Assignments for September 16, 2025

 I apologize again to my afternoon classes. My brain got ahead of my lesson plans. 

Spirit day next week: Sports day. Wear your favorite sports team gear. 

Journal: dialogue/conversation. Pick two pieces of furniture in your house. Imagine they can talk. Write the conversation they could have. 

Fix-it: Week 3. Read the passage. Mark the grammar. Fix the errors. Write the passage. Look up the vocabulary words.

Bible Heroes: Lesson 2 "Righteous Noah." I didn't get to all that I wanted to because I spent a little more time than usual discussing pronouns for Fix-it. I handed out a sample completed paper for you to study. We reviewed adjectives and the nouns in the source text that they can describe. We reviewed the two vocabulary words for this lesson. 

For homework: Lesson 2 "Righteous Noah." Rough or final draft with one or more vocabulary words and adjectives. Please be sure to double space. 

Wonders of Science: Lesson 2 "Honey Bees"--I took up. Please email me any drafts you did not have ready to turn in today.

Lesson 3 "Bombardier Beetles." We started the KWO, and I explained the vocabulary words. You have a practice page with each lesson with suggestions for dress ups and vocabulary words. Please try these.

For homework: Lesson 3 "Bombardier Beetles." Finish the KWO. Do page 30. Write a rough draft. Your checklist is on page 31.

High School I: The Magician's Nephew--read chapter 6. 

Narnia: I checked Lesson 2 "Atlantis." Your -ly adverbs are on pages 18-21. We also started Lesson 3 "Jadis." This is the story sequence chart--not note taking from a source. I gave you a sample outline as a guide--you are welcome to change some. Re-read the parts in the book dealing with story of Jadis and her sister. We are not retelling the entire book--just this episode of when the Deplorable Word is spoken. We will write rough drafts of lessons 3 and 4 before choosing one to work on as a final draft. 

For homework: Lesson 2 "Atlantis"--final draft. Use your checklist on page 22. Lesson 3 "Jadis"--write a 3-paragraph rough draft. 

High School II: 

Blue Book: We checked and discussed subject/verb agreement quizzes. We discussed irregular verbs and clauses and phrases. You may need to look in a dictionary to find the forms of irregular verbs for their past and past perfect forms. 

For homework: Quizzes on irregular verbs page 160.

Till We Have Faces: read and answer questions for chapter 4.

Jensen's Format: I took up Example paragraphs. I checked Classification paragraphs. We discussed Definition paragraphs. 

For homework: Final drafts of Classification paragraphs. Work on Definition paragraphs--choose the topic, brainstorm, create an outline, write a rough draft.  

Assignments for September 9, 2025

 September is here. Hope you get to enjoy some September events like Touch a Truck at Odell Weeks and SEED day at USC-Aiken. 

Spirit Day--Sept 16: Sports day

Journal: Write one "Seven" poem. See your handout for instructions and a sample.

Fix-it: Week 2 (Look up all four vocabulary words and write their definitions. Re-read the "learn it" page if needed. Mark the grammar. Fix the errors. Re-write all four days at the bottom of the page.)

Instructions in general: Please feel free to send me a rough draft by email during the week--preferably before Friday. I can comment most easily on Google Docs but can make Word documents work. PDF files I cannot comment on. 

Bible Heroes: We worked on Lesson 2 "Righteous Noah." We started the KWO in class; you finish it at home. We spent a good bit of time on the activity associated with the lesson. We made a Noah's ark on a file folder. We took game pieces from the back of the textbook. We used one die. As we put the animals into the ark, we had to use an adjective to describe the animal. The die told us how many animals to put into the ark. Once all the animals and people were inside, all were safe in Christ. (Moms--if you want the rules for these games, you can download the teacher's manual from the IEW website.)

For homework: Lesson 2 "Righteous Noah." Finish the KWO. Practice telling it, trying to find one or more places to describe a noun with an adjective. Play the Noah's Ark game. 

Wonders of Science: Lesson 2 "Honey Bees." We discussed MLA format and how our papers should look--your name and the lesson number in the upper left-hand corner. Title centered. Paragraph double spaced. I checked rough drafts. We discussed the first dress up--the -ly adverb. Adverbs can often be moved to other parts of the sentence--that's a test for them. We can also take an adjective and add -ly to create an -ly adverb. Do try to complete the practice page for the dress ups. This helps you in finding a good place for one. We also discussed the checklist for the lesson. How well you follow the directions on that is how I grade. So, be sure you have the MLA format, -ly adverb, and vocabulary word.

For homework: Lesson 2 "Honey Bees." Correct any problems I mentioned on your rough drafts. Add in one or more -ly adverbs and one or more vocabulary words. Use your checklist on page 25. 

High School I:

The Magician's Nephew: Read chapter 5

Narnia: We discussed MLA format again. Be certain to put your name and the lesson number in the upper left hand corner and double space! I took up drafts of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle--these were just rough drafts. We started Lesson 2 "Atlantis." We also started discussing -ly adverbs. 

For homework: Lesson 2 "Atlantis"--finish the KWO. Write a rough draft. Try to add one or more -ly adverbs. Your checklist for the final draft is on page 22

High School II:
Blue Book: We spent a lot of time on subjects and verbs--reviewing the quiz answers and explaining why. These were quite tricky. We moved on to subject and verb agreement. This mostly pertains to verbs in present tense. Review pages 4-9 because the rules are quite tricky and detailed before attempting the quizzes. For homework: do the subject/verb quizzes on pages 158-159.

Till We Have Faces: We did not get to chapter 2 this week but go ahead and read and answer questions for chapter 3.

Jensen's Format: I checked the Example paragraphs. Folks, you really need to review the directions and study the sample before you start to write. Revise these/make corrections before you complete your final draft which is due next week.

We also started the classification paragraph. This is very different from the example paragraph. With the example one, we were giving examples, say of root veggies or pickup trucks. With the classification, we approach this from the opposite side. For pick up trucks, we would have a sentence on uses, another on makers/manufacturers, another on accessories, etc. You will not be doing as much naming of brand names. 

For homework: Revise the Example paragraph to turn in to be graded. For classification--pick a topic, brainstorm, write an outline, write a rough draft. Feel free to email me your draft.

Assignments for September 2, 2025

 Welcome back. I hope this week's class was less confusing than last week's. 

Spirit Day for next week: Favorite cartoon--t-shirt or some costume.

Journal: "My summer was _______." Fill in the blank with an adjective. Then tell what made summer that way.  (I also gave a handout for a poem. We'll discuss that next week for the following week's homework.)

Fix-it: Week 1. We reviewed the "learn it" section. We discussed Day 1 "mark it" and "fix-it." In most classes we also did Day 2. For homework, mark and fix days 3 and 4. Rewrite days 1-4. Next week we'll review/correct days 3 & 4 and start week 2. 

________________________

Bible Heroes: Lesson 1. We reviewed "God Is Good" and the rules for key word outlines. We discussed what adjectives are. Most adjectives come before a noun--they tell more about the noun. I gave you a Writer's Toolbox with all kinds of words to use in your lessons. Several pages are adjectives. We sang the song on page 14 "My God Is So Great." 

We also started the second part of the lesson on Enoch. We read the source and quickly made a KWO. We discussed the nouns in the outline that we could add adjectives to.

For homework: Lesson 1 part 2 "Enoch." Practice telling the KWO, trying to add in one or more adjectives. 

Wonders of Science: Lesson 1 "Dead Ants." We reviewed the KWO rules and vocabulary words. Those words and their definitions are in the back of the book. If you prefer cards, moms will need to download them from the IEW website. 

We started Lesson 2 "Honey Bees." One of our goals will be to add in our first dress up--we'll cover that next week. We discussed the vocabulary words for this lesson and page 18 "Mechanics" which covers rules about writing numbers. We looked at and discussed MLA format, which is how a paper is set up--the margins, double-spaced, font size, title centered, and information on the upper left corner. You'll find these instructions on page 293. We started the KWO. 

For homework: Lesson 2 "Honey Bees." Finish the KWO. Write a rough draft, one paragraph, double-spaced. You may type this or handwrite it. Next time we'll add in the -ly adverb and discuss the checklist. You will turn the final draft of this paragraph in for a final draft. 

High School I:

The Magician's Nephew: Read chapters 1-4. 

Following Narnia: Lesson 1. We had a few volunteers to read their drafts of "Sherlock Holmes." Please study the MLA format for this paragraph--and future ones--on page 198. We worked on a KWO for Sydney Paget. 

For homework: Lesson 1 continued. "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle"--read the source, write a KWO, write a rough draft. I will check this next week. We'll also start Lesson 2 next week.

High School II:

Blue Book: We reviewed nouns and discussed all the forms of helping verbs on pages 2-4. I added information to the discussion with helping verbs and their forms of main verbs. If you memorize the helping verbs, it really helps in identifying verbs in sentences. 

For homework: quizzes 1 & 2 on subjects and verbs, pages 157-158. 

Till We Have Faces: We discussed Lewis's views on myths and the answers to chapter 1 questions. 

For homework: Read and answer questions for chapter 2.

Jensen's Format: Our first paragraph--the Example paragraph. We discussed two possible structures/formats. One has five fact sentences on five subjects. The other has three subjects with more discussion on them in follow up sentences. I gave you a handout to use for homework. Study the samples in the textbook. You have two paragraphs on root vegetables but they are with different formats. 

For homework: Lesson 2 Example paragraph. 1) choose one topic. 2) write one outline for each format using the same topic. 3) choose one outline and turn it into a one paragraph rough draft--being careful to double space and use MLA formatting. 

First Day and assignments for August 26, 2025

 Welcome back or welcome to Grace Writing. I hope today was not terribly confusing. The first day often is for newcomers. We will repeat and review for a while, so do feel like to have to understand everything the first go around. 

We started out today with a discussion of class procedures. Your first job is to write down the homework off the white board. Next get out your journal homework and Fix-it homework. (High School II that would be your grammar book.) I'll check those two items while people get settled. We'll go over the new journal assignment next. We'll spend a little bit of time going over the Fix-it homework, with you checking your work. Then we'll discuss the next week's lesson. You will do days 2 to 4 at home. You will look up vocabulary words at home as well. 

Once all that is out of the way, we'll discuss our theme book. Each lesson starts with a little review and answering questions. You will do a rough draft one week and a final draft the next. I'll try to check and comment on as many rough drafts as I can in class. You are welcome to email me rough drafts ahead of time to save class time or get feedback on a specific issue. 

Spirit Day: today was Hawaiian shirt. Our next one is in two weeks on Sept 2--Cartoon Day.

Journal: "All About Me." I gave you a handout for you to fill out so that I could get to know you better. Answer as many blocks as you desire. Coloring and drawing are optional. 

Fix-it: Week 1--We covered some or all the "learn it" parts. We'll review that section next week and do the Week 1 corrections. For homework: Look up the four bolded vocabulary words for Week 1. Write the word and definition on index cards or in a notebook. 

Theme book instructions: 

Bible Heroes: We started Lesson 1 "God Is Good." We learned about key word outlines (KWO). Each sentence from the source text equals one numbered line on the KWO. We learned about the three-words-per-line rule. (We can only pick out three key words from each sentence.) If we want more words, we have to use symbols and abbreviations. 

We're not done, though. Now we have to "tell" the outline. Each numbered line equals a complete thought. To tell it back, we may have to add in words (especially verbs) for it to make sense. We can practice substituting words, rearranging words, or adding in information. Telling it out loud saves us the time and trouble of revising later. It's good to practice out loud until you get more comfortable. 

For homework: Lesson 1 "God Is Good." Practice saying/telling the key word outline out loud. Try to make your say the same ideas but not be exactly the same. 

Wonders of Science: We started Lesson 1 "Dead Ants." We learned about key word outlines (KWO). Each sentence from the source text equals one numbered line on the KWO. We learned about the three-words-per-line rule. (We can only pick out three key words from each sentence.) If we want more words, we have to use symbols and abbreviations. 

We're not done, though. Now we have to "tell" the outline. Each numbered line equals a complete thought. To tell it back, we may have to add in words (especially verbs) for it to make sense. We can practice substituting words, rearranging words, or adding in information. Telling it out loud saves us the time and trouble of revising later. It's good to practice out loud until you get more comfortable. 

For homework: Lesson 1 "Dead Ants." Practice saying/telling the key word outline out loud. Try to make your say the same ideas but not be exactly the same. The source text was long, so we did not finish the key word outline. You may finish the outline if you like or only practice what we did in class. Writing the outline into sentences is optional for this lesson. 

High School I/Following Narnia: We started Lesson 1 Sherlock Holmes. We learned about key word outlines (KWO). Each sentence from the source text equals one numbered line on the KWO. We learned about the three-words-per-line rule. (We can only pick out three key words from each sentence.) If we want more words, we have to use symbols and abbreviations. 

We're not done, though. Now we have to "tell" the outline. Each numbered line equals a complete thought. To tell it back, we may have to add in words (especially verbs) for it to make sense. We can practice substituting words, rearranging words, or adding in information. Telling it out loud saves us the time and trouble of revising later. It's good to practice out loud until you get more comfortable. 

For homework: Lesson 1 "Sherlock Holmes." Practice saying/telling the key word outline out loud. Try to make your say the same ideas but not be exactly the same. Write a rough draft of this paragraph. 

The Magician's Nephew: Read Chapter 1. (Next week asks for chapters 2-4, so you may want to read ahead.) 

High School II: 

Hold onto your MLA Easy Way until later in the school year. 

Blue Book: We worked on reviewing nouns and started on verbs on page 1. The book is laid out in a somewhat confusing manner. When quizzes are to be done are not mentioned but are later in the book. You are welcome to write in the book or on separate paper when we get to the first one. Some students copy those pages. No homework in this book as yet.

Jensen's Format: We will start off learning about seven different types of paragraphs. Before we get there, though, we worked today on continuity. That basically means figuring out appropriate repetition for ideas to flow. The discussion and accompanying exercise are confusing, I admit. There is some help in the back of the book in an answers section. Next week we'll start our first paragraph. 

For homework: Lesson 1 pages 25-26. Write in the book or on separate paper.

Till We Have Faces: This CS Lewis book is different from all others that you've likely read. It is based upon a single myth. He has an explanation of that myth in the back of the book. We discussed the Lewis's timeline. I also gave you a handout on Lewis and Tolkien's views on myth. We'll discuss that next week.

For homework: read the handout on Myth, read chapter one, answer chapter 1 questions based upon the handout.