topics like this one. she always felt a little *t thrilled when the look of understanding came to their faces.
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