4.2.1 Prefixes, "All Watched Over," Active and Passive Voice

Prefixes, "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace," Active and Passive Voice

Lesson 4.2.1

Work Work: Prefixes
dia-, ex/e-, post-, co-

Learners can:

• identify the definition of given prefixes

• identify prefixes in provided words

Prefixes

Match

Match each prefix with its definition.

• through, across, between

• out, from

• after

• with, together

dia-

ex/e-

post-

co-

• dia-

• ex/e-

• post-

• co-

Reading: "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" First Read

Learners can:

• recall details from a poem

• match lines from the poem with related images 

• Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) was an American novelist and poet who came to be celebrated for his imaginative writings about nature, emotion, and life.

• Many of his works tackle issues related to living in harmony with nature and dealing with complex human emotions. One thing that sets his work apart from others is his use of interesting and creative settings.

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Author Background

“All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” was published in 1967. During this time, American culture was a combination of:

• Ideals about peace, love, and harmony

• Cold War fears about democracy and socialism

• Anti-war protests centered around American troops in Vietnam

• Support for technological innovations such as spaceships.

These factors all shaped Brautigan's poem and people's understanding of it.

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Historical Context

• Cybernetic: a state of communication primarily through automatic and mechanical-electrical systems

• Harmony: parts working together, acting as one; in agreement

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Vocabulary

Today, you will read the poem “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace” by Richard Brautigan. Your focus should be on enjoying and understanding the poem. As you read, make annotations about:

• questions;

• emotional responses; and

• items of interest.

Additionally, picture images that help illustrate the meaning of the poem.

First Read

Multiple Choice

What happens to humans at the end of the poem?

• People overthrow the machines watching them.

• People join other animals as just another part of the cybernetic ecology.

• People work with machines to create harmony with nature.

• People leave Earth and journey into outer space because of the machines.

Match

Match the line of text with the image it illustrates.

"like pure water / touching clear sky"

"where deer stroll peacefully"

"all watched over / by machines"

• "like pure water / touching clear sky"

• "where deer stroll peacefully"

• "all watched over / by machines"

Writing: Active and Passive Voice

Learners can:

• identify active and passive voice

• determine the stages of the research process

• Active voice is when the subject is acting or is the doer.

  • Example: the line from Brautigan's poem, “I like to think of a cybernetic meadow” is written with an active voice.

  • The active voice may have a direct object (like a cybernetic meadow in the example), or it may not: I like to think.

• Passive voice is when the subject is acted on.

  • Example, “A cybernetic meadow is thought about by me.”

  • As you can see in the example, passive voice requires more words and can be less clear to understand.

  • Passive voice sentences often end in a phrase that begins with the word by or through. This phrase tells who or what did the action

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Grammar Time!

Categorize

Options (4)

Mammals and computers live together.

People are free of their labors.

Like spinning blossoms look the computers.

By machines of loving grace watched over are we.

Read the sentences and determine if they use an active or passive voice.

Active Voice

Passive Voice

• Informational writing is a type of nonfiction writing designed to share information, not entertain or persuade.

• Informational writing relies upon accuracy and facts, so it is often paired with research.

• Research is an organized study of materials and sources about a topic in order to make new discoveries or connections.

• You will study and complete research as you work on an informational writing project.

Unit 4 Essay: Informational Writing

You will complete a writing project that researches and presents information about one of the following technology-related topics:

• What is the future of housing and farming technologies?

• What is the future of information and communication technologies (ICT)?

• What is the future of medical technologies?

If you would like more information on these topics, feel free to check page 5 of your edio lesson.

Informational Writing Project

• When you complete research outside of school, you may not take much time to weigh a source's credibility or purpose. You might use a search engine and press on the first website that appears. This is acceptable outside of school; however, academic research should be done with more care.

• You will use something called the research process, a system of steps that help you collect and present the most effective information.

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Research Process

In this lesson, you:

• identified and defined the prefixes dia-, ex/e-, post-, and co-

• recalled details from “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”

• identified active and passive voice

• determined the stages of the research process.

There are few things that are guaranteed to happen in the future; however, people can study the world around them and make educated predictions. This unit's Reading and Writing lessons will support your ability to form an educated answer to the unit inquiry question: What is technology's future?

Wrap Up

The rest of class is Choice Time. You can be working on:
-iReady Reading Practice
-Silent Reading
-Get help from Mrs. Massack
-Overdue Edio Lessons

Choice Time