Week 20: Students in the class cheered about adverbial prepositional phrases! (adj. phrase, adv. phrase)

Okay, okay, so students may have groaned about adverbial and adjectival prepositional phrases, but they tackled them brilliantly!

Class Overview

We started off with Grammar Rule #6, Tricky Words!  Then we shifted to different adjective modifiers that can be used when doing task #5 on the task sheet.  Finally, we landed on the very challenging adjectival and adverbial prepositional phrases.

Grammar Rule #6, Tricky Words

From there, their, and they're, to continual vs. continuous, to affect verbs and effect nouns, we covered tricky words.  These are words that adults commonly misuse and really need to be studied and focused on in order to correct.  One reason these words become issues is because we speak them incorrectly.  Parents, if you model this through using these words incorrectly, choose one and work on it.  Awareness and constant correction is the way to remedy the mistake.  If your children hear you use the words correctly it will make difference--unless, of course, we're talking about homonyms.

Adjective Modifiers

This exercise was taken straight from lesson 20 in the EEL guide.  We matched sample sentences with the correct adjective modifier type.  We identified noun modifiers used as adjectives, adjective clauses, single word adjectives, prepositional phrase adjectives, and even appositives.  This exercise helped identify many different ways that an adjective can appear in a sentence.

Adjectival and Adverbial Prepositional Phrases

Identifying adjectival and adverbial prepositional phrases is difficult!  Students rose to the challenge, though I got a lot of blank stares too.  The key to this skill is to figure out the word modified and identify which question the prep. phrase answers.

The bridge over the water is lovely.

Over the water is the prep. phrase.  It modifies bridge.  It answers the question Which? bridge--the one over the water.  It's an adjective prepositional phrase.  One thing that may trip up students is that prepositional phrases tell where so often.  Your student may look at the sentence and say that over the water describes Where the bridge is.  Remember that if your phrase modifies a noun, you have an adjective.  If it modifies a verb or adverb, it is used as an adverb.

Encouragement

If your child was a deer in headlights during a lot of yesterday, it's okay.  Please be patient with the three tour process of this class.  This year may be your year to be exposed to the terminology and to follow some but not get all.  We are in the last stretch and are encountering many complex concepts.  Just concentrate on the basics if you feel overwhelmed.  Drill the memory work and write out charts.  From there, work on the task sheet at the level of your student.  Assess where they are in their understanding and gently prod them forward or just shore up shaky understanding.  You have next year to tackle this again.  There is no crying in Essentials! : )