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!

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.

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.