Week 15: While you're home, keep asking yourselves complex EEL questions!

Sorry for the late post, moms! It's just been one of those days...

During class yesterday, we diagrammed interjections and complex S-VT-IO-DO sentences. I thought the kids did really well. I showed them the QeQ sheet the guide introduces this week but told them we won't spend any time on it until probably weeks 19-24. QeQ is quite fun; it's like puzzle-solving, so the kids usually take to it with good spirits.

Keep working to identify and diagram those complex sentences using all five of our sentences patterns to date!

IEW requires a bit more explanation this week. We began Lesson 16 yesterday, which uses the "The Sword in the Stone" to teach the story sequence. Basically, the lesson asks the kids to rewrite this story in their own words by breaking it into three sections and asking them to key word outline. The lesson itself is lengthy -- 12 pages -- but don't let it overwhelm you. There's nothing unusual besides its length. Just read the details.

As far as our tackling of it, here's what I think we can do:

At home this week, outline and rough draft Sections 1 and II. You'll find Section I on pages 108 and 109 and Section II on pages 112 and 113. In between, you'll see a brainstorming page for Section 1 (p. 110) and a Level B page on adding conversation to a story (p. 111). There's also a brainstorming page for Section II on page 114. Use those as you see fit.

NEXT week, we'll outline and rough draft Section III (pp. 115-117) and use Lesson 17, which I'll distribute in class next week, to revise and complete our final papers and checklist. If anyone wants to work ahead by outlining and/or drafting Section III this week, go for it. You'll have more time to polish next week.

The following week will be a challenge week to see if the kids can rewrite a three-paragraph story in just one week. Look ahead to Lesson 18 to get a feel for this assignment. ANY FAMILY WHO WOULD LIKE TO SPEND THREE WEEKS ON LESSONS 16 AND 17, THUS SKIPPING LESSON 18, HAS THE OPTION TO DO SO. Having said that, I think it would be beneficial for those planning to enroll in Challenge A next year to complete the King Arthur assignment in two weeks and the Lesson 18 assignment in one week. They will be responsible for writing multiple paragraphs per week next year, and this assignment would be a good preview of that.

I'm praying for a great week for you all. Don't hesitate to ask if you need me.

Erin

Week 14: Finish writing me a fantastic story from pictures!

What a superb Essentials class yesterday! I am so pleased with all the kids are learning. Parents, your children are rising up to call you blessed. Thank you for the time you invest in them at home each week. Even if no one else sees it, our heavenly Father smiles on your work day in and day out!

During EEL, we reviewed what we've learned about clauses, discussed active and passive voice verbs, then moved into S-Vt-IO-DO sentences. Continue reviewing those subordinating conjunction and relative pronoun lists this week in addition to working on indirect objects. Practice constructing complex sentences by taking a simple sentence, choosing either a subordinating conjunction or relative pronoun, and adding a dependent clause that begins with that conjunction or pronoun. Next week in class, we will spend a lot of time diagramming complex S-Vt-IO-DO sentences. Fun, fun, fun!

We spent our IEW time learning about the two decorations assigned for their stories: alliteration and conversation. Punctuating conversation can be tricky. Keep working with them at home as opportunity allows!

The IEW assignment for Lesson 14, however, is pretty straightforward. The kids need to finish their stories, complete the Level B checklist, and turn it all in to me on Tuesday. Revise and polish one paragraph per day, perhaps, then complete the checklist on Monday. I do have a couple of pointers:

• We looked at an example story from IEW's Structure & Style guide yesterday that well demonstrates how to capture a picture's central fact in both the topic and clincher sentence of a paragraph. While this sounds easy, it can be difficult. Help your students by suggesting ideas if they need them this week.
• All of our dress-ups and decorations in the checklists are great tools for improving our writing, but it's okay to leave one out of a paragraph every now and then! If students like their paragraphs as is, and you know they've worked hard to produce excellent writing, tell them it's all right to skip that missing adjective or -ly this time! A well-written story is more important than 2 points on a checklist.
• Encourage them to read aloud as they write. Reading aloud often helps us discover what flows and what doesn't. When all three paragraphs are complete, hopefully on Friday, ask them to read aloud to an audience. It will give them time to make final changes and will make for a stronger presentation in class on Tuesday.

Have an outstanding week! Please call or email if you have questions.

Erin

Week 13: Although they can be tough, complex sentences make life interesting.

It was great to see everyone this afternoon, and we heartily welcome Matthew and his family to Greensboro and our CC family at Westside!

As usual, our two hours flew faster than I was able to squeeze in all the important and pertinent information of the day. Only on Tuesdays during Essentials am I jealous of the teachers who have their students for five hours a week per subject! I have to remember that I am the facilitator, and you moms are your kids' teachers at home! And I really wouldn't want it any other way... :)

So during your multiple hours of EEL study at home this week, focus on complex sentences. Lesson 13 introduces both complex sentences AND indirect objects, but we merely skimmed the surface of IOs today. We spent most of our time diving into dependent clauses. As I told the kids in class, we will camp several more weeks with our complex sentence structure and two more weeks with our S-Vt-IO-DO sentence pattern. If you'll devote your time at home this week to the complex sentence structure, we'll spend the next two weeks at home with indirect objects, both identifying and diagramming, before moving onto our next sentence pattern.

In particular with regard to complex sentences, the kids should know the following:

• The difference between a phrase and a clause
• The difference between an independent clause and a dependent clause
• What changes a simple sentence to a complex sentence (Hint: phrases do not!)
• How to recognize dependent clauses in a sentence (Study those relative pronoun and subordinating conjunction lists.)
• How to identify dependent clauses as adverbial or adjectival

There's no need to focus on diagramming this week unless you're just eager to do so. But please review memory work as time allows just to dust away the Christmas break cobwebs.

Onto IEW, we made our switch to creative writing today. Our first assignment is Lesson 14, Writing from Pictures. The kids should have great fun with this two-week, three-paragraph story they will write from the pictures given in the lesson. I allow the kids significant creative license here. As long as their central facts and clinchers capture what's depicted in the sketches, I don't care if the character is a gerbil genie, a carpet seller, or an enchanted pizza chef. Their imaginations are so fertile that I can't make them stay in the box of "Aladdin and the Lamp." This assignment last year produced AMAZING stories. We laughed til we cried, and I don't want to stifle those fresh eyes and minds.

Because it's a two-week assignment, I want the kids complete their KWOs and three rough draft paragraphs this week. Next week, they can brainstorm dress-ups and decorations, polish their finals, and complete the Level B checklist, all of which should be turned in two weeks from today, January 18. Also, we touched on five senses adjectives and emotions in class today, but next week, I will go over the two decorations on the checklist -- alliteration and conversation -- and will give the IEW style charts to those who do not have them.

Lastly, our math time this afternoon got squeezed by heavy EEL and IEW material and the exploding trashcan experiment out in the parking lot -- all good and worthy stuff. However, next week, I'll look to spend our full 30 minutes on math games and drill. Just FYI. :)

As always, thank you for sharing your precious children with me on Tuesdays. They are like a breath of fresh air every week. PLEASE let me know if you have questions. I pray you have a super time learning together at home these next few days!

Erin

Week 11: I may be a teacher, but my students are blessings!

Good morning! How difficult to believe we've only one week left in our semester! I'm really pleased with the kids' progress these 11 weeks. I believe they're right where they need to be, both my newbies and my returning students. I hope you're pleased at home as well. :)

EEL at home this week and through our holiday break should consist mostly of review. Spend your time together writing, dressing up and then classifying our first four sentence patterns. To give them practice identifying those coordinating conjunctions, compose compound sentences using a combination of patterns. Encourage dressing up the sentences with adjectives, adverbs and prepositional phrases. Discuss how you could change the sentence purpose from declarative to interrogative to imperative to exclamatory. Then choose one of those purposes to classify and diagram. Here's an example:

Start with, "The puppy was tired, but he chased the squirrel." (compound, declarative, S-VL-PA/S-VT-DO)

Then dress it up: "The puppy with black spots was obviously tired, but he chased the gray squirrel around the sunny backyard for an hour."

How could you change the sentence purpose?

1. "Even though the puppy was tired, did he chase the squirrel for an hour?" (This interrogative changes the structure to complex, but it's certainly acceptable; just don't try to diagram it yet!)
2. "Tired puppy, chase the squirrel for an hour!" (Both imperative and exclamatory; "Tired puppy" becomes a noun of direct address, which we did diagram a few weeks back.)

Then simply choose a purpose to classify and diagram. Along the way, ask questions like, "Is your subject noun singular or plural? Is it first, second or third person? What kind of pronoun is "he"? Anything to pull information out of their brains!

Another twist would be for the kids to compose the sentences. Challenge them to choose an action verb or a being verb and compose a simple sentence from there. Then change it to compound. Then dress it up. Then try to classify and diagram!

The one new thing this week is our memory work. I'd like the kids to practice the principal parts of the verbs "be" and "have." We looked at the verb anatomy charts, located in Appendix D of your guides and in their Student Resource Notebooks, for these yesterday. These two charts are what I want them to master over break. Don't make it a hassle at home. Just ask them to complete each chart a couple of times a week. They'll get it. There is a blank chart in the student charts section of the guide, and I photocopied this for their notebooks also. I'll try to attach the page in an email if I can figure out how to separate it from the rest of the guide electronically; that way they can either complete it on a sheet protector with a dry erase or on paper with a pencil.

I'm guessing you'll spend more time at home this week writing, polishing and practicing the presentation of the IEW "Faces of Medieval History" paper. That's okay. Please email or call if you have any questions. The kids should turn in their papers, rough drafts, checklists and bibliography when they present next week.

Finally, I talked with the kids at the beginning of class yesterday about our Gilded Coupon Campaign. Next week, I'll bring Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalogs to class and let the kids redeem their coupons for catalog items. For those who don't remember or weren't with me last year, here's why we do it and how it works:

The kids have worked hard this semester. Their labor has earned them coupons (which I usually call tickets). Based on Acts 20:35, which says, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," I structure our first semester ticket recemption as a time of giving and our second semester tickets as a time of receiving.

Next Tuesday, each student will turn in the tickets he or she earned over the semester in return for a cash credit. I haven't figured it yet, but each ticket will be worth somewhere around 20 to 25 cents each. So a kid who's earned 20 tickets will be credited somewhere between $4 and $5. On top of that, I offer the kids a chance to double, triple or quadruple their giving by contributing some of their own money. I have two sponsors who will match their giving up to $5 each. For example, a child who earns $5 in tickets and contributes $5 of his own will receive $5 from each sponsor (so $10), for a total of $20 to spend in the Samaritan's Purse catalog.

When we did this last year, the kids' response was an unbelievable blessing to me. They were SO excited to participate! Not a single one of them seemed to mind that they weren't GETTING anything to take home with them. I can't wait to see them "shop" next week!

But if any of this is confusing, let me know, and I'll try to explain more.

Have a wonderful time at home with your kids this week. They're precious!

Erin

Week 10: My post is late!

It's Thursday already. Sorry for the late post. I'll keep it brief!

For EEL at home, continue memorizing Weeks 1-10 and practice diagramming S-Vl-PA sentences. We will stick with the linking verb sentence patterns for our final two weeks of the semester, so we've got time to master the first four patterns before January.

Consult your guide for a ton of super information about adjectives, this week's part of speech focus. The kids and I discussed them at length in class.

Our IEW assignment for the rest of the semester is our "Faces of Medieval History" paper. Please read the front page of the lesson and note the suggestion to select source texts at or below your child's reading level for the person or event chosen as a topic.

On Week 12, they will present their papers in class. They may wear costumes if desired. My expectation is that each student will complete a three-paragraph paper (three topics: A, B and C) with an introductory statement and final clincher. I gave them the final checklist during class, but you will need to either photocopy or help them set up the key word outline pages like the ones given for our last assignment in Lesson 10-14. Basically, they'll complete the following steps between now and Nov. 23:

1. Select at least two source texts. Each topic must be outlined from at least two sources.
2. Key word outline each topic from each text.
3. Fuse the source text outlines for each topic, resulting in three final outlines.
4. Write three rough draft paragraphs -- one per topic. Using the rough draft checklists provided in the previous assignment will insure all dress-ups are present.
5. Combine the rough drafts and begin revising and polishing.
6. Add an introductory statement and final clincher.
7. Complete a final checklist and bibliography.
8. Practice, practice, practice for a smooth presentation.

I'll discuss our Gilded Coupon Campaign Christmas gift next Tuesday.

Enjoy a beautiful weekend!

Erin

Week 9: I am the teacher, and the students are my class.

Sticking with compound declarative sentences in EEL, we looked at our third sentence pattern today: S-Vl-PN. I believe the kids grasped the concept easily. Step 7 on your Simple Steps chart gives you a fairly concise way to determine whether a noun following your verb is a direct object (follows a transitive verb and receives the action of that verb) or a predicate noun (follows a linking verb and can rename or replace the subject noun). So use that at home this week.

During your time together, try dictating compound sentences that combine 2 of our 3 sentence patterns and include a prepositional phrase and/or adverb here and there. Walk your student through the Tasks 1-4 on your ATS sheets. Use your Simple Steps chart if you find it helpful. And remember: there are examples in the guide if you want to use them. :)

I'd also like the kids to work on Week 9 memory work and on their linking verbs list. Although you'll see principal parts discussed in Lesson 9 in your guides, I chose not to focus on those today in class; I'll hit that in a couple of weeks.

IEW has numerous small tasks to complete this week. Lesson 13 introduces prepositional phrase openers; we discussed how to add them and how to label them (#2 in the left margin) during class.

With regard to the final week of our paper on knights, I asked the kids to circle "Level A" or "Level B" on their assignment sheets in class, but basically, Level A needs to add both an introductory statement and a final clincher before the polishing process begins. Level B needs to combine all five paragraphs and begin polishing.

I suggested that the students look for the following elements to "polish":

1. Tighten up sentences by eliminating unncessary words.
2. Try to replace state of being verbs with strong verbs where possible.
3. Make sure each paragraph includes various sentences openers and that sentence after sentence does not begin with the same subject, "Knights were...." or "A knight was...." Checklists should make this easy.
4. Study the chart on transitional words and phrases that I distributed last week. Incorporate smooth transitions between paragraphs.
5. Although I didn't suggest this in class, ask your student to read his or her paper aloud to someone. Where they stumble in reading will often indicate an awkward word, phrase, sentence or transition.

After they revise and polish their papers, which will hopefully happen by Friday, take the time Monday to label papers and complete the appropriate checklist (Level A or Level B). They'll also need to complete a bibliography, which we discussed in class today.

On Tuesday, I'd like for the students to turn in their key word outlines and rough drafts for all paragraphs along with their final papers, bibliographies and checklists. If you do not have your rough drafts because you've "edited" them electronically, it's okay. Just make a note.

Also on Tuesday, for an admission ticket, they may complete and turn in the semicolon worksheet I handed out in today's class. (Hint: I gave them a cream-colored chart that contains most of the answers.)

Finally, we will begin our "Faces of Medieval History" paper on Week 10. The kids should come to class knowing whom or what they will write about. See page 93, I think, in your student books for suggestions, but any medieval personality or theme will suffice. This is our final writing assignment for the semester, and students will present in costume on Week 12 (Nov. 23).

I think that's about it. Lots of details -- if i realize I left something out, I'll post an addendum.

Good class today. We accomplished much. Thanks for your work at home this week.

Erin

Week 8: You can diagram S-Vt-DOs, but can you identify prepositions?

Diving right in to yesterday's EEL lesson, we discussed compound interrogative S-Vt-DO sentences, and I introduced prepositional phrases.

At home this week, stick to the lesson in your EEL Guide. Review the three ways to form interrogative sentences. Practice changing declarative statements (preferably compound S-Vt-DOs) into interrogative questions in these three ways. Then practice classifying and diagramming them.

Also work with identifying prepositional phrases. You'll want to help your student recognize two things:

1. the difference between a word functioning as an adverb or a preposition (The key is prepositions must have an object.).
2. whether a prepositional phrase is adjectival or adverbial.

Be sure to diagram a few sentences with prepositional phrases as well. Use your Simple Steps chart; it really begins to come in handy for the Q&A of classification.

Moving to IEW, I taught the Level B assignment in class yesterday, and I'll detail it below. But to cover Level A first, this week's assignment is simply to write a third rough draft paragraph, this time on Topic C. The outlines for Topic C were included in LAST week's Lesson 11. All students received Lesson 12 in class yesterday, but Level A WILL NOT use Lesson 12 at home this week. By classtime next week, my Level A students should have completed key word outlines, fused outlines and rough draft paragraphs for Topics A, B and C, for a total of three paragraphs.

Level B's assignment is as follows:

Using Lesson 12 distributed in class yesterday, brainstorm the key word outline for both introductory and concluding paragraphs. Be sure to include all the elements of an introduction and conclusion. The lesson is extremely clear, but the kids may need a bit of hand-holding and Q&A to brainstorm dramatic openers (introduction) and to determine what fact about knighthood they believe is "most significant and why" (conclusion). Don't be afraid to help them or make suggestions. I think it will benefit the kids for this to be a "hands-on" week. By classtime next week, Level B students should have five rough draft paragraphs: an introduction, Topics A, B and C, and a conclusion.

Please, if you have questions, call me at home. Have a great week! Hope to see some of you at our barbecue this weekend.

Erin