Week 16: Dare we call our students experts...

Well, admittedly, not quite yet. But I must say, after peppering them today with memory work questions, a new sentence pattern, and the diagrams and Quid et Quos of several sentences, I'm impressed with the amount of material they've mastered through Week 15. As a collective class, they answered nearly everything I threw at them. I hope you're pleased, too!

Be sure to read Lessson 16 in your EEL Guide this week. Not only will it explain our new sentence pattern, S-Vt-DO-OCN, for your study at home, but there is also a glimpse into Leigh Bortins' wisdom and character on page 189 that might make you smile.

Now that we're QeQ'ing sentences, hopefully the kids are beginning to see the value of the first semester's chart barrage! Perhaps these final eight weeks will help make this chart information "useful" to them. We're going to continue drilling out our parts of speech on the QeQ sheet in class for the remainder of the year. And although you can formally complete the QeQ sheet at home as time allows, realize that you can complete it informally (and perhaps without your student even realizing it) if you just begin incorporating those questions and answers into your regular EEL conversation as you go. For example: "Is that subject noun 'dog' proper or common? And is it singular or plural? And, hmm... I see you've labeled 'brown' as an adjective modifying 'dog,' but do you know whether 'brown' is limiting, descriptive or possessive?"

You'll really begin to discover what they know well and which material needs more time. And before long, their brains will retain and recall the "drill," and they'll be answering the questions before you even ask!

For those of you who are prone to pushing the limits (as I am, particulaly with my oldest child), I love what Leigh says on page 190 of the guide under Task 6: "If a student looks at you blankly, just say the answer with them and have them repeat it back. Don't waste time trying to pull things that don't exist out of a child's brain." Duh! Eventually, in time, given enough repetition, they'll retain it. THEN they'll be able to rattle off those answers!

After next week (when we'll introduce our seventh and final sentence pattern), we're coming to a tough point in the curriculum where I want to offer encouragement. For the most part, from here on out, I want you to decide how much time to spend and what to focus on during your EEL study at home. This will be different for each family. We've covered a tremendous amount of material, and rather than frustrate a student who's yet to master it all, I'd much rather you tailor your time to your child's retention level. If your family is on track with Week 16, focus there. If your child is still working to understand Week 8, devote your efforts in that direction. You may want to spend a week identifying the seven sentence patterns, or a week on diagramming simple sentences, or a week on recognizing the subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun clauses that make a sentence complex. You may even want to just scale back and spend more time on IEW.

But know this: For the rest of the year, our class time is going to progress beyond some of the students' grasp of the material. That's okay. Let it wash over them as a grammar-stage introduction to language; most of them will see it again. The beautiful thing for a class with varying skill levels is that the same foundational information pops up in every single sentence, even the most complex. There's always something in every single sentence that every single student can know.

Whew! That's long. Sorry. Onward to IEW...

Most students have completed their three rough draft body paragraphs on ancient Rome, and we moved forward to Lesson 16 in class today. I expect most students will write two rough draft paragraphs at home this week: an introduction and a conclusion. Class highlights follow:

• We discussed what information should be included in each paragraph. The assignment makes this extremely clear. I'd suggest reviewing the information on page 119 and the example on page 120 with your student at home.
• We counted the number of sentences in the example paragraphs. I did this because I wanted them to see that these are not detail-filled paragraphs. That's the job of the body paragraphs. Each sentence in these paragraphs fills a specific requirement; aside from the two to three sentences of background info, there's no extraneous information.
• We brainstormed most of the outline information on page 121. I kept it loose because this page should look different for each student according to 1.) what he or she finds interesting for background information and most significant overall, and 2.) the chosen key words for each rough draft body paragraph.

Any family who wants to limit the assignment to three paragraphs may certainly do so. If this is the case, skip Lesson 16 and rejoin us next week for Lesson 17, "Putting It All Together," which will give you instructions on an introductory statement and final clincher.

• Remind the kids these are rough draft paragraphs. Keep it fairly simple. Next week assigns them an entire lesson for revision. In other words, don't stress.
• Try to write a paragraph tomorrow and a paragraph Thursday. Then sit down Friday and complete the rough draft checklist with your student. It's a handy tool for dialoging through the requirements without making them feel like you're a critic. Monday gives you breathing room for them to add what's missing or to catch up if you don't finish before the weekend.

One last thing. Please, always, if you or your student are having trouble with either EEL or IEW, let me know. Ask for assistance. I probably won't give you a perfect fix, but I'll try my best to help you work it out. Each of the kids is terribly precious, and I want them to succeed and feel good about what they've learned and accomplished in our time together.

Have a tremendous week!