Week 5's EEL lesson focuses on interrogative sentences. At home this week, practice classifying and diagramming simple interrogative S-Vi sentences such as, "Who wept?," "Who is weeping?," or "Did Jesus weep?" As you Q&A with your child, demonstrate where you can how to recast the question as a declarative sentence. Interrogatives often employ helping verbs, and recasting as a declarative helps to place all of the verbs next to one another. The third sentence serves as an example: "Jesus did weep."
During class yesterday, we spent a good bit of time differentiating between phrases and clauses. Reinforce this at home, but know that IEW will introduce prepositional phrase openers in Lesson 7 and who/which clauses in Lesson 8. Students will get plenty of practice with phrases and clauses in the coming weeks!
Looking ahead, Week 6 of EEL takes things up a notch. The lesson introduces students to conjunctions (four types) and compound sentences, which go hand in hand, and the material also begins integrating S-Vt-DO sentences into our classification system.
SO... when you work at home over the next few days, look for evidence of mastery with some basics:
1. Students should know the difference between declarative, interrogative, imperative and exclamatory sentences.
2. Students should confidently identify S-Vi sentences.
3. Students should be able to Q&A with you to identify the subject and verb of a sentence.
4. Students should know the four types of verbs and the basic idea that verbs tell time (tense -- past, present, future).
5. Students should know that imperative sentences have implied 'you' as the subject.
6. Students should be comfortable with Tasks 1-4 on the Analytical Task Sheet.
Also make sure that you yourselves understand the material! :)
Turning to IEW, this week's lesson is similar to last week. Students are once again using a KWO to retell a story in their own words. Our new dress-up is five-sense adjectives. Depending on ability, skill level and available time, students may complete one, two or three paragraphs. When you look at rough drafts, mark and discuss run-on sentences. I am seeing quite a few!
OK. They're great kids. I'm enjoying them immensely. Yesterday blessed me in so many ways. (By the way, I knew a Jonathan with blonde hair. That's my trick.)
Have a fabulous week at home. At our house, we're doing school outside to soak in this perfect weather!
See you Tuesday for an enormous Week 6!
Erin
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Week 5 Admission Ticket
Week 4 Memory Work defines phrases and clauses. Students should come to class prepared to answer these three questions:
What is a phrase? (C3, W20)
A phrase is a group of words that does not contain both a subject and a verb, and may be used as a single part of speech.
What is a clause? (C3, W20)
A clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a verb.
What is a dependent, or subordinate, clause? (C3, W22)
A dependent, or subordinate, clause does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone.
Additionally, they should write and bring an original sentence containing a prepositional phrase. Examples follow:
During the day, I depend on Jesus.
When I am hungry, I sit at the table and eat.
Students who study hard do well in class.
The girl with red shoes danced down the hallway.
What is a phrase? (C3, W20)
A phrase is a group of words that does not contain both a subject and a verb, and may be used as a single part of speech.
What is a clause? (C3, W20)
A clause is a group of words that contains both a subject and a verb.
What is a dependent, or subordinate, clause? (C3, W22)
A dependent, or subordinate, clause does not express a complete thought and cannot stand alone.
Additionally, they should write and bring an original sentence containing a prepositional phrase. Examples follow:
During the day, I depend on Jesus.
When I am hungry, I sit at the table and eat.
Students who study hard do well in class.
The girl with red shoes danced down the hallway.
Week 4: Diagram!
Diagram!
It's a simple, exclamatory/imperative, S-Vi sentence with "implied 'you'" as the subject. Get it? If you do, you've got Week 4 already. Hooray! (btw, that's an interjection...)
No new charts this week, but you should review charts and memory work from Weeks 1 through 3 with the goal of successfully mastering just a bit more than you did last week! Isn't this easy?
Depending on students' command of comma usage, I'd also spend time discussing commas in a series, with nouns of direct address, and with appositives. (Notice I used two commas with the series here instead of just one, mostly because I want to ensure my readers' proper understanding by separating those three prepositional phrases that begin with "in," "with," and "with.")
I actually didn't cover appositives in class, but an appositive is a noun or noun phrase that follows and renames another noun. Appositives expand or expound by adding extra information. An example would be, "George Washington, our first president, was born in Virginia." Or "Essentials, a language arts skills and writing class, meets on Tuesdays." Appositives are set off by commas and are not essential to the meaning of a sentence. In other words, you could remove an appositive from a sentence ("George Washington was born in Virginia." "Essentials meets on Tuesdays.") and the meaning would not change.
We introduced diagramming (Task 4) in class. Start with your sample sentences at the end of Lesson 4 to begin the diagramming process at home, and then encourage your students to make up simple S-Vi sentences of their own. Proceed similarly to this:
Using your Student EEL Task Sheets and Steps 5-7 on the "Simple Steps for Solving Sentences" that I handed out last week,
1. Dictate;
2. Check mechanics;
3. Identify and label your subject and verb;
4. Identify your sentence structure, purpose and pattern;
5. Diagram!
Turning to IEW, the assignment reinforces the KWO skills learned last week and introduces two simple sentence openers: the -ly opener and the "very short sentence." Students should incorporate both of these into their papers this week. We completed half of the KWO in class; students should finish the KWO Wednesday at home.
I'd suggest completing the rough draft Wednesday as well; revision and dress-ups Thursday; final draft Friday; and illustration, labeling and checklist Monday.
Reading the students' poems proved to be a highlight of my week last week! I wish we had time to read them all in class. Please share them with an audience at home! Each poem deserves a reading. I can't wait to read the paragraphs turned in today...
As always, thanks for sharing your kids with me on Tuesdays! They are a joy and a privilege.
Erin
It's a simple, exclamatory/imperative, S-Vi sentence with "implied 'you'" as the subject. Get it? If you do, you've got Week 4 already. Hooray! (btw, that's an interjection...)
No new charts this week, but you should review charts and memory work from Weeks 1 through 3 with the goal of successfully mastering just a bit more than you did last week! Isn't this easy?
Depending on students' command of comma usage, I'd also spend time discussing commas in a series, with nouns of direct address, and with appositives. (Notice I used two commas with the series here instead of just one, mostly because I want to ensure my readers' proper understanding by separating those three prepositional phrases that begin with "in," "with," and "with.")
I actually didn't cover appositives in class, but an appositive is a noun or noun phrase that follows and renames another noun. Appositives expand or expound by adding extra information. An example would be, "George Washington, our first president, was born in Virginia." Or "Essentials, a language arts skills and writing class, meets on Tuesdays." Appositives are set off by commas and are not essential to the meaning of a sentence. In other words, you could remove an appositive from a sentence ("George Washington was born in Virginia." "Essentials meets on Tuesdays.") and the meaning would not change.
We introduced diagramming (Task 4) in class. Start with your sample sentences at the end of Lesson 4 to begin the diagramming process at home, and then encourage your students to make up simple S-Vi sentences of their own. Proceed similarly to this:
Using your Student EEL Task Sheets and Steps 5-7 on the "Simple Steps for Solving Sentences" that I handed out last week,
1. Dictate;
2. Check mechanics;
3. Identify and label your subject and verb;
4. Identify your sentence structure, purpose and pattern;
5. Diagram!
Turning to IEW, the assignment reinforces the KWO skills learned last week and introduces two simple sentence openers: the -ly opener and the "very short sentence." Students should incorporate both of these into their papers this week. We completed half of the KWO in class; students should finish the KWO Wednesday at home.
I'd suggest completing the rough draft Wednesday as well; revision and dress-ups Thursday; final draft Friday; and illustration, labeling and checklist Monday.
Reading the students' poems proved to be a highlight of my week last week! I wish we had time to read them all in class. Please share them with an audience at home! Each poem deserves a reading. I can't wait to read the paragraphs turned in today...
As always, thanks for sharing your kids with me on Tuesdays! They are a joy and a privilege.
Erin
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Week 4 Admission Ticket
We're going to combine EEL and IEW for this week's admission ticket. Students should bring to class two original S-Vi sentences, each dressed up with a quality adjective and a -ly adverb.
Examples follow:
The old dog slept lazily in the sun.
The nervous gymnast tumbled awkwardly off the beam.
The wild buffalo relentlessly roamed.
The enormous ziggurat loomed menacingly.
The young mother glanced lovingly at her baby.
Examples follow:
The old dog slept lazily in the sun.
The nervous gymnast tumbled awkwardly off the beam.
The wild buffalo relentlessly roamed.
The enormous ziggurat loomed menacingly.
The young mother glanced lovingly at her baby.
A Note about Time...
I'm reviewing the Weekly Notes I just posted, and the thought crossed my mind that y'all are going to think, "Wow! This is going to take a lot of time." The answer is, yes, it might.
But this is what I think. I think you can complete EEL in 15 to 20 minutes, and most of that will be oral dialog between you and your student(s). Just sit on the sofa and talk about simple sentences for a little while each day.
Allow for IEW to take more of their time, particularly the rough draft and final draft days. And when they complain, just tell them that some days are going to be more challenging and take longer than others. Let the long days encourage them to appreciate the shorter ones! When Maggie was working on IEW rough drafts, I often found that once I helped her get started, she would complete the rest on her own in a fairly timely fashion.
But this is what I think. I think you can complete EEL in 15 to 20 minutes, and most of that will be oral dialog between you and your student(s). Just sit on the sofa and talk about simple sentences for a little while each day.
Allow for IEW to take more of their time, particularly the rough draft and final draft days. And when they complain, just tell them that some days are going to be more challenging and take longer than others. Let the long days encourage them to appreciate the shorter ones! When Maggie was working on IEW rough drafts, I often found that once I helped her get started, she would complete the rest on her own in a fairly timely fashion.
Week 3: Start Simple!
Dear parents,
Your bright and eager students make my heart soar! What blessings they are! Thank you for entrusting them to me each week. I hope you witness their language arts grammar and writing skills grow by leaps and bounds during this year we spend together!
This week at home, pull out those Student EEL Task Sheets. Completing Tasks 1 through 3, teach and use simple sentences to review and reinforce what we've learned the first three weeks in class.
PLEASE NOTE: Sample sentences are listed at the end of Lesson 3. You'll notice that all sample sentences are classified, diagrammed, modified and QeQ'd just for you, giving you the answers you need to complete every step on the Student EEL Task Sheet. Even though we've only introduced Tasks 1 through 3 in class, you may go further at home if you wish. Even if you don't officially pass Step 3, you could use these answers to help review concepts we discussed in class, such as deciding the person, number and tense of a verb; whether a noun is proper or common; or what type of pronoun is used.
Two things are most important this week. One, I want students to become comfortable identifying the simple S-Vi sentence pattern. Two, I want them to get into the habit of identifying the subject and verb of a sentence by asking the questions, "Who or what is this sentence about?" and "What is (subject) doing?"
To aid them in learning these two things, I handed out a chart in class class called "Simple Steps for Solving Sentences." This chart is my own one-page version of the four-page document in the reference section of the EEL Guide. Use Steps 5, 6 and 7 of this chart at home this week to help them establish the habit of asking questions to identify subjects, verbs and the S-Vi pattern.
Here's how the conversation should go with our sample sentence, "Jesus wept."
Parent: Look at Step 5 on your chart. Let's answer the question, "Who or what is this sentence about?"
Student: Jesus.
Parent: That's right. Label "Jesus" as your subject noun (sn).
Parent: Now look at Step 6. What is Jesus doing?
Student: Weeping. (Or wept.)
Parent: Exactly. Label "wept" as your verb (V).
Parent: Now let's ask, "Jesus wept what?" Can we answer that question?
Student: Well, I guess he wept tears.
Parent: Yes, he probably did, but does our sentence tell us that?
Student: No. It only says he wept.
Parent: Right. So can we answer the question "Jesus wept what?"
Student: No.
Parent: Correct. Good job. So, in Step 7 on your chart, what does it mean if we don't have an answer?
Student: It means the verb is intransitive.
Parent: Exactly. And what kind of sentence pattern do you have?
Student: Subject-Verb intransitive (S-Vi).
Parent: Perfect. Now, just for fun, let's talk about what kind of noun "Jesus" is...
And so on!
Whew! Moving on to IEW...
In IEW Lesson 3, we're transitioning from poems to paragraphs. Students are responsible for writing a paragraph based on the key word outline we completed in class and the brainstorming they do at home. IEW is stressing the importance of creative titles in this lesson, and I will reward the MOST CREATIVE TITLE in class next week with a BONUS TICKET.
While you should review vocabulary each day, I'd suggest the following writing schedule at home this week.
Your bright and eager students make my heart soar! What blessings they are! Thank you for entrusting them to me each week. I hope you witness their language arts grammar and writing skills grow by leaps and bounds during this year we spend together!
This week at home, pull out those Student EEL Task Sheets. Completing Tasks 1 through 3, teach and use simple sentences to review and reinforce what we've learned the first three weeks in class.
PLEASE NOTE: Sample sentences are listed at the end of Lesson 3. You'll notice that all sample sentences are classified, diagrammed, modified and QeQ'd just for you, giving you the answers you need to complete every step on the Student EEL Task Sheet. Even though we've only introduced Tasks 1 through 3 in class, you may go further at home if you wish. Even if you don't officially pass Step 3, you could use these answers to help review concepts we discussed in class, such as deciding the person, number and tense of a verb; whether a noun is proper or common; or what type of pronoun is used.
Two things are most important this week. One, I want students to become comfortable identifying the simple S-Vi sentence pattern. Two, I want them to get into the habit of identifying the subject and verb of a sentence by asking the questions, "Who or what is this sentence about?" and "What is (subject) doing?"
To aid them in learning these two things, I handed out a chart in class class called "Simple Steps for Solving Sentences." This chart is my own one-page version of the four-page document in the reference section of the EEL Guide. Use Steps 5, 6 and 7 of this chart at home this week to help them establish the habit of asking questions to identify subjects, verbs and the S-Vi pattern.
Here's how the conversation should go with our sample sentence, "Jesus wept."
Parent: Look at Step 5 on your chart. Let's answer the question, "Who or what is this sentence about?"
Student: Jesus.
Parent: That's right. Label "Jesus" as your subject noun (sn).
Parent: Now look at Step 6. What is Jesus doing?
Student: Weeping. (Or wept.)
Parent: Exactly. Label "wept" as your verb (V).
Parent: Now let's ask, "Jesus wept what?" Can we answer that question?
Student: Well, I guess he wept tears.
Parent: Yes, he probably did, but does our sentence tell us that?
Student: No. It only says he wept.
Parent: Right. So can we answer the question "Jesus wept what?"
Student: No.
Parent: Correct. Good job. So, in Step 7 on your chart, what does it mean if we don't have an answer?
Student: It means the verb is intransitive.
Parent: Exactly. And what kind of sentence pattern do you have?
Student: Subject-Verb intransitive (S-Vi).
Parent: Perfect. Now, just for fun, let's talk about what kind of noun "Jesus" is...
And so on!
Whew! Moving on to IEW...
In IEW Lesson 3, we're transitioning from poems to paragraphs. Students are responsible for writing a paragraph based on the key word outline we completed in class and the brainstorming they do at home. IEW is stressing the importance of creative titles in this lesson, and I will reward the MOST CREATIVE TITLE in class next week with a BONUS TICKET.
While you should review vocabulary each day, I'd suggest the following writing schedule at home this week.
- Wednesday -- As suggested in Step 1 of this week's assignment, cover the source text and use your key word outline to orally summarize the paragraph. Then use page 17 to brainstorm strong verbs, -ly words and quality adjectives.
- Thursday -- Follow Step 4 to write a rough draft. Note the structure reminders: indention and double-spacing.
- Friday -- Revise and rewrite! I believe parents should be involved in this step (lots of dialog and Q&A) here 1) to ensure correct grammar, spelling and punctuation; 2) to praise what's great; and 3) to help brainstorm improvement for what could be better. Don't forget to take advantage of the "Proofreading Marks" chart I gave them in class to note corrections on their rough drafts.
- Monday -- Use the checklist on page 19 to check structure and label dress-ups. Illustrate paragraphs, complete the checklist, and attach it to final papers to turn in to me on Tuesday.
Once again, don't forget to hand in a completed checklist, and remind them to put their names and a date on their papers.
See most of you Tuesday!
Long-winded but hopefully helpful,
Erin
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Week 3 Admission Ticket
For the Week 3 Admission Ticket, students should be able to rattle off the eight parts of speech! (a Week 3 memory work question)
I'll meet them Tuesday at the sanctuary door at 12:55 p.m.!
I'll meet them Tuesday at the sanctuary door at 12:55 p.m.!
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