Because I missed the major part of Stephanie's and Shannon's mini lesson I wanted to use this blog to reflect over their topic: Comma after introductory elements. BUT I couldn't find any information on it in NGG and Grammar Girl was no help to me. So instead, I will simply talk about the week.
I'm very relieved that the grammar scrapbook wasn't due. I honestly don't think I would have had anything prepared. When we worked on finding pieces to use in class, I still can't find many. Those I had found were supposedly house style so I still can't use them. At this point, I'm not sure what to think. I am glad we are taking the extra time to go over rules and become familiar with them so that when my scrapbook is done, at least I'll know I did learn a lot. I need extra practice though and that's okay. I found some books online that will be great resources, not just for this class but for my classroom as well. I think I want to go back to the basics though and look for some worksheets that I can practice with, and then my awesome roommate Kat can correct them for me. Then we will both get practice.
My question for the week is when is the next scrapbook checkpoint?
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Whoops!
I just realized I didn't leave a question. My question for you all is how do you plan to grade grammar and punctuation as a teacher? I am curious to see what other people's though process on this is. Thanks!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Blog Five: Punctuation
When I was in high school I don’t remember being graded down on punctuation unless it was the final draft of a paper. During in class writings or first drafts, I remember my teachers saying that they weren’t concerned about our punctuation. What they were concerned with was our content and our main ideas. Even when it came time for the final draft, spelling and punctuation only counted for five, ten points at the most. When my teachers marked my papers of how the punctuation should look, I would simply go back and fix it. There were never any explanations of why and I never thought to ask.
Now that I’m in college, punctuation isn’t mentioned much. I’ve only had two, maybe three classes where the professor emphasized that s/he would remove points for each error. I’ve definitely never talked about punctuation as much as I have in the past few weeks. Again though, if there was ever a mistake the professor would mark my paper and I would go back and fix it for either the final draft or for my own records. There was never explanation as to why it was wrong.
I’ve always punctuated in my writing the same way. When I’m writing a paper, I punctuate as I go. But I always make sure to go back and re-read my papers, and I usually make corrections then. I also like to physically print out a copy of my paper. I think it’s easier to make corrections on grammar and punctuation when you read it like you would another paper, and not skim it like you do on a computer screen. I could never write a paper with no punctuation what so ever, and then go back and just add it in. It wouldn’t make sense to me.
Looking at student’s writing from a teacher’s point of view, it’s interesting to think of the grading process. I’m not sure if I’m going to be the kind of grader who marks nothing, or the kind who marks. If I do mark, I want to be sure to explain why I made the corrections that I did. I don’t want students to do what I did and not learn from the marks on the page. If I don’t mark the paper, I would be sure to leave an explanation at the end of what I thought. It depends on the type of assignment it is, but either way I always plan on giving my students feedback.
Now that I’m in college, punctuation isn’t mentioned much. I’ve only had two, maybe three classes where the professor emphasized that s/he would remove points for each error. I’ve definitely never talked about punctuation as much as I have in the past few weeks. Again though, if there was ever a mistake the professor would mark my paper and I would go back and fix it for either the final draft or for my own records. There was never explanation as to why it was wrong.
I’ve always punctuated in my writing the same way. When I’m writing a paper, I punctuate as I go. But I always make sure to go back and re-read my papers, and I usually make corrections then. I also like to physically print out a copy of my paper. I think it’s easier to make corrections on grammar and punctuation when you read it like you would another paper, and not skim it like you do on a computer screen. I could never write a paper with no punctuation what so ever, and then go back and just add it in. It wouldn’t make sense to me.
Looking at student’s writing from a teacher’s point of view, it’s interesting to think of the grading process. I’m not sure if I’m going to be the kind of grader who marks nothing, or the kind who marks. If I do mark, I want to be sure to explain why I made the corrections that I did. I don’t want students to do what I did and not learn from the marks on the page. If I don’t mark the paper, I would be sure to leave an explanation at the end of what I thought. It depends on the type of assignment it is, but either way I always plan on giving my students feedback.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Blog Four: Still Struggling
I’m going to use this blog to express how I am still having difficulties in class. This week I was able to understand transitive and intransitive patterns better, but still have a hard time applying them. Even though I can apply them to headlines in the Daily Evergreen, I’m not sure if I would be able to do much more. I can identify a prepositional phrase but I couldn’t honestly tell you what exactly it is. I’m starting to think that I never learned about this because if it had, some sort of memory would have sparked by now. I’m extremely tempted to go out and buy a Grammar for Dummies book. I’m excited for the mini lessons because there are topics that I’m not familiar with at all. Such as: nonrestrictive elements, parallelism and indefinite pronouns. Should be interesting…
I’m not sure what else to mention here. I didn’t feel that I learned a lot this week, especially with the Dora article. I’m hoping the second part of that story is easier to relate to. I don’t want to seem like this week was a total waste of time, because it wasn’t. I think I’m just having a harder time than usual with this.
So my question for the week: does anyone know of a good reference book besides Nitty Gritty or Dummies that would be a good grammar guide?
I’m not sure what else to mention here. I didn’t feel that I learned a lot this week, especially with the Dora article. I’m hoping the second part of that story is easier to relate to. I don’t want to seem like this week was a total waste of time, because it wasn’t. I think I’m just having a harder time than usual with this.
So my question for the week: does anyone know of a good reference book besides Nitty Gritty or Dummies that would be a good grammar guide?
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Blog Three!
This week in grammar we started out with the “Fish Bowl” discussion, or a Socratic discussion. I had never done this before and was, at first, skeptical. But after our group got rolling on the discussion, I loved it! I think that by doing this we will become better teachers. By being able to sit and discuss different teaching strategies we can learn from each other and each other’s opinions and techniques.
When I did my TL 317 Practicum, the English teachers did something like this. Not the “Fish Bowl” technique but they sat and discussed units from over the semester. They shared their opinions on which ones they should keep as well as new ones they wanted to try. Each teacher shared what they liked and didn’t like about each unit and it was their way of planning and preparing for the following year. As an onlooker, I liked being able to see what texts they were using for their units and how they incorporated their daily activities around these texts. I know they probably didn’t do this year-round, but when preparing for a school year I think it’s a good strategy.
My favorite part about our particular Socratic discussion was how discussed that while learning about the fundamentals of writing, learning the creative aspect of it is important as well. I believe this especially for secondary students because they are “at that age” so to speak. They are figuring out who they are and who they believe it and I think writing is a good way for them to play around with these ideas. Sometimes the whole “intro/body/conclusion” idea gets grilled into them that they forget to add themselves into their work, they forget their own voice. Something I mentioned in my quick write that one thing I love about creative writing is that students can get to engrossed in what they are working on that they forget they are actually learning through the process. Barbara commented on my paper asking me if this was a bad thing. Of course it isn’t! Apart of me hopes that I can make all my units entertaining enough that my kids don’t think they’re learning until they look back and realize what all they are taking from my classroom. Hey, a girl can dream.
As for my question for the week, I had a hard time with the three major sentence patterns and want to make sure I have it right. The magnetic poetry was ridiculously fun and for some, dirty! I know Melissa and I were blushing at our neighbor’s sentences.
An intransitive sentence is subject-verb pattern. It can stand by itself or have a modifier. Ex: The dog peed… on the tree (or window curtain if you have a dumb dog like me).
A transitive sentence is subject-verb-direct object pattern. Unlike the intransitive, it requires the direct object. Ex: My mom baked a cake.
Linking verbs are in a subject-linking verb-subject compliment pattern. So the subject is linked with a description of the subject. Ex: My car drives fast.
So I think these are right but I’m getting to the point where I might need to start making flashcards to keep up with everything. Does anyone have any techniques of how they remember all this? Thanks, and Go Cougs!
When I did my TL 317 Practicum, the English teachers did something like this. Not the “Fish Bowl” technique but they sat and discussed units from over the semester. They shared their opinions on which ones they should keep as well as new ones they wanted to try. Each teacher shared what they liked and didn’t like about each unit and it was their way of planning and preparing for the following year. As an onlooker, I liked being able to see what texts they were using for their units and how they incorporated their daily activities around these texts. I know they probably didn’t do this year-round, but when preparing for a school year I think it’s a good strategy.
My favorite part about our particular Socratic discussion was how discussed that while learning about the fundamentals of writing, learning the creative aspect of it is important as well. I believe this especially for secondary students because they are “at that age” so to speak. They are figuring out who they are and who they believe it and I think writing is a good way for them to play around with these ideas. Sometimes the whole “intro/body/conclusion” idea gets grilled into them that they forget to add themselves into their work, they forget their own voice. Something I mentioned in my quick write that one thing I love about creative writing is that students can get to engrossed in what they are working on that they forget they are actually learning through the process. Barbara commented on my paper asking me if this was a bad thing. Of course it isn’t! Apart of me hopes that I can make all my units entertaining enough that my kids don’t think they’re learning until they look back and realize what all they are taking from my classroom. Hey, a girl can dream.
As for my question for the week, I had a hard time with the three major sentence patterns and want to make sure I have it right. The magnetic poetry was ridiculously fun and for some, dirty! I know Melissa and I were blushing at our neighbor’s sentences.
An intransitive sentence is subject-verb pattern. It can stand by itself or have a modifier. Ex: The dog peed… on the tree (or window curtain if you have a dumb dog like me).
A transitive sentence is subject-verb-direct object pattern. Unlike the intransitive, it requires the direct object. Ex: My mom baked a cake.
Linking verbs are in a subject-linking verb-subject compliment pattern. So the subject is linked with a description of the subject. Ex: My car drives fast.
So I think these are right but I’m getting to the point where I might need to start making flashcards to keep up with everything. Does anyone have any techniques of how they remember all this? Thanks, and Go Cougs!
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Post #2: English 326 So Far...
So far this semester it feels as if we have already gone over quite a bit in class. From apostrophe’s to identifying nouns and verbs in headlines, we are well on our way to becoming grammar experts (or so I hope). I enjoyed learning about the apostrophes because it sounds as if whichever way you prefer to use them, you can’t go wrong. There are the old and new ways they are used and we’ve learned from looking at various publications that they all use them differently as well. As much as a relief that is to me, it also is starting to make me consistently doubt myself in my reading and writing. I may think something is wrong but they could use the newer methods. So really, who is to say what is wrong and what is right? Apparently there are not only trends in fashion. This week in class, I thought it was not only interesting but fun to go through the newspaper and identify nouns, verbs and adjectives in the headings. Though I am glad I still remember the difference between those three, I was nervous when people started talking about adverbs and pronouns because those I don’t know the difference between. And I’m a twenty one year old English major! I would completely fail “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?” So even though the first few weeks of school are going well and I already feel as if I’m learning, while I am learning I am also noticing doubts in myself as a writer and future educator. I’m hoping that as the semester goes on, those doubts will go away.
Posing Question: What exactly are adverbs and pronouns and how do they differ from verbs and nouns? I know I could just google it, but it's more fun to ask you all. :)
Posing Question: What exactly are adverbs and pronouns and how do they differ from verbs and nouns? I know I could just google it, but it's more fun to ask you all. :)
Post #1: Self Assessment ... Again
Since my self assessment won't be able to be assessed at the end of the term because of my impressive lack of grammatical knowledge, here I go again...
Having an extra week to get a more solid sense of what will be involved in this course helps me pin down what I need to work on. There are the common apprehensions that I have such as effect vs. affect and the who vs. whom (I can't NOT think of Ross from FRIENDS when I hear "whom"). I think I use commas and semicolons okay but it will be reassuring to learn more about them. My largest concern though, came in class on Wednesday when we were going through the Daily Evergreen. I'm not a total dope, I know nouns, verbs, and adjectives but I felt a little uneasy at adverbs and pronouns. I'm sure once we discuss them more, it'll come back to me but I might need some extra practice.
I hope this gives a better idea of what I can work on, and hopefully at the end of the semester I'll have more confidence in my grammar skills.
Having an extra week to get a more solid sense of what will be involved in this course helps me pin down what I need to work on. There are the common apprehensions that I have such as effect vs. affect and the who vs. whom (I can't NOT think of Ross from FRIENDS when I hear "whom"). I think I use commas and semicolons okay but it will be reassuring to learn more about them. My largest concern though, came in class on Wednesday when we were going through the Daily Evergreen. I'm not a total dope, I know nouns, verbs, and adjectives but I felt a little uneasy at adverbs and pronouns. I'm sure once we discuss them more, it'll come back to me but I might need some extra practice.
I hope this gives a better idea of what I can work on, and hopefully at the end of the semester I'll have more confidence in my grammar skills.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Post #1: Self Assessment
I love that I am an English major, but I have never considered myself a good writer. When I write a paper I feel that I write it too casually, as if I am speaking directly to my audience. Even as I'm writing this, I'm nervous that my punctuation is off or my choice in words isn't as strong as it should be. If I had to choose specific aspects of my writing that I need to work on, I would say my vocabulary, tone and knowledge of grammatical terms.
When I play scrabble with my friends, I am not only the English major but the repetitive loser. I’ve never even had an “ah-ha” moment where I had an impressive word with bonus points. As a college student my vocabulary should be broader. When I work with high school students whether it’s through tutoring or another practicum I’m checking off the list, I’m scared their vocabulary is going to be stronger than mine. I carry a dictionary with me and have no problem looking up a word I don’t understand, but I’m scared it might get to the point where my students are constantly challenging me to look up words because I don’t know them.
When I say “tone” is another aspect of my writing I would like to work on, I’m talking about that casual audience I’m directing my paper to. Sometimes it’s as if I’m directly writing what I would say to someone in a conversation. It’s too casual. I’m not as bad to include words such as “like” and “um” but pretty close.
As for my knowledge of grammatical terms, I didn’t think I needed to work on it until this class. When terms such as adverbs, pronouns and junctions come up I feel like I need to go back to, well, grammar school. ( that sentence right there needs work). I can’t remember working specifically on grammar in high school. I can’t remember working on grammar in middle school. I honestly think the last time I had work with grammar was in elementary school and that’s just wrong.
I’m looking forward to this semester and especially this class because I know I have a lot to learn and I’m actually excited to learn about it. I think it’s fun flipping through the grammar text book and the scrapbooks we are going to make look like tons of fun. I can’t wait!
When I play scrabble with my friends, I am not only the English major but the repetitive loser. I’ve never even had an “ah-ha” moment where I had an impressive word with bonus points. As a college student my vocabulary should be broader. When I work with high school students whether it’s through tutoring or another practicum I’m checking off the list, I’m scared their vocabulary is going to be stronger than mine. I carry a dictionary with me and have no problem looking up a word I don’t understand, but I’m scared it might get to the point where my students are constantly challenging me to look up words because I don’t know them.
When I say “tone” is another aspect of my writing I would like to work on, I’m talking about that casual audience I’m directing my paper to. Sometimes it’s as if I’m directly writing what I would say to someone in a conversation. It’s too casual. I’m not as bad to include words such as “like” and “um” but pretty close.
As for my knowledge of grammatical terms, I didn’t think I needed to work on it until this class. When terms such as adverbs, pronouns and junctions come up I feel like I need to go back to, well, grammar school. ( that sentence right there needs work). I can’t remember working specifically on grammar in high school. I can’t remember working on grammar in middle school. I honestly think the last time I had work with grammar was in elementary school and that’s just wrong.
I’m looking forward to this semester and especially this class because I know I have a lot to learn and I’m actually excited to learn about it. I think it’s fun flipping through the grammar text book and the scrapbooks we are going to make look like tons of fun. I can’t wait!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
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