Grammar

Okay-- Grammar is the biggest complaint we have. Mr. Present at the HS wishes it to be something that we address. I looked back at our SCOS and here is what I found. In the preamble to the ELA SCoS it says" Most students do not learn grammatical conventions efficiently through memorizing the parts of speech and practicing correct usage and mechanics through drills and exercises, with the assumption that students will transfer what they learn in grammar study to their own writing and speaking. Instead conventions are most efficiently learned when studied as part of practical, functional grammar that: Okay this all sounds a bit contradictory to me sooo... I went to the SCoS and went through each grade and these are the terms I found that they need to know the label of with lots of examples. Capitalization- first word, proper names (1) geographical place names, holidays, special events, titles (3) names of languages, nationalities, musical compositions (4) names of magazines, newspapers, organizations (5) Punctuation- period to end declarative & question mark to end interrogative (1)  periods after initials and abbreviated titles (3
 * is concerned with how the language works in context to achieve a particular purpose with a specified audience.
 * uses a minimum number of grammatical terms and a maximum number of examples. Students need no more than the terminology specified in the goals of each grade level.
 * focuses on grammatical components that relate to meaningful sentences in speaking and writing.
 * teaches both correct, standard usage and effective sentence sense and style (for example, the power of dialects in literature and film; the conventions of technical writing).
 * Teaches appropriate usage in the context of the students' writing and speaking, through:
 * focused, short lessons based on the demonstrated needs of the students
 * discussions of the syntax of student-generated sentences.
 * activities such as sentence combining, sentence imitating, sentence expanding.
 * self and peer editing and teacher conferences.
 * The following is a rough draft:**

in greetings(3), dates(3), city and state(3); commas in a series (4), commas indirect address (4), commas and quotation marks in dialogue (4), commas in apposition (5), commas used in compound sentences (5)
 * __commas __**

underlining book titles(3) apostrophes in contractions apostrophes in possessives (4) colon to introduce a list (5) Demonstrate understanding in speaking and writing by using: Subject/verb agreement (3) troublesome verbs. (5) nominative, objective, and possessive pronouns. (5)

Elaborate information and ideas in speaking and writing by using: · prepositional phrases. · transitions. · coordinating and/or subordinating conjunctions (5) · simple and compound sentences. · regular and irregular verbs. · adverbs. · prepositions. · coordinating conjunctions Parts of a sentence- subject, predicate, modifier (2) Identify and use a variety of sentences-declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory (3) Parts of a sentence- subject, predicate, modifier (2)

So taking this into consideration how do we teach this? Townsend Press has an inxpensive work book. $3.50 (I think) that's a whole lot cheaper than making copies. Teaching it in context hasn't seemed to work very well. We go over it and over it in the 7th grade-them when they did the on demand the conventions were horrible. Students do not learn to use grammar by application. I have seen this at all the schools I've interned and the one I've taught at. However I have a way that I've seen used that worked wonderfully. The students had grammar as good (or in some cases better) as me.
 * SPRAYBERRY'S GRAMMAR GAMBLE **

Step 1: Students do not know the parts of speech. This makes any progress further nearly impossible. To make them truly understand what the parts of speech are they need to see them in and out of context. All students can tell you what a noun and verb is, but they don't understand (which leads to serious issues in subject verb agreement) It take approximately a quarter (report card term) for them to truly learn all the parts of speech. Starting Week one or two we give them a basic overview of all of them. **arts of speec****h being** the [|verb], the [|noun], the [|pronoun], the [|adjective], the [|adverb], the [|preposition], the [|conjunction], and the [|interjection].) Then each week after that we take one part of speech and repeatedly cover it. Using the text they are reading as well as worksheet. (EX. Find all the adjectives on page 24 of raisin in the sun). This can take time for us, because we have to find an adjective heavy page and count and list them but it really does work for them. I usually give them a 3x3 block with 9 squared on it. In the center of each square I would have them label it by what part of speech we were covering and they would then take notes on this part of speech in the square. Week 1: Overview of parts of speech. What is a part of speech? What types are there? How are they different?

Week 2: Nouns. What is a noun? What do nouns do? How are they unique? Examples? Proper vs. common. Singular vs. Plural

Week 3: Prounouns. How do they work? Why use them? What are their limitations?

Week 4: Verbs. What is a verb? How does it change time (tense)? How do they react with singular vs. plural nouns.

Week 5: Adjectives. What is the function on an adjective? How do they change nouns? ARTICLES!

Week 6: Adverbs. What does an adverb do? How is it different from an adjective? What effects does it have on a verb?

Week 7: Preposition. Use of prepositions. What do they tell us about an event or an action?

Week 8: Conjunction. How are conjunctions used? What is their purpose? Correct vs incorrect use. Neither-nor/either-or.

Week 9: Interjections. What emotions do interjections convey? How/when should they be used?

Step 2: Once the students have a grasp on the parts of speech we begin discussing how they link up to create sentences. This is the point in which we focus on the sentence parts (phrases, conjugation and the like). From the begining of this section we explain that a sentence must have a few key basic parts. (Dogs bark. Subject + verb = boring sentence) After this is beaten in we move to expanding (WHICH DOG? __The__ dogs bark. WHAT KIND OF DOGS? __The__ **loud** dogs bark. WELL, AT WHAT ARE THEY BARKING? __The__ **loud** dogs bark at the squirrels.) It is a very tedious process, however, the students that did follow along I trusted to proofread my own papers. At this point we begin discussing how things link together to create phrases. Prepositional phrase: Students have trouble with this because they assume the adjective or adverb is the only thing that can give information about an action. Adverbial phrase: This is difficult for them to understand and I can’t quite explain/understand why.

Step 3: Writing Conventions. ENGLISH HAS NO LOGIC. Explain that first. At this point we teach the conventions of writing focusing on what to do as opposed to why to do it. This includes commas, colon/semicolon, question, marks, capitalization, ellipses, asterisks, and general punctuation. Key Areas To Focus On: Commas – students do not know why commas are used which leads to errors in usages. They know that they are supposed to use them in certain instances, but they can’t explain why. Many have simply been told to put them where they would naturally take a breath. This leads to long winded kids with long winded sentences and concise students with no commas at all. Apostrophe: They want to put apostrophes when it concerns ownership, but they don’t know where to put them. Capitalization: This has been the bane of my existence this year. Students capitalize random words and then refuse to capitalize others. I had a student that completely refused to capitalize the word I. I explained that she must always capitalize I when used as a pronoun. She began to capitalize I in every word. (EX. The Igloo Illuminated the eerIe world of IndIvIdual lIvIng.) The most often question asked is why, and honestly many times the answer is simply BECAUSE. Occasionally I would have fun and research the reason for a form of punctuation and give a long drawn out explanation. Sometimes the kids asked because they wanted to know that you know what you're talking about and this research and explanation lets them know that you do know what is going on.

Step 4: Application. Students must use their new found knowledge in order to appreciate/retain. I offered half point of extra credit for each grammar error a student found on a paper, but a full 10 points to a student who had a error free paper. During peer editing they were focused on it so hard that it became a contest. Students would scour papers for errors. It actually worked very well because students loved finding errors, but students consistently pushed to have perfect papers. This is also the point in which we would begin teaching proofreading marks. Students know some of the marks, but they don’t know how they are used and they have no set standard for usage. This is something that we would have to agree on if we were to teach it correctly.

Let me know how you feel about this idea. I would like to use the Townsend books but I do not want to rely on them as much as we rely on other texts. I believe they would be best implemented as tools for teaching instead of the teaching itself. Many of the worksheets and activities that I had for teaching grammar were destroyed in a flooded storage unit so I would naturally have to completely recreate them. I am willing to try and find what I can. I know that I have purely anecdotal evidence but I __**have**__ seen it work. I love the idea. THe Townsend book appeals to me so that I don't have to camp out at the copier. I'll be home next week-I'll find a copy and get it to you. I am continuing to flush out the ideas. I spoke with Ms. Coble and will be including a rough week sample so that the ideas become more clear. I understand that this is rather abstract.