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).