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Getting It Right
Michael W. Smith
&
Jeffrey D. Wilhelm
Getting It Right
Fresh Approaches to Teaching Grammar,
Usage, and Correctness
Organization
Chapter 1: About the book
 Chapter 2: Teaching grammar
 Chapter 3: “Errors Matter, but Not
Equally and Not as Much as We Think
They Do”


Peer editing
Organization
Chapter 4: Some common errors, and
how we can correct them
 Chapter 5: “Will it Work in the Real
World?”


“Embedding focused instruction in
grammar in contexts in which kids get kids
get repeated practice writing meaningful
texts would seem to better serve everyone
involved” (146).
Teaching Grammar
Language is complex!
 And sometimes “paying attention to
grammatical forms and rules diverts
attention from structuring coherent
prose” (12).

For instance…
What is the rule for
ordering adjectives of age,
nationality, and number in
English?
Put the following words in
correct order:
French the young girls four
Put the following words in
correct order:
French the young girls four
The four young French girls
What to Teach
The term is so commonly used that
teachers, texts, and tests presume that
students know it.
 The term is essential to being able to
explain an important issue of style or
correctness.

Guiding Principle

“Because we are interested in engaging
kids in activities that will improve their
writing, their writing is our focus.
We don’t suggest having them read
sentences and then underline the verbs.
We don’t have them circle auxiliary
verbs. We don’t do any kind of project
that only involves making lists of
individual verbs” (18).
Teaching Verbs
Pantomimes
 Brainstorm
 Thesaurus
 Scenario Response
 Video Excerpts
 Dialogue and Inflection

Teaching Active and Passive Voice
Using headline and sentence
comparison
 Applying the passive to student writing

Debating school policies
 Creating headlines for own writings, events
in class readings

Correctness
Is there a standard?
 The issue of dialects


Six primary ways that nonstandard dialects
of English tend to differ from Standard
English
From Schuster (2000)
1.
Different Verb forms
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Also, different forms of irregular verbs
Double negatives or comparatives
Difference in subject-verb agreement
Different use of pronouns
Using an adjective form in an adverbial
context
Miscellaneous words and phrases such as
ain’t, anyways, this here
Errors

Establish a hierarchy
Errors that interfere with communication
and understanding
 Errors that undermine the authority of the
writer
 Commonality of errors

Errors

Attention to individual issues
Sheet on the inside of each student’s
portfolio that indicates both class and
individual goals for that semester
 Dual Grade Sheet

Peer Editing

Many different worksheet examples
Students give an overall grade (1-5) and
explain
 Students offer suggestions (and reasons
for those suggestions) which the authors
must accept, adapt or reject, and give their
reasons

Teaching Text Structures

Classification
Essential to all forms of inquiry
 “Classification and pattern seeking are
essential to good reading (seeing repeated
patterns and the complex implied
relationships among them” (115).

Example:
School Activities
1. Curricular
1.
Math
1.
2.
2.
English
1.
2.
Algebra
Calculus
American Lit
Extracurricular
1.
Sports
1.
2.
basketball
Clubs
1.
Drama
Guiding Principle:
“What’s critical is not the precise form the
lessons would take, but rather the insights
that guide the construction of the lessons.
First, any lesson should be designed to give
students tools for the writing they’re
currently working on, not simply to give
them a term to learn. Second, students
should learn terms and how to use them
through extended practice in their own
writing, as opposed to only doing a work
sheet or analyzing someone else’s writing in a
textbook” (27).
Getting It Right
Smith & Wilhelm
A LOT of lesson ideas
 A LOT of handouts available for these
lessons
 $14.95 on Amazon
