Monday, December 14, 2009

Christmas Blessings to All!

Greetings, moms and students!

I'm enjoying our break, but I'm missing my students and their joyful smiles!

I've finally spent this morning tallying our Samaritan's Purse gift and am once again overwhelmed by our kids' generosity. Their hard work and generous spirits are enabling us to give $386.50 to Samaritan's Purse this Christmas. That's $27.60 per student! How wonderful! Please give them huge hugs for me.

At church yesterday, we read the following verses from 2 Corinthians 9:

"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. ... This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God." (vs. 7, 13)

Watching the kids get so excited over how much and what to give in class a couple of weeks ago really brought these verses to life. In their generous act of service, our children are giving the following items:
  • 10 life-saving mosquito nets
  • 3 hot meals for a week
  • 5 blankets and bedding
  • 1 box for Operation Christmas Child
  • feeding 2 hungry babies for a week
  • 3 dozen baby chicks
  • 1 Bible
  • help learning to read and write for 1 child
  • clothing and shoes for 1 child
  • 1 water filter
  • 1 set of sports gear
But the gift goes much further than aid to those in need. According to these verses, it demonstrates thankfulness and obedience before God and will reap a harvest of worldwide praise. Be sure to share with them what a blessing they are not only to people but to the Lord himself!

Classical Conversations declares the purpose of education is "to know God and to make Him known." As homeschooling parents, we strive daily to point our children toward God, trusting him to reveal himself to them in personal and relevant ways in order that they might know him lovingly. I am so thankful for a group of parents and students who aren't content to stop with knowing him but who want to make him known through cheerful, obedient and generous giving!

Huge blessings on you all during Christmas! I'll see you in January.

Love,

Mrs. Erin

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Week 12 Admission Ticket

For Week 12, I want the kids to actually spend time reading through the Samaritan's Purse catalog. I want them to envision some of the needs in countries where people have far less access to education, opportunity and convenience. And I want them to see how the combination of their hard work and willingness to freely and cheerfully give of the little they have will pay huge dividends and bless the lives of people whom they will never meet.

To class, just bring the tickets they've earned and the money they'd like to contribute!

Week 11: God loves our cheerful givers, and I do, too!

I have to tell you. These kids blow me away. Their eagerness and excitement over the Samaritan's Purse gift, not to mention the desire of several to contribute above and beyond the suggested amount of their own money, really grabs my heart. God loves a cheerful giver, and we have an entire classroom full of happy philanthropists! Bless all of you moms for sharing your sweet children with me!

In my mind, their enthusiasm overshadows the work we actually did in class yesterday, but we still accomplished a bit in both EEL and IEW.

EEL consisted mostly of review. We formally introduced Task 5 on the EEL Student Task Sheets, which will serve as an excellent review tool at home the next two weeks. During this time, revisit the whole semester's material in a fun and relaxed fashion. Question and probe your students, looking for strengths and weaknesses or incomplete understanding. Now is the time to ensure a firm foundation in what we've learned. Over these two weeks, mix and match the first four sentence patterns and four sentence purposes to form simple and compound sentences. Using Task 5, modify them, dress them up, and diagram the dress-ups to the extent you can. Remember: We haven't yet covered complex or compound-complex sentences. You may want to skip those two elements of Task 5 modification for now. However, the rest should come pretty easily for the students.

We'll spend most of our time next week playing a review game the kids and I brainstormed for during our "secret" meeting yesterday! :) For the game, please ask the kids to bring a dry erase marker from home if they're frustrated with our class markers. I'll purchase new markers in January.

IEW again asks the students to write creatively this week. I haven't read their papers yet, but from what I heard yesterday, the students are doing a fantastic job. Like last week's assignment, Lesson 12 features three source text sections from which students will outline their entire story sequence. We completed two section outlines in class, which leaves only one for home before brainstorming and rough drafts.

The new decoration is 3SSS, which stands for "three short staccato sentences." Essentially, this is three VSS's strung together for effect. The kids grasped the concept quickly in class. I anticipate they'll incorporate it into their papers with ease. Notice on the checklists, however, that only one decoration is required per section. While they can include as many as they wish, only one of the three options (dialogue, alliteration or 3SSS) is required per section.

Next week should be fun. We'll probably flip-flop our time, completing IEW first and saving our EEL review game time for after. Then we'll leave the last 30 minutes or so open for Samaritan's Purse and the cookie exchange. Whew! It'll be a full two hours!

I'll probably touch base again concerning Samaritan's Purse. I sent home the gift catalogs with the kids and asked them to bring their tickets and money to class next week along with the knowledge of what they'd like to purchase. For those who contribute their own money, remind them to add in the sponsors' match. For example, a student who's earned $5 in tickets and contributes $5 will actually be able to spend $20.

An important note: I DO have Week 10's papers still, as I only got through half of them. And, of course, I have Week 11's that were turned in yesterday. So most of the kids have an additional three tickets coming to them. A couple who turned in papers late and haven't yet received them back may have four. They can factor that into their counting. I'll try to send out an update of what I have here at home so everyone knows exactly what to expect.

Please email me as you have questions. And will someone shoot me an email on this yummy cookie exchange idea? I think y'all hammered out details while the kids and I were outside yesterday.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Week 10: Diagramming is doable!

Great class yesterday!

We introduced S-Vl-PA sentences, which prompted a discussion of adjectives, using our Modifiers: Adjectives and Adverbs chart. You'll find a lengthy discussion of adjectives in this week's EEL lesson to review at home with your student.

S-Vl-PA sentences incorporate the complete list of linking verbs named on your Helping and Linking Verbs chart. In class, the kids seemed to grasp this sentence pattern easily. The EEL Guide explains the S-Vl-PA structure well incase you need help understanding, identifying and explaining it. For practice at home over the next few days, dictate simple and compound declarative S-Vl-PN and S-Vl-PA sentences and, using the Simple Steps chart, let the kids label and diagram. Encourage them (and help them if needed) to dress up the sentences with adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases.

As we will not introduce anymore sentence patterns until January, I expect you to spend most of your time this week on IEW. Students are again assigned creative writing, this time retelling the story of the fall of Babylon found in chapter 5 of Daniel in the Bible. Whereas last week, students could construct an entire story sequence out of the first section, this week, they'll need to rewrite all three sections to successfully move all the way from setting to theme. But remember: Short and sweet can be just as effective as long and loquacious!

We completed the outline of the first two sections in class. Before beginning a rough draft, they'll need to complete the outline for Section III and brainstorm adjectives, verbs and adverbs for all three sections.

The new decoration is dialogue, and students should include dialogue in their papers. We discussed proper punctuation and capitalization in class. Follow up on this at home. Those quotes, commas and end marks can be confusing til you get the hang of it!

As this post is late, and Maggie is due at piano in 10 minutes, I'm rushing! Please contact me if the post is unclear.

Week 11 Admission Ticket

Week 11's admission ticket for our Gilded Coupon Campaign is the IEW Vocabulary Crossword that I emailed two days ago. If you have trouble printing, let me know.

I'm in the process of planning how to let the kids redeem their tickets for the Samaritan's Purse donation. I hope to touch base with y'all later in the week with some ideas. Thanks.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Week 9: Our sentence pattern is S-Vl-PN.

Today's class felt FULL! We loaded our brains with information from beginning to end. What an opportunity! Have I told you I love your kids?

I'm skipping ahead, but I want you to PLEASE encourage their IEW writing at home this week by telling them how great Mrs. Erin believes their ancient Egypt papers are. Their hard work (and yours!) definitely paid dividends on this three-week assignment. I am pleased and proud with both the effort and the results. I almost teared up in class today as I considered how successfully each student had tackled these paragraphs! Wouldn't they have thought me silly and strange? Rightly so, I'm afraid, but yeah for IEW and our young writers!

The assignment I handed out today, Lesson 9, marks our transition to writing stories. The lesson gives families the option of writing one, two or three paragraphs on the Israelites' exodus from Egypt. Choose whichever works best for your family this week. We discussed in class the elements a good story needs, but it wouldn't hurt to review those again at home. Even if your student writes one paragraph only, that one paragraph should contain the complete story sequence. We did not add any new dress-ups or style techniques, so refer to your checklists for each paragraph's requirements. As to weekly schedule, I'd suggest outlines Wednesday; rough drafts Thursday; revisions Friday; title, labeling, illustration and checklist Monday.

Moving backward to EEL, we covered principal parts using our verb charts and Week 9 memory work. Use the memory work and corresponding charts at home this week to jump-start verb conversations and deepen students' understanding of how verbs work in sentences. If they haven't already memorized them from Foundations, start chanting that linking verb list.

We also introduced our fourth sentence pattern, S-Vl-PN. I told the students that while I haven't found it written anywhere yet, I believe all S-Vl-PN sentences use a form of "to be." That's why it's important for them to know the principal parts of this oft-used linking verb: to be, am, are, is, was, were, be, being, been. Using your EEL Student Task sheets at home this week, dictate S-Vl-PN sentences, dress them up with adverbs and prepositional phrases, and then parse and diagram them. Throw in a S-Vi or S-Vt-DO here and there; I believe the juxtaposition of different sentence patterns help students grasp the bigger picture.

If accomplishing the tasks of both EEL and IEW becomes overwhelming this week (or in the weeks to come), take a deep breath and choose what to let go. Most of these students will take this class again next year. Thus they have plenty of time to master the material.

If that's the case in your house, spend a few minutes a day on verbs this week using the memory work and charts and then complete three or four S-Vl-PN sentences. I'd recommend 30 minutes maximum for EEL. Then move on to IEW. If your student thrives on IEW and time is abundant, go for three paragraphs. If not, one solid, well-written paragraph is an excellent goal.

For students moving to Challenge A next year, look for understanding with EEL but invest your time in IEW. To be honest, I believe most of the older ones have a pretty good grasp on EEL right now. I think second semester will pose a greater challenge. So if they can spend more time on their writing now through Week 12, I'd encourage it.

My older daughter, Maggie, is enrolled this year in Challenge A, which uses IEW's Bible-Based Writing Lessons. We're writing lengthy papers weekly. It's tough, mostly because it takes MUCH time to brainstorm, write and revise each paragraph well. As a result, I believe the better our students can hone those writing skills in Essentials, the better off they'll be in Challenge a year (or two or three) down the road.

Unsolicited advice in those last four paragraphs, but you can tell what's on my mind...

Only three weeks to go! See you next Tuesday.

Week 10 Admission Ticket

Okay. Today in class, we spent some time learning the principal parts of a verb, which are infinitive, present, past, present participle, and past participle. We also reviewed the four verb types: intransitive, transitive, helping and linking.

I told the students that their admission ticket for Week 10 would be to examine the verbs "lie" (meaning "to rest or recline") and "lay" ("to put or place") and determine which of the two can be used as a transitive verb and which can be used only as an intransitive verb. I'd like for them to do the same with the verbs "rise" and "raise."

I'm assigning this task
  1. to help them cement these particular meanings of each because they are often confused;
  2. to encourage memorization of the principal parts of each; and
  3. to require their brains to apply what they've learned about intransitive and transitive verbs AND S-Vi and S-Vt-DO sentence patterns.

SO, I'd like each student to bring to class a piece of paper on which they've written each of the four verbs, each verb's meaning, each verb's principal parts, whether the verb is transitive or intransitive, and a sentence that demonstrates its type. (Hint: Make them use each verb in a sentence and determine the sentence pattern to discover the verb type.)

Some may not believe themselves capable of discerning the differences. But they're clever. I know they can do it. Encourage them for me at home this week!

Incase you need the answers to help nudge them along, here they are:

Lie (to rest or recline): to lie, lie, lies, lay, lying, lain; intransitive only; I am lying on the sofa.

Lay (to put or place): to lay, lay, lays, laid, laying, laid; transitive; I laid the book on the table.

**If you ever find yourself wondering whether you should use a form of "lie" or a form of "lay," try substituting "recline" and "put." You wouldn't say, "I am putting on the sofa," or "I reclined the book on the table."

Rise (to get up, ascend, originate, increase): to rise, rise, rises, rose, rising, risen; intransitive only; The sun rises early each morning.

Raise (to lift up): to raise, raise, raises, raised, raising, raised; almost always transitive; "I raised the window" (S-Vt-DO) OR "The window raises easily" (S-Vi).

Questions? Email me!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Week 9 Admission Ticket

Tighten the following sentences and turn them into Mrs. Erin next week:

There were several children playing games in the park.

The funny story that I told you yesterday about the cat that I saw at the pet store made my sister laugh.

The kids were being carefully watched by attentive parents.

The tiny oak sapling was being chopped down by children with hatchets.

Week 8: For fun at home, add prepositional phrases to your sentences!

What a crazy but great day today! The poor Westside pastor -- our kids' eagerness (read: shrill screams and cheers for their teammates) during math relays disturbed his writing time! We'll be quieter next week...heehee.

During EEL time, we officially introduced prepositional phrases. Incorporate them into your writing, labeling and diagramming this week with these points in mind:
  1. A word such as "down" may be an adverb or a preposition. For it to be used as a preposition in a sentence, it must have an object. In "The cat slid down, " 'down' is an adverb. In "The cat slid down the rail," 'down' is a preposition and 'rail' is its object.

  2. Help the kids learn to recognize whether a prepositional phrase is adjectival (modifying a noun) or adverbial (modifying a verb).

  3. One thing I failed to mention in class is what's called "phrasal prepositions." Check your EEL Guide on page 101, but these are simply prepositions that appear as two or more words, such as "according to" or "with regard to."

Keep working through Tasks 1-4 on your Student EEL Task Sheets. Use your sample sentences at the end of Lesson 8, or encourage the kids to write their own S-Vi and S-Vt-DO sentences. Start simple, then dress them up with adverbs and prepositional phrases.

Also in class, we practiced changing declarative sentences to interrogative, exclamatory and imperative purposes. This actually gave the kids an unknown preview of the first part of Task 5, and you can do this at home, too, if you'd like.

I'm not sure whether IEW assignments will require more or less time this week. It probably depends on each individual's strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes. For some, rough drafts are painful; for others, words pour onto the paper. When it comes to revision, the reverse may be true.

I liken this week's assignment to wrapping a gift. Students have spent the past two weeks choosing and packaging the contents. This week, their revisions, corrections and dress-ups will ensure the contents are complete. Adding their introductory statements, clinchers and titles will be like wrapping the package and tying its strings neatly into a bow, making the gift ready to present. They'll have crafted a "total package" paper on the wonders of the ancient world. I can't wait to read them! I know they'll be super, and I plan to allow extra reading time in class next week to reward their hard work.

Last but not least, these kids bless me week after week. I treasure our time together. Thank you for the minutes and hours you spend at home laboring to raise young men and women of character, strength, work ethic, and faith. I pray each and every one of them rises up in the years to come to call you blessed!

Monday, October 26, 2009

Week 8 Admission Ticket

As my brain has attended to other jobs the past two weeks, I've neglected my Gilded Coupon Campaign! Poor students! For Week 8, freebie coupons will be distributed!

Friday, October 16, 2009

Week 7: Boldly compose and diagram your prose!

In class Tuesday, we boldly added the awesome adverb to our mix of EEL rhetoric. We also dressed up (with adverbs), classified, and diagrammed compound S-Vi and S-Vt-DO sentences. I have to say, these kids grab my heart! They are eager and willing and excited and so smart. I just love spending two hours with them each week. Time flies by, and before I blink, it's 3:00 p.m.! Thank you for the privilege of teaching them!

When adverbs answer how, when, where, why, etc., in a sentence, they may exist as a single word, or they may appear in the form of a phrase or clause acting as an adverb. We focused on one-word adverbs, which often end in -ly, and phrasal adverbs.

An example of a phrasal adverb follows:

The cat dozed lazily in the sunny window.

"In the sunny window" is a prepositional phrase that answers the question, "Where did the cat sleep?"

I wish I could demonstrate the diagram! Basically, you diagram adverbs beneath the word they modify, be it a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Modifiers always belong on a diagonal line, and nouns and verbs on a horizontal line. Refer to your EEL guide or "Our Mother Tongue" for help.

At home these next two weeks, begin simply with basic S-Vi and S-Vt-DO sentences. Make them compound with coordinating conjunctions. Experiment with changing their purpose from declarative to exclamatory to imperative. Add some adverbs. Then classify and diagram using the Q&A on your "Simple Steps for Solving Sentences" chart.

Turning to IEW, rather than having students read rough drafts aloud in class Tuesday, I read to them from an engaging article on the Indian monsoon. The writer engaged his audience through many of the writing techniques we're learning in class -- strong verbs, quality adjectives, varied sentence structures, etc. I believe listening to excellent excerpts will inspire their own writing, so we'll do that from time to time.

Our IEW lesson introduced prepositional phrase openers, and students need to incorporate at least one into each of their rough draft paragraphs. They are writing two rough drafts, one on the sphinx and another on mummies. They may turn these in if they wish, but it's not required. In Lesson 8, we will add these to last week's rough draft and spend all week revising, dressing up and adding an introduction and clincher.

Finally, thank you for waiting patiently for this post! Tuesday evening consisted of shuttling Maggie around, and I worked full days at furniture market Wednesday and Thursday. Life runs ahead of me during weeks such as this!

See you in 2 weeks for Week 8!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

And the winners are...

I awarded two bonus tickets in class today.

Mollie Gaines titled her ziggurat paragraph "Ziggurats: The Zenith of Ancient Architecture." For the hard work I'm sure she invested in discovering the alliterative adjective 'zenith,' Mollie won the Most Creative Title ticket.

In recognition of his sentence that incorporated 20 (yes, 20!) IEW vocabulary words, Lee Dees earned himself a bonus ticket, too. Here's his sentence with vocab words in bold:

The radiantly streaked tiger quaked indefinitely at the colosally corrupted monument that resembled a defiantly ruthless, burly, and sinister hunter, who went through the jungle devastating the petrified animals, hoping to be prestigious and adorn and fashion his towering walls with animals, making conversationists irate and feel enmity.

Way to go, guys!! You rock!

Week 7 Admission Ticket

Bring me a Student EEL Task Sheet with Tasks 1-4 completed for the following sentence:

The kitten slurped the cream, but the puppy spilled it!

Week 6: We can diagram direct objects!

Wow! What a lot of material we covered in class today! My head is still spinning as I wonder, "Did I forget anything?"

To hopefully make your week at home navigable, here are the directions in which you need to steer:
  1. Memorize FANBOYS and practice determining whether your coordinating conjunctions are joining words, phrases or clauses. In class we only discussed independent clauses; I purposefully ignored subordinate clauses because we will circle back around and add these to the mix in a few weeks.
  2. Using two sentence purposes (decl. and excl.) and two sentence structures (simple and compound), juxtapose S-Vi sentences and S-Vt-Do sentences until students become confident differentiating between the two. If you have trouble coming up with sentences on your own, pull from the sample sentences at the end of the weekly lessons or the models on the 112 simple and compound sentences charts. You can also borrow from the diagramming book if you purchased it. Remind students to utilize their Simple Steps for Solving Sentences until the questions are intuitive and they no longer need the chart.
  3. Practice classifying and diagramming each kind of sentence on the EEL Task Sheet.

The kids have three weeks to become comfortable with S-Vt-DOs before we introduce linking verbs, so don't feel like mastery needs to come in the next four days. Take a deep breath, smile, and accomplish what you can!

Transitioning to IEW, the kids' paragraphs are astounding! I hope that, even after only six weeks, you're pleased at home with the writing skills beginning to develop! This is a dynamic group.

I mentioned in class, but I'll repeat here, the kids need to turn in a rough draft only next week. (Well, they need to turn in the checklist, too. But I say "rough draft only" because they don't need to invest a lot of time in revision.) Follow the directions in the assignment, and you'll be fine.

From the source text, let them choose the facts that are most interesting or important to them. This may or may not be what's interesting and important to you. It's OK! As long as they choose five to seven facts and write five to seven complete sentences with a clear topic and clincher, save your energy for suggestions revisions regarding the final report.

I hope to leave for the beach tomorrow and return Monday (key word: hope). Should you need me, use email or my cell.

Hard to believe, but it's six weeks down, 18 to go! We're one quarter of the way through!

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Week 6 Admission Ticket

To presently earn the next admission ticket in our radiant Gilded Coupon Campaign, students must fashion an original sentence using at least five fanciful IEW vocabulary words. The student who adorns his or her complete sentence profusely with the most validated vocabulary words will emerge as the prestigious victor of an an extra monumental ticket!

Fortuitously, students need not quake, bellow, or despair at this awesome assignment. To aid them in accomplishing this colossal feat, they may use any tantalizing word from Lessons 1-19. And although their ruthless and sinister EEL instructor does not wish to corrupt their young minds, she will accept explicit run-on sentences without wail or falter. Also, in order to deplete the vocab list, students may deftly use a word in a form that resembles the original. For example, "petrified" may be employed as "petrify," or "defy" may be written as "defiant" or "defiantly."

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Week 5: Can you diagram?

Week 5's EEL lesson focuses on interrogative sentences. At home this week, practice classifying and diagramming simple interrogative S-Vi sentences such as, "Who wept?," "Who is weeping?," or "Did Jesus weep?" As you Q&A with your child, demonstrate where you can how to recast the question as a declarative sentence. Interrogatives often employ helping verbs, and recasting as a declarative helps to place all of the verbs next to one another. The third sentence serves as an example: "Jesus did weep."

During class yesterday, we spent a good bit of time differentiating between phrases and clauses. Reinforce this at home, but know that IEW will introduce prepositional phrase openers in Lesson 7 and who/which clauses in Lesson 8. Students will get plenty of practice with phrases and clauses in the coming weeks!

Looking ahead, Week 6 of EEL takes things up a notch. The lesson introduces students to conjunctions (four types) and compound sentences, which go hand in hand, and the material also begins integrating S-Vt-DO sentences into our classification system.

SO... when you work at home over the next few days, look for evidence of mastery with some basics:

1. Students should know the difference between declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences.
2. Students should confidently identify S-Vi sentences.
3. Students should be able to Q&A with you to identify the subject and verb of a sentence.
4. Students should know the four types of verbs and the basic idea that verbs tell time (tense -- past, present, future).
5. Students should know that imperative sentences have implied 'you' as the subject.
6. Students should be comfortable with Tasks 1-4 on the Analytical Task Sheet.

Also make sure that you yourselves understand the material! :)

Turning to IEW, this week's lesson is similar to last week. Students are once again using a KWO to retell a story in their own words. Our new dress-up is five-sense adjectives. Depending on ability, skill level and available time, students may complete one, two or three paragraphs. When you look at rough drafts, mark and discuss run-on sentences. I am seeing quite a few!

OK. They're great kids. I'm enjoying them immensely. Yesterday blessed me in so many ways. (By the way, I knew a Jonathan with blonde hair. That's my trick.)

Have a fabulous week at home. At our house, we're doing school outside to soak in this perfect weather!

See you Tuesday for an enormous Week 6!

Erin

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Week 5 Admission Ticket

Week 4 Memory Work defines phrases and clauses. Students should come to class prepared to answer these three questions:

What is a phrase? (C3, W20)
A phrase is a group of words that does not contain both a subject and a verb, and may be used as a single part of speech.

What is a clause? (C3, W20)
A clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a verb.

What is a dependent, or subordinate, clause? (C3, W22)
A dependent, or subordinate, clause does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone.

Additionally, they should write and bring an original sentence containing a prepositional phrase. Examples follow:

During the day, I depend on Jesus.

When I am hungry, I sit at the table and eat.

Students who study hard do well in class.

The girl with red shoes danced down the hallway.

Week 4: Diagram!

Diagram!

It's a simple, exclamatory/imperative, S-Vi sentence with "implied 'you'" as the subject. Get it? If you do, you've got Week 4 already. Hooray! (btw, that's an interjection...)

No new charts this week, but you should review charts and memory work from Weeks 1 through 3 with the goal of successfully mastering just a bit more than you did last week! Isn't this easy?

Depending on students' command of comma usage, I'd also spend time discussing commas in a series, with nouns of direct address, and with appositives. (Notice I used two commas with the series here instead of just one, mostly because I want to ensure my readers' proper understanding by separating those three prepositional phrases that begin with "in," "with," and "with.")

I actually didn't cover appositives in class, but an appositive is a noun or noun phrase that follows and renames another noun. Appositives expand or expound by adding extra information. An example would be, "George Washington, our first president, was born in Virginia." Or "Essentials, a language arts skills and writing class, meets on Tuesdays." Appositives are set off by commas and are not essential to the meaning of a sentence. In other words, you could remove an appositive from a sentence ("George Washington was born in Virginia." "Essentials meets on Tuesdays.") and the meaning would not change.

We introduced diagramming (Task 4) in class. Start with your sample sentences at the end of Lesson 4 to begin the diagramming process at home, and then encourage your students to make up simple S-Vi sentences of their own. Proceed similarly to this:

Using your Student EEL Task Sheets and Steps 5-7 on the "Simple Steps for Solving Sentences" that I handed out last week,

1. Dictate;
2. Check mechanics;
3. Identify and label your subject and verb;
4. Identify your sentence structure, purpose and pattern;
5. Diagram!

Turning to IEW, the assignment reinforces the KWO skills learned last week and introduces two simple sentence openers: the -ly opener and the "very short sentence." Students should incorporate both of these into their papers this week. We completed half of the KWO in class; students should finish the KWO Wednesday at home.

I'd suggest completing the rough draft Wednesday as well; revision and dress-ups Thursday; final draft Friday; and illustration, labeling and checklist Monday.

Reading the students' poems proved to be a highlight of my week last week! I wish we had time to read them all in class. Please share them with an audience at home! Each poem deserves a reading. I can't wait to read the paragraphs turned in today...

As always, thanks for sharing your kids with me on Tuesdays! They are a joy and a privilege.

Erin

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Week 4 Admission Ticket

We're going to combine EEL and IEW for this week's admission ticket. Students should bring to class two original S-Vi sentences, each dressed up with a quality adjective and a -ly adverb.

Examples follow:

The old dog slept lazily in the sun.

The nervous gymnast tumbled awkwardly off the beam.

The wild buffalo relentlessly roamed.

The enormous ziggurat loomed menacingly.

The young mother glanced lovingly at her baby.

A Note about Time...

I'm reviewing the Weekly Notes I just posted, and the thought crossed my mind that y'all are going to think, "Wow! This is going to take a lot of time." The answer is, yes, it might.

But this is what I think. I think you can complete EEL in 15 to 20 minutes, and most of that will be oral dialog between you and your student(s). Just sit on the sofa and talk about simple sentences for a little while each day.

Allow for IEW to take more of their time, particularly the rough draft and final draft days. And when they complain, just tell them that some days are going to be more challenging and take longer than others. Let the long days encourage them to appreciate the shorter ones! When Maggie was working on IEW rough drafts, I often found that once I helped her get started, she would complete the rest on her own in a fairly timely fashion.

Week 3: Start Simple!

Dear parents,

Your bright and eager students make my heart soar! What blessings they are! Thank you for entrusting them to me each week. I hope you witness their language arts grammar and writing skills grow by leaps and bounds during this year we spend together!

This week at home, pull out those Student EEL Task Sheets. Completing Tasks 1 through 3, teach and use simple sentences to review and reinforce what we've learned the first three weeks in class.

PLEASE NOTE: Sample sentences are listed at the end of Lesson 3. You'll notice that all sample sentences are classified, diagrammed, modified and QeQ'd just for you, giving you the answers you need to complete every step on the Student EEL Task Sheet. Even though we've only introduced Tasks 1 through 3 in class, you may go further at home if you wish. Even if you don't officially pass Step 3, you could use these answers to help review concepts we discussed in class, such as deciding the person, number and tense of a verb; whether a noun is proper or common; or what type of pronoun is used.

Two things are most important this week. One, I want students to become comfortable identifying the simple S-Vi sentence pattern. Two, I want them to get into the habit of identifying the subject and verb of a sentence by asking the questions, "Who or what is this sentence about?" and "What is (subject) doing?"

To aid them in learning these two things, I handed out a chart in class class called "Simple Steps for Solving Sentences." This chart is my own one-page version of the four-page document in the reference section of the EEL Guide. Use Steps 5, 6 and 7 of this chart at home this week to help them establish the habit of asking questions to identify subjects, verbs and the S-Vi pattern.

Here's how the conversation should go with our sample sentence, "Jesus wept."

Parent: Look at Step 5 on your chart. Let's answer the question, "Who or what is this sentence about?"
Student: Jesus.
Parent: That's right. Label "Jesus" as your subject noun (sn).

Parent: Now look at Step 6. What is Jesus doing?
Student: Weeping. (Or wept.)
Parent: Exactly. Label "wept" as your verb (V).

Parent: Now let's ask, "Jesus wept what?" Can we answer that question?
Student: Well, I guess he wept tears.
Parent: Yes, he probably did, but does our sentence tell us that?
Student: No. It only says he wept.
Parent: Right. So can we answer the question "Jesus wept what?"
Student: No.
Parent: Correct. Good job. So, in Step 7 on your chart, what does it mean if we don't have an answer?
Student: It means the verb is intransitive.
Parent: Exactly. And what kind of sentence pattern do you have?
Student: Subject-Verb intransitive (S-Vi).
Parent: Perfect. Now, just for fun, let's talk about what kind of noun "Jesus" is...

And so on!

Whew! Moving on to IEW...

In IEW Lesson 3, we're transitioning from poems to paragraphs. Students are responsible for writing a paragraph based on the key word outline we completed in class and the brainstorming they do at home. IEW is stressing the importance of creative titles in this lesson, and I will reward the MOST CREATIVE TITLE in class next week with a BONUS TICKET.

While you should review vocabulary each day, I'd suggest the following writing schedule at home this week.
  • Wednesday -- As suggested in Step 1 of this week's assignment, cover the source text and use your key word outline to orally summarize the paragraph. Then use page 17 to brainstorm strong verbs, -ly words and quality adjectives.
  • Thursday -- Follow Step 4 to write a rough draft. Note the structure reminders: indention and double-spacing.
  • Friday -- Revise and rewrite! I believe parents should be involved in this step (lots of dialog and Q&A) here 1) to ensure correct grammar, spelling and punctuation; 2) to praise what's great; and 3) to help brainstorm improvement for what could be better. Don't forget to take advantage of the "Proofreading Marks" chart I gave them in class to note corrections on their rough drafts.
  • Monday -- Use the checklist on page 19 to check structure and label dress-ups. Illustrate paragraphs, complete the checklist, and attach it to final papers to turn in to me on Tuesday.

Once again, don't forget to hand in a completed checklist, and remind them to put their names and a date on their papers.

See most of you Tuesday!

Long-winded but hopefully helpful,

Erin

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Week 3 Admission Ticket

For the Week 3 Admission Ticket, students should be able to rattle off the eight parts of speech! (a Week 3 memory work question)

I'll meet them Tuesday at the sanctuary door at 12:55 p.m.!

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Week 2: Perusing and Pondering Strong Verbs!

Our main goal during class today consisted of learning the four types of verbs (EEL) and brainstorming strong verbs (IEW) to replace commonly overused verbs such as go, went, come and came. All the students seemed to pick up on this information with relative simplicity! Aren't we thankful for such intelligent and eager children!

At home this week, use your Week 2 memory work and the corresponding charts to begin the road to mastery of this KEY part of speech that gives life to our sentences!

When reviewing Lesson 2 in your EEL Guides, you'll notice what's probably an overload of verb information for one week. Much of this information will be revisited during the year once we've grasped the basics. For now, focus on the following lesson notes at home this week:

1. Verb Types (intransitive, transitive, linking and helping) -- Use the sample sentences on the "Verb Types" chart to teach the different verb types. The students will quickly begin recognizing the differences if they look at them in sentences. If you want to practice Task 2 (Dictation & Mechanics) on your Student EEL Task Sheets, these sentences might work well!

2. Basic Verb Tense (past, present and future).

3. Person (1st, 2nd, 3rd).

4. Number (singular or plural).

5. Begin memorizing the helping verb and linking verb lists.

Additionally, spend some time with apostrophes if you know your student has not mastered them. In particular, review "its" versus "it's." In all of my freelance editing, this is perhaps the most common punctuation error I see.

Turning to IEW, we are devoting one more week to poetry. The photocopied assignment will guide you step by step through the process of brainstorming, writing, revising, finalizing and checklisting! The week focuses on using strong verbs and adding "-ly" adverbs. Please remind your budding writers to capitalize the first letter of each line and to write their names on their poems! Next Tuesday, checklists should be attached with a paperclip to final papers.

I believe I'm finished. Thank you for sharing your delightful children with me. I'm eagerly awaiting next week already!

Two down, 22 to go,

Erin

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Week 2 GCC Admission Ticket

Our Week 2 Admission Ticket challenge is to arrive at class prepared to correctly spell and define the four IEW Week 1 vocabulary words. I will place the four words in a bag, and students will draw a word from the bag and spell it for me. They may write the spelling or say it aloud.

The four words, which they have page-protected in their notebooks, are radiant, fashioned, serpentine and towering.

See you at 12:55 p.m. Tuesday! I'll try to get this going on time next week! :)

Erin

Week 1: As Promised ... Pertinent Info.

First things first -- what a great group of kids you all have! I believe class actually went as smoothly today as I had hoped. The kids paid perfect attention, everyone answered questions, and they even called the bingo game "fun."

It seemed as though all of the moms left class with confidence regarding this week's assignments. Although I'd highly recommend reading Lesson One in your EEL Guides, the main EEL assignment for students this week is for them to master as much of the first week's memory work as they can. Use the charts to help you. If you'd like, you can follow up on our simple sentence and intransitive/transitive verb discussions, too.

Below is the memory work:

Week 1:

What five rules must a sentence meet?
A complete sentence must have a subject, a verb, a capital letter, and an end mark, and it must make sense.

What is the subject of a sentence? (C3, W18)
The subject is that part about which something is being said.

What is the predicate of a sentence? (C3, W19)
The predicate of the sentence is that part which says something about the subject.

What are the four sentence structures? (C3, W23)
The four sentence structures are simple,
compound, complex and compound-complex.
What are the four sentence purposes? (C2, W14)
The four sentence purposes are declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory.

What are the seven sentence patterns? (C3, W24)
The seven sentence patterns are:
subject/verb intransitive;
subject/verb transitive/direct object;
subject/verb linking/predicate nominative;
subject/verb linking/predicate adjective;
subject/verb trans./indirect object/direct object;
subject/verb trans./do/object complement noun;
subject/verb trans./do/object complement adj.

*Use Essentials of the English Language 112 Classifications, Sentence Classifications, Sentence Components & Structures and Sentence Patterns charts.

With regard to IEW, review vocabulary each day and, when you read through the Lesson One writing assignment together, review our class discussion of using quality adjectives and alliteration to dress up our writing and make it uniquely ours.

A suggested writing schedule is as follows:

Day 1: Read assignment, finish brainstorming quality adjectives and possible alliteration.

Day 2: Rough draft. (Hint: Ask them to read their lines aloud to you, and then you read their lines aloud to them so that they can hear how the words flow and sound together.)

Day 3: Write or type final draft.

Day 4: Illustrate final draft and practice reading aloud.

While we won't have time to read every poem aloud in class, I will let those students whose poems we are able to read choose whether they read or I read for them. Regardless, I believe each student will benefit from reading his or her poem aloud to a home audience!

Last, but certainly not least, don't forget to watch for the separate post detailing our Week 2 Admission Ticket challenge for the Gilded Coupon Campaign.

Essentially yours for the next 23 weeks,

Erin

Friday, August 28, 2009

Week 1 Admission Ticket

Here we go! How exciting to post our first Admission Ticket challenge for the 2009-2010 Essentials year! Each student who correctly answers the challenge will receive one ticket toward our Samaritan's Purse Christmas gift.

To gain admittance to class for Week 1, students should look up the extremely common word very and come to class prepared to 1) identify its part of speech and 2) name at least four synonyms that could replace very in a sentence.

I will post myself outside the classroom (sanctuary) door at 12:55 p.m. in order to begin admitting students! I can't wait to see their smiling faces!
Greetings, Essentials families! Welcome to our class' communication blog for 2009-2010!

Four days and counting til we begin! Our student resource notebooks are ready, IEW style charts are copied, and I found a suitcase large enough to house my overhead projector. (It even has wheels - hallelujah!)

I'm anticipating the first day of learning with your precious children. Please remember to pack their EEL resource notebooks and, for IEW, a three-ring binder with pockets. I'll bring the rest.

Pertinent Week 1 information will post Tuesday afternoon. Don't forget to enter your email address to register for the blog. Then you'll automatically receive new posts in your inbox.

Questions? Let me know.

See you Tuesday at 1 p.m.,
Erin