Week 19 - Mom, "That was EASY!"

Hello Essentials families,
Yesterday we covered several topics in class. I am looking forward to the Unit 7 - "If I lived in ancient times I would miss..." essays.  With this paper, there are a lot of choices for the final draft that is due next week.  Many families are still completing their Ancient Rome papers.  Remember that you can turn in a paper at any time and am thrilled to read them.  Keep up the hard work!

Unit 7 - Creative Writing "Notes from the Brain"
The prompt for this paper is: "If I lived in ancient times I would miss..."  This assignment allows the student to write about 1, 2, or 3 themes/topics they would miss.  In class this week we discussed how to compose an introductory paragraph and a conclusion paragraph to make this a 5 paragraph essay.
However, there are many options for this paper:
*1 paragraph with a Topic Sentence and Clincher.  Please follow the Level A guidelines described in the packet sent home yesterday p. 144.  Use the final checklist on p. 145. 
* 2 or 3 paragraphs - Please follow the Level A guidelines described in the packet sent home yesterday p. 144.  Use the final checklist on p. 145.
* 5 paragraphs - Please follow the guidelines on p. 146 for planning and writing an introduction and conclusion for your 5 paragraph essay.  Use the final checklist on p. 147.

ALL STUDENTS should complete the exercise on p. 143 "Polishing the Rough Draft." This is a great chance to have your student examine their own writing and strengthen it.   This is also an opportunity to review using descriptions to appeal to your reader's five senses and emotions.  Refer to the example paragraph "I would miss my unicycle..." on p. 138 in last week's packet to see examples of emotions and 5 sense words.

IEW EXPERTS:  "That was easy!"
At this time of the year all of the students are well versed in the structure of strong paragraphs (repeat/reflect) and the style elements (dress-ups & decorations) that make their writing appealing to read.  I emphasized in class the importance of including ALL of the elements of structure and style in their final drafts this week. Simply put, try to include, check off, and label EVERY item on the checklist for this paper (FINAL CHECKLISTS PAGES 145 or 147).  Hopefully, the students are to the point of saying "that was easy, mom"  when it comes to all of the dress-ups, decorations, and sentence openers on the checklist. Encourage your child to use their student resource pages (colored sheets) in their binder when editing and rewriting their rough draft.  Also, there is an IEW app free of charge that features all of the Unit Structural Models, Sentence Openers, Dress-ups, Decorations, and Triple Extensions at the touch of your fingertips!  It can make "looking up" information a little more fun for your child.

BONUS ADVANCED DRESS-UPS CHECKLIST:
On the back of the "Writing Structure and Style Weekly Guide", I created a checklist with all of the advanced dress-ups and decorations we have covered this semester.  Encourage your child to include and check off all of the items on the Final Checklist p. 145 or 147 before attempting to include these bonus style elements.  Your child should use these advanced style elements when all of the Final Checklist elements of style are "EASY" for them to use.  After that, work on 1 new style element per paper. "EASY + ONE" Adding new advanced elements of style should be  an enjoyable part of the writing process like putting icing on a cake, it isn't necessary, but it sure makes the cake better:)

Dramatic Openers/Hooks - Our new decoration for this week is dramatic openers or hooks.  See p.46 gray page student notebook for instruction and ideas to include this in their final draft. 

Have a great week writing the final drafts for Unit 7 "Notes from the Brain!"  Emphasize structure and style using the Final Checklists provided for this paper.  We are clearly developing young IEW experts:).  Keep up the hard work!  Way to go moms!

Have a blessed week,
Tina