Week 22: EEL may be work, but it is fun when we learn it together!

I believe the kids had a great class day today. They classified, diagrammed and QeQ'd our sentences SO well. I am quite impressed!

During our EEL time, we worked with the sentence pattern of the week: compound-complex S-Vl-PN & S-Vl-PA. In your time at home, you can continue working this pattern at your student's level, or you can backtrack to wherever you need to be. I believe next week we'll tackle verbals. Believe it or not, they will have much fun with these.

Because our IEW assignment is straightforward and not due until next week, we devoted almost our entire IEW time (and drill time, for that matter) to vocabulary review. The kids completed a matching worksheet, and then we played a game where we split into teams and they could either draw or dramatize a vocab word chosen from a bag -- basically pictionary and charades with IEW vocabulary. They seemed to relish it!

If you have any questions about EEL or IEW, please let me know. Otherwise, have a fantastic week and I'll see everyone Tuesday. I can't wait to hear their "Middle Age" perspectives on our 21st century!

Erin

Week 21: While home this week, build a compound-complex sentence and diagram it.

Hi moms and students,

Forgive me if I seemed harder on the kids than usual today to PLEASE be quiet while I'm talking -- it's the excitement of spring fever, I'm sure, that's eliciting so much conversation amongst themselves. I love them dearly -- they're so smart and thoughtful -- and I hate fussing, plus I'm glad they're happy in class. But I'd appreciate a reminder from mom at home not to talk while I'm speaking. We've got so much material to cover, and it gets tiresome talking over multiple voices.

Despite the chatter, we had an all-around great day. In EEL, we introduced compound-complex sentences. I chose to do this in three steps:

1. Start with a simple sentence.
2. Add another simple sentence and join the two with a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS).
3. Add a dependent clause that begins with either a subordinating conjunction (WWW.ASIA.B) or a relative pronoun (9Ws + T).

The kids handled these steps pretty well as long as we worked together. But when I asked them to create their own sentences and gave them one simple sentence with which to begin, they all tended to make the same mistake. Instead of combining two simple sentences that could each stand alone, they combined the same subject with two verbs, resulting in a compound verb but not a compound sentence. Most of them added a subordinate clause without fail, but a couple continued using coordinating conjunctions to just "add on" to their sentence.

Once we finally settled on a true compound-complex sentence, everyone did extremely well with diagramming. That was encouraging!

So, given classtime today, I'd encourage families to work on building those compound-complex sentences at home this week using the three steps above. Start simple, go compound, THEN change to complex. Continue asking them, "Is your coordinating conjunction joining words, phrases or clauses?" And, of course, it needs to be joining independent clauses rather than two dependent clauses. If it helps, you can even give them two simple sentences to join with a CC. Here are some ideas:

• The team scores. The crowd roars.
• Taxis swerve. Horns honk.
• Cake is good. Ice cream is better.
• The dog scratched. His owner bathed him.

Our IEW assignment is to write a creative essay from a prompt. Just so the kids understand, remind them they are NOT writing about Marco Polo. Marco Polo and his travels to Asia are the PROMPT from which their assignment stems. They are to pretend they are peasants from the Middle Ages who have traveled through time to the 21st century and back and are trying to describe to fellow peasants what the 21st century is like. Level A writes one paragraph; Level B writes three with an intro and clincher.

I've allotted two weeks for the assignment, so I think most everyone could complete Level B. See the lesson, which I distributed in class, for the details. You may want to help them (or at least check up on them) during the brainstorming process. But this should be a blast. I can't wait to read the final papers!

Let me know if you have questions. Have a stupendous week.

Erin

Week 20: Can you QeQ, too?

Good morning. Running the math relay outside on Tuesday afternoon felt invigorating. Spring fever is hitting both me and the kids!

We had a good EEL day with a review of prepositions and our S-Vt-DO-OCN sentence pattern and the introduction (at last!) of QeQ. The students did GREAT! At home this week, keep working at your child's level on dictating, parsing, diagramming and modifying sentences. Then QeQ them to the extent you can using the basic format. I'll introduce the detailed QeQ format next week.

Your IEW assignment is revise and polish the "Ghengis Khan and His Hawk" critique. We discussed critique vocabulary in class and also looked at the Level B example critique together. I can't wait to hear the kids read these next week. They'll be fantastic, I know.

See you Tuesday,

Erin

Week 19: Parse, diagram, and modify your EEL sentences.

Good morning, EEL families! My post is short and sweet this week.

Your EEL guide continues to deepen our understanding of the English language with a thorough review of verbs. Use Lesson 19 as you see fit; back up to previous material if you need to. Continue parsing, diagramming and modifying at your child's level. Work on those verb anatomy charts if you can.

We decided to leave our IEW critique assignment at three weeks. Thus, the only writing the kids are responsible for this week is a rough draft paragraph of their conclusions. We'll revise and polish next week. If they need help figuring out how to write their opinions without using the words "I" or "you" or "my," the book gives suggestions and there may be additional help in the online IEW resource notebook.

It's so hard to believe, but we've only five weeks left in our EEL year! Amazing. Thanks for sharing your kids along the way.

Erin

Week 18: Practice, review and master what you've learned.

Hi, everyone. What a great group of moms and students we have at Westside! It was just a joy to be back among the living today. I missed you all last week!

After a cursory review of adjectives, we devoted most of our EEL time to a fun (at least I liked it...) review of our sentence structures, purposes and patterns. I didn't get to inspect each student's paper for correctness, but we did go over the answers in class. You might want to inquire at home as to how they did on their own. It may help you discover which sentence patterns come easily to them at this point and which they find more challenging.

We also celebrated the fact that we've covered all 18 weeks of memory work. From here on out, it's just review, review, review. Yahoo!

This is the point in the year when each mom needs to evaluate her student's progress in the curriculum. Nearly all of the kids will be at a different point. The next six weeks in class will carry us back to familiar material but take us to a deeper level with that material. To give an example, we'll review verbs next week but go deeper with our charts and forms than we have before. I want to spend some QeQ time in class as well. You'll have to decide how best to invest your time at home: do you need to stick with reviewing the basics (first- and some second-year students) or should you press forward for deeper understanding (some second-year and most rising Challenge A students)?

As far as the sentences you actually use for practice, you can select from your EEL guide or any other place. One of my favorite things to do at home is use whatever literature we're reading at the time. I choose sentences appropriate to Rachel's level and dictate them for spelling and mechanics practice. Then we label and diagram them and, as time allows, modify them. This week, I hope to begin QeQing them, too. Even one sentence a day can result in much progress.

What I'm saying is that it's perfectly fine if what we do in class either goes much deeper than what you practice at home or looks different than what you're working through at home. My desire is that each family finish the EEL year strong for each particular child.

Moving on to IEW, I handed out Lesson 19a, the first of three lessons in a three-week project. Level A assigns a three-paragraph critique on "Ghenghis Khan and His Hawk," whereas Level B assigns five paragraphs. This week's assignment is either two or three rough draft graphs, depending on the level. We completed the Level A outline in class, and Level B students only need a little more information in order to finish their outlines. We also looked at the example Level A critique included in Lesson 20. We'll look at the Level B example (also in Lesson 20) next week in class. In the meantime, let me know if you have questions regarding the assignment.

Enjoy a warm and wonderful week!

Erin

Week 17: Sickness on Essentials days makes your tutor unhappy!

Dear students and moms,

I'm so sorry not to have been there today. I went to bed fine last night but woke up this morning feeling horrible -- fever, chills, aches, congestion, the works. But I'm glad the kids were able to sit in under Ivey, and I hope everyone received the IEW lesson and vocabulary I sent.

Needless to say, this post will be short so I can go back to bed. :)

Here are the EEL sentences I'd planned to use in class today to illustrate our seventh and final sentence pattern, S-Vt-DO-OCA:

1. Maggie painted the walls of her room blue.
2. The excellent science fair projects made competition for first prize stiff.
3. Jesus calls me holy.
4. The campaign declared the election successful.
5. The students' perfect behavior made their teacher happy.
6. Jack found the roller coaster exhilarating.

You can use these, or the ones from the guide, or your own at home this week for practice and diagramming. I'd also suggest modifying a couple by changing them from simple to complex and then diagramming again.

The other thing I'd planned to cover in EEL was an adjective review. We were going to look at descriptive, limiting and possessive adjectives, as well as adjectives of degree (positive, comparative, superlative.) Consult your guides and the associated charts for good information.

The IEW assignment, Lesson 18, is a ONE-WEEK assignment. Level A students may retell their story in one paragraph; Level B assigns three graphs. The idea is for the kids to take a fairytale, recast it with characters from the Middle Ages, and rewrite in their own words. I made up a sheet and photocopied it into the lesson that suggests additional fairytales the kids could use and also some character possibilities. Please note my suggestion that, if the assignment to change characters is blowing their brains, just rewrite the fairytale "as is" without any character alterations. Keep it simple. I'd rather have them writing confidently than stumbling over a blank page.

IEW does introduce www.asia.b clauses this week, both as sentence openers and as dress-ups in a sentence. We've already covered them in EEL, but please point out the change to the kids as they write so they're not surprised when it comes to their checklists.

OK. I hope and pray to see everyone next week.

Erin

Week 16: I call this class a smart group of students!

Good morning! I feel like I need to apologize for my brain power yesterday. I felt completely muddled at times -- pregnancy brain, I suppose, but frustrating nonetheless. I hope the kids didn't leave completely confused about object complement nouns!

I did introduce our sixth sentence pattern yesterday: S-Vt-DO-OCN. We looked at and labeled several sentences together. We modified them by changing either our sentence structure to complex or our sentence purpose to interrogative, imperative or exclamatory. We also learned how to diagram this newest sentence pattern. At home this week, keep reviewing memory work and begin practicing your OCN sentences. Pretty simple!

Thankfully, IEW is simple, too. Complete Lesson 16 from last week and Lesson 17, which I distributed yesterday, for a finished paper on "The Sword in the Stone." We learned a new decoration: the simile, which compares one thing to another using "like" or "as." Examples would be "hard as a rock" or "gentle as a lamb." And though they aren't included in the lesson, I also discussed metaphors, which call one thing another thing, such as "God is my rock," or "America is a melting pot." The kids can choose among these when adding decorations this week.

If you completed two KWOs and two rough draft paragraphs last week, your IEW assignment this week is to complete your third KWO and rough draft graph, then revise and polish your paper and complete your final checklist. The dress ups and decorations are what will really distinguish one student's paper from another with this assignment, so work diligently in this area!

Thanks. Have a wonderful week at home together. Let me know if you have questions.

Erin