Saturday, April 11, 2015

Week 24

Our Essentials Class!
Well done!  What an accomplishment to make it through another year of Essentials.  I'm so proud of each student.  Thank you for sharing your Faces of History papers last Tuesday.  It was interesting to hear about so many different characters from our nation's story.

I will read your critique papers and return them to you at the closing ceremony this Tuesday evening at seven.

I wish you well and pray for your continued success as you tackle another year of Essentials or move on to new endeavors.

Much love,
Mrs. Varnell


Our two Ronald Reagans!

Ulysses S. Grant's wife, Julia Boggs Dent Grant
Harriet Tubman
Susan B. Anthony
Clara Brown (not dressed up, of course)
Abraham Lincoln

Laura Ingalls Wilder


Thursday, April 2, 2015

Week 23

EEL

Today we covered compound-complex sentences again, this time using the S/Vt/IO/DO pattern. We also talked about the last of the verbals--gerunds. Finally, we wrapped up with an overview of verb mood, focusing on the subjunctive mood.

Compound-Complex

The recipe for a compound-complex sentence is
independent + coordinating conjunction + independent + subordinate clause.
Practice, practice, practice!

Gerunds

These verbals are always in the present participle verb form and are always used as a noun.  When thinking about the definition of a noun (person, place, thing, activity or idea) gerunds usually fall into the activity part.

Here are some examples:

Swimming is fun.
I like biking.

Verb Mood, Subjunctive

Verbs are either indicative, imperative, or subjunctive.  Imperative give commands.  Indicative are everything else, except for those that are subjunctive.  So, what are subjunctive?  They are the sentences that express a wish or hope.

I wish I had made my bed like Mom said.
I wish I were taller so I could dunk the ball.
If only a maid were to magically appear and clean my house, I would be able to relax.

One temptation with the subjunctive mood sentence is to use the verb was, but please remember to use were.

Wrong: If I was green, I could pass for a Martian.
Right: If I were green, I could pass for a Martian.

IEW


Our final unit! Unit IX.  This week we are writing a critique.  You can use the source text provided in U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons on page 211, titled "A Successful Expedition" or you can use your own source text like we did in class.

In class we read the children's story, Parts, by Ted Arnold, and filled out the critique outline on page 213 of U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons.  Use this same outline to complete your critique.  Remember, the critique is just a recapping of a story or event like a movie or play and then adding a fairly technical introduction and a final paragraph stating your opinion.  Follow the outline and you're sure to succeed.  I am attaching the checklist in an email.

Looking forward to being with you for our final class next week!  I will read your papers and be ready to return them to you for reading.  Dress up as the character from you paper, or if you did a character of the opposite sex, dress up in that time period and similar style of your character.

Party!

Everyone will bring a snack to share next week.  I will email the list of food items and supplies that each of you signed up for.  If you were not able to sign up, please email me and I'll put you on the list.

Love my Essentials Class! Have a great week!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Week 22

EEL

Compound-Complex Sentences

We started with a three or four word S/Vl/PA, then added a coordinating conjunction and an S/Vl/PN.  Voila! a compound sentence.  From there, I asked the students what I needed to add to make the sentence complex.  A subordinating conjunction, of course!   We made a few compound-complex sentences then did the front of the task sheet (task 1-4) to take it further.

Verbals-Participles

Participles are the second type of verbal that we have covered.  Last week we worked on infinitives.  Next week we will talk about gerunds.  The important thing to remember about verbals is that they look like verbs (are in verb form) but are used as a different part of speech.  Identifying their use in a sentence is key to recognizing them.

We have seen participles before when working through verb anatomy.  The form used for verb anatomy is infinitive, present, past, present participle, past participle.  So, play would be to play, play(s), played, playing, played.  Notice those last two forms--present and past participle.  These are the verbs + -ing or -ed.  These can be used as adjectives as well as verbs.

Here they are as verbs.
The dog was sleeping.
The child was jumping.
The mother was delighted.

Here they are as adjectives (verbal form)
The sleeping dog jumped when I shouted.
The jumping child was distracted.
The delighted mother received blooming flowers.

Here is one that mixes both.
The boys were swimming in a rushing river.

When a participle is used in verbal form it will always be an adjective and will be diagrammed under its antecedent (the word it modifies) on a line that curves.

IEW


We had a great time playing vocabulary hangman!  Thank you, students, for taking over class and running the show.  I got to sit back and relax and guess words along with all of you.

Assignment

For our papers this week, please finish up your five paragraph Faces of History paper.  Add an opening anecdote and illustration if you would like.

Please include in your page protector...
Faces of History Paper
Bibliography
Body Paragraph Checklists (3)
Introduction/Conclusion checklist

In my email, I have included the Student Resource Notebook download that you are entitled to own if you own the IEW American History-Based Writing Lessons resource.  On page 18 you will find the MLA Bibliography and Works Cited examples. Please pattern your bibliographies after these.

Final Note

The papers are due next week but we will not read them until the final class day.  I encourage you to dress the part of your character on week 24.

Also for week 24, everyone please bring in a treat to share!

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Week 21

EEL

This week we covered compound-complex sentences and introduced one of the verbals--infinitives.

Compound-Complex Sentences

We began by having students come up with a two word sentence in the S/Vi pattern.  To that, they added a coordinating conjunction.  Then we added another S/Vi.  (Compound)  But we didn't stop there.  We next added a subordinate clause to one of the S/Vi sentences.  (Compound-complex).  We worked through this a few times.

Verbals (Infinitive)

We tackled infinitives as best we could.  The guide considers this an advanced task that doesn't need to be taught if the class is young in understanding.  But we took the challenge and found ourselves squarely matched.  The point I wanted the kids to see is that to + a verb, that base form of our verb anatomy, is sometimes not used as a verb in a sentence.  Please have them memorize the definition of an infinitive: An infinitive is to + a verb used as a noun, adjective, or adverb.

Infinitives used as subject nouns and direct objects are straightforward and fairly easy to identify. It's those pesky adjectives and adverbs that are rather difficult to place.

Take a look at chart Q (Verbals) to see how an infinitive is diagrammed.  It goes on stilts!  How fun!

IEW

Thank you for reading your papers!  I so enjoy hearing you present them in class.  If you left one of your papers at home and would like to share it next week, please go put it in your backpack right now so you don't forget to bring it on Tuesday!

Dual Dress-Ups and Triple Extensions

We introduced our two final dress-ups this week.  If you use them in your writing, please underline the words or phrases and note it in the margin with either a 2x for the dual dress-up, or 3x for a triple extension.

The first was the dual dress-up, on page 188 of our text. This is just using two adjectives, verbs, or -ly adverbs in a row in a sentence.

Bright, colorful fireworks explode in the dark sky.  (2X adj)
Fireworks, bright and colorful, explode in the dark sky. (2X adj in a different order)
Marines stand at attention and salute when I pass. (2x verb)
Widows tearfully, lovingly mourn over fallen soldiers. (2x -ly adverb)

The Triple Extension can be found on page 50 in your Student Resource Notebook.  It is simply repeating the same word, part of speech, phrase or clause in a sentence.  This adds impact and can even make writing sound sophisticated.  Here is one of the examples that repeats prepositional phrases and words.

"…government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from this earth.
(A. Lincoln)

Well, we're winding down for the year, a final 5 paragraph assignment in IEW, Memory Master proofing, and compound-complex sentences. Keep going and finish strong! You have so much to celebrate once you cross that finish line.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Week 20

EEL


Today we looked more in depth at adjectives.  If your student has not yet memorized the definition of an adjective or the questions that adjectives answer, please take a look at chart L and make it a priority to memorize the gray portion.

But today we jumped to the bottom of the chart and tackled types of multi-word adjectives, the adjectival phrase and the adjectival clause.  We looked at many samples of sentences with adverbial and adjectival prepositional phrases and labeled them accordingly.

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.

Bonus

Found the answer to the sentence that tripped us up.  Thank you, Erin Richardson and Rhonda Lin for hunting down the answer even before class was over!  I love smart phones.

There are three monkeys in that tree.

The word there is an expletive.  Nope, doesn't mean a curse word. Who knew?! It just means that it acts kind of like an interjection in a sentence.  It is there to support a style of expression, not to give more meaning.  For instance, you could leave out the word entirely if you switched the word order around.  Three monkeys are in that tree.  Same meaning, different style of expression.  In the original sentence, there would be diagrammed on a floating line above the subject noun, just like an interjection.

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.

IEW


We covered our last four vocabulary words for the year--revel, jaunty, encounter, lure.

We took a look at lesson 29 and talked about the anecdotal opener.  Consider adding one of these to your paper.  Especially if you are ahead in the writing, you will have time to hunt down a good story about your character and stuff it full of five sense descriptions.

Some specifics.
The anecdotal opener is a paragraph all to itself that goes before your introduction.
You can italicize it.
It is no more than 8 sentences long.
It tells an interesting or amusing story.
Its purpose is to hook your reader.
You can repeat and reflect both the anecdotal opener and your introductory statement in the final clincher.

Look on page 203 in U.S. History-Based Writing Lessons to see an outline for the introduction and conclusion of this paper.  To see the outline for the entire paper, check you student guide and look at Chart VIII (Library Research Report).  The only real difference is that page 203 includes the anecdotal opener.

IEW Assignment for this week:

Finish your third fused outline and write all body paragraphs.  Be sure to use the checklists that I passed out last week to check that you have completed all the requirements for each body paragraph.  Next week we will move on to writing the introduction and conclusion.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Week 19

EEL

This week in English grammar, we took a closer look at verbs and walked through the importance of irregular verbs and principle parts of verbs.  Having the principle parts of verbs memory work in Foundations helped smooth this discussion.  For practice applying the concept, we chose to lay (to place or put) and to lie (to lower, something that "I" can do to myself) and worked through sentences with different tenses of these verbs.  Another good set of irregular verbs to work through would be to rise and to raise.

We also reviewed the OCN sentence pattern and composed an interrogative, OCN, complex sentence.  We began with the OCN declarative sentence and practiced the three different ways to make it interrogative.  After making it interrogative, we added a dependent clause.  Voila! Interrogative, OCN, complex.

IEW

This week we began our 3-4 week Library Research Paper.  For homework, students will need to…
1. Locate 2-3 good sources about a person in United States history.
2. Narrow down to three topics to research about that person.
3. Make key word outlines (KWO) from facts in each source for topic #1 then fuse the outlines into one 5-7 fact KWO.
4. Repeat for topic #2.
5. Brainstorm strong verbs, quality adjectives, etc. so that the student is better prepared to write the paragraphs.

Be ready to continue next week with a third KWO and writing all three body paragraphs.

The third week, we will tackle the introductory and concluding paragraphs.

A possible fourth week will allow us to polish up the papers and prepare costumes (optional) for reading on the last day of class.

Note: One option is to write the paper without revealing the person's name.  Then everyone can take a guess about who it is.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Week 18

I apologize for any advertisement links that are popping up in my text.  I didn't put them there. Please don't click on them.

EEL


We mostly focused on review.  I thought the students did a great job at asking the right questions to determine sentence patterns when we did the matching handout.  Those PA/PN, OCA/OCN sentences were the tricky ones.

Finally, we got to the active and passive voice lesson!  We identified whether sentences were active or passive by determining if the subject was doing the action.  Active, yes.  Passive, no.

To identify a sentence in passive voice, look for the following key elements.  1) a helping verb coupled with a past participle form of the verb (example: was helped) 2) the person or thing doing the action is the object of the sentence 3) there will be a stated or understood "by + object doing the action".

John bought a new puppy.   Active: John is doing the buying.

The new puppy was bought by John.   
Passive: "was bought"= helper + past participle, John is an object, "by John"

More examples:
A= I admire her voice.
P= The voice was admired by me.

A= The tornado ravaged the town.
P = The town was ravaged by the tornado.

This week, continue to review your part of speech charts and work on memorizing any questions that help identify adjectives or adverbs, nouns or verbs.  This memory work comes first.  Only after the memory work is solid will the understanding come.

IEW


We began unit VIII today, the Library Research Report.  We will really begin this type of report next week, but will warm up to it this week by adding an introductory and concluding paragraph to body paragraphs that the students have already written.  So, pull out the apple reports or a previous paper that has more than one paragraph and use the outline guide given on page 197 in the student text to write these extra, short paragraphs.

The goal in this assignment is to gain understanding of the structure of the coming paper.

Introductory paragraph
topic one, two, and three paragraphs
concluding paragraph

This paper is technically an essay because it asks for the writer to state his opinion in the closing paragraph.  The prompts "Most significant" and "Why?" create this distinction.  When answering this question, please make sure that the student does not use "I" or "We".  

I think that apples are important because…

Rather, have them simply state their opinion as a fact.

Apples are important because…

Like my passive voice sentence example about Mrs. Apple inventing the apple pie, feel free to make up facts if you wish.

Please contact me with any questions you might have regarding the assignment.  Have a blessed week, and Happy Valentine's Day!  

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Week 17

We are beginning to wind down for the year.  It may not feel that way as we tackle more difficult sentences, but really, we only have one more structure to introduce.  One great thing to recognize is that each of us is a student of our language our entire life.  The ultimate goal of language is to convey truth, beauty and virtue, and since these flow from God, the ultimate goal of language is to convey what we know of God.  And because God is infinite in his truth, beauty and virtue, we will always be students, forever learning, forever expanding, forever penning new understanding. So, with that perspective in mind, this is just one little stop on a much longer journey.  Learn a bit now and look forward to comprehending more about God and language in the path ahead.  This class is just one blip of time, one year, one piece of the puzzle.

EEL

Yesterday, we introduced the last sentence pattern, S/Vt/DO/OCA.  We also identified all the adjectives in a very long complex sentence, (pp. 268--269 in EEL guide) diving deeper into understanding adjectives.  We referred to Chart L to determine if each adjective was descriptive, possessive or limiting.

S/Vt/DO/OCA

Determine the object complement adjective by asking the following questions:
1) (V) (DO) whom/what?
2) does it follow the direct object?
3) is it an adjective?
4) does it describe the direct object?

Some examples from class...
Jon painted the car green.
Hank calls her beautiful.
God called the ground good.

Here is a good one for a complex sentence with an OCA.
As long as he treats the horse badly, consider the horse wild!

Adjectives

Using Chart L (adjectives chart) we determined if adjectives in our example sentence were descriptive, possessive or limiting.  The sentence (pp. 268-269 in the EEL guide) was

Old farmer John painted some parts of his barn bright purple, although he was color blind and thought it was red.

From there, we determined that old was a descriptive, positive degree adjective, and farmer was a noun acting as a descriptive adjective, and some was a limiting, indefinite pronoun acting as an adjective...

Pegging adjective types was not the challenge as much as wrestling with identifying each part of the complex sentence.  We even found a noun clause acting as a direct object.

Here is a clickable link to the English Grammar Revolution page (always on the blog sidebar) where I find all kinds of diagramming answers.  Fun! Fun!


Grammar

Drill Chart L grammar, further than you went with your student last semester.
If you have memorized www.asia.wub, try adding to that list.  Many more subordinating conjunctions are on the conjunctions chart (Chart H).  More importantly, ask the right questions to determine if the clause is adverbial or adjectival.  Remember that adverbial are subordinating conjunctions, adjectival are relative pronouns.

Dialectic

Wrestle through some complex sentences that you find in a favorite book.  Identify adjectives and whether they are descriptive, possessive or limiting.

Compose some S/Vt/DO/OCA sentences of your own.  This is a much harder task than identifying.

IEW

We moved on to lesson 26, The Star-Spangled Banner.  This is our last assignment in Unit 7, Inventive Writing.  We are writing from a prompt (pp. 185) and pretending to be the flag and give its perspective.  Students may use "I" or "We" in this assignment.  On page 186, we worked through brainstorming ideas, but before that we came up with so many examples of places that we see the American flag.

Here is our list: schools, Capitol, White House, wars, sporting events, homes, court, churches, parades, 9/11, cemeteries, emergency personnel, Olympics, military weddings, funerals, airplanes.  One we picked up later was on the moon.

We picked four of these and worked through the brainstorming page.  Our notes (and any additional notes that the student creates) should be used to help write a paragraph, using the outline on page 187.  Ask the questions in the left hand column to piece together your paragraph.  It doesn't have to strictly adhere to the list of questions.  They are just there to guide thought.  Feel free to look at the example paragraph in the back of the textbook (pp. 235) to better understand where this assignment is going.  Focus on writing good descriptions with five sense words.

We also looked at the sample paper from the back and demonstrated how to label a paper so that the student can keep track of checklist requirements.  This labeling makes it easier for me when I'm reading through final papers.  I like to see where each student stands in his/her understanding of the checklist.  If a paper is labeled, it saves me tons of time.


Personal Note:
Thank you for your patience and help with getting my house key to my locked-out husband.  Amy Conrad, next time I'll call on you to teach the class if I suddenly have to leave. :)  Patrice, it's a delight to live around the corner from you.  Such a comfort knowing you can bail me out too.  Also, if anyone has footage of our leap frog relay, feel free to send it my way and I can post it on this blog for all to enjoy.  I absolutely love knowing all of you ladies.  You bless me.

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Week 15

EEL

Today we...
1. Reviewed S/Vt/IO/DO sentences, but made them interrogative and added an interjection
2. Examined verb anatomy (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.

For students who are not ready for this, please stop there.  Just memorize the above facts and leave understanding to a future time.

Determining time can be tricky when combined with form, so, if you are ready to tackle this, attack these two separately before studying them together.

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.  Have fun with it!

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 (back of task sheet) 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 (www.asia.wub) clause.
Add modifiers, like -ly adverbs, quality adjectives, or prepositional phrase openers.

IEW


We are finishing up our multiple source research papers this week. We are on Lesson 25, Benjamin Franklin continued. We examined another topic and created a fused KWO in class.

You may be opting for 1-3 paragraphs.  Quality is better than quantity.  Don't be afraid to limit the number of paragraphs but really do a thorough job. Use the checklist and thoroughly think through each element.  Finish well with a strong introductory statement (p.45 of the Student Resource Notebook--gray pages.  These give ideas for dramatic paper openers). Finally, add a final clincher that repeats and reflects the introductory statement and title.

Also, feel free to push your child to the next level if they are ready.  A full blown paper for the third year student would be five paragraphs (introductory, three topics, concluding with bibliography and illustration--whew!).

Have a great week!  Sigh! I was 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!  

I would appreciate your prayers for our family this week. My grandmother died on Monday and I will be traveling alone to Indiana to attend the funeral.  My traveling is not the struggle. My husband, Jon, will be home Friday evening-Sunday afternoon with all 7 kids and he just tore his Achilles tendon in his right foot and has surgery scheduled for next Wednesday.  He is able to hobble but please pray that all children would sleep through the night each night so he doesn't have to get up and attend to them.  During the day the big kids are easily able to help and my oldest daughter cooks so they are good there.  Thank you for prayer support!

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Week 14

EEL

We reviewed how to make complex sentences.  I was also supposed to go over active and passive voice but I really felt that we needed to camp out at complex sentences.  The explanation about active and passive voice is covered thoroughly in lesson 14 of the EEL Guide and also in the Our Mother Tongue lessons that go along with this week.  Feel free to visit that info.  I will cover it if we have time next week.  Understanding this concept can really help transform writing.

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.

Memorization

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

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!

IEW


This week we started a two week paper.  We are in Unit VI, Lesson 23. Our source texts are about Benjamin Franklin and we are creating paragraphs by pulling like information from the different sources and then fusing the outlines.

So, we started by identifying the topics in each paragraph of source one.  The first paragraph was Ben Franklin as printer and writer.  The second paragraph was Franklin as community helper.  The third paragraph was Franklin as statesman and diplomat. Next, we identified the topic of each paragraph in source two and three.

Next, we looked at only the two paragraphs about Franklin as a printer and writer.  The first paragraph was from source one, paragraph one.  The second paragraph about Franklin as a prater and writer was found in source three, paragraph one.

At home this week the students need to Key Word Outline (KWO) these two paragraphs then set aside the source text and fuse the outlines into a 5-7 line KWO and write their paragraph from that.

Next, they need to take out their rough draft checklist and brainstorm sentence openers, and other dress ups.  This makes the actual writing much easier.

Finally, write the paragraph, underline dress ups and add a picture if you would like.

For students who do this with little effort, please tackle a second topic and at least have the fused outline done.  That will put you in a good position to finish a second and third paragraph next week.

I will not be collecting paragraphs this week.  We will turn in final work the following week.

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

Week 13 - Warning: Massive Blog Entry

Welcome back and Happy New Year!  It was wonderful to see your faces again this afternoon. I hope you had a wonderful break, especially considering that we packed the day full of new information.

EEL

Not only did we introduce a new sentence pattern, we also dove right into a new structure.

If you own them, your Our Mother Tongue lessons from the checklist will really help you this week because they will hammer away the information we learned.

Sentence pattern S/Vt/IO/DO

What is an indirect object?
1) a noun
2) only occurs in sentences with direct objects
3) located between the verb and the direct object.
4) received indirect action of the verb
5) answers the question "(subject) (verb) (DO) to/for what/whom?

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, (How? When? Where? Why? To what extent? How often? How much? Under what condition?) 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 it is presented in the guide.  The important thing is that the kids are able to identify the usage in the sentences.


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.

OVERLOADED? 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.


IEW

Vocabulary words: incessant, zealous, trepidation, exemplary, prominent, privily, affirm, espouse
Some kind of treat for anyone (yes, moms, you too) who brings in a complex sentence containing a vocabulary word from this week's vocabulary list. Underline your subordinate clause.

Here comes mine. Because she is zealous for complex sentences, Mrs. Varnell, a prominent tutor in the Essentials class (ok, the only one), overcame her trepidation about overwhelming everyone and insisted on incessantly affirming the exemplary virtues of the subordinate clause for a full fifty-five minutes without taking a breath. Bam!

Try two: Because she loves her exemplary students, Mrs. Varnell rewards with candy.

IEW Lesson 22
We began a new unit today, Unit 6: Library Research Report.  The first lesson in this unit (Lesson 22) focuses on the skill of taking information from two sources and making it into one paragraph.   The result is a paragraph written from a fused outline.

There is a chart across from the Unit 6 outline in the IEW Charts section of the student notebook that helps illustrate this process of creating a fused outline.

We used the source text on page 156 about Thomas Jefferson.
We did a KWO of source one (remembering to start with a topic sentence).
We did a KWO of source two (remembering to start with a topic sentence).
Next, we put aside our source texts and just looked at our two key word outlines.
We ended up with 5 facts from the first outline and 7 from the second.

Next, we began a fused outline.
We created a fused topic sentence, looking at the source 1 and 2 topic sentences and combining info.
From there, we eliminated redundant information, merged like information, regrouped information, reordered information, and cut information.
We whittled down the information until we had only 5-7 (not 12) lines of KWO.
Finally, we added a clincher that repeated and reflected the topic sentence.
This was our fused outline.

I leave titles up to each of you.

Since we did this in class, I hope you copied well.  If you wrote down the fused outline, you only have to write the paragraph! Make sure you use your IEW checklist to be sure you include all the dress ups and decorations.

Whew! You made it.  Go eat a piece of dark chocolate. Reward yourself.