mechanically inclined Grammar for the Writing Classroom

1. mechanically inclined Grammar for the Writing Classroom Susan Grinsteinner Gr. 3-8 Writing Interventionist Dorchester School District Two Learning By Design Conference January 13, 2014

2. Mission and Vision Mission: Dorchester School District Two leading the way, every student, every day, through relationships, rigor, and relevance. Vision: Dorchester School District Two desires to be recognized as a “World Class” school district, expecting each student to achieve at his/her optimum level in all areas, and providing all members of our district family with an environment that permits them to do their personal best.

3. Contact Information Susan Grinsteinner • Gr. 3-8 Writing Interventionist • Dorchester District Two sgrinsteinner@dorchester2.k12.sc.us 843-860-9694

4. Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer’s Workshop Jeff Anderson, Stenhouse, 2005

5. Goals:Teach Grammar In Contextto Increase students’ ability to be effective communicators.

6. “We have to find ways to teach students about grammar and mechanics at a time when they have less and less experience with the written word.” Mechanically Inclined, p. 13

7. Where Do We Start?

8. Punctuation Takes a Vacation

9. No comma after introductory element Vague pronoun reference No comma in compound sentence Wrong word No comma in nonrestrictive element Wrong/missing inflected ending Wrong or missing prepositions Comma splice Possessive apostrophe error Tense shift Unnecessary shift in tense Sentence fragments Wrong tense or verb form Subject-verb agreement Lack of comma in a series Pronoun agreement error Unnecessary comma with restrictive element Run-on or fused sentence Dangling or misplaced modifier It's versus its error 20 Most Common Errors in Order of Frequency

10. 20 Most Common Errors in Order of Frequency Base your Teaching on the CCSS Firstand Student Errors Second. http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter3e/20errors/

11. Nouns and Verbs Have a Field Day

12. Before Teaching a Skill or Strategy, Ask… • How is this grammar and mechanics issue also a craft issue? How can I use it to generate authentic text? • How can I look at it in the context of literature? • How can I quickly turn kids back to their writing, so they can be on their way to becoming independent revisers, crafters, and editors?

13. Whenever your students aren't successful with grammar and mechanics, ask yourself these questions... • What have I done to teach this grammar or mechanics pattern? • Have I immersed students in correct models? Visually and orally? • Did I post an example? • Have I demonstrated how to use the mechanics pattern in a piece of my own writing? • Have I modeled correcting this type of error in focused edits? • Have I given students ample practice in editing this particular type of error? • Is the item on the classes' editor's checklist? • Have I directed the students to edit their own writing for this type of error on multiple occasions? • Is this mechanical error important enough to warrant doing all of the aforementioned work to teach it?

14. What is Teaching Grammar in Context? • The key is meaning, not length. • Context does not have to mean using whole texts only. It does not have to mean using students’ writing. • We can zoom into the sentence or paragraph level for initial instruction and zoom back to the essay level once the pattern is established.

15. Pulling It All Together… • Use the shortest mentor text possible. • Teach quick doses of grammar and mechanics and apply it to writing daily. • Have students use writer’s notebooks to apply and play with mentor sentences. • Give students scaffolds for their writer’s notebooks. • Fill walls with visuals that provide reinforcement. • Extend the invitation…

16. You’re Invited… • An Invitation to Notice • An Invitation to Imitate • An Invitation to Collect • An Invitation to Write • An Invitation to Revise • An Invitation to Edit • An Invitation to Celebrate Invite Students to THINK.

17. The Other Way to Listen

18. Max’s Words

19. Mentor Texts • A mentor text is any text that can teach a writer about any aspect of writer’s craft, from sentence structure, to quotation marks to “show don’t tell.”

20. Show -- Don’t Tell

21. Mentor Texts • Where do you find mentor texts? • Correct sentences from proofreading warm-ups • A text you are reading or will read in class • Students’ Writing • Great Sentences Blog • http: //www.greatsentces.blogspot.com/

22. When I Was Young in the Mountains • When I was young in the mountains, we listened to frogs sing at dusk and awoke to cowbells outside our windows.

23. AAAWWUBBIS • As • Although • After • While • When • Unless • Before • Because • If • Since Opener , sentence .

25. When I was young… • Imitate ten sample sentences. • Circle the one you have the most to say about. • Begin freewriting. • Start every sentence with a subordinate conjunction.

26. Wall Charts That Work • Write big. • Include examples. • Use color. • Use light backgrounds. • Place carefully. • Have students use sentence strips.

28. Moving from “Correct - Alls” to Mentor Texts

29. Ask Yourself… • Is it a sane educational strategy to have kids stare at something so wrong for the first ten minutes of class everyday?

30. What the Research Says • What students see and hear will end up in their writing sooner or later. • Harste, Burke, & Woodward (1985) • Cambourne (1987) • Bernabei (2005)

31. Canning Daily Correct-Alls • Daily Correct-Alls: prepackaged proofreading warm-ups • It is impossible to spend sufficient time on each type of error. • There is little transfer. • Sentences on standardized tests will only have one error. • It’s all about finding what is wrong with writing rather than what is right. • Consider using mentor texts instead.

32. Day 1 • His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age. Maya Angelou I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings • What do you notice about this sentence? Write your observations in your Writer’s Notebook.

33. Day 2 • His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age. • The bathroom smelled of vanilla, lavender, and relaxation. • Compare yesterday's sentence to the imitation sentence I wrote today. What do you notice? Write your observations in your Writer’s Notebook.

34. Day 3 • His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age. • The bathroom smelled of vanilla, lavender, and relaxation. • Today, write your own imitation of the sentences above. Compare your sentence to the others. What do you notice? Write your observations in your Writer’s Notebook.

35. Day 4 • Use your imitation sentence from yesterday as the lead for a paragraph. Write your paragraph in your Writer’s Notebook.

36. Day 5 • Revise and edit your paragraph from yesterday and turn it in when you have finished.

37. Option • His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age. • His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age.

38. Think of grammar as creational rather than correctional.

39. More Ways to Teach Writers’ Secrets • Lift a sentence from literature and let students tell you what is right about it. • Lift a sentence from literature and leave out one piece of punctuation or make one usage error and have students correct it. • Lift a sentence from student writing and imitate it’s mistake. • Ask students to imitate a construction and talk about it’s uses. • Ask students to copy down an example of a rule from a mentor text, then discuss it.

40. The Key… • …to unlocking writers’ secrets is that the “secret” has to be applied in writing that day, pointed to again during writing workshop, and again at the close of writer’s workshop.

41. Weaving Grammar and Mechanics into Writer’s Workshop

42. A Writer’s Notebook

43. Setting Up Writer’s Notebooks • Never tear out a page of your notebook. • Leave a “fly page” up front just like in books. • Number pages only on the bottom right-hand side, starting after the fly page. • Only write on the right-hand pages. Leave the left hand pages blank for revisit, rethinking, and tinkering.

44. Writer’s Eye or Writer’s I • Students write about the life they’ve observed with their own eyes. • Students start a collection of the people, places, games, hobbies, interests, and so forth they know well.

45. Handling the Notebooks • Do they go home? • Storage? • What if students mess up? • Assessing?

46. Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer

47. “Write what’s in front of your nose.” William Carlos Williams • Remind students… • You don’t have to write about big trips to Disney World, though you certainly can. If all you ever write about are the things that happen to you at home or at school, that’s enough.

48. Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street

49. Freewriting • Many students will “stall out” after only a few minutes. • Freewriting Rules! • Begin with a stimulating piece of literature.

50. Bedhead