CHAPTER 6 NOTES—MAY 9, 2009
Putting Grammar in its Place Content Standards For Grammar Sample Sequence: Teaching Appositives Classroom Connection: What To Do Tomorrow? Closing Thoughts
Putting Grammar in its Place -Grammar: the way words are used to shape meaning, voice & style. -many educators don’t receive any training at all in the area of language prior to teaching. -we don’t have to become obsessed w/words and grammar, but language is our medium, or foundation for what we teach. -don’t ever say “grammar doesn’t matter”…it matters if you get it right.
Content Standards For Grammar -that CA standards for grammar are actually quite vague. -Burke makes a list after reading the standard to see what he needs to address. -examples include: parallelism, tense, agreement.
Sample Sequence: Teaching Appositives -it is important to teach grammar because it offers our students the ability to expand their options as writers. -Burke gives an example of where he provides his students w/a story that is missing description. -by having the students identify what’s missing he was able to point out the importance of being able to have the tools to make writing better, or more descriptive. -first he uses a fill-in-the blanks worksheet to assess where the students are grammatically. -any trouble areas, he goes over.
Classroom Connection: What To Do Tomorrow? -in Burke’s classroom grammar is used to understand how to read & write better. -also it is used to allow the students to think with greater clarity. -annotate: write down the directions, tell the students what to do or what to look for. -revise: taking out the weak or inappropriate verbs and replace them with more precise and powerful ones. -identify patterns: students using the verbs “be” and “is” repeatedly must realize that their writing can become stronger. -identify all nouns: using more descriptive nouns. Ex: “car” = “Ford Mustang” -tap into intuitive knowledge: have students read “Jabberwocky” because the students can figure out from the grammar what certain words mean. -combine grammar and reading: you can incorporate the literature your covering in class to work as a grammatical example. -draw the text: picking a sentence you can have the students draw a picture of it to help them understand prepositions, adjectives, nouns and verbs.
Closing Thoughts -Grammar and general language instruction are vital parts of any curriculum.
I understand Burke’s argument in support of grammar. I am a strong advocate for teaching grammar in the classroom, in order to help students improve upon their writing. However, even I find myself whenever I begin a grammar unit that I quickly become worn out. Burke helped provide new tips to teachers that would help instruct their students in grammar. I like his idea about combining grammar and reading. Whenever I have tried to cover grammar I feel like we remain at a grammar standstill for a couple weeks. I think it will be very effective using the literature we are coving in class as an example for grammatical sentences. |