Gimme’ Grammar Balanced Literacy Academy Robyn Haug and Shawn Riley

What do you want your students to know? Editing SkillsGrammar Skills

How do you teach it? Grammatical Concept How I have taught it Results

The Great Debate Grammar Worksheets Present skills in isolation Makes kids believe grammar is only found in books of rules Kids find them BORING!!!

Popular Daily Grammar Instruction A teacher places an incorrect sentence on the board or on a worksheet… the boy seed a dog rabbit bird? DOL, Sitton Spelling, McDougal all use this approach at times

Next… Students attack the sentence. They are well trained to know that any sentence put in front them must have mistakes! Add a comma! Put a capital letter! Find a spelling error! No Need to Think! Just attack!

There’s Just One Problem… How often do we see pieces of real writing with one sentence standing by itself? How often do we see worksheets teaching kids about grammar with one sentence standing by itself? Something doesn’t add up!

What’s the purpose of editing? To make the writing easier for the reader to understand To improve the overall quality of the writing What is the best way to teach kids these skills?????

If you wanted to be great at basketball… Would you watch A 4 year old playing or LeBron James in the NBA?

If you wanted to be famous artist would you study a first grade work of art? or Monet?

If you want to be a great writer Would you study Incorrect sentences or authentic wonderfully crafted sentences? The girl was an expert at washing linens, chopping leeks, paring potatoes, and mopping floors. From: Mirette on the High Wire by Emily Arnold McCully the boy seed a dog rabbit bird?

All too often children Stare at incorrect sentences Work with unauthentic writing samples Play a guessing game with editing Think editing is just a checklist you mindlessly check off

How do authors improve their writing? By READING Great Writing!! How do students improve their writing? By READING!! Great Writing

The Solution? Look at great sentences and discuss: Writing Craft Grammar Stylistic Choices

3 Simple Steps Invite Students to Notice / Collect Imitate Celebrate

Invite Them to Notice Start off with a great sentence and ask… What do you notice that is correct about this sentence? Let their responses guide your lesson. Go where they lead you. Try to hit at least one craft and mechanics noticing. You don’t have to hit it all but you might need to nudge them at times!

A Great Sentence From a Great Writer His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age. -Maya Angelou

Questions to Probe Deeper Craft: What’s working with the text? What’s effective? Where is the good writing? Author’s Craft? What else is the writer doing? Mechanics: What’s the punctuation or capitalization doing? What effect does the punctuation have on the reading aloud of this sentence? What changes happen if we remove it? What is the writer accomplishing with his/her choices?

Invite Them to Imitate Breakdown the sentence for its important features. Teacher should imitate the sentence making sure to note the breakdown of important features. Model to students how to insert own experiences into the sentence while still keeping the important features.

Here’s a Sample Hector’s room smelled of Hot Cheetos, gym socks, and lies. Mrs. Haug’s office smells of file folders, Starbuck’s Coffee, and ideas. Have your students write one!

Imitate it outside the model! As I wandered through the Hilton Hotels, I wondered how they could be so big, so colorful, and always seem to reek of wealth. Still showing understanding of commas in a series, capital letters for a name brand, and an abstract thought adding depth to the writing.

Invite Them to Celebrate Students share the imitations “Who has a sentence they would like to share?” Have them put them into a class notebook, on transparencies, sentence strips, or notecards Discuss what worked well Students will do what is celebrated!

Well Written Sentences in What Kids are Reading Today “I was concentrating on piling the dishes into the bubbly water, and I’d forgotten that Jacob moved like a ghost these days.” –Stephanie Meyer, Eclipse Compound sentences (commas and conjunctions) Similes

More Great Sentences… “That’s how things were out here in the wild, she was learning. Dangerous or beautiful. Or both.” –Scott Westerfeld, Uglies –Complete sentences, fragments –How fragments can be a stylistic choice in fiction, poetry…

And More… “Little Echos aren’t designed to hold six, count them six, larger-than-average-sized children. And their wings. And a dog.” James Patterson, Maximum Ride, School’s Out Forever Adjectives Contractions Fragments Comma rules

Invite them to Collect Allow students to find wonderfully crafted sentences from their own reading Cut transparencies into slips that students can write sentences onto Use these sentences in future lessons

Now You Collect!

Collect on a Grammar Hunt Find particular structures in authentic literature (for example, capital letters, prepositional phrases, certain punctuation) Have students record on post-its Sort in groups Discuss and analyze why particular grammatical structures are used.

The Capital Letters Hunt Look in the book you are currently reading Find and write on a post-it every word or phrase that is capitalized (except first word in a sentence) Have students work in groups to sort their post-its into the rules of capitalization Create chart as class with rules Add any that were not discovered

The students find the rules themselves in their real literacies! They can be engaged in the learning and still have opportunities for drill and practice when they imitate!

It Works for Most Grammatical Concepts Think of a grammatical concept you need to teach List it with your group Discuss written resources you could use to teach that concept to your students (magazines, newspapers, their own writing, books or stories you are reading.)

Look Inside Your Notebook The writing notebooks you have started with students are one of the best places to focus grammar lessons. After they notice or collect something in a piece of literature, have them imitate it in pieces of their own writing. After teaching a grammar lesson, have students pull pieces of their writing for further practice, editing practice. Have students edit pieces of their notebook writing for particular skills you are working on and turn in to check for understanding.

Let’s Generate Some Writing! Try one of the notebook strategies we have worked with –Topic T-Chart (like / dislike, regret / proud of) –Write off a word –Special people, places, things

10 minutes for writing…

An Example of how to use the notebook: Teaching Active Verbs Show students a mentor text where active verbs are used (Hoops, An Island Grows). Notice what works about the text and sentences with active verbs. Make a class list of good verbs to use Go back to the writer’s notebook and circle all is, are, was, were, should, will, would, etc. words in a piece of their writing Replace those with active verbs and discuss how it improves the piece.

Stone breaks Water quakes Magma glows Volcano blows Lola M. Schaefer, An Island Grows

Imitate With Active Verbs A player passes. Ball flies. Girls holler. Cameras click. An agent approaches.

Teaching Other Parts of Speech What is the use of memorizing what a noun or verb is if they don’t know what to really do with them in their writing? Show a mentor text of effective adjective use, specific nouns, subject/verb agreement Discuss what works about the text (notice), invite them to imitate, and take it back into their own writing. You’ll never have to copy another worksheet again (well…)!

Teaching Punctuation Is it more important to know what declarative, imperative, interrogative, and exclamatory sentences are, or how to vary your sentence types in your writing? Can you teach the types of sentences and punctuation within the context of writer’s workshop, or does it have to be practiced on several sentences on a worksheet?

Frayer Model for Sentence Types Declarative **Use a. Interrogative **Use a ? Exclamatory **Use an ! Imperative **Use a.

Frayer Model for Sentence Types Go over the sentence types on a Frayer Model with your class Remind students of the punctuation each one uses Have students read over a piece of their writing and mark the different sentence types in the correct box on the Frayer. Practice changing some of them to add variety and work on fluency

Genre Style Guides When you are teaching a particular genre to students, do you discuss the grammatical differences in that genre? How is a poem different from an essay? What does an expository piece have that a narrative doesn’t?

Genre Style Guides As you immerse your class in a genre study, a genre style guide is a perfect complement Have students compare and contrast two different genres for their stylistic characteristics! Have students look for the genre’s rules regarding: –Capitalization –Paragraph length –Organization of information –Writing of numbers –Sentence length –Sentence styles –Punctuation choices –Voice –Use of contractions or abbreviations –Whether text is formal or informal

Everyday Genres Can Teach Grammar, too! Imperatives in recipes and instruction manuals –Rinse chicken; pat dry with paper towels. Twist wing tips under back. Parallelism in advertising –We’ve never had more. You’ll never pay less! Phrases, Questions, Exclamations in Advertisements –Do you Yahoo? –50% off! –Like a Rock

“The lesson for teachers is that we should teach grammar from authentic texts as much as possible. You can use the literature the students are reading, as well as newspapers and other texts, to demonstrate or teach almost any grammar lesson.” -Brock Haussaman

A Final Thought As we teach our students the craft of writing, we tell them to show rather than tell. I think when teaching editing well, we show rather than correct. -Jeff Anderson

Resources Based off of Jeff Anderson’s Everyday Editing: Inviting Students to Develop Skill and Craft in Writer’s Workshop As well as Brock Haussamen’s Grammar Alive! A Guide for Teachers

Notebook Resources Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook By Aimee Buckner

Additional Resources 10 Lesson Sets in Jeff Anderson’s book on: commas in a series, using colons, capitalization, possession vs. contraction, simple sentences, verb choice, appositives, paragraphing, compound sentences, dialogue –Jeff Anderson’s Website: –Sentence Blog: /