* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Download Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real
Comparison (grammar) wikipedia , lookup
Modern Greek grammar wikipedia , lookup
Sloppy identity wikipedia , lookup
Lexical semantics wikipedia , lookup
Junction Grammar wikipedia , lookup
Georgian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Kannada grammar wikipedia , lookup
Old English grammar wikipedia , lookup
Arabic grammar wikipedia , lookup
Macedonian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Zulu grammar wikipedia , lookup
Swedish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Lithuanian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Compound (linguistics) wikipedia , lookup
Preposition and postposition wikipedia , lookup
Transformational grammar wikipedia , lookup
Portuguese grammar wikipedia , lookup
English clause syntax wikipedia , lookup
Serbo-Croatian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Scottish Gaelic grammar wikipedia , lookup
Icelandic grammar wikipedia , lookup
Ancient Greek grammar wikipedia , lookup
Modern Hebrew grammar wikipedia , lookup
Chinese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Japanese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Malay grammar wikipedia , lookup
Yiddish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Latin syntax wikipedia , lookup
Vietnamese grammar wikipedia , lookup
Italian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Russian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Esperanto grammar wikipedia , lookup
Turkish grammar wikipedia , lookup
French grammar wikipedia , lookup
Romanian grammar wikipedia , lookup
Pipil grammar wikipedia , lookup
Polish grammar wikipedia , lookup
Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Presented by Amy Benjamin Part One: Seeing Grammar with New Eyes Part Two: Teaching the Parts of Speech Staff Development Workshops Part Three: Grammar for Construction Lunch Part Four: Complete Sentence Recognition Part Five: Grammar for Correction Part Six: Switching the Code from Informal to Formal “ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Morning: I. About seeing grammar with new eyes I. Teaching the parts of speech through visuals and manipulatives; using morphology charts to unite grammar instruction with literature/writing/vocabulary III. Grammar for construction: 8 powerful, teachable sentence techniques to improve student writing and thinking Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Afternoon: I. Multiple ways to teach students how to recognize complete sentences and clausal boundaries II. Accessible guidelines for clear and accurate writing III. Creating foldables for sentence construction and common homonym use IV. Creating a classroom visual for code-switching between informal and formal language register I teaching grammar. I never “really” learned it. Shouldn’t they already have had this in the lower grades? Do kids really have to learn all these terms? I loved it! I thought diagramming sentences was fun! There’s no interesting way to teach grammar. It’s just drill and workbook. Grammar “takes away” from the study of literature. M Students struggle with going from speech to writing, and then from informal to formal style. Seeing Grammar With Old Eyes For error correction only No acknowledgement of language variation or language change Drills and exercises with contrived language Seeing Grammar With New Eyes •Respect for language variation and change: •Developing a “language of the language” to allow communication between teachers and students Seeing Grammar With New Eyes •Learning to be in control of the rhetorical effects of grammatical choices •Understanding that the ability to copy the patterns of a language (grammar) is inborn, fascinating, and miraculous! GRAMMAR IN THE HEART OF THE WRITING PROCESS: 8 Sentence-Crafting Techniques: 1. Prepositional phrase sentence openers 2. Strong action verbs 3. Noun phrase appositives 4. Appositive adjective pairs 5. Choosing active or passive voice 6. Adverbial clauses 7. Semicolon in a compound sentence 8. Parallel structure Pre-writing experience: (non-sentence form) Drafting Revising Editing Point of intervention for substantial language improvement Point of intervention for surface error correction Publication I. Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers. He advocated for them. He did not encourage violence. He led a boycott instead of violence. The boycott was an effective method of resistance. (30) II. Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers, and he advocated for them. He did not encourage violence. He led a boycott instead of violence, and the boycott was an effective method of resistance. (32) III. Cesar Chavez, advocate for farm workers, helped them not by encouraging violence, but by leading a boycott, an effective method of resistance. (22) Grammatical choices have rhetorical effects. It was the very witching time of night. Ichabod was heavy-hearted and crestfallen. He pursued his travels homewards… It was the very witching time of night when Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travels homewards… Techniques: 1. Adverbial clause: …when Ichabod…. 2. Post-noun adjective pair: Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, …. “The Legend of Sleep Hollow” by Washington Irving There was Craig, the basketball-star brother, tall and friendly and courteous and funny, working as an investment banker but dreaming of going into coaching someday. Techniques: 1. Appositive: Craig, the basketball-star brother, 2. Loose sentence: Subject-verb established upfront, followed by well-developed modifier structures (including four postnoun adjectives) 3. Polysyndeton (“and” between modifiers to emphasize each one) 4. Parallel structure: working…but dreaming… 5. Verbals: working, dreaming, going Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Presented by Amy Benjamin Staff Development Workshops Part Two: Teaching the Parts of Speech Reading Rods® Sentence-Construction Kit Sentence-Construction Individual Student Kit 156 rods, Activity Flipbook, 36-page Instructional Guide. 00 Item # Description Units Price INP60016 Reading Rods Sentence-Construction: Individual Kit Each $38.95 http://www.etacuisenaire.com/catalog/ Qty We showed we know that: A sentence needs a subject and a verb, and maybe an object., A noun may be modified by an adjective, which is probably in the pre-noun position. A verb, adjective, or other adverb may be modified by an adverb, which may be movable within the sentence. A conjunction may be used to join elements within a sentence or even to join whole sentences. A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition plus an object, which is A noun or pronoun., A prepositional phrase may function adverbially or adjectivally. A pronoun replaces a noun + its modifiers Grammar Lessons with Reading Rods: Concept: Procedure: Students build declarative sentences. You then direct them to do the following: 1. A sentence is a two-part structure requiring subject-verb agreement. Hold the subject (Who or what is the sentence about?) in one hand; the predicate (What about it?) in the other. Ask students to pass their “subject” blocks to another group. When students sense that the newly-formed sentences don’t always “go together,” you have the opportunity to explain what we mean by subject-verb agreement. Have students explain what they would have to do to achieve subjectverb agreement with the newly-formed sentences. 2, A sentence can be stripped down to its subject-verb core and then built up with modifiers. Have students create a green-yellow “sentence core.” Add modifiiers (adjectives, adverbs, prepositional phrases). Point out that some modifiers precede the nouns and verbs that they modify; others follow them. Have students experiment with the movability of modifiers and the punctuation obligations that result from moving modifiers around in the sentence. (See Lesson 5) 3. Parts of speech have certain properties and forms. Have students group the Reading Rods by color. Ask them to (use inductive reasoning) to draw conclusions about what each class of words has in common. Consider the endings that various word classes can accept. Then, use the Owner’s Manuals to get a fuller picture of the properties of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. 4. In English, it is common for nouns, verbs, and adjectives to perform each other’s functions. (functional shifting) Have students use one part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) as another. Name this capability as a functional shift. 5. A noun phrase may be expanded by adding modifiers to either side of it. The noun being expanded is called the headword. Have students use modifiers (adjectives, prepositional phrases) to expand their noun phrases. This is the opportunity to teach whether or not a comma is necessary between adjectives: If the adjectives don’t usually go together, then we do need a comma to separate them. A variation of this guideline is that if the adjectives can easily be reversed, then we do need a comma. Another variation is that if “and” can come between the adjectives, then we do need a comma. 10 Grammar Lessons with Reading Rods: Concept: Procedure: 6.A pronoun takes the place of a noun and its modifiers (not just the noun). Although it is commonly taught that a pronoun “takes the place of a noun,” the fact is that the pronoun takes the place of the noun + its modifiers (noun phrase). To illustrate this concept, have students try replacing the noun only with a pronoun. They will immediately see that the true function of a pronoun is to replace the noun + its modifiers, not just the noun. 7. Adverbs are often movable within the sentence. As students experiment with how the sentence changes when the adverbs are moved around, use the teachable moment for a lesson in punctuation: We use a comma (or a pair of commas around the adverb that has been moved) to signal an inversion. 8. A compound sentence is formed by combining two independent clause with a comma and a coordinating conjunction. Have students join two independent clauses with a coordinating conjunction. This is the opportunity to teach that unless the independent clauses of a compound sentence are very short, we use both a comma and a coordinating conjunction to form a compound sentence.( A semicolon may also be used to create a compound sentence.) (Suggestion: Using purple paper, create several more blocks with conjunctions.) 9. Clauses are either independent or dependent. Dependent clauses are created with subordinating conjunctions. Have students create independent clauses (aka complete sentences) and add subordinating conjunctions (as, after, although, while, when, until, unless, because, before, if, since) to develop an understanding of how complex sentences are formed and punctuated. 10. A complex sentence consists of a dependent and independent clause, either of which may come first in the sentence. If the dependent clause comes first, then a comma is required after it. See above. A 5-Day Sequence for Sentence Building with Reading Rods Day One: Create your sentence and write it down. Day Two : Divide the subject and the predicate. Experiment with new subjects and new predicates. Day Three : Expand your noun phrases. Day Four: Expand your verb phrase., Day Five: Experiment with conjunctions. Two Categories of Words in English Form Class Words: Structure Class Words: Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Prepositions Conjunctions Determiners (aka articles: a, an, the) Intensifers Pronouns Interjections Jabbowocky ‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe. All mimsy was the borogrove And the womrath outgrabe. Noun: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of a NOUN. Your NOUN may be used to fit into the following frame: The____________. Your NOUN is used to name people, places, things, ideas, qualities, states of mind, and all kinds of other things that need naming. Your NOUN may be easily converted into an adjective. All you have to do is put another NOUN after it and have it make sense. (COW pasture, for example). Your NOUN may be the kind of NOUN that can be made plural. Only NOUNS may be made plural. Your NOUN may be able to be made possessive by adding ‘s. Only NOUNS may be made possessive. When you make your NOUN possessive, it becomes an adjective. You may add all kinds of modifiers before and after your NOUN. You may replace your NOUN along with its modifiers with a pronoun. Feel free to use your NOUN as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object complement, object of a preposition, appositive, or predicate noun Your noun may be called a nominal when we consider it together with its modifiers. Adjective: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of an ADJECTIVE. Your ADJECTIVE may be used to fit into the following frame: The______________truck. Or The truck was very_________. Your ADJECTIVE likes to answer the question What kind? If your ADJECTIVE doesn’t fit into either of these frames, maybe it is the kind of ADJECTIVE that answers the questions Which one? or How many? Your ADJECTIVE may be capable of using the suffixes –er in the comparative form and –est in the superlative form. (If your ADJECTIVE doesn’t like these suffixes, just use more and most to accomplish comparison or superiority.) Your ADJECTIVE reports to your NOUN, and your NOUN can easily become an ADJECTIVE to another NOUN. Often, groups of words decide to get together and do ADJECTIVE-like work. We call such groups of words ADJECTIVALS, and they may be phrases or clauses that operate just like ADJECTIVES, answering those questions that ADJECTIVES answer. Verb: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of a VERB. Your VERB may be used to fit into the following frame: To______________. Your VERB is the part of the sentence that is capable of turning the sentence into a negative. It is also the part of the sentence that changes when you add yesterday or right now. (If your sentence does not change when you add yesterday to it, then your sentence is in the past tense. If your sentence does not change when you add right now to it, then it is in the present tense.) Your VERB may be an action verb or a linking verb. Action verbs may take direct objects and are modified by adverbs. Linking verbs take predicate nouns and predicate adjectives. You can easily find a list of linking verbs. Your VERB may take auxiliaries (forms of have, be) and modal auxiliaries (could, should, would, can, will, shall, may, might, must). Your VERB sometimes uses a form of the word do to create a sentence, to emphasize, to negate, or to stand in for itself, as in: Do you think so? Yes, I do. Adverb: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of an ADVERB. Your ADVERB is very useful for answering one of the following questions: When? Where? Why? How often? To what extent? In what manner? Often, groups of words decide to get together to do ADVERB-like work, and when they do, we call these groups of words ADVERBIALS. ADVERBIALS may be phrases or clauses that answer the questions that ADVERBS answer.. Morphology Chart NOUNS: VERBS: ADJECTIVES: ADVERBS: They will fit into the frame: The_____. They will fit into the frame: Can______ (or) Can be_______ They answer one of these questions: Which one? What kind? How many? They answer one of these questions: Where? When? Why? To what extent? How often? In what manner? Regular verbs have four forms: Base form; -s form; -ed form; -ing form Although most verbs in their -ed and –ing forms can be used as adjectives, you don’t have to repeat the forms in this column. The adjectives that will be in this chart will answer, “What kind?” The adverbs that will be in this chart will answer, “In what manner?” It’s easier to teach parts of speech than you think. Simply use the cues above. Use the morphology chart to illustrate how a word can change its forms, adapting itself to more than one part of speech. Not all words follow the same morphology. It’s interesting to see how words morph into different forms. The morphology chart is great for grammar lessons, vocabulary expansion, and spelling. See www.amybenjamin.com for blank and sample morphology charts. Six Reasons for Teaching Prepositions: 1. Prepositions add time and place detail to sentences 2. Students can vary their sentence structure and set the stage for a sentence by beginning some sentences with prepositions. 3. Students can add power to their writing by ending paragraphs with a prepositional phrase. (Conversely: Students can avoid ending sentences with prepositions so that their sentences are not weak or too informal.) 4. Students can avoid subject-verb agreement errors by recognizing prepositional phrases that intervene between the subject and the verb, as in “A box of matches (is, are) on the kitchen table.” 5. Students can create parallel structure by repeating prepositional phrases deliberately. 6. Students can select the appropriate pronoun case as the object of a preposition. (between you and me; for Joe and me) Adjective Structures Which one? What kind? How many? Adverb structures: Where? When? Why? In what manner? How often? BASIC How to use the ACTION FLASH CARDS to expand sentence skills: Have students express what is happening in the action flash card using various sentence forms: Step One: Explain what is happening in your action flash card. Step Two: Now, experiment with many different ways to write your sentence: Ex: Begin with There is/ There are____________. Don’t begin with the or a. Write a yes/no question. Write a Who? or What? or When? or Where? or Why? question. Write a sentence that has an -ING word. Write a sentence that does not use IS or ARE or WAS or WERE. Write a sentence that uses BECAUSE in the middle. Reverse that sentence to have BECAUSE as the first word. Write a sentence that use SO in the middle. Write a sentence that needs two commas. Write a sentence that has at least three phrases (word groups that don’t form a whole sentence by themselves). Write a sentence that has a compound subject. Write a sentence that has a compound verb. Common Hitching Devices Coordinating Conjunctiions Subordinating Conjunctions And But So Or/nor As, although, after While, when Until Because, before If Conjunctive Adverbs However Moreover Therefore Furthermore AAAWWUBBI Can join two independent clauses to make a compound sentence. Warning: You must use a comma with these when they join independent clauses. Can hitch up to an independent clause, creating a subordinate (dependent) clause, forming complex sentence. Can appear after main clause (no comma) or before main clause (needs a comma) Relative Pronouns That Which Who, whom What Where Why How Whichever Whatever, etc. Can move within own clause; Requires commas on both sides Warning: If you wish to use these to join clauses, you must use a semicolon. Can join clauses Warning: Many sentence fragments begin with these words. Usually, you must hitch these words and the clauses that they introduce to your previous sentence. Sentence Patterns S-V* S-V-O* S-V-C Rocks explode. Lizards like rocks. Rocks are expensive. A diamond is a rock. *SV: Subject-Verb: This pattern uses an intransitive verb. Intransitive verbs take no direct object. *S-V-O: Subject-Verb-Object: This pattern uses a transitive verb. Transitive verbs take direct objects. (Direct objects answer Who? Or What? They are used with action verbs only. *S-V-C: Subject-Verb-Complement: This pattern uses a linking verb. Linking verbs take subject complements, which can be either nouns (and when pronouns, are in the subjective case) or adjectives. Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Presented by Amy Benjamin Staff Development Workshops Grammar for Construction “ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct Grammar and the Gertie Ball™ “Grammar and the Gertie Ball™” gets you going on rhetorical grammar, the kind of thinking about sentence structure that allows us to make informed choices about how we craft sentences. “Grammar and the Gertie Ball™” is played only when the students have their rough drafts in hand. The idea is to have the students toss the ball to determine which of the eight sentence-crafting techniques to put into play on one of the sentences in their drafts. The 8 Sentence-Crafting Techniques: 1. Prepositional phrase sentence To set up Grammar and the Gertie Ball™, use a openers permanent marker to write the techniques, one in 2. Strong action verbs each of the sections delineated on the ball. 3. Noun phrase appositives 4. Appositive adjective pairs In the beginning stages, have one student toss the 5. Choosing active or passive voice ball on behalf of the class to determine the technique 6. Adverbial clauses to be practiced. 7. Semicolon in a compound sentence 8. Parallel structure You will then deliver a brief lesson on the designated technique. Students are expected to demonstrate knowledge of the technique by transforming at least one of the sentences in their draft. They need to hi-light this sentence on their final draft. Full guidelines for each of these skills are available free of charge on Eventually, students will be able to work in groups to www.amybenjamin.com. Go to accomplish their revisions. “recent presentations” and “grammar.” Presented by Amy Benjamin. www.amybenjamin.com Prepositional Phrase Sentence Openers Purpose: When you teach students to use prepositional phrases to begin some of their sentences, you’ve taught them two important skills in the sentence-crafting: 1. Varying sentence structure Most novices begin sentence after sentence with the subject word. This gives their style a blunt, plodding rhythm. By beginning some sentences with prepositional phrases, the writer achieves a softer, more professional variety in sentence rhythms. 2. Setting the stage for the action of the sentence Prepositional phrases often give information about time and place. So by beginning sentences with prepositional phrases, we set the reader up with a visual that clarifies the sentence. Mini-Lesson on prepositions and prepositional phrases: You can easily teach prepositional phrases via the song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Any word that can replace “over” is likely to be a preposition. To teach what we mean by the term “object of a preposition,” replace the word “rainbow” with any other word. Variation: Start with the sentence: “Over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house we go.” Substitute other words for “over” and “through” and you’ll generate a list of prepositions that show placement. Remember: Not all prepositions give information about placement. Some (“At night,” “after lunch”) give information about time. The word “of” is also a preposition, although sentences beginning it are rare.) Build awareness of the concept by looking for sentences in literature that open with prepositional phrases. Strong Action Verbs Purpose: Students often lack an awareness of the power of strong action verbs, as opposed to linking verbs. When you get them to consciously employ strong action verbs instead of overused verbs (have, get) or linking verbs, you enliven their language. The verb acts as the engine of the sentence: teach students to install a strong, pepp Mini-lesson: Teach that the verb is the word that changes when we transform the sentence from present to past tense, or vice versa. Ask: When does the sentence happen? Does it happen now, or did it happen yesterday?” This question will cue them in to the tensed verb of the sentence. Another teaching technique is that if you make a positive sentence negative (or, a negative sentence positive), you will find that the word “not” or “no” settles right in beside the verb. The positive-negative test will help you locate the tensed verb. Build awareness of the concept by finding sentences in literature that employ strong action verbs. Noun Phrase Appositives Purpose: Noun phrase appositives are nouns or noun phrases that sidle up right next to nouns that they re-name, like this: “My mother, a famous opera singer, never eats garlic before a performance.” When you teach your students to use noun phrase appositives, you teach them to enrich the meaning of their key nouns. You also teach them to make their writing more concise since noun phrase appositives are one way of combining sentences. Mini-lesson: Define noun phrase appositives as “re-namers” and help students locate them in authentic text. They are rather easy to find because they are set off by a pair of commas. Because they are noun phrases, they are often introduced by an article (a, an, the). Remember: Noun phrase appositives are set off by a pair of commas. Appositive Adjective Pairs Purpose: Appositve adjective pairs are two adjectives joined by “and” that appear immediately after the noun or noun phrase that they modify. Appositive adjective pairs are set off by a pair of commas. Ex: Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travels homeward. When you teach your students to use appositive adjective pairs, you’ve taught them to write in an elevated, poetic style that emphasizes adjectives by placing them in the post-noun, rather than the usual pre-noun, position. Mini-lesson: Help students understand what an adjective is by telling them that an adjective is a word that you can put “more” or “most” in front of. (For short adjectives, you can add –er and –est endings.) Another way is to tell them that an adjective is a word that will fit into this frame: “The ____________ truck.” Show students how adjectives, when they are doing the average, expected job, appear before the noun as in “The red truck.” We can also use an adjective after a form of the verb TO BE, as in “The truck IS red.” However, if we want the adjective to receive special attention, we can pair it up with another adjective and place it on the OTHER side of the noun that it modifies, setting it off with a pair of commas. Build awareness of the concept by looking for post-noun adjectives in literature, which often employs post-noun adjective pairs, as in the example above, from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Choosing Active or Passive Voice Purpose: Good writers make deliberate decisions about when to use active voice and when to use passive voice. Novice writers tend to overuse passive voice. You can tell that a sentence is in passive voice because there is no agent doing the action. Ex: Active voice: The first baseman threw the ball to second. Passive voice: The ball was thrown to second. OR The ball was thrown to second by the first baseman. When you teach students to recognize passive voice and question whether the sentence would be better in active voice, you are teaching them a critical thinking and language management skill that will make them more effective communicators. Mini-lesson: Have students transform messages from active to passive voice and vice versa. Have them evaluate which form is more effective for the purpose and audience. You will find good examples of sentences written in active voice in sports writing. You will find good examples of sentences written in passive voice in math writing (“The numerator is divided by the denominator.”) and often in businesslike writing (“Shoes and shirts are required.”) Every sentence is written in either active or passive voice. Build awareness of voice when reading authentic text. Get students accustomed to switching from one to the other and evaluating the effect that either active or passive voice has upon the reader. Adverbial Clauses Purpose: When you teach your students to include adverbial clauses in their sentences, you are enabling them to create sentences that deliver information beyond the basics. Adverbial clauses are clauses (subject + verb units) that answer any one of the questions that adverbs answer: When? Where? Why? To what extent? In what manner? Mini-Lesson: Because adverbial clauses are introduced by subordinating conjunctions, you can teach your students to include subordinating conjunctions in their sentences. The most common subordinating conjunctions are as follows: As, Although, After When, While Until, Unless Because, Before If Since Note that adverbial clauses create complex sentences.: A complex sentence is a sentence having a main clause plus a subordinate clause. We can recognize the subordinate clause because it is the clause that begins with one of the subordinating conjunctions above. When the main clause comes first, we do not need a comma to separate the two clauses. However, when the clauses are reversed, with the subordinate clause coming first, then we do need a comma after the subordinate clause. Semicolon in a Compound Sentence Purpose: When you teach your students to use a semicolon to create a compound sentence, you are teaching them to create parallel sentences. Ideally, a “semicolon sentence” signals that there are two independent clauses that are similar in both meaning and structure: they could each be separate, but they want to be together., Mini-lesson: Explain the relationship between the two independent clauses in a compound sentence that is joined by a semicolon as a marriage: The semicolon is “licensed” to create a “legal” tie between two independent entities (clauses) that have so much in common that they wish to be united. Build awareness of how semicolons work in compound sentences by noticing them in authentic text. Editorials are great places in which to find semicolon sentences. Encourage critical thinking by having students evaluate other choices that the writer could have made to join or separate clauses. (Note: A semicolon can also be used to separate items in a series when the items themselves contain commas.) Parallel Structure Purpose: When you teach students to write sentences containing parallel structure, you are teaching them to expand their ideas and present them in a way that the reader will find smooth and well-crafted. A sentence with parallel structure is “in tune” with its own parts. Mini-lesson: There are all kinds of parallel structure: adjective-noun phrases, participials, correlative clauses, infinitives, etc. The key to finding parallel structure (for a novice) is to look for the word and. When we find parallel structure, we need to name them for the students so that the students can see why they are parallel. Build awareness of parallel structure by finding examples of it in authentic text. Realize that parallel structure can be subtle. Often, the more we examine well-written text, the more instances of parallel structure we will find. Parallel structure can exist within single sentences. But we can also find parallel structure in sentences that “live” within the same paragraph. Oratory is the best kind of discourse in which to find parallel structure. Skillful speakers know that parallel structure creates orderliness and memorability in their language. Find examples of parallel structure in Presidential Inaugural addresses. Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Presented by Amy Benjamin Staff Development Workshops Part Four: Complete Sentence Recognition “ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone: Here are three ways to test whether a group of words forms a complete sentence. (We are talking ONLY about DECLARATIVE sentences.) Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone: Test One: The “Guess What!” test How it works: Say “Guess What!” in front of a group of words. If the group of words tells you “guess what!” then you have a complete sentence! Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone: Test Two: The “They believed that…” test How it works: Say “They believed that…” in front of a group of words. If the group of words makes sense when you say “They believed that…” in front of it, then you have a complete sentence! Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone: Test Three: The “Yes/No Question” test How it works: Can you turn your group of words into a question that can be answered with YES or NO? If you can, then your group of words is a complete sentence. Why fragments? Fragments are usually subordinate clauses that need to be attached to the previous sentence. Subordinate clauses often begin with: Which, That, Who Subordinate clauses often begin with: Adjective clauses: Tell you “which one?” “what kind?” Adverbial clauses: Tell you “when?” “where?” “why?” “how?” “to what extent?” AAAWWUUBBI: As, Although, After, When, While, Until, Unless, Because, Before, If Phrase, Clause, Sentence A phrase is two or more words that go together (without being a sentence). There are noun phrases and verb phrases. Once we have both a noun and a verb, then we have a clause. A clause is a group of words that may or may not be a complete sentence. If a clause can be a complete sentence, then we call it an independent clause. (If a clause cannot stand alone as a sentence, then we call it a subordinate clause. Why run-ons? Run-ons result from the improper joining of independent clauses. When independent clauses are joined by JUST a COMMA, we call that kind of run-on a COMMA SPLICE. To fix a comma splice, just add and, but, so, or a semicolon. How do you know if you have a run-on? Try your favorite sentence test. A clause is a group of words that may or may not be a complete sentence. If a clause can be a complete sentence, then we call it an independent clause. Listen carefully for the point at which the information in each independent clause ends. The Sentence-Making Kit Fold a 5 x 8 index card in half, width-wise: Guess What! 1. They believed that… 2. Yes/no question Stick-on question Bicycle: Who or what? What about it? 3. 4. 5. The Sentence-Making Kit On the inside of the card: AAAWWUBBIS: although, as, after while, when until because, before if, since If a sentence begins with any of these words, it must have two parts. Place a comma between the two parts if one of these words begins the sentence. These words, plus the comma, may join ,and two sentences. Writers sometimes begin ,but sentences with these words if they are ,so doing so for emphasis. Use as many These words will help you ACTION VERBS as possible. give detail in your sentences: Try beginning some of your Use words and groups of words that sentences with these words: answer the ADVERB QUESTIONS: IN FOR ON WITH When? Where? Why? How? AT To what extent? How often? Flip the switch into formal English: a lot = a great many or a great deal gonna= going to wanna= want to hafta= have to get,got = become, became, receive received, obtain, obtained gotta: must The Sentence-Making Kit On the back of the card: Substitutions for homophones and spelling problems: their = his there = here they’re = they are your = his you’re = you are its = his it’s = it is; it has I before E except after C Or when sounded as A As in neighbor or sleigh woman = man women = men Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Presented by Amy Benjamin Staff Development Workshops Part Five: Grammar for Correction “ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct Homophones: The Substitution System There √Their They’re The substitution for THEIR is HIS: Their His house is next to our house.. The Wilsons keep their dog inside a fence. his All students should be respectful to their his bus drivers . Homophones: The Substitution System √There Their They’re The substitution for THERE is HERE: There Here is a big truck parked outside our house. Please put the candy over Here there We expected some friends to meet us Here there at six o’clock. Homophones: The Substitution System There Their √They’re The substitution for THEY’RE is THEY ARE: They They’re are moving into the house next door.. are I saw that They they’re Sometimes, they’reare They training a new puppy. not happy. Homophones: The Substitution System √Your You’re If you can substitute HIS, use YOUR: Your His mother is calling you on your cell phone. Get to know the children in his your Introduce me to ITS/IT’s works the same way. YOUR: substitute HIS class. your his friends. Engaging Grammar: Practical Advice for Real Classrooms Presented by Amy Benjamin Staff Development Workshops Part Six: Switching the Code from Informal to Formal “ I’ve never known a person who wasn’t interested in language.” -Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct Informal and Formal English Informal and formal English got, gotta hafta gonna have, have to going to want to wanna let me lemme would have, should have, could have woulda, shoulda, coulda because cuz