Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Week 3 Recap and Notes

Thanks for working so hard today!  I know it's tough trying to get back into the swing of things after a big storm.

To those families who were unable to make it today due to the aftermaths of the hurricane, our prayers are with you and we hope to see you back in class soon!  If there is anything anyone in our CC Community can do for you, please let us know!

Here's our recap of what we covered in class today:

EEL:  We began working on the Analytical Task Sheet today (found on pages 435-436 in your EEL guide).  We will continue to use the EEL sheet each week for the rest of the year.  Today probably seemed like a lot of information, but we will continue to build on it each week from here on out.  Your notes for week 3 begin on page 43 of your EEL guide.  If you look at the gray box on the top, you'll see we're covering simple structure and declarative or exclamatory sentences this week.  You might also see that on the far right, it says EEL Tasks 1-3.  I went further than that today because I believe our students can handle it.  Obviously if going all the way to 5A is too far for your student, scale it back to their level.

Familiarize yourself with the "Special Section: Analytical Tasks in Detail" found on pages 49-63.  Many questions you have can be answered there.

The students seem to have a good grasp of the dictation and mechanics.  Work with them on those tasks until they can automatically check for the mechanics in the sentence (task 2) without having to reference the check boxes.

For task 3, help them work through the question/confirmation section.  The questions we asked today are the first questions you'll ask for any sentence, no matter how long or complex.  When you get to the part of identifying the structure & purpose, make them recite the structures and purposes, then explain why their sentence is falls into that category (like we modeled in class).  This will reinforce what they've learned memorizing Chart A.

For task 4, have them diagram like we did in class.  If you need help making sure the sentences are diagrammed correctly, you can find the answers to the task sheet example sentences on pages 69-73.   

The list of sentences for this week can be found on page 433 of the EEL guide.  Please make sure to keep these appropriate to your student's level.  You can always substitute another sentence in place of one that might be too difficult.

Please try to have your students do one sentence per day.  You can record the task sheets in a notebook (like we did in class), make copies of your own sheet (if you take it to a printer and need a release for copying the material, let me know and I'll send you the permission form), you can use a white board, or you can put your sheet in a page protector and work with a dry erase marker on that.

Also don't forget reviewing nouns & pronouns and memorizing Charts E & F!

Math:  We will continue to do our timed math sheets each week (make copies for your own practice at mathfactcafe.com).  We will have multiplication sheets coming up later this semester, so you might want to help your students brush up on single digit multiplication.

IEW:  This week the assignment is Lesson 4 on page 21 in the student book.  Read the paragraph several times to make sure there is comprehension.  Have your student make the Key Word Outline in the space provided (or write their own KWO on a separate sheet of paper).  Rewrite the paragraph in their own words.  Once the paragraph is written, have them go through and identify any banned words and areas where they could add any dress-ups or decorations previously discussed (quality adjectives, strong verbs, -LY words, and alliteration).  Then assess the sentence openers.  Try to incorporate an -LY sentence opener and a very short sentence (VSS) opener somewhere in the paragraph.

The checklist for this week's paragraph is found on page 23 in the Ancient History-Based Writing Student Book.  In order to help you and/or your student check their work, use the notations we discussed in class.  Examples of these can be found on page 31.  Notate your sentence opener numbers in the left margin.  The numbers for the sentence openers can be found on page 150 in the AHBW student book or page 5 in the student resource notebook - we are currently using opener styles #1 (subject), #3 (-LY word), and #6 (VSS).  Abbreviations for our previous dress ups can be found on the checklist on page 23.  They are as follows:  strong verb - v; -LY word - ly; quality adjective - adj; and vocabulary word - voc.  These dress ups should be notated in the right margin.

If your students have time, have them illustrate their writing this week!

Great work this week!  Looking forward to seeing everyone next week!