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.