Week 6: We know direct objects now!

Good evening! We covered so much ground today in both EEL and IEW, and I want to caution parents: Take a deep breath and realize that although we introduced a lot of new information, we have plenty of time in the coming weeks to learn it.

The EEL sentence focus for the week is compound declarative and exclamatory Subject-Verb transitive-Direct Object sentences. First, we will spend the rest of the semester -- six more weeks -- on compound sentences. This allows ample time to understand the concept and memorize the coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS) that help to form this sentence structure. Second, we will devote an additional two weeks after this week to our S-Vt-DO sentence pattern. You'll have opportunity after opportunity to teach and review, so be patient with yourselves and your students.

Work on your memory work this week, and spend your EEL time creating compound sentences from simple sentences by taking two simple sentences and using a FANBOYS to combine the two. Try to use a combination of S-Vi and S-Vt-DO sentences.

In contrasting the two sentence patterns, explain as many times as needed that intransitive verbs DO NOT transfer any action and that transitive verbs DO transfer action to a person, place or thing in the predicate of the sentence. We call that noun receiving the action a DIRECT OBJECT. Put another way, intransitive verbs have no answer to the question "Subject verb what?" but transitive verbs always have an answer to that question. Consider the two following sentences:

The cat chased.

• Who or what is the sentence about? Cat


• What did the cat do? Chased


• Can we answer "The cat chased what?" No


• So, "chased" is intransitive, and our sentence pattern is S-Vi.

The cat chased mice.

• Who or what is the sentence about? Cat


• What did the cat do? Chased


• Can we answer "The cat chased what?" Yes, mice


• So, "chased" is transitive. The mice are receiving the verb's action, and our sentence pattern is S-Vt-DO.

We discussed coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS) during class, but I did not touch on subordinating conjunctions, relative pronouns or conjunctive adverbs as mentioned in the EEL guide. I will circle back to these later as our sentences include them. If you have an advanced student and want or need to cover these now, please do. But for most of our class, I believe FANBOYS is sufficient for the week. What I would like you to focus on is the fact that FANBOYS can join words, phrases or clauses (both independent and dependent). Examples are pretty easy to find. Pick a paragraph from a book, look together for FANBOYS, and then determine together if they join words, phrases or clauses. But incase you're drawing a blank, here's examples of each:

• Words -- apples, oranges OR pears


• Words -- boys AND girls


• Phrases -- over the river AND through the woods


• Phrases -- above the ocean BUT beneath the sky


• Clauses -- The wind blew, SO the kite soared.


• Clauses -- The marshmallows toasted, FOR the fire crackled.

Just FYI, the guide uses Charts G and H to introduce compound sentences and conjunctions. Please look over them with your student, and use them where you find them helpful.

During IEW, we started what will be an ongoing discussion of comma rules. They put into their notebooks a page of IEW's comma rules. Use these as guidelines, knowing there are exceptions here and there you will have to explain. For practice, I distributed a comma rules worksheet you can complete at home this week if desired. We also introduced prepositional phrase openers, and I directed them to a prepositions list at the front of their style charts. Those for whom prepositional phrases are still somewhat vague can refer to this list for now. We will cover prepositions in depth in, I believe, two weeks during EEL.

Your IEW task is to complete your three-paragraph story of the Mayflower. First you'll want to add prepositional phrase openers and additional five senses adjectives. Then you'll want to revise and complete your final checklists. When they write their final drafts, please use the MLA style and just check off where the checklist says "Composition is neat and double-spaced with name."

Finally, I'd really love for you to plan a time at home for your student to read his or her paper aloud to the family. First, it provides practice. Second, I'm finding it extremely difficult with 18 students to let everyone read as often as I'd like. I really hate for no one to hear what they've written after they devote so much time and effort. The quality and creativity of their writing is outstanding, so please make time for them to read aloud at home!

Thank you for taking the time to read all of this and investing in your children this week. See you next Tuesday.

Erin