Yesterday's class passed so quickly, and I was glad to see the kids in such happy spirits after four LONG weeks writing about ancient Rome. I am extremely proud of their hard work and perseverence with these papers. It's difficult at their age to stay focused on one topic for so long and to revisit the same sentences over and over and over. Because they stuck with the assignment through the duration and frustrations, I trust they'll benefit long-term in more ways than just writing skills.
We devoted far less time to EEL than IEW yesterday, but our EEL time was definitely well spent! For those who were absent (whom we missed!), I wrote a lengthy sentence on the overhead and we practiced finding each of the eight parts of speech in that sentence. Then we diagrammed it, loosely QeQing as we went. We also labeled and diagrammed our sentence pattern of Lesson 18: compound-complex, imperative, S-Vt-DO-OCN & S-Vt-DO-OCA. Here's the sentence we used:
When you diagram this sentence, consider yourselves a smart class and make you parents and tutor glad.
Have fun at home practicing these sentences this week!
Regarding the remainder of the semester, I would appreciate thoughts and feedback from parents and even students. You'll notice a red stop sign in this week's lesson in the EEL Guide. It recommends we pause and evaluate whether to move forward with the final six lessons or to devote the rest of the year toward reviewing what we've learned thusfar.
Here are my thoughts: I'd like to do a little of each. I'd like to spend a week on punctuation, a week on verbals, and a week on verb anatomy. Then our final three weeks we'll spend on review in fun ways. Please take a minute to shoot me a quick e-mail with your ideas or preferences. Thanks!
Turning to IEW, we skipped ahead to Lesson 19 this week: "Writing from Pictures." The kids took home their photocopied lessons with a plethora of different ideas about how to write! This is a creative writing lesson, and I told them that, with parental permission, they could write as silly as they like as long as they stick to the "facts" in the pictures. It's up to you as parents (and I think silly is sometimes harder to write than serious is), but after the long, serious research paper, I wanted to offer them some freedom to use their imaginations and laugh. They seemed really eager in class and were brainstorming all kinds of ideas in their small groups! I don't think we're going to have many papers about Christians being persecuted in the colosseum, but I can't wait to see the ultra-creative final products!
Basically, they're writing one paragraph per picture, for a total of three paragraphs. Length is up to them, but I'd say a minumum of 5 sentences per graph. The topic sentence of each paragraph should capture the central fact, and the clincher sentence should repeat or reflect the key words from that fact. As well, the final clincher (last sentence of the third paragraph) should reflect the paper's title. Refer to the front page of the lesson for questions they should ask and answer to generate ideas for the body of each paragraph.
A final word suitable to this time to year: Take a week off writing if you need to. Memory Master is approaching, Foundations presentations take time, and sometimes we as parents need a break! The kids have accomplished so much with their writing this year. If needed, give your family a week of grace and space! It's one of the wonderful perks of homeschooling.
Thank you for sharing your precious children with me week after week! Every personality is unique, and I love each and every one of them!
Erin
We devoted far less time to EEL than IEW yesterday, but our EEL time was definitely well spent! For those who were absent (whom we missed!), I wrote a lengthy sentence on the overhead and we practiced finding each of the eight parts of speech in that sentence. Then we diagrammed it, loosely QeQing as we went. We also labeled and diagrammed our sentence pattern of Lesson 18: compound-complex, imperative, S-Vt-DO-OCN & S-Vt-DO-OCA. Here's the sentence we used:
When you diagram this sentence, consider yourselves a smart class and make you parents and tutor glad.
Have fun at home practicing these sentences this week!
Regarding the remainder of the semester, I would appreciate thoughts and feedback from parents and even students. You'll notice a red stop sign in this week's lesson in the EEL Guide. It recommends we pause and evaluate whether to move forward with the final six lessons or to devote the rest of the year toward reviewing what we've learned thusfar.
Here are my thoughts: I'd like to do a little of each. I'd like to spend a week on punctuation, a week on verbals, and a week on verb anatomy. Then our final three weeks we'll spend on review in fun ways. Please take a minute to shoot me a quick e-mail with your ideas or preferences. Thanks!
Turning to IEW, we skipped ahead to Lesson 19 this week: "Writing from Pictures." The kids took home their photocopied lessons with a plethora of different ideas about how to write! This is a creative writing lesson, and I told them that, with parental permission, they could write as silly as they like as long as they stick to the "facts" in the pictures. It's up to you as parents (and I think silly is sometimes harder to write than serious is), but after the long, serious research paper, I wanted to offer them some freedom to use their imaginations and laugh. They seemed really eager in class and were brainstorming all kinds of ideas in their small groups! I don't think we're going to have many papers about Christians being persecuted in the colosseum, but I can't wait to see the ultra-creative final products!
Basically, they're writing one paragraph per picture, for a total of three paragraphs. Length is up to them, but I'd say a minumum of 5 sentences per graph. The topic sentence of each paragraph should capture the central fact, and the clincher sentence should repeat or reflect the key words from that fact. As well, the final clincher (last sentence of the third paragraph) should reflect the paper's title. Refer to the front page of the lesson for questions they should ask and answer to generate ideas for the body of each paragraph.
A final word suitable to this time to year: Take a week off writing if you need to. Memory Master is approaching, Foundations presentations take time, and sometimes we as parents need a break! The kids have accomplished so much with their writing this year. If needed, give your family a week of grace and space! It's one of the wonderful perks of homeschooling.
Thank you for sharing your precious children with me week after week! Every personality is unique, and I love each and every one of them!
Erin
No comments:
Post a Comment