Grammar: Lesson 1

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Andy

Grammar Lesson 1

The Need:

Grammar lesson 1 is the beginning of my instructional series. Without a solid understanding of grammar basics, students are unable to access the vocabulary used to improve writing, understand complex texts, or just fully appreciate the talents of our world’s linguistic virtuosos.

The Problem

As math must invariably begin with the memorization of symbols, meanings, multiplication tables, etc, so too must grammar begin with the delivery and eventual understanding of its symbols, rules, and vocabulary. This is most efficiently done through the giving and taking of notes. The sooner the knowledge is passes on and organized, the sooner the steps toward understanding can begin.

Giving notes to a class is a balancing act. Throwing up a full transparency or slide of notes all at once can be overwhelming for even the most industrious students. On the other hand, uncovering the notes, or writing out the notes for each class that comes through the door, is inefficient in a number of ways.

The Solution

All of the notes for this grammar unit are presented in two different ways to help optimize your teaching: video and PDF. I’ve tested all of the notes and video segments in my own classroom to check for clarity and appropriate pacing. Should you choose to utilize the video segments, the lessons therein will help you optimize your teaching by providing you with a virtual teacher to run your notes. This will free you, the teacher, from the overhead, white board, or mouse, and allow you to move about the room.

The Content

I cover universally accepted grammar basics, following the looping structure of my favorite grammar program, The Magic Lens by Michael Clay Thompson. While a familiarity of The Magic Lens would provide you with some insight, these lessons can be utilized independently.

Why Grammar? My Canned Response.

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Andy

Before jumping straight into the grammar video lessons, let’s first prepare a response to the question that will be on the tip of every tongue just minutes into any grammar exercise: Why do we need to know this?

Grammar is a necessary tool for manipulating our language. Like any tradesman without a solid understanding of his tools, students without a command of grammar struggle to create eloquent discourse.

Of course we know this; if your students are anything like mine, however, they won’t buy into this justification. Since genuine student buy-in is key to any authentic learning, I highly suggest you think of a pitch for grammar rather than just jumping right in. Here’s is the conversation I have with students to to preempt the traditional doubts about the importance of grammar. I’ve left a comments section at the bottom where you can share your grammar pitch ideas before heading on to the first of my grammar video series.

Tommy: (with an exaggerated sigh) Why do we need to know this stuff?

Me: Tommy, you like games, right? Would you call yourself a “gamer”, even?

Tommy: Yes. (amidst jeers from his gaming buddies in the room)

Me: “What game would you say you play most?”

Tommy: “COD – That means Call of Duty.

Me: Tommy, I’m going to go on with my notes for just about a minute, but I want you pretend that you and your friends were playing C.O.D. against me online. I want you to think of some smack talk you might say to a rookie that would make sense to you and the other COD gamers in the room but not to a rookie. Keep in mind, I’ve never played C.A.D. before

Tommy: (amidst giggles): You mean C.O.D.

I continue a bit then return to Tommy

Me: Okay Tommy, let’s have it.

Tommy: “Quit camping you hard-scoping tube-nuber.”

Me: “Tommy, if I were playing against you after school today and you said that to me, I would have no idea what you meant. Without an understanding of what you were telling me, would I have much hope of following your advice next time we played?”

Tommy: Nope.

Me: “So Tommy, your last short story in this class was pretty good, but your subject verb agreement is inconsistent at best and because of this, you kept slipping into passive voice. I suggest you focus on using more transitive verbs in the active voice to help correct this. For additional style and depth, you could even sneak more description in there with some well-placed verbal phrases – or even an absolute phrase or two. Remember punctuation is just a function of grammar, so consider paying more attention to your clause structures to help eliminate all those fragments you had.”

Tommy: Huh?

Me: Class, today we begin learning the vocabulary that grammar gamers use. Without it, I could never expect you to improve your writing or your understanding of our language. In fact, all that grammar really is, is just a way of thinking and talking about our language. Before we begin exploring grammar, can someone please tell me exactly what a tube-nuber is?

If you have a good grammar pitch, I’d love to hear it. Please share it in the comments below, on my Facebook page, or simply email me at Andy@OptimizeYourTeaching.com.

Simple and Fair Grade Curving

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Andy

The Need.

Image by LTVee

Despite our best efforts, the occasional “bombed” assessment is inevitable. Low-lying outliers in our grade books can create quite a headache. I’ll aside the possible causes for these mass blunders for now. Instead I’d rather use this post to propose what to do with potential grade book busters. First let’s take a look at some of the less effective methods employed in the past by lesser teachers than ourselves (tongue planted firmly in cheek):

During cold and flu season, it’s easy to throw the grade out entirely and pretend it never happened. Just let it “slip” into the trashcan and be buried by the abundance of tissues. Of course this only works if EVERYONE bombs the assignment. A single tenacious, over-achieving Susie, is all it takes to resurrect the memory of a long forgotten and peacefully rotting assignment.
One could subtlety re-brand an assignment by adding the word practice before its previous name. Thus, a quiz becomes a practice quiz; a test becomes a practice test, and viola: a blemished assessment becomes a beauty mark of participation points. But this method dooms that one student who DID listen in class, DID follow directions the first time, and DID perform well? Isn’t THAT the very behavior we hope to see more of in the future? Sacrificing the hard work of one or two students to save the class, only teaches whom to do what on the next assignment?
Of course one could inflate the best score to perfection. This is achieved by adding points to the top score until it equals 100%, followed by adding that same number of points to all other scores. This method is as faulty as it is inefficient. First, It’s too time-consuming to retroactively change every individual score. Second, and more consequential, the top-performing student instantly becomes the Curve Buster and therefore public enemy #1. Sure, college professors use this method all the time in undergrad lectures halls with 400+ students in attendance. But without the anonymity of the masses, the Curve Buster is left swapping exemplary grades for peer approval.

The Solution.

So how do we teachers curve grades in a simple and fair way? I’m not a math head, nor particularly proficient at formatting a webpage, so I’ll turn this one over to my video.

One last word (disclaimer) before you click play: this formula is meant to suggest a fair and easy way to curve a grade AFTER the decision to curve a grade has been made. I’ll leave the debate of To Curve or Not To Curve for the enlightened pedagogical theorists of the world.

Practical Applications: Let’s hear what you think!

Let’s open the can of worms on this one! I’ve yet to receive my first blog post comment, so please leave your thoughts below. When I presented this idea to a group of teachers on Edmodo, I was shocked to find how controversial a curved grade can be. What are your thoughts? Do you curve scores? When? Why? Why not? How do you do it? What do you think of this method? Go on… I can take it, promise.

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