Blog #7: Mechanically Inclined

I think that so many people are afraid of teaching grammar because its a subject that you often have to approach backwards. By the time we, as high school teachers, will be coaching students in the concepts of grammar they will already have their own ideas fully formed about what is and is not correct in a grammatical sense. Much of our challenge as teachers then is not just imparting new knowledge, but also to get rid of the 'bad' knowledge that our students bring to our classrooms.  In this way I think I have learned more about English Grammar in many of my German classes than I ever did in my English ones.

What I mean when I say that is that frequently, in German class we would discuss the basic grammar of German. The easiest way for our teacher to teach us German grammar was to relate it to English grammar. Herr Unruh taught us grammar backwards. Thanks to this approach, it was much easier for me to understand grammar.

So, I'm not really scared to teach grammar. I just want to be able to teach it in a creative and engaging, and yes, backwards sort of way.

Anderson's vision is essentially to practice, practice, practice, provided that the practice is text based and meaningful. No busy work. he wants learning grammar to feel like play. His vision is creative and effective and seems to me a little bit "pie in the sky". I didn't agree with his comparison of marking errors to marking a child's artwork. For one thing, I remember art class in high school, and I definitely had my artwork "marked up" so to say. For another, if I don't mark a student's errors I can't imagine how they will know it's wrong. That frustrates me in my own assignments, when I get a grade without feedback, I need to know what the issue was or I can't hope to fix it.

Even with that I did feel like Anderson made several good points. I specifically liked his point about "correct-alls" that come form the student's own writing. I think that might be more helpful than simply not marking errors.

Sentence- Stalking! (It gives creeps!)

1. "I was never really great at sports. Never picked first for the team. Never had any game saving plays or tricks I could use to my advantage to then be hoisted upon my team mates' shoulders in praise of my winning awesomeness." -Panic! At The Disco, a Facebook post explaining their new single

I like how this starts out with short fragments, before immediately launching into a run-on sentence. It's great.

2. "Most potent, grave, and reverend signiors,/ My very noble and approved good masters./ That I have ta'en away this old man's daughter,/ It is most true; true, I have married her." -Othello

I like that this is a semicolon in a Shakespearean play. I don't know why but I never associate semicolons with speaking, so I think this would be a good model for the classroom.

3. "And the growing stain wasn't night. There were no stars. There was nothing at all. Just blackness," - Fear, A Gone Novel by Micheal Grant

I like that this quote emphasizes the power of a short sentence. The staccato tone makes it seem more dire, which is appropriate for this novel.

4."But do consider, Monsieur Clark, that you know Baltimore as a native. Edgar Poe lived here for a time, but many years ago- fifteen, if I am not very far mistaken." -The Poe Shadow by Matthew Pearl

I like the hyphen, and I think this is a creative way to explore how we should use hyphens.

5. "She led them to the central pavilion in the gardens- a white-pillared gazebo, where a table was set with silverware, china cups, and of course a steaming pot of tea, the fragrance shifting as easily as Aphrodite's appearance- sometimes cinnamon, or jasmine, or mint." -The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

I just like that this one has so many things happening. We could look at any number of things in this sentence and I think it would be interesting to see what the students pick up.