Week 22: Write and review some more!

Apologies for posting late!

In class Tuesday, we reviewed all seven sentence patterns and then modified and diagrammed one of the seven with adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases and dependent clauses (both relative pronoun and subordinating conjunction). It amazes me how much we've covered this year and how well they've absorbed the information! Our review exercise allowed me to see that it does overwhelm them to be asked to recall all of it at once, but a little Q&A helped break the process into bite-size pieces. Then they rose to the task!

Continue reviewing EEL at home this week as you deem appropriate. Next week, I plan to cover verbals and verb forms. For many of them, this will be info that, for the moment, is nice to know rather than necessary to know. So we'll have fun with it in class, but I don't expect mastery this year.

We began our final IEW assignment of the year! Hard to believe, but hooray! I know everyone will be glad for a break from writing. We are doing Lesson 18 in the book, which is a research report. In class, I handed out photocopies of key word outlines and rough draft checklists to use at home for Topics A, B and C on an ancient personality of their choice. The rough drafts are due next week; final drafts will be presented in costume on Week 24.

During class, I demonstrated several steps for this "research" process:

• Select 2-3 source texts that are brief, interesting and informative! (The KWO sheets I distributed have room for two sources, but a third could easily be incorporated if needed.)
• READ the source texts.
• Brainstorm one to three topics (one per body paragraph). For instance, if I were writing about Alexander the Great, I'd write about his childhood as the son of a king, his military conquests, and his early death.
• RE-READ the source text one time per topic, completing the key word outline for one topic at a time. What is interesting or informative about this person? Include that information on the KWO.
• Once the KWOs are completed for each source text, complete the fused outline and write the rough draft paragraph.
• Remind them to keep it simple. Revision, dress-up and polishing come NEXT week!

Please remember to adjust the length of this paper to your child's level and your family's spring schedule! Options range from no final paper at all, to one to three body paragraphs, to a five-paragraph paper that includes three body graphs, plus intro and concluding graphs.

See you Tuesday!

Week 22 Admission Ticket

For Week 22, decide which ancient personality you'd like to write about, dress as, and present on for your final paper of the year. Tell me your topic to receive one gilded coupon!

Week 21: Choose your focus.

Your kids did so well yesterday! I was pleased with all we accomplished in class. I hope our time spent identifying punctuation, capitalization and grammatical mistakes in their own sentences sticks with them through their writing this week. I hope my words of encouragement will remain in their minds, too. It's extremely easy to make mistakes when learning to write more difficult sentence structures. With so many words and ideas to manage, that's the reason these sentences are called "complex"! The kids seem willing to learn in class, and I pray they have teachable hearts at home, too!

You may choose your EEL focus at home once again this week. I may send an email before Tuesday regarding my focus for our last three classes.

When they write their IEW final drafts this week, make sure they follow the lesson's directions with regard to structure:

• In their first paragraph, they need an introductory sentence that reflects the prompt, then a Topic A intro sentence, body sentences, and clincher sentence.
• The second paragraph should contain a Topic B intro, body sentences, and clincher.
• The third paragraph should begin with a Topic C intro, follow with the body sentences and Topic C clincher, and finally end with one or two sentences that repeat or reflect the key words of the paper's introductory sentence.

See everyone Tuesday. I'll allow plenty of time for reading! These should be interesting papers to hear!

Erin

Week 20: Write and Review

Sorry this post is later than usual! It's been a busy 24 hours of tennis, gymnastics, new braces -- even loose brackets and two return trips to the orthodontist already -- for my family!

I'll be brief:

For EEL next week, continue reviewing at your child's skill level.

For IEW, complete three rough draft paragraphs for the prompt, "If I lived in ancient times, I would miss...." During class, we worked as a group and in pairs to complete our first key word outline on an object or activity each student would miss. I asked them to use the bolded question words to the right of the outline to help stimulate ideas.

If you spend time outlining with them, they DO NOT need to use or answer every bolded question. To get a feel for how the assignment is designed to flow, read the unicycle example on the back of the first stapled page I gave them. You'll see how some of the questions are fleshed out and how some are skipped. Use the questions as a tool, a beginning. I suggested they pretend they are reporters interviewing a subject about whom they are going to write an article. Often a question's answer will lead to another question -- this is great! It allows them to bunny trail, so to speak, and exhaust that idea before returning to the next question on the list.

PLEASE BRING ROUGH DRAFTS TO CLASS NEXT WEEK. WE WILL BEGIN POLISHING IN CLASS. THANK YOU!!!

Four weeks to go. Hard to believe!

Week 20 Admission Ticket

Compose a sentence that you would feel comfortable writing on the overhead during class and for which you could use your Simple Steps chart to confidently lead your classmates through the labeling, diagramming and QeQ process. The sentence should contain at least a subject, verb, adjective, adverb and prepositional phrase.

Week 19: It's time to review!

Dear Essentials families,

What a beautiful day! Outside, the snow was swirling, blanketing the trees in gentle, silent white. Inside, the class was whirling with far-from-silent delight while we laughed together over their wonderful creativity inspired by a set of rather ordinary black-and-white cartoon pictures. I just love it. Thank you again for the gift of your children this year! Precious, precious treasure they are!

EEL at home this week is simple: Review. Hit your hard spots. Email me if you have review requests for class. Next week I'll focus on either verbs or punctuation and capitalization. Again, with regard to either of these topics, email me if there are specific problem areas you want me to cover.

IEW should also be fairly straightforward. Before they begin writing, review their outlines we completed in class. Make sure that for each numbered key word line listing an aspect of Greek and Roman gods, there is a contrasting fact on a numbered key word line below for the God of the Bible. (I likened it to drawing a rainbow between the numbers in class: 1 goes with 6; 2 goes with 7; and so on.) If they did not complete their outlines in class and are out of ideas, here are some suggested questions:

• How is forgiveness attained?
• Are humans liked, loved, or hated?
• Does anyone believe in these gods today?
• Where do these gods live?

You get the picture.

This assignment is loose with regard to length. An intro, five Greek/Roman facts, five contrasting God of the Bible facts, and a clincher could net a paper as short as 12 sentences. I suspect most will run a bit longer as examples are listed, but it does not have to be 500 words.

By the time we meet next week, the weather will be nearing 65 and sunny! Hallelujah!

Erin