Our Week at Home (for a first year student)

EEL

Day 1 (after community day)

1.  Practice Sentence #1 from EEL Guide

• First, I dictate the sentence to my student, who will usually write it on a laminated copy of the ATS (with dry or wet erase marker)
• Sometimes she also will write on a paper copy of the ATS chart.
• We like to use the chart, because of the handwriting lines that also give her some penmanship practice.
• As the sentences get longer, we will begin using regular penmanship paper, wide ruled paper, or even just blank copy paper.  
• Second, I work with my student to follow the question confirmation flow and label each word in the sentence.
• Several versions of this are available:
1. Directly on the sentence page in the week's EEL lesson
2. On the back of the Quid et Quo trivium table
3. Different options from CC Connected
• Username LauraBettis has one similar to the one pictured below
• My personal favorites are below
• I usually use both of these in conjunction with each other.
• Both of these came from fellow tutors and are not on CC Connected, but I'm happy to provide a copy, if desired.

 Front Page of my favorite one.  The only things I change are we underline the propositional phrase and we put brackets around each clause as we identify it.

 Backside of my favorite one.

 Front page of my second choice.

Back page of my second choice.

• The third thing we do after labeling the words in the sentence, is we go back and check Task #2 on the ATS.
• I choose to do this third, because it seems easier for my student to follow.
• Fourth, we determine structure of the sentence.
• Then, we determine the pattern and purpose of each of the clauses.
• Finally, we diagram the sentence.
• I use the entire time of when we are working on this practice sentence to go over parts of speech and things that are covered in the EEL charts and lesson(s).
• This is my teaching time for English grammar with my student.
• I ask her questions to help her better understand why she is labeling words a certain way, and I reteach any areas that I see a need.

2.  The only other thing we do on Monday for Grammar/EEL is we work on at least one chart.  

• Some weeks, we may work on more than one chart a day, but most days it is just one.
• I choose what chart my student works on based on the chart scope and sequence (page 445 in EEL Guide)
• I also choose what chart she works on based on what she is struggling with in the practice sentences.
• Many times, she simply copies or tries to write from memory onto the blank charts provided in the EEL Guide.
• I laminated and spiral bound all of the charts for her for easy access.
• We also do the charts orally quite often.  
• We use songs, chants, and hand motions to help remember each part.
• Sometimes she just tells the chart to me.
• Occasionally, we play games to practice charts.
• I copied the charts onto colored paper and cut them up to make chart puzzles.
• We play race the teacher to see if she can complete a chart before me.

Days 2, 3, and 4

• These days look very similar to Day 1.  
• We do other sentences in the same way I described for Day 1.
• Many times those sentences will come from CC Connected files
• Some of our favorites are the Star Wars ones under username lindsey.crews@gmail.com.
• Sometimes I simply take the sentence from the guide and change the words.  
• I try to be very careful in changing part of speech for part of speech in order to keep the same kind of sentence and not go over our heads.
• It is perfectly o.k. to simply use the same sentence(s) more than one day during the week.  Repetition is classical!
• We also continue to work on charts in the same way I described above. 
• We do try to mix it up and do different charts each day; however, sometimes it is good to work on the same chart all week to get it thoroughly memorized before moving on to another one.

That's It!  EEL/ Grammar practice is that simple each day!  It really should only take 20 to 30 minutes each day, and many times it takes less than that!

** We don't do the spelling or editing practice in the EEL guide.  We cover that in other areas (see my explanation on Day 3 of IEW below)

IEW

Day 1--KWO, Vocabulary, and Brainstorming

1. Reread the source text and write KWO.
• This can be done independently by the student or together with the parent.
• Parent/teacher can not help too much!
• KWO is usually the highest thinking activity of the week, and it is important to get it done correctly.  This may mean the parent/teacher helps the most with this.
2. We try to go over the vocabulary words together on day 1 also.  This can be simply reading the words and their definitions or doing something fun with them like illustrating them or creating funny sentences.  It really depends on the amount of time we have to devote to this.
3. If we have time, we will do the brainstorming activity from the lesson in the history-based writing book.  If not, we do it on day 2 before writing the rough draft.  Sometimes we will split it between the two days.
• The brainstorming activity is the time to go over new style (dress-ups, decorations, and sentence openers) and review old style.  
• When keeping Pudewa's "EZ+1" mantra in mind, we may skip parts of the brainstorming in order to focus on the style technique that is in my student's current "EZ+1" set.  
• Those that we skip, we will come back to at later dates when we add that technique into our "EZ+1."  

Day 2--Rough Draft

1. Finish any brainstorming pages we didn't complete the day before.  This could include ones in the current lesson or ones from previous lessons that we need to cover, keeping within the "EZ+1."  (see notes on IEW day 1 above)
2. Write the rough draft.
• Pudewa suggests to have the student orally give their rough draft before writing it down.  We actually have never done that.  Usually, my student writes the rough draft on her own and only asks me questions when needed.
• She always writes in pen (no erasing allowed), and she skips lines on her paper to allow for editing later.
• She puts her style techniques in as she goes, not necessarily trying to check things off of a list, but just doing what comes naturally.  (That's "EZ+1"!!)

Day 3--Revising and Editing

1. My student takes her own paper and follows her checklists to revise and edit her own paper, many times before I ever look at it.
• She uses 2 checklists. 
• The first one is the IEW checklist with the style techniques and structure requirements.  We use the master checklist that I created and sent out to all of my Essentials teachers.  I simply draw an asterisk beside the items that are required for her to have.  She knows not to worry about anything else on the list.
• The second checklist is one I created with grammar, spelling, and punctuation rules that I feel she needs to work on or should already know well.  
• This is the only editing we usually do for Essentials work.  We do a different spelling curriculum than what is in the EEL guide, and it has some editing built in.  So, we do that editing practice as well.  
2. After she is finished revising and editing, she types her paper and prints out a copy for me to look at.  
• She highlights this printed copy for her style techniques, according to the IEW checklist.

Day 4--Final Copy

1. I read her paper and "grade" it.  
• I look to see if she has completed what was required per her checklists.
• I also revise and edit anything else that she might have missed.  
• I will talk to her about the things that she missed, and we work together to correct it.  
• I never actually assign a grade.  I just make notes for myself to know what she needs to work on and what I need to be sure and cover next week before she begins a certain day's assignments.
• At the beginning of each day, I will remind her of things she needs to work on, if necessary.
2. I sign her checklists to show that I have "graded" and inspected the work that I expected from her.
3. She adds in the corrections I made (or sometimes I do) to her paper on the computer and prints it.

Our Week in a Nutshell 

• Day 1--one practice sentence and one or two charts for EEL;  read source text, KWO, vocabulary, and some brainstorming for IEW.

• Day 2--one practice sentence and one or two charts for EEL;  write rough draft and finish brainstorming for IEW.

• Day 3--one practice sentence and one or two charts for EEL;  student revises and edits paper per checklists and types paper for IEW.

• Day 4--one practice sentence and one or two charts for EEL;  teacher "grades" paper and signs off on checklists, working with student to correct anything missed.

So, that's it.  Our week is pretty simple.  We usually only spend about a hour a day on all of our Essentials work.  Some days it is more.  Some days it is less.  My first year student is a very independent worker, so I know that our day is different from many first year students.  Your student may need much more help from you, especially in IEW, and that is just fine.  This is simply what works for us.