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!