Achieving Active Voice

1. Brahms Lullaby Achieving Active Voice By Memorizing Be Verbs to the Tune of Brahms Lullaby

2. Identifying a problem . . . • An academic problem: Low • writing scores in Kentucky • An economic problem: • Entry level personnel cannot • communicate effectively

3. A complex problem . . . • How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. • How do you improve writing? One weak link at a time . . . “Every writing authority from Orwell to Zinsser agrees that active voice adds power while passive voice subtracts it. The problem is that hardly anything generates anxiety like writing. And anxiety in turn produces timidity, which often expresses itself in passive voice.” –Jack Hart

4. Initial Goal: Find a way to motivate students to write in active voice. Key Obstacle: Teaching students to identify passive voice. An Idea: If students could learn to identify the be verbs that render sentences passive . . . Hypothesis: Learning be verbs to the tune of Brahms Lullaby would lead to significant improvement in writing in active voice. Passive Voice Purpose of the Study

5. Brahms Lullaby Four Key Questions 1. Would memorizing be verbs lead to a significant improvement in writing? 2. Would a musical memory method achieve better recall than a rote memory method? 3. Would a musical memory method achieve better writing results than rote memory? 4. Could writing be assessed objectively, using a formula?

6. Theoretical Background Research showed . . . • Only one article on pedagogy methods for achieving active voice—strictly anecdotal. • Measuring active voice is a difficult task: Computer programs are still unreliable. • Most intriguing form of assessment—a “Power Index” formula by Larry Gross.

7. The Active-Passive Verb Index • Decide on a given number of sentences. • Circle all passive verbs in that portion. • Place a box around each active verb. • Count the total active, passive, and combined # • Formula works like this . . . 1) Total active verbs ÷ total of all verbals 2) Answer is a ratio: Convert to percentage 3) Subtract 50 from that percentage figure 4) Answer = APV Index score

8. Applying the APV Index An example . . . Total number of active verbs = 20 Total number of all verbals = 50 20 ÷ 50 = 20/50 = 40 percent active verbs 50 percent is threshold for measuring growth So . . . Subtract 50 from active verb percentage 40 – 50 = -10 as the APV Index

9. Applying the APV Index Another example . . . Total number of active verbs = 40 Total number of all verbals = 60 40 ÷ 60 = 40/60 = 66 percent active verbs 50 percent is threshold for measuring growth So . . . Subtract 50 from active verb percentage 66 – 50 = +16 as the APV Index

10. Data Collection • Nature of the experiment: Quantitative analysis • Participants: 6th grade L.A. students Magnet arts school Girls & boys, 3 to 1 ratio One class, two groups

11. Data Collection Procedure • Step 1: Teach students to write in complete sentences. • Step 2: Teach “Active Voice versus Passive Voice.” “Every time you write a sentence, you are faced with a choice . . .” • Step 3: Teach students to identify and memorize a list of 23 passive verbs, referred to as be verbs.

12. Brahms Lullaby Procedure called for two groups . . . • Control Group Red Team Rote Memory Method • Experimental Group Green Team Musical Memory Method • Randomly selected

13. Procedure tested a pedagogical method . . . BE VERBS Be, is, am Are, were, was Being, been, may, can, do, does Did, had, have Has, shall, should, Must, might, could, will, AND would

14. Triangulation in Data Collection Quizzes Sentence Exercises Literary Writing Samples 1) Personal Narratives 2) Character Sketches 3) Short Stories

15. Brahms Lullaby Findings of This Study 1. Would memorizing be verbs lead to a significant improvement in writing? 2. Would a musical memory method achieve better recall than a rote memory method? 3. Would a musical memory method achieve better writing results than rote memory? 4. Could writing be assessed objectively, using a formula?

16. Finding #1 of This Study

17. Finding #2 of This Study

18. Finding #3 of This Study

19. Finding #3 Continued . . .

20. What patterns were discovered? • An Aberration: Students who did not normally achieve high grades in writing gained high APV Index scores. Discovery—Using transitive verbs “She gave money to the church.” • An Observation: The lowest APV Index score on sentence exercises went to a student who had one of the highest Lexile reading scores. Reading usually correlates to writing . . . An APV Index score could point to effort

21. Transy Verbs What were the limitations? • Practical Problems Fragments Run-ons • Logistical Constraints Time constraints Professional constraints • Unexpected Results Drift to transitive verbs

22. In conclusion . . . • Giving students tools does not imply that they will use them. • Writing in active voice may represent a war of the will. . . . • Writing is hard work and students need an incentive to excel.

23. Recommendations: • * Introduce the Be Verbs Lullaby • * Teach active voice in sentences • * Teach active voice in literary writing • * Apply the APV Index to measure writing Brahms Lullaby

24. A Plan of Action . . . • Demonstrate more examples of active voice. • Provide more remedial activities. • Analyze active voice in published works. • Let students walk before they run. . . . • Use rewards as motivation for active voice. • Continue rewards system in literary writing. • Introduce transy verbs and explain . . . • Search and destroy mission on transy AND be verbs. • Introduce a method for identifying transy verbs . . .

25. Heigh-ho. Heigh-ho. Those transy verbs must go! Get, got, went, seem, made, feel, like, need. Heigh-ho. . . Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho. Heigh-ho. Those transy verbs must go! Think, want, make, mean, took, came, come, see. Heigh-ho. Heigh-ho.