Week 12 EEL

I hope everyone had a great holiday!!! I am sorry it took so long for me to write my blog.
Our last class was mostly review. We reviewed the interrogative purpose and the S-Vl-PN and
S-Vl-PA patterns. Our family feud review game was a lot of fun. I took all of the questions from the mastery charts. The main thing you can do over the break is review. Go back over all of the mastery charts. Focus on the things your child may need help on. I advise quizzing the charts in different way. Have them copy or write them out, but also ask them orally the items on the charts just like I did in our Family Feud game. You can mix the charts up, or focus on one chart at a time.
It is also a good time to give them sentences from all four patterns that we have worked on, and see if they can figure out which pattern it is. Making up sentences is not as hard as it seems. Just keep them simple. You can just model them after the ones in the book. Another good way to get them thinking is to ask them to give you a sentence of a certain pattern, purpose, and structure. Encourage them to keep it simple at first and not to add too many details.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Have a blessed Christmas break!!

EEL Week 11- Review

Good Afternoon!!
Sorry my post is late this week. Thank you to all of you that helped with our celebration on Tuesday!! I think everyone had fun.  In EEL we did a general review. We first played our part of speech review game. It was a little more challenging for some than I thought it would be. It did get everyone thinking. It helped going over all of the words at the end. This is something you could easily do at home on a smaller scale. Just think of some words and see if your child can give the part of speech. You could also give them the sentences at the end of the EEL lessons and ask for the part of speech. Then you would have the answers.
We also reviewed the S-Vl-PN pattern and the S-Vl-PA pattern.
This week at home just work on review. Review all of the charts, but take extra time with the ones your child needs the most work on. It would also be a good time to go deeper into some of them if you did not have time earlier. Moms, please read the lesson in the EEL guide, and work on the sentences at the end of the lesson. I also just want to remind you to not only have your child copy or write out the charts, but it is good to ask them questions from the charts, so they can recall the information in a different way.

Next week we will also review. I think I see a moms vs. kids review game in our future!!
We will probably do a general review at first , and then move on to the review game.
Please come with any questions you have about anything we have covered. If you know them ahead of time, please email them to me.

Thanks so much.
Karen

EEL Week 10

Adjectives!!!! Today we introduced adjectives!! We first worked on what an adjective is, and I read the book about adjectives. We then wrote down a list of adjectives about my crazy Limber Louis puppet.
We went over the adjective chart in class. I said several times that the most important part of the chart is to memorize the shaded areas. Once the shaded areas are memorize, then focus on the rest of the chart.
We went over the differences between adjectives and adverbs. Again I pointed out that knowing what questions each asks  is essential to determining the difference.  We went over several difference types of adjectives and adverbs in a compound sentence.  We then went over the  S-Vl-PA sentence pattern. This sentence pattern is very similar to the S-Vl-PN pattern. We added a new question to ask in determining the words that come after the verb. You now need to ask if the words after the verb rename the subject, and if they describe the subject. If the words describe the subject and follow a linking verb, then the word is a predicate adjective. The S-Vl-PA pattern is diagrammed the same way as a S-Vl-PN pattern. Please let me know if you have any question.

Things to do this week.
1. Read lesson 10 in the EEL guide.
2. Mastery chart L
3. Review previous mastery charts that you need work on.
4. Go over differences of adjectives and adverbs. Give examples.
5. Task sheet sentences at the back of lesson10.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Week 9 EEL

Wow! Can you believe we only have 3 more weeks left in the semester! Time is flying.
I felt like everyone understood our new pattern this week. We looked at the S-Vl-PN
pattern this week. Please let me know if you have any questions. One thing to remember
is to keep asking those questions we talk about every week. We added a new question this
week when trying to determine what type of verb we have and what the role of the word that
follows the verb. Make sure you ask all these question. We added to ask does the word that
follows the verb rename the subject? Make sure when you think you have a Predicate Nominative that you
have a linking verb. Also, when you see only a linking verb as your verb, be thinking about whether
you have a Predicate Nominative. We will talk about Predicate Adjectives next week.
Really focus on memorizing the linking verbs if you child does not know them.
    We also talked about the five principal parts of a verb. Everyone seemed to understand this also.
Work on memorizing the principal parts of the irregular verbs and practice writing out the principal
parts of regular verbs by following the patterns. We worked on the simple tense on Chart K.
Again everyone seemed to have an understanding of what we were doing. Please let me know if
this is not the case. Let me know if you have any questions.

Things to do this week.
1. Moms, read lesson 9 your EEL guide.
2. Memorize charts. Focus on Chart K, C, and D. Review any that need work. Remember to mix up writing the charts and saying the charts. I like to ask my kids the charts.
3. Task sheet sentences in week 9 lesson.
4. Make up some simple S-Vl-PN sentences, and then make up some simple S-Vt-DO sentences , and see if your child can tell the difference.
For example:
 a.  Tom was president.(S-Vl-PN)
 b. Tom was elected president. (S-Vt-DO)
- Note the difference in verbs. "was elected" is an action verb with a helping verb. Was in the second sentence is a helping verb to the action verb elected.
c.  Jenny is a sister.(S-Vl-PN)
d. Jenny  called her sister.( S-Vt-DO)

Week 8 Prepositions

We had another good review today playing moms vs. kids in seeing who could write out the chart the fastest.
The noun chart proved to be a little more challenging. The kids won in both classes by just a small amount.
Thank you all for being good sports. I will think of another fun game to play with the moms in a couple of weeks. We did not introduce too much new information today. We went over changing declarative sentences to interrogative sentences in the S-Vt-DO pattern. This was a good review.
We went over prepositions. We talked about prepositional phrases, and that they were either adjectival or adverbial . We went over how to diagram a prepositional phrase. It is important to remember that a prepositional phrase does not contain the subject, a direct object or the verb of a sentence. This is why one of the first things to do with breaking down a sentence is to identify if there are any prepositional phrases.
Put parentheses around the prepositional phrases, and then identify your subject, verb, and direct object.
In the first class we were able to play a game with the prepositions. Make sure your child works on memorizing them.
Things to do this week!!
1. Moms read week 8 lesson.
2. Study Mastery Chart J, and specifically review Chart E,G and I.
3. Continue to study all charts and memory work
4. Weekly sentences in week 8 lesson of EEL guide

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks!!
Karen

EEL-Week 7

   Week 7 was mixed with review and some new concepts. We started out by reviewing the imperative purpose and the compound structure. We changed declarative sentences into imperative sentences.This
is where we learned about the 3 different verb moods. We went over examples of the verb moods. Everyone seemed to grasp this along with changing sentences into the imperative purpose. We reviewed the S-Vt-DO pattern and showed how it is not really different  when dealing with the imperative purpose.
We next moved into talk about two more noun roles. We talked about the Noun of Direct Address. Commas are used to set of the Noun of Direct Address to show that it is no grammatically connected to the sentence.
    Appositives caused us a little bit of trouble trying to understand whether to use commas or not.
I have looked into it a little further. I looked up 2 websites that I will site below. I also looked in the Our Mother Tongue book. The Our Mother Tongue lesson is on page 66-67. The basic rules that I have found. You use a comma if the information is not needed to understand the sentence. If the information is needed to understand the sentence then you leave the commas out.  I read in one source that if the subject is a proper noun then the appositive will always have commas. This would be because the proper noun should give us a clear picture of who or what the sentence is about since the subject is a proper noun. The appositive will just be extra information.  If the subject is more unclear about who or what I am specifically talking about then the appositive is necessary to understand the sentence.  In that case you would not use the commas since the information is necessary. I also read that the appositive can come before the subject though it most often follows the subject. You should be able to tell which noun is the appositive when there are commas. If there are no commas it is a little unclear. Though I would say most of the time the appositive will be after.
Here is the example from Our Mother Tongue where the appositive is first.
"A fine student and leader,Sam will go places."- This is Exercise A in Lesson 15 page 66. "A fine student and leader" is the appositive. It is obvious in this example because of the comma setting off the phrase in the beginning. Plus, it would not really make sense any other way. The next example in that exercise is not as clear. "My daughter Sarah is my best friend." There is no comma. The book says that "My Daughter" is the appositive. I personally think either one could be in this example. It is not clear. I don't think that is a good example. Where really both could be the appositive depending on what was trying to be said.
I think most of the time the appositive comes after the noun. I think you just need to be aware that it could come before, and you need to look for the commas and be aware of what is being said.
I will copy a couple rules a found at the bottom and another website that gives some examples with answers that I thought were helpful. Try not to get too hung up on these appositives. For the most part they should be pretty straight forward. There are always going to be tricky sentences that seem confusing. Just try to get the basics right now. Some is going to be based on the intent of the writer, and what they are trying to say.
     Finally were able to talk about adverbs. Please work on studying Chart I, which is the adverb chart.
Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. I tried to relate this back to the-ly words in IEW.
The best thing to start with is memorizing the questions that adverbs answer. How? When? Where? Why? To what extent? How much? Under what condition? How often?  I wanted to play an adverb game, but we ran out of time in both classes. We may start off next week with playing that game.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
At Home:
1. Moms read week 7 lesson.
2. Study Chart I, Review chart E and any other chart you need extra work on.
3. Sentences at the back of week 7
4. Take simple declarative sentences and have your child change them into imperative or interrogative sentences. You can use the sentences at the back of Lesson 7. The answers are listed.


Appositive Help- website -http://www.cws.illinois.edu/workshop/writers/appositives/

Restrictive Appositives-( Essential appositives)

 A restrictive appositive is necessary to maintain the meaning of the sentence and does not require commas. Usually, a restrictive appositive is a single word closely related to the preceding word. It "restricts" or narrows the meaning of the word it modifies:

• The musician Harry Connick will come to Champaign.
  ("Harry Connick" restricts the general term "musician.")
• My sister Mary has four dogs.

Nonrestrictive Appositive-(non-essential appositives)

A nonrestrictive appositive may be omitted without changing the basic meaning of the sentence. A nonrestrictive appositive is separated by commas. Commas are always used when the word which the appositive modifies is a proper noun:

• Harry Connick, the musician, will come to Champaign.
  ("Musician" offers additional information about the specific name "Harry Connick")
• There are many parades for Mardi Gras, a religious festival celebrating the last day before Lent, in New Orleans, a city in Louisiana.

*Here is a second website with some examples and the answers at the bottom.
http://www.sjsu.edu/writingcenter/docs/Appositives.pdf

Week 6- EEL The moms won the game, and everyone received candy!!

Thanks so much for playing the relay game today in EEL! I think everyone had fun.
The moms won in both classes. Though I would have to say the win in the second class
was a little iffy. I introduced a lot of new material today. Please let me know if you have any
questions. The compound structure was introduced today. Chart G gives examples of the compound
structure listed out per purpose and pattern.  We went over that coordinating conjunctions connect
2 or more independent clauses to form a compound sentence. Chart H is the conjunction chart.
We are specifically looking at the coordinating conjunction section. Please have your child work on
memorizing the FANBOYS.  We also looked at the fact the conjunctions also connect words and phrases, and that we need to be aware of which they are connecting. Our new sentence pattern for this week
is the S-Vt-DO pattern. We introduced the direct object. We looked at several examples of this pattern
and how to diagram it. We also showed how to diagram a compound subject and compound verb.
Please do let me know if you have any questions.  Next week I am going to try to encourage
the kids to sit a little more in the front. I am unsure if there was some extra drawing and possible
bracelet making going on in the class. I am going to try to remember to talk to everyone about there
being no extra drawing on the white boards or other activities going on during class. I know it is hard
to sit at 2pm in the afternoon and listen. I also don't want to call on kids that may not know the answer
to get them to pay attention. I would appreciate you talking to them about trying to pay attention and answer
questions. I would love for everyone to try to raise their hands to answer. I don't want to call on anyone that
doesn't raise their hand , however, I would like a way to encourage those that do not raise their hand to
try and start. I would appreciate any incentives that you may be able to encourage your child.
Thanks so much. I love this cooler weather!!

Things to do at home.
1. Moms, read the week 6 lesson in your EEL guide.
2. Memorize and copy chart G and H
3. Review charts A-F by writing or repeating orally
4. Task Sheet sentences at the end of week 6
5. You could also do a similar thing as I did in class with using coordinating conjunctions. Write up some basic sentences for your child and see if they can figure out if the conjunction is connecting words, phrases or clauses.
Some examples:
The boy ran a race, and the girl played ball.( connects clauses, compound sentence)
The dog and the cat jumped and played. (connects words, compound subject and compound verb)
David fought Goliath and won the battle.( connects words, compound verb)
Paul and Peter preached the gospel. (connects words, compound subject)
Jake chased the ball, but Tobey ate his treat. (connects clauses, compound sentence)
The dog ran down the street and through the woods. (connects phrases, compound phrase)

All of the sentences above that do not connect clause and that are not listed as compound sentence are simple sentences in structure.
Let me know if you have any questions.

Week 5 Interrogatives

Good Afternoon,
It was such a beautiful day! I pray all of you got to go home and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.
Today we did some review of the first 3 sentence purposes that we have studied. I introduced
the interrogative sentence purpose. We focused on turning an S-Vi pattern sentence into an interrogative
sentence using 3 different ways. I gave you the initials C.I. A. to remember the 3 ways. If this is confusing to
your child just don't even worry about using the C.I.A.  It was just meant to be a fun way to remember
and look at 3 ways to change a sentence to an interrogative sentence.  The C stands for Changing the end mark and voice inflection to make a declarative sentence a question. The I stands for an interrogative pronoun taking the place of the noun. The interrogative pronouns are who,whom, whose, which , what.
The A stands for adding a helping verb to make a question. We worked with all of these forms of questions and diagraming them.  Of course there are many other ways to make questions, however, they usually involve other sentence patterns and parts of speech. These will be dealt with later.
Please let me know if you have any questions. There are no new charts this week. Please use this week
to continue to review what has already been worked on. There are 5 sentences again at the end of the
Week 5 lesson to task sheet.
Things to do at home.
1. Mom will read week 5 lesson in EEL guide.
2. Review and study Mastery Charts A-F.
    Have your child write and copy the chart. It is also helpful to go over the chart out loud by asking questions to see how much they remember.

3. Task sheet sentences at the end of week 5 lesson in EEL guide. Sentences 1-3 for 1st tour students, and sentences 1-5 for 2nd or 3rd tour students. I mentioned last week that if your child is feeling these sentence are too easy in the guide if they have done them before. Try giving them one of the sentences and having them try the task sheet from memory. (This of course is for 2nd or 3rd year students) It is a good lesson to see how much they can come up with on their own.  I just have Abigail write it out on a piece of paper. If you need an example of what I mean, I will be glad to send it to you.


Keep bringing those EEL guides!!!

Karen

Week 4- Hooray!! Read my email.

Good Afternoon,

     Today in class we talked about interjections and imperative sentences.
I felt like you had a pretty good understanding of the imperative purpose.
We went over that the subject of an imperative sentence is always the implied you.
When writing this as the subject you will always enclose the you within parentheses to
show the word is not actually in the sentence.Imperative sentences can end in a period or
an exclamation point.  We also talked about the noun of direct
address especially in reference to imperative sentences. It can be confusing, but please
make sure you do not confuse a noun of direct address for the subject of the imperative
sentence. We diagrammed examples of the imperative sentences.
     Interjections were our new part of speech. I feel like everyone understood while I
was going over these. Please feel free to ask me questions. I know once you get home
things can get confusing. Email me the questions or I am glad to take phone calls to talk
it over with you. Interjections are diagrammed on a floating line over the subject. This shows
that they are not grammatically connected to the sentence. They can stand along or at the
beginning of a sentence. A mild interjection is punctuated with a comma, and the next
letter is not capitalized. A strong interjection at the beginning of a sentence receives an
exclamation point, and the next letter is capitalized in the sentence.
Things to do at home this week!! There are no new memory work charts this week!! Yay!!
1. Mom should read the week 4 lesson in the EEL Guide.
2. Review memory charts A-F. Have you child write them out, but I find going over them orally
at least once a week helps.
3. Task sheet the sentences in the back of Lesson 4.

Let me know if I can help in any way!!!!
Blessing,
Karen

-I plan to give out some more "treats" this next week for all of those moms who have their EEL Guide!!

Week 3- EEL-Mrs. Hinson

Good Afternoon,

     It has been a beautiful day outside. I hope you still get to enjoy some of it.
Today we talked about nouns and pronouns. We talked about all of the different roles
or jobs that nouns have in sentences. We talked about the noun attributes. We quickly
went over the pronoun chart.  We will be memorizing most of the pronoun chart in Foundations.
We also went over the Analytical Task sheet for the first time in class. One thing, that
I did not touch on that was confusing for a few first time moms, was where to find the sentences
to use on the task sheet.  You can task sheet any sentence you want on the task sheet. However, if you would like the answers for your sentences, you can look in your EEL guide.  For each
week of Essentials starting with week 3, there are 5 sentences in the back of each weekly lessons. These are the weekly lessons, that are found in your Essentials of the English Language Guide. This
is the big scary guide that no one opens up. We divided them out at orientation into 24 weeks.
These sentences are for you to go over at home with your student.
The answers are listed. The first 3 sentences are the basic sentences that first year students should be
able to work on after our class. Sentence 4 and 5 are meant for 2nd or 3rd year students .

    I really do want to stress the importance of you doing these sentences in the EEL guide first
in your homeschool especially if you are a new student.  After you have mastered these sentences, then you can move onto the Daily Checklist that Melissa copied for everyone. The Daily Check list that Melissa copied should be secondary to going over the sentences in the EEL guide. It is a great thing to use, but I do caution you away from ignoring the guide and only focusing on the work in the check list. This again is especially true for 1st year students. You may miss some important foundation building if you do not look at the guide or the sentences in it. Please let me know if you have questions regarding this.
    I also really want to stress with you to please read the lesson in the EEL guide each week. You do not need to read it before class. It should help you understand the things I went over in class.  It should not take you very long, and I really do believe it will help you even more than you think.
This weeks lesson starts on page 43. It is a long lesson this week because it gives you step by step instruction for the whole task sheet. We only did tasks 1-4 this week. You only need to read those sections. If you have any questions please call me or email me. Below I am listing some suggestions for you to work on.
    I did forget to mention that there are songs for the pronouns posted on the EEL home page of this blog. Erin made them to go along with the Foundations memory work. 

* I am going to challenge you to bring your EEL guide week 4 to class next week. (Shelly suggested at orientation, to have a small notebook and to pull each week out at a time, so you do not have to lug the whole guide around. ) This is a great suggestion. I will have a small reward for those of you that do bring the whole guide or just week 4.   I follow exactly what is in the guide in class.

What to do this week!
1. Work on memorizing and copying  Chart E and F( noun and pronoun charts)
2. Task sheet using tasks 1-4 for Sentences 1,2, 3 on pages 69-71 in EEL guide for 1st year.
    2nd and 3rd year task sheet sentences 1-5.  ( When I say "task sheet" I mean do exactly what we
did in class. Dictate the sentence ,and then go through questions to find out if it is a sentence , and so on.
3. Work with noun chart by listing nouns and having your child give the attributes of those nouns.

Don't forget those guides next week!!!
Karen

Week 2-Verbs

Thanks for two great classes today. We did a thorough review of Chart A. I thought most

everyone seemed to have memorized some of the chart. Please continue to review Chart A and B.

Along with asking your child to name the 4 purposes of a sentence, it can be helpful to ask them the other way. Give them the list : Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, and Exclamatory and ask your child

what those are. We did this when I was going over Chart A on the board. 

We looked at the Verb Chart, which is chart C. This chart contains a lot of information.

We went over most of it during class. I wish I had worked a little bit more on just picking

out the verb in a sentence.   We will cover all of the items on Chart C throughout the coming weeks.

Please continue to work on loading the grammar,which is primarily memorizing the charts. 

The week 2 lesson in your EEL guide does a good job explain all of the parts of Chart C and Chart

D. I encourage you to read through it. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

I am going to forward some songs put out on CC connected . One of the songs puts chart C to song.

I am just sending these for you to use if you choose. 

Along with memorizing the charts, you can work with your child on picking the verbs out in any sentence.

Either make some up , or find some in a book. 

Karen  

EEL Week 1

I hope you all made it through class well. Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

I know many of you may feel overwhelmed if this is your first year in Essentials. It is normal to feel this way.

Please let me know what I can do to help. I know I presented a lot of information this morning.

I am sending this update via email. I will also post it to the blog. Please subscribe to my Essentials page on our blog.

The address is ccofgreensboro@blogspot.com You will need to subscribe to Melissa's page and mine separately.

We covered Chart A in class. I know it is a lot of information. Our goal is to memorize the chart. If copying the whole chart is 

too overwhelming for your student, then please break the chart down in bite size amounts to have them memorize. The charts 

are a tool to be used. Please do not let them enslave you. You can break it down into pieces. If all of the information is new, maybe start

with having your child copy and memorize the 5 parts of a sentence and the 8 parts of speech. Once they have this down, then you

can have them do the 4 structures. Then move on to  the 4 sentence purposes. You can do each part separately if the whole of the chart overwhelms you.

Working on the memory work of Chart A is a main goal for this week. If you  have a tour 2 or 3 child you can work through the chart similarly to what I 

did in class.  You can give your child a sentence and have them give you the purpose, pattern and structure. You could also just have them give you purpose 

and structure if they do not understand pattern yet. Also, turn it around and give them a purpose, structure and /or pattern and have them give you a sentence.

This would be an advanced skill especially to include the pattern.  Another suggestion  is to give them sentences or phrases that may not be a sentence  and have

them go through the 5 parts of a sentence to determine if the group of words is a sentence.

I also showed you Chart B in class. I made some suggestions on how to use this chart. If you have a first year student, just have them copy the chart. If you

have a 2nd or 3rd tour child maybe have them go through and write a sentence for each pattern. This may also be a challenge. You could also go through it and

do the chart together making simple sentences for each pattern. 

The language "ticket" for coming into class does NOT have to be written. The answer just needs to be told to me entering the class. 

Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.

Karen

Week 23: Teaching provides me a blessing, in that I learn at the same time, for giving always pays the giver hidden delights.(Compound-complex, S/Vt/IO/DO)

First of all, thank you Tina Gaines for teaching my class today so that I could get away with my husband for the week! We're in Charleston, SC, where azaleas are in bloom!

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.


Looking forward to being with you for our final class next week!  Thanks again, Tina, for covering for me!

Week 22: I am a tutor, who is also a mother, and I feel happy about it! (Cpd-cx, S/Vl/PN, S/Vl/PA)a

Class Overview

Today in class, we focused on compound-complex sentences, this time with the S/Vl/PA and S/Vl/PN pattern focus.  We also tackled verbals and learned the second type, participles.  Finally, we enjoyed some part of speech review by doing three Mad Libs!

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!  They are really sharp.  They got this without any trouble.  We made a few compound-complex sentences then went on, but at home you may want to use the task sheet 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.

Personal Note

We're in our last stretch.  I can't believe that the year is so close to being done.  I love the families that I've gotten to know through weekly interaction.  You all bless me!

Tina, thanks for helping so much yesterday!  Also, thank you to all of you who helped set up my classroom and were gracious about combining classes so I could get home to my sick baby.

See you next week!

Week 21: A compound sentence, which is also complex, is compound-complex, and the students nailed it!

Class Overview:

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, using the S/Vt/Do pattern.  This stretched students a bit more, having to come up with transitive verbs.  Then we used the Task Sheet and "tasked" one of the sentences.

One of the classes came up with this fun compound-complex sentence,
Apple, who was not a fruit, ate juicy oranges, yet she was not a cannibal!

(Thank you Jessica and Ryan for your well-timed humor).

Of course, when they got to the end of task 5, the class had contributed quite a lot of dressing up and decorating and the sentence read,
Apple, who was very much not a delicious fruit, slowly ate juicy oranges, yet she was not a blood-thirsty cannibal!

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 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!


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.

Week 20: Students in the class cheered about adverbial prepositional phrases! (adj. phrase, adv. phrase)

Okay, okay, so students may have groaned about adverbial and adjectival prepositional phrases, but they tackled them brilliantly!

Class Overview

We started off with Grammar Rule #6, Tricky Words!  Then we shifted to different adjective modifiers that can be used when doing task #5 on the task sheet.  Finally, we landed on the very challenging adjectival and adverbial prepositional phrases.

Grammar Rule #6, Tricky Words

From there, their, and they're, to continual vs. continuous, to affect verbs and effect nouns, we covered tricky words.  These are words that adults commonly misuse and really need to be studied and focused on in order to correct.  One reason these words become issues is because we speak them incorrectly.  Parents, if you model this through using these words incorrectly, choose one and work on it.  Awareness and constant correction is the way to remedy the mistake.  If your children hear you use the words correctly it will make difference--unless, of course, we're talking about homonyms.

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.

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.

Encouragement

If your child was a deer in headlights during a lot of yesterday, it's okay.  Please be patient with the three tour process of this class.  This year may be your year to be exposed to the terminology and to follow some but not get all.  We are in the last stretch and are encountering many complex concepts.  Just concentrate on the basics if you feel overwhelmed.  Drill the memory work and write out charts.  From there, work on the task sheet at the level of your student.  Assess where they are in their understanding and gently prod them forward or just shore up shaky understanding.  You have next year to tackle this again.  There is no crying in Essentials! : )

Week 19: LIE on the foundation that Essentials LAYS.

Class Overview

This week we took a closer look at verb anatomy, using the infinitives to lay and to lie.  We followed that up with a quick glance at two sentence patterns, S/Vt/IO/DO and S/Vt/DO/OCN.  Finally, we enjoyed a review game!

Verb Anatomy

Using the verbs lay and lie is difficult even in English.  We utilized these in class to get a taste of the difficulty of learning a foreign language.  Here are the sentences we used.  We filled in the blanks with the correct word and form.  Chart D is the verb anatomy chart that we used as a reference.

I ________ (past) down in my bed.  lay
The workman __________ (pa. part.) bricks. laid
She has __________ (pa. part.) on the floor for three nights. lain
_________ (present) down. Lie
_________ (present) down the book. Lay

Remember that lay means to put and will always have a direct object. 

Lie means to lower and the subject will always be doing the lowering to themselves.

Sentence Patterns IO and OCN

We took a look at two sentences and I asked the students to tell me the pattern of each.  The first sentence was a bit more difficult because we have not visited the IO pattern in a while.

If she could, would Jenny give her sister the flute?  S/Vt/IO/DO
If she could, would Jenny elect her sister team captain? S/Vt/DO/OCN

In order to even approach these sentences, the students had to identify the introductory subordinate clauses and set them aside.  Then, because the remaining sentences were interrogative, they had to change around word order to find the subjects and verbs.

I was really proud of the way they tackled these difficult complex sentences: so much success to celebrate!

Review Game

Congratulations to everyone who played the review game! Though some teams ended up with more points, everyone was a winner because all displayed mastery of so much material.  You can find the Jeopardy style game on C3 file sharing; author, Classical Conversations.

Have a great, healthy, happy week!

Just for Fun! Stuff Grammar Nazis Never Say

Week 18: We considered today's review games delicious and today's party fun! (S/Vt/DO/OCA)

Class Overview

What a fun time we had as a combined group today!  Thank you, moms, for all the extra helping hands.

What did we do in EEL? Review, review, review!  We have almost reached the end of fleshing out Chart A.  We only lack the compound-complex sentence structure.  There is still plenty more to learn during these last six weeks, but please consider it gravy.  We've already bitten into the meat of the curriculum.  Now we need to chew on it a bit.  That's what today was about: making sense of what we have covered to date.

How can I review at home?  Here are some ideas.

Write three or four sentences that have different purposes, structures and patterns.
1) Have your child parse and diagram each
2) Ask for a specific structure, purpose or pattern and have them choose the right one
3) Draw a diagram and ask them to identify which sentence fits
4) Have them rewrite a sentence, changing the purpose.

Name a pattern and have your child come up with a sentence that fits.


We used the following sentences in class to review structure, purpose and pattern.  Thank you, Erin Richardson, who wrote these and used them in her EEL class. What a treasure!  The sentences were listed down the left side.  The patterns were listed in a random order down the right side.  Students had to match the sentences and patterns.

Blue whales are mammals. (S-Vl-PN)
Unlike most mammals, they live in the ocean. (S-Vi)
These gentle creatures eat krill. (S-Vt-DO)
Their bodies are extremely long and leathery. (S-Vl-PA)
If I were to see one up close, it might give me a fright! (S-Vt-IO-DO)
Would you call these behemoths scary? (S-Vt-DO-OCA)
Or do you consider them one of God's most amazing creations? (S-Vt-DO-OCN)

In class we matched these sentences with their patterns, but you can go further and identify structure and purpose as well.

Grammar

Drill memory work and charts that need the student needs to master still.

Dialectic

Work through the sentences we went over in class, identifying structure and purpose.
Choose one sentence and work all the way through task #6 (the Quid et Quo).

Week 17: A sunny EEL day makes me sunny. (S/Vt/DO/OCA)

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, there will be no crying in Essentials; this is just one little stop on a much longer journey.  Save the tears for moments of being overwhelmed by the goodness of our Savior.

Class Overview

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.  In my second class we covered grammar rule #3 about colon use in lists and quotes.

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 sister.
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 (Thank you, Patrice for steering me the right way). 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.

Have a great week!

Week 16: Students call EEL rewarding work. (S/Vt/DO/OCN)

Class Overview

Yesterday we tackled a new sentence pattern, S/Vt/DO/OCN.  We also worked through the task sheet, #1-4 and 6 (Quid et Quo).  We used the detailed format of the Quid et Quo because I wanted students and parents to see that there is much to master yet on the nouns and pronouns charts.  Cycle 2 memory work from Foundations really helps with correctly classifying pronouns, so next year will be perfect for driving this in.

Finally, we ended class with a book called Merry-Go-Round, A Book About Nouns, by Ruth Heller.  The kids seemed to enjoy being able to follow terminology like collective, compound, and plural.  Her rhyming, light-hearted approach, combined with beautiful, colorful pictures really allows children to enjoy learning about parts of speech.

Object Complement Adjective

An OCN is a noun following a direct object that renames the direct object.  Some examples:

James called the treehouse Camelot.  DO=treehouse, OCN=Camelot.
To check whether a word is an OCN, remember to use the equals trick.
Treehouse=Camelot, Camelot=treehouse.

God named the man Adam.
They consider Jill a leader.
Sam painted the tree blue.
Students, who take my class, call me tutor. (S/Vt/DO/OCN, complex) Notice the backslash line to indicate the OCN.

With so many patterns to master and so many questions to ask in order to find the usage answers, I came up with a quick reference sheet.  I sent home a copy with each student, but if you would like it in digital form, follow this link to download it from my Dropbox account. https://www.dropbox.com/s/c2978yufglphc4j/Sent.%20Pattern%20questions.pdf

Grammar

Work on solidifying the basic grammar of the nouns and pronouns charts.  Keep up with the weekly memory work.

Dialectic

Talk about OCN sentences and try to compose some.  The guide provides a great list of transitive verbs that tend to work for OCNs.  They are: make, call, judy, choose, elect, nominate, name and paint.  Tackle the Quid et Quo just for fun.  See how far your child can fill it out on his/her own, then (if they are ready) go a little deeper by tackling the rest together.

I can tell the children really enjoyed the beautiful weather at lunch.  I had slumping kids all afternoon and had to continually rope in wandering minds.  It was a fitting price to pay, considering the temptation outside. I hope they were able to be outside the rest of the day.  Have a great week!  Everyone get healthy.  : )

Week 15: Shall I give you rewards when you master verb tense?

Class Overview

Today we...
1. Reviewed S/Vt/IO/DO sentences, but made them interrogative
2. Reexamined verb anatomy, focusing on "form" (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.

Determining time can be tricky when combined with form, so attack these two separately before studying them together.

Today we focused on form.

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.  I suggest using the detailed format even if your student isn't ready.  That way they will begin to see what they still need to master for each part of speech and will familiarize themselves with those terms.  Don't underestimate exposure to the vocabulary of English grammar.  Especially in the first year, just having been exposed to the terms makes digesting them a bit easier next time around.

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 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 (because) clause.
Add modifiers, like -ly adverbs, quality adjectives, or prepositional phrase openers.
Identify passive voice sentences and make them active voice.

Have a great week!  Yea! Mrs. Gaines and Meredith were back today!  Sigh! We were 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!

Week 14: Students, give your mothers attention if you desire mastery of the subordinate clause. (S/Vt/IO/DO + adv. sub. clause)

Class Overview

We reviewed imperative S/Vt/IO/DO, reviewed how to make complex sentences, and introduced an overview of active and passive voice.

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.

Active and Passive Voice

Active voice = the person or object is the subject of the sentence and performs the action.

Passive voice = the action is done to the person or object

Examples:

Active: I admire her voice.
Passive: Her voice was admired by me.

Active: The tornado ravaged the town.
Passive: The town was ravaged by the tornado.

Passive: As students read papers, a lot of passive voice was heard by me.  The writing of the students could be improved by themselves if passive sentences were changed to active.  The length of sentences could also greatly be reduced if the active voice would be used by the student.

Active: As students read papers, I heard a lot of passive voice.  Their writing could improve if they would make passive sentences active.  This could also greatly reduce sentence length.

Go through a past paper that your student turned in for IEW.  Find as many passive voice sentences as you can and practice changing them to active.  

If they focus on this skill it will transform their writing.

Grammar

Keep up with memory work.

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

I was supposed to have gone over a song that goes along with www.asia.wub, but I forgot.  I did hand out the paper however.  It is fairly self explanatory.  It follows "God Bless America".  This may be a big help for everyone who likes to memorize with songs.

Dialectic

Do the exercises suggested above at your child's level.  

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!  

An Extra Note

Meredith and Mrs. Gaines, we missed you in class and are looking forward to seeing you next week.  Praying for you both, for a quick and thorough recovery and that everyone else in the family would stay well.

Week 13: I gave you Complex Structure and Indirect Objects, while I was teaching Subordinate Clauses. S/Vt- - -(S/Vt/DO) /IO/DO

Whew!  What a whirlwind of new information.  Your Our Mother Tongue lessons will really help you this week because they will hammer away the information we learned.

Class Overview

Today we delved deep into new information.  We added the sentence structure, S/Vt/IO/DO and introduced complex sentences.

Indirect Object

Important to remember about the IO

1) Comes between the Vt and DO
2) Answers the question (Vt) + (DO) . . . to or for whom or what?

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, 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 I taught it in class.  The important thing is that the kids are able to identify the usage in the sentences.  Thanks, Rhonda, for catching this!

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.  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.

Have fun!  See you next week!