Week 16: Students call EEL rewarding work. (S/Vt/DO/OCN)

Class Overview

Yesterday we tackled a new sentence pattern, S/Vt/DO/OCN.  We also worked through the task sheet, #1-4 and 6 (Quid et Quo).  We used the detailed format of the Quid et Quo because I wanted students and parents to see that there is much to master yet on the nouns and pronouns charts.  Cycle 2 memory work from Foundations really helps with correctly classifying pronouns, so next year will be perfect for driving this in.

Finally, we ended class with a book called Merry-Go-Round, A Book About Nouns, by Ruth Heller.  The kids seemed to enjoy being able to follow terminology like collective, compound, and plural.  Her rhyming, light-hearted approach, combined with beautiful, colorful pictures really allows children to enjoy learning about parts of speech.

Object Complement Adjective

An OCN is a noun following a direct object that renames the direct object.  Some examples:

James called the treehouse Camelot.  DO=treehouse, OCN=Camelot.
To check whether a word is an OCN, remember to use the equals trick.
Treehouse=Camelot, Camelot=treehouse.

God named the man Adam.
They consider Jill a leader.
Sam painted the tree blue.
Students, who take my class, call me tutor. (S/Vt/DO/OCN, complex) Notice the backslash line to indicate the OCN.

With so many patterns to master and so many questions to ask in order to find the usage answers, I came up with a quick reference sheet.  I sent home a copy with each student, but if you would like it in digital form, follow this link to download it from my Dropbox account. https://www.dropbox.com/s/c2978yufglphc4j/Sent.%20Pattern%20questions.pdf

Grammar

Work on solidifying the basic grammar of the nouns and pronouns charts.  Keep up with the weekly memory work.

Dialectic

Talk about OCN sentences and try to compose some.  The guide provides a great list of transitive verbs that tend to work for OCNs.  They are: make, call, judy, choose, elect, nominate, name and paint.  Tackle the Quid et Quo just for fun.  See how far your child can fill it out on his/her own, then (if they are ready) go a little deeper by tackling the rest together.

I can tell the children really enjoyed the beautiful weather at lunch.  I had slumping kids all afternoon and had to continually rope in wandering minds.  It was a fitting price to pay, considering the temptation outside. I hope they were able to be outside the rest of the day.  Have a great week!  Everyone get healthy.  : )

Week 15: Shall I give you rewards when you master verb tense?

Class Overview

Today we...
1. Reviewed S/Vt/IO/DO sentences, but made them interrogative
2. Reexamined verb anatomy, focusing on "form" (bottom of chart C)
3. Walked through tasks 1-6, including Quid et Quo.

Verb Anatomy

Verb tense is made up of time + form.  

Time = past, present, and future.
Form = simple, perfect, progressive, perfect progressive.

Determining time can be tricky when combined with form, so attack these two separately before studying them together.

Today we focused on form.

A couple of memory tricks

When thinking about the perfect tense, the verb anatomy includes a form of "to have" + past participle verb form.  So, play would be have played in perfect form.  To remember that perfect goes with a form of "to have", think, "I have to be perfect!"

This also applies to perfect progressive form because the verb anatomy includes a form of "to have" + been + present participle.  So, when you see perfect, think I have to be perfect.  But you can stretch this word imagery a bit further with perfect progressive and say, "Ben and I have to be perfect as we progress."

When you have practiced with time and form separately, put them together with chart N or O.
Start with the filled in chart and give example sentences.  Have your student identify the right forms and times (tenses) represented in the sentence.

Take it to the next level by using the blank form.

Then take it to the next level by giving the student a time and form and number (singular/plural) and person (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and having them come up with a sentence that fits the description.

Quid et Quo

We finally made it to task six!  Please spend time this week exploring the Quid et Quo form.  It's strength is that it makes the student think through everything there is to identify about each word in a sentence.  I suggest using the detailed format even if your student isn't ready.  That way they will begin to see what they still need to master for each part of speech and will familiarize themselves with those terms.  Don't underestimate exposure to the vocabulary of English grammar.  Especially in the first year, just having been exposed to the terms makes digesting them a bit easier next time around.

Grammar

Keep plugging away at basic memory work.  They should know the questions they need to ask to find the direct object and indirect objects.  They should know the questions to identify an adjective, an adverb, etc.  Really work on the subordinating conjunctions and relative pronouns too.

Memory work is the foundation of this course.  If you do nothing else, do this.

Dialectic

Much of task five is easy to do orally.  This is great practice for practical application and can be tied to IEW sentences.

Examples:
If the paragraph is too choppy, make them combine two sentences by forming a compound sentence.
Have them use a word other than because to begin their subordinate (because) clause.
Add modifiers, like -ly adverbs, quality adjectives, or prepositional phrase openers.
Identify passive voice sentences and make them active voice.

Have a great week!  Yea! Mrs. Gaines and Meredith were back today!  Sigh! We were so sorry to see that several faces were missing today.  I hope that it wasn't sickness.  If so, take care and God bless!  If not, take care and God bless!

Week 14: Students, give your mothers attention if you desire mastery of the subordinate clause. (S/Vt/IO/DO + adv. sub. clause)

Class Overview

We reviewed imperative S/Vt/IO/DO, reviewed how to make complex sentences, and introduced an overview of active and passive voice.

Complex Sentence

Moms, if your child is not getting the subordinate (dependent) clause, please spend some time doing the exercise we did at the beginning of class.  I gave them an independent clause and they had to provide the subordinate to make the complex sentence.  A good way to do this is to split a whiteboard in half and put independent on one side and make them write the dependent on the other.  Or put dependent and make them write the independent.  This makes a good visual separation and hammers in the idea that an independent plus a dependent (subordinate) clause equals a complex sentence.

Remind students that a dependent clause always has a subject and a verb.  

This separates it from the phrase.

If your child already understands the dependent clause, move on to identifying whether it is adverbial or adjectival and have them diagram.

Active and Passive Voice

Active voice = the person or object is the subject of the sentence and performs the action.

Passive voice = the action is done to the person or object

Examples:

Active: I admire her voice.
Passive: Her voice was admired by me.

Active: The tornado ravaged the town.
Passive: The town was ravaged by the tornado.

Passive: As students read papers, a lot of passive voice was heard by me.  The writing of the students could be improved by themselves if passive sentences were changed to active.  The length of sentences could also greatly be reduced if the active voice would be used by the student.

Active: As students read papers, I heard a lot of passive voice.  Their writing could improve if they would make passive sentences active.  This could also greatly reduce sentence length.

Go through a past paper that your student turned in for IEW.  Find as many passive voice sentences as you can and practice changing them to active.  

If they focus on this skill it will transform their writing.

Grammar

Keep up with memory work.

Memorizing the list of relative pronouns (adjectival sub. clause openers), and subordinating conjunctions (www.asia.wub--adverbial sub. clause openers)  

I was supposed to have gone over a song that goes along with www.asia.wub, but I forgot.  I did hand out the paper however.  It is fairly self explanatory.  It follows "God Bless America".  This may be a big help for everyone who likes to memorize with songs.

Dialectic

Do the exercises suggested above at your child's level.  

If your student is a first year student and is just trying to grasp first semester still, feel free to camp out there.  Second semester information can just wash over them and they can absorb whatever they pick up here and there. Moms, this semester may just be for you to learn.  Next year will be the year to hammer away at second semester.  No crying in Essentials!  

An Extra Note

Meredith and Mrs. Gaines, we missed you in class and are looking forward to seeing you next week.  Praying for you both, for a quick and thorough recovery and that everyone else in the family would stay well.

Week 13: I gave you Complex Structure and Indirect Objects, while I was teaching Subordinate Clauses. S/Vt- - -(S/Vt/DO) /IO/DO

Whew!  What a whirlwind of new information.  Your Our Mother Tongue lessons will really help you this week because they will hammer away the information we learned.

Class Overview

Today we delved deep into new information.  We added the sentence structure, S/Vt/IO/DO and introduced complex sentences.

Indirect Object

Important to remember about the IO

1) Comes between the Vt and DO
2) Answers the question (Vt) + (DO) . . . to or for whom or what?

Examples:

Lisa gave Hank a shoe.
Gave (Vt) + shoe (DO) . . . to or for whom or what? Answer = Hank (IO)

The present gave me joy!
Gave + joy ... to whom = me

To see a diagram of the S/Vt/IO/DO, please look below at the Complex, S/Vt/IO/DO diagram.

Complex Sentence

Simple sentence = independent clause
Compound sentence = independent clause + independent clause
Complex sentence = independent clause + dependent (subordinate) clause


Dependent (subordinate) Clause vs. Phrase

Dependent clauses and phrases both cannot stand alone in a sentence.  The big difference is that a dependent clause will have both a subject and a verb.   The phrase will not.

While I wandered the desert . . .
In the desert . . .

The first is a clause with a subject (I) and a verb (wandered).
The second is a prepositional phrase and has no S/V.


Adjectival vs. Adverbial Subordinate Clauses

Adjectival subordinate clauses are those clauses that are used as an adjective in a sentence.
When trying to determine whether a clause is adjectival, go to the questions that you memorized to determine if a word is an adjective (What kind? How many? Which? Whose?)  If the clause answers one of these questions, it is adjectival.

Another quick way to identify whether a clause is adjectival is to see whether it begins with a relative pronoun (have to be memorized).  The list of relative pronouns is in the memory work.  It begins with the word who.  As a possible memory help, I always think of describing a relative, who is a who (a person).  The word describing helps me think of adjective.

These are already familiar to us through IEW in the Who/Which clauses.

The adverbial clause works the same way, except it answers the adverb questions, and the adverbial clause begins with subordinating conjunctions (www.asia.wub).


The Subordinate Clause and Comma Use

In most sentences, the subordinate clause will be separated by commas.  The exception is when the clause is necessary to the meaning of the noun it modifies.

The family that lives around the corner has eight kids.

We will be practicing this in class.

Try to find the subordinate (dependent) clauses in the following sentences. I didn't put in commas.

When we took a break from school for Christmas I forgot all my memory work.
We love because he first loved us.
My parents who like to surprise my sisters and me won't tell us where we are going for our family vacation.

Diagramming a Subordinate Clause (and S/Vt/IO/DO)

The teacher, who read the class a story, sent me a recording.

We follow the diagram examples from the Essentials guide.  Most sentence diagramming sources prescribe a different way of diagramming the IO.  Please feel free to choose one and stick with it.  We will be using the way I taught it in class.  The important thing is that the kids are able to identify the usage in the sentences.  Thanks, Rhonda, for catching this!

Grammar (Drill)

Memorize this week's memory work.

Review the questions used to determine if a word (or clause) is an adverb or an adjective. (Charts I, L)

Dialectic (Understanding)

Work through the task sheet to diagram some S/Vt/IO/DO sentences.  Come up with three or four per day that fit the pattern then task one of them.  Here are some to get you started.

I bought my friend a birthday gift.

The boy read his sister a book.

Mom baked the kids a cake.

The pirates gave the prisoners a choice between being marooned or walking the plank.

Lucky gave me the pot of gold from the end of the rainbow.

Next, work through some complex sentences.  If this is new to the student, please just drill the idea that a subordinate clause + and independent clause = complex sentence.  Next, get to what a subordinate clause is.

Have fun!  See you next week!