Reviving G

D.O.L. is D .O.A.
rammar for the Studen t Centered Classroom

Who am I?
Middle school teacher writer

Montessori Trained

Kelly
Catholic school and public school educated

Ive also taught preschool, special education, elementary school, and college.

Fill

e h t in

k n bla

Discussing grammar in the teachers lounge is a little like.___________.

Discussing grammar in the teachers lounge is a little likestepping between two opposing 350-pound NFL lineman just after the ball is snapped (Vii). Harry Noden

NGSSS Standards Covered

LA.8.1.7.2: The student will analyze the authors purpose and/or perspective in a variety of texts and understand how they affect meaning; LA.8.3.4.3: The student will edit for correct use of punctuation, including commas, colons, semicolons, quotation marks, and apostrophes; LA.8.3.3.4: The student will revise by applying appropriate tools or strategies to evaluate and refine the draft (e.g., peer review, checklists, rubrics).

Core Common Standards

LACC.8.L.1.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break. Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission. Spell correctly.
LACC.8.L.1.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

Explain the function of verbals (gerunds, participles, infinitives) in general and their function in particular sentences. Form and use verbs in the active and passive voice. Form and use verbs in the indicative, imperative, interrogative, conditional, and subjunctive mood. Recognize and correct inappropriate shifts in verb voice and mood
LACC.8.RI.2.4: Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including analogies or allusions to other texts.

No matter how well intentioned, if I deluge my students with too much of anything, they remember nothingespecially rules and exceptions. This truth gives me pause. I cant spend the same amount of time on who versus whom as I do on its versus its. So what things matter most?
Jeff Anderson

What to teach?

20 Most Common Mistakes Andrea Lunsford, Stanford University 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Missing comma after an introductory element Vague pronoun reference Missing comma in a compound sentence Wrong word Missing comma(s) with a nonrestrictive element Wrong or missing verb ending Wrong or missing preposition Comma splice Missing or misplaced possessive apostrophe Unnecessary shift in tense Unnecessary shift in pronoun Sentence fragment Wrong tense or verb form Lack of subject-verb agreement Missing comma in a series Lack of agreement between pronoun and antecedent Unnecessary comma(s) with a restrictive element Fused sentence Misplaced or dangling modifier Its/It's confusion

Leila Christenbury, former editor of English journal, claims that grammar cannot be taught effectively in discrete, unconnected units; cannot be taught effectively in massive doses; cannot be taught divorced from student writing; cannot be taught effectively if students see no real need for it and if teachers cannot persuade them to see a need.

How to teach GUM and Craft/Style

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
Bring attention to beautiful writing in literature, informational text and student writing. Teach patterns, not rules. Display wall charts on patterns. Make sure students can return to old ones when new ones are introduced. Post an editors checklist of mini-lessons you have taught Fast-lane editing Discuss the effect of different choices on audience, mood, etc. Share and celebrate great sentences and paragraphs.

Strategies we will cover, applied to Commas

Apprentice sentences Scavenger hunt Easy fast lane editing

Comma comes from the Greek komma, which means "little knife or to cut off.
Writers placed the little curved blade of a knife, a comma, whenever they wanted to show a clause of phrase: a group of words cut from the body of the sentence

Call the Periods Call the Commas By Kalli Dakos

Call the doctors Call the nurses Give me a breath of air Ive been reading all your stories but the periods arent there Call the policemen Call the traffic guards Give me a STOP sign quick Your sentences are running when they need a walking stick Call the commas Call the question marks Give me a single clue Tell me where to breathe with a punctuation mark or two

1. 2. 3.

Share student examples Paste in your writers notebook. Chart the sentence

Draw a line where you think each meaningful part of the sentence is Over top of each part, write what you think that part of the sentence does In my class, we also identify the part of speech of each word, but well skip that for this presentation.

4. 5. 6.

7. 8. 9.

Write at least 3 seed ideas. Choose one. Write a draft Read aloud the mentor sentence and yours. Change if you need to follow the pattern or tone. Share with a peer for feedback. Revise until it fits. Create a polished sentence. Everyone reads theirs aloud. Feedback

1. Choose a book from your table OR look through your own writers notebook or polished writings. Look for masterfully crafted sentences using commas. Write each one on a separate post-it note. 2. Highlight the comma. 3. When weve got a few, well sort them into which pattern they follow.

Fast Lane Editing

1.
Choose a free write from your writers notebook. Model writing your shopping list. Write the rules you are going to check out in the check out list. Model with think aloud. As you make changes, write them in the receipts box. Use insert and delete.

2.

3. 4.

Spe l You l-chec k ' r e Sca mis ers w o t t a t e k -- G red en n't ca hom tch hea ord oph Rob r an one erts d th eir s

When the student is wrong, the teacher will appear

Jeff Anderson

How do you look at errors?

Errors are a natural step in growth Children learn through observation, experimentation and generalization Learners do not usually master a new structure right away Errors become more sophisticated as learning occurs Errors tell us about students pseudo-concepts

"This picture has a dollop of peanut butter on one edge, a smear of grape jelly on the other, and an X across the whole thing. I cut it out of a magazine for homework when I was six years old. 'Look for words that begin with W,' my teacher, Mrs. Evans, had said. She was the one who marked in the X, spoiling my picture. She pointed. ' This is a picture of a family, Hollis. A mother, M, a father, F, a brother, B, a sister, S. They're standing in front of their house, H. I don't see one W word here, young lady. I opened my mouth to say: How about W for wish, or W for want, or W for 'Wouldn't it be loverly,' like the song the music teacher had taught us? But Mrs. Evans was at the next table by that time, shushing me over her shoulder.

nc e id v f e , in o y ll nd ors a tu g a cat c i a kin . d ) e n r 9 i n .a thi ar . (5 . . s rs le h.. r c o rr rite es, wt er E w cas gro av e th me ers We so writ ance the onst --C

f o e

Approaches to responding to GUM errors

1. 2. 3.

4. 5.

Rosen (1987) suggests benign neglect, i.e. ignore the errors and focus on the process Respond only to selective kinds of errors Put a check mark on the end of each line with errors. Students go back and find/log/correct errors. Narrative comments on the most noticeable or frequent patterns of errors. Only for papers that will be publicly published, act as a copy editor and correct the errors.

Jigsaw the patterns

1. 2. 3.

Research Applications (great in content area StepsCreate a group with at least one person from each table. Each person take one minute to share the pattern you covered with your apprentice sentence. Craft a paragraph about any aspect of TBAWP using each pattern a minimum of one time. Arrange the sentences in the order that best makes sense.

When students started being graded on spelling, grammar and vocabulary this year, most students failed the states standardized writing exam. The Florida Board of Education lowered the passing score during an emergency meeting so more students would pass.

percentages of students who earned a passing score of 4.0 4th grade: 27% in 2012 81% in 2011 8the grade: 33% in 2012 82% in 2011 10th grade: 38% in 2012 80% in 2011