Week 11: I may be a teacher, but my students are blessings!

Good morning! How difficult to believe we've only one week left in our semester! I'm really pleased with the kids' progress these 11 weeks. I believe they're right where they need to be, both my newbies and my returning students. I hope you're pleased at home as well. :)

EEL at home this week and through our holiday break should consist mostly of review. Spend your time together writing, dressing up and then classifying our first four sentence patterns. To give them practice identifying those coordinating conjunctions, compose compound sentences using a combination of patterns. Encourage dressing up the sentences with adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases. Discuss how you could change the sentence purpose from declarative to interrogative to imperative to exclamatory. Then choose one of those purposes to classify and diagram. Here's an example:

Start with, "The puppy was tired, but he chased the squirrel." (compound, declarative, S-VL-PA/S-VT-DO)

Then dress it up: "The puppy with black spots was obviously tired, but he chased the gray squirrel around the sunny backyard for an hour."

How could you change the sentence purpose?

1. "Even though the puppy was tired, did he chase the squirrel for an hour?" (This interrogative changes the structure to complex, but it's certainly acceptable; just don't try to diagram it yet!)
2. "Tired puppy, chase the squirrel for an hour!" (Both imperative and exclamatory; "Tired puppy" becomes a noun of direct address, which we did diagram a few weeks back.)

Then simply choose a purpose to classify and diagram. Along the way, ask questions like, "Is your subject noun singular or plural? Is it first, second or third person? What kind of pronoun is "he"? Anything to pull information out of their brains!

Another twist would be for the kids to compose the sentences. Challenge them to choose an action verb or a being verb and compose a simple sentence from there. Then change it to compound. Then dress it up. Then try to classify and diagram!

The one new thing this week is our memory work. I'd like the kids to practice the principal parts of the verbs "be" and "have." We looked at the verb anatomy charts, located in Appendix D of your guides and in their Student Resource Notebooks, for these yesterday. These two charts are what I want them to master over break. Don't make it a hassle at home. Just ask them to complete each chart a couple of times a week. They'll get it. There is a blank chart in the student charts section of the guide, and I photocopied this for their notebooks also. I'll try to attach the page in an email if I can figure out how to separate it from the rest of the guide electronically; that way they can either complete it on a sheet protector with a dry erase or on paper with a pencil.

I'm guessing you'll spend more time at home this week writing, polishing and practicing the presentation of the IEW "Faces of Medieval History" paper. That's okay. Please email or call if you have any questions. The kids should turn in their papers, rough drafts, checklists and bibliography when they present next week.

Finally, I talked with the kids at the beginning of class yesterday about our Gilded Coupon Campaign. Next week, I'll bring Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalogs to class and let the kids redeem their coupons for catalog items. For those who don't remember or weren't with me last year, here's why we do it and how it works:

The kids have worked hard this semester. Their labor has earned them coupons (which I usually call tickets). Based on Acts 20:35, which says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," I structure our first semester ticket recemption as a time of giving and our second semester tickets as a time of receiving.

Next Tuesday, each student will turn in the tickets he or she earned over the semester in return for a cash credit. I haven't figured it yet, but each ticket will be worth somewhere around 20 to 25 cents each. So a kid who's earned 20 tickets will be credited somewhere between $4 and $5. On top of that, I offer the kids a chance to double, triple or quadruple their giving by contributing some of their own money. I have two sponsors who will match their giving up to $5 each. For example, a child who earns $5 in tickets and contributes $5 of his own will receive $5 from each sponsor (so $10), for a total of $20 to spend in the Samaritan's Purse catalog.

When we did this last year, the kids' response was an unbelievable blessing to me. They were SO excited to participate! Not a single one of them seemed to mind that they weren't GETTING anything to take home with them. I can't wait to see them "shop" next week!

But if any of this is confusing, let me know, and I'll try to explain more.

Have a wonderful time at home with your kids this week. They're precious!

Erin

Week 10: My post is late!

It's Thursday already. Sorry for the late post. I'll keep it brief!

For EEL at home, continue memorizing Weeks 1-10 and practice diagramming S-Vl-PA sentences. We will stick with the linking verb sentence patterns for our final two weeks of the semester, so we've got time to master the first four patterns before January.

Consult your guide for a ton of super information about adjectives, this week's part of speech focus. The kids and I discussed them at length in class.

Our IEW assignment for the rest of the semester is our "Faces of Medieval History" paper. Please read the front page of the lesson and note the suggestion to select source texts at or below your child's reading level for the person or event chosen as a topic.

On Week 12, they will present their papers in class. They may wear costumes if desired. My expectation is that each student will complete a three-paragraph paper (three topics: A, B and C) with an introductory statement and final clincher. I gave them the final checklist during class, but you will need to either photocopy or help them set up the key word outline pages like the ones given for our last assignment in Lesson 10-14. Basically, they'll complete the following steps between now and Nov. 23:

1. Select at least two source texts. Each topic must be outlined from at least two sources.
2. Key word outline each topic from each text.
3. Fuse the source text outlines for each topic, resulting in three final outlines.
4. Write three rough draft paragraphs -- one per topic. Using the rough draft checklists provided in the previous assignment will insure all dress-ups are present.
5. Combine the rough drafts and begin revising and polishing.
6. Add an introductory statement and final clincher.
7. Complete a final checklist and bibliography.
8. Practice, practice, practice for a smooth presentation.

I'll discuss our Gilded Coupon Campaign Christmas gift next Tuesday.

Enjoy a beautiful weekend!

Erin

Week 9: I am the teacher, and the students are my class.

Sticking with compound declarative sentences in EEL, we looked at our third sentence pattern today: S-Vl-PN. I believe the kids grasped the concept easily. Step 7 on your Simple Steps chart gives you a fairly concise way to determine whether a noun following your verb is a direct object (follows a transitive verb and receives the action of that verb) or a predicate noun (follows a linking verb and can rename or replace the subject noun). So use that at home this week.

During your time together, try dictating compound sentences that combine 2 of our 3 sentence patterns and include a prepositional phrase and/or adverb here and there. Walk your student through the Tasks 1-4 on your ATS sheets. Use your Simple Steps chart if you find it helpful. And remember: there are examples in the guide if you want to use them. :)

I'd also like the kids to work on Week 9 memory work and on their linking verbs list. Although you'll see principal parts discussed in Lesson 9 in your guides, I chose not to focus on those today in class; I'll hit that in a couple of weeks.

IEW has numerous small tasks to complete this week. Lesson 13 introduces prepositional phrase openers; we discussed how to add them and how to label them (#2 in the left margin) during class.

With regard to the final week of our paper on knights, I asked the kids to circle "Level A" or "Level B" on their assignment sheets in class, but basically, Level A needs to add both an introductory statement and a final clincher before the polishing process begins. Level B needs to combine all five paragraphs and begin polishing.

I suggested that the students look for the following elements to "polish":

1. Tighten up sentences by eliminating unncessary words.
2. Try to replace state of being verbs with strong verbs where possible.
3. Make sure each paragraph includes various sentences openers and that sentence after sentence does not begin with the same subject, "Knights were...." or "A knight was...." Checklists should make this easy.
4. Study the chart on transitional words and phrases that I distributed last week. Incorporate smooth transitions between paragraphs.
5. Although I didn't suggest this in class, ask your student to read his or her paper aloud to someone. Where they stumble in reading will often indicate an awkward word, phrase, sentence or transition.

After they revise and polish their papers, which will hopefully happen by Friday, take the time Monday to label papers and complete the appropriate checklist (Level A or Level B). They'll also need to complete a bibliography, which we discussed in class today.

On Tuesday, I'd like for the students to turn in their key word outlines and rough drafts for all paragraphs along with their final papers, bibliographies and checklists. If you do not have your rough drafts because you've "edited" them electronically, it's okay. Just make a note.

Also on Tuesday, for an admission ticket, they may complete and turn in the semicolon worksheet I handed out in today's class. (Hint: I gave them a cream-colored chart that contains most of the answers.)

Finally, we will begin our "Faces of Medieval History" paper on Week 10. The kids should come to class knowing whom or what they will write about. See page 93, I think, in your student books for suggestions, but any medieval personality or theme will suffice. This is our final writing assignment for the semester, and students will present in costume on Week 12 (Nov. 23).

I think that's about it. Lots of details -- if i realize I left something out, I'll post an addendum.

Good class today. We accomplished much. Thanks for your work at home this week.

Erin