grammar in the slammer

No fluff included

2009-11-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, we went outside to do the group introduction to Milkweed. I can see why this activity was relevant to the novel. I was really uncomfortable when people were volunteering to be the jackboots. I would never want to volunteer for a position like that. I liked the idea of the activity. I liked how the group asked what movies and books talked about Nazi’s and Jews. It was amazing to see how many of the books written about this topic were from the eyes of a little kid. I don’t know if I could teach Milkweed in the classroom, unless it was to an 11th grade AP class. The reason why I wouldn’t teach this book to a freshman class is because I think that the students wouldn’t take this book as seriously as it needs to be taken. I could teach it to 11th grade/ AP. I guess I would suggest this book as a book talk for sophomores who want a brief introduction to the Holocaust. I thought a lot about my book talks that are coming up. I also have an idea for my chapter that is worth 30% of our grade.

I hope I did this right...

2009-11-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

So I missed the whole "brushstrokes" lesson on Monday because I wasn't feeling too well, but based on my observations of other students' blogs, and Barbara's demonstration, I think I somewhat get an idea of what is supposed to be happening, so here it goes...
This is taken from a journal I had to write about my experience in a classroom for a teaching class.

Today was the first day of my three week observation. As I walked into class, I noticed that there were only 15 students in first period. Mrs. Smith, was the woman I was observing for, and she told the class that they needed to sit down if they wanted to be marked present. The freshmen who are enrolled in regular English, are more of a challenge, than the last three classes, who are juniors. The two freshmen classes are reading Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. The first six minutes of the class was spent doing an ‘entry task’ in which the students spend six minutes writing down questions they have on Romeo and Juliet, grades or what happened during their weekend. All was going well with the entry task, until Mrs. Smith asked me to lead a lesson. I stepped up to the board and discussed Romeo and Juliet; luckily, it was a success, and the students seemed as anxious as me, but in that moment, I felt incredibly nervous. Unlike the first group of freshmen, the second class was a little bigger, so they had to do more mundane things, such as working in groups to look at the text. The last three classes are juniors, and they are working on a paper about religion in schools. I get to help with that, so I am excited! Midterms are due in two days, so the mood is a mix of angst and chaos. I don’t know if the students are usually this rowdy, but maybe because I’m new they think they have a right to goof off in front of the teacher.

With corrections:
Today was the first day of my three week observation. As I walked into class, with a natural high of anxiety and excitement [Participle], I noticed that there were only 15 students in first period. Mrs. Smith, a lovable, yet strict teacher [Appositive], was the woman I was observing for, and she told the class that they needed to sit down if they wanted to be marked present. The freshmen, wild and anxious [adjectives out of order], who are enrolled in regular English, are more of a challenge, than the last three classes, who are juniors. The two freshmen classes are reading Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, the noble and classic [adjectives out of order] literary being. The first six minutes of the class was spent doing an ‘entry task’ in which the students spend six minutes writing down questions they have on Romeo and Juliet, grades or what happened during their weekend. All was going well with the entry task, until Mrs. Smith asked me to lead a lesson. With my hands shaking, and nerves racing, [Absolute] I stepped up to the board and discussed Romeo and Juliet; luckily, it was a success, and the students seemed as anxious as me, but in that moment, I felt incredibly nervous. Unlike the first group of freshmen, the second class was a little bigger, so they had to do more mundane things, such as working in groups to look at the text. The last three classes are juniors, and they are working on a paper about religion in schools. I get to help with that, so I am excited! Midterms are due in two days, so the mood is a mix of angst and chaos. I don’t know if the students are usually this rowdy, but maybe because I’m new they think they have a right to goof off in front of the teacher.

Cougs looking to get first Pac-10 win this weekend!

2009-10-08T19:11:00.001-07:00

During Monday’s class, Barbara talked about AAWWUBIS…or however you spell that. I thought this was really helpful, again like the use of FANBOYS. I was surprised at how few times I used any of these AAWWUBIS words in my blogs, but was happy to find that most of them were followed by commas. I really like the idea of using these abbreviations to understand the words’ meanings and how they are used in writing. However, I was a little confused on one of my blogs and not following one of my introductory phrases with a comma. My blog was used during one of the examples when Stephanie and Shannon were presenting, and the sentences was, “This week I was writing a paper for one of my classes and I found myself using it’ and its in the wrong places. Barbara at first said that there needed to be a comma after the “this week” part, but then later said it was a judgment call. I am still not sure what I should have done there. I really like that we are now adding mini-lessons to give some clarification on topics we have somewhat covered in class. I think that this idea of a mini-lesson is an excellent resource for the classroom.
After the mini-lesson on Wednesday, we started looking for scrapbooking material in the newspapers and magazines that Barbara provided. I was happy to have completed my “errors in print” section, and found that The Spokesman Review is a great source for errors…embarrassing ones to be exact. I really wish that we could use spelling errors for that section, because in the sports section of the paper, I found that football was spelled fotball, and I nearly fell off my chair. In fact, a lot of my “errors in print” section comes from the sports page in the Spokesman. I found another football error that talked about a, “47-year-field goal,” instead of 47 yards. I have now found that every time I skim a magazine or newspaper, I am constantly looking for errors or “breaking the rules.” I am trying to get my errors and breaking the rules out of the way so that I can have fun with the gems section. I am sure that most of my gems will come from ESPN or Sports Illustrated magazine.
I am happy that we had time in class to scrapbook, because it really helps when you have peers surrounding you, and helping to clarify what is and isn’t considered an error. I would like to vote for more scrapbook time in class, because it’s enjoyable and makes a little less stressful, since we have about 20 people who could give some good feedback. I hope that I am doing everything that is expected from me for the scrapbook. I feel like I have a good grasp on everything we have touched on, but I just hope that I am not finding a minute error, that isn’t exactly what Barbara is looking for.

My question for the week: Well my question relates back to my blog example, and what I mentioned in my first paragraph. Would you guys put a comma after my opening, “This week?” I am curious to know and pondering whether it is indeed a judgment call.

Cougs looking to get first Pac-10 win this weekend!

2009-10-08T19:10:00.000-07:00

Watch Tuel in his first start against the Ducks!

2009-09-30T23:41:00.000-07:00

I thought Barbara’s lesson on FANBOYS was extremely helpful. I have a really good way of remembering things when a tool such as this is used. I hope throughout the semester there are different ways of remembering these ideas, where I can just see the abbreviation and instantly know what is being talked about.
This week I was writing a paper for one of my classes and I found myself using it’s and its in the wrong places. Even though I know when its and it’s should be used, I kept forgetting to put the apostrophe, s in some of the places where it needed to be inserted. I thought this was really weird, but I guess this happens sometimes. It’s weird because sometime I will also misspell words that I know how to spell, but because it looks weird, I second guess myself. Maybe my mind is going crazy this week, who knows.
I was glad that there were some other people who felt a little angry toward the piece we read this week. I thought the text was way too long, and that she could have summed up her thoughts in two pages, not 10. I think the most important part of that piece was the idea of the two third-grade classrooms and how the class who was writing understood punctuation more than the class who was doing drills and more instruction based work. Maybe some people can learn through drill and constant critique of what is being said, but I think it’s important to learn by mistake, writing and practicing over and over again.
Barbara posed a question at the end of class, asking how and when we know to use punctuation. At first I thought this question would be really easy to answer, but then I thought about it and it’s kind of hard to explain. I guess this stuff has just become second nature to me, that I just realize when a period or comma is needed. However, there are sometimes when I think a semi-colon can be used, but then I decide against it because I feel that I don’t know the usage of semi-colons enough to try and fit them in a paper. So other than that, I feel like I have a pretty good grasp on when to use a comma, and period and exclamation!
I was happy with the Socratic Seminar again this week, but I felt that it was kind of lacking the enthusiasm we had the last time. Maybe because this piece was a little dull and straight arrowed it didn’t generate much conversation, but I think maybe we should save the Socratic Seminars for topics that are can be more open-ended with opinion.

My question for the week: Okay, so Barbara talked about lie, lay, laid…and I feel like it was pretty brief with explanation, and I think I was doing something else. Can somebody tell me when to use each, and what the difference is? I think I even heard her say, lain? Is that right? Explanation would be great!

Exploring an Imaginary Dora

2009-09-25T10:19:00.000-07:00

So this week was yet another success. I was happy to see that on Monday we had more practice with finding the direct object, verb, and subject. Barbara really broke it down for Alex and I, and showed us that if we put parantheses outside of the subject, it can really help. I finally get it! I really like how we are allowed to work with partners on everything, too. Even for simple things like scrapbooking or talking with our table members about a rule in speech, it’s nice to know that you are being helped by classmates, who might be as equally confused. I would say Monday was another success.
Wednesday was spent doing Socratic circles, this time with the whole class, which proved to be the favorite as opposed to two groups. I not only liked how we talked about it as one big class, but also, how we talked about an 11 page article, instead of four pages on rules. This allowed for more discussion, personal experiences and different ideas and opinions. I can’t say that I particularly loved Dora’s story, especially for the fact that at the beginning they said, it was an imaginative girl, but I do like how the teacher was portrayed as a helper and guide, instead of an authoritative dictator. I didn’t necessarily see the dots in between her words to be periods. I saw those as her space marks, which is okay. I think all children learn differently and at different paces, so if a child wants to put a dot there and that’s how they learn, I say go for it.
I also was pretty happy with the way our discussion went, in people relating their personal stories to what we were talking about. A story that I didn’t get to tell in class involves my now 8-year old brother, and his ways of learning. I remember helping him on his homework, and all he had to do was copy the sentence that was written, onto a lined piece of paper. So I thought this was a pretty easy task for him, considering the fact that he had to just look up to copy the sentence, but instead of copying word for word, he would mix up some of the words, and write different words altogether. One of the sentences had to do with something being great, and he decided to use the word wonderful instead. I thought this was adorable, and I didn’t know whether to correct him or not. I was hoping the teacher would see his imagination and creativity. My brother has a huge vocabulary for his age, and loves to read...but he does struggle with writing sometimes, so I think he tries to use his vocabulary to make up for that, even if he spells wonderful “w-u-n-d-e-r-f-u-l-l.”
I really like the idea of Socratic circles once a week every other week. I like hearing what my classmates have to say, and taking mental notes. I think it’s a great prep for practicing teachers, to hear everyone’s voice.

My question for this week: Has the underlining of books in a paper simply been outdated? I used to do that all the time, but now I feel like it’s only italicized. Can you use them interchangeably, or is one preferred over the other?

It was a productive week!

2009-09-17T23:40:00.000-07:00

So when Barbara told us that Wednesday was going to be the most important class of the semester, I naturally hesitated and read the assigned text about three times to prepare. I will admit that when I looked over the course packet and the Nitty Gritty Grammar book, I was a little worried about what qualified as a transitive and intransitive verb sentence. I don’t think I was properly taught the parts of speech in elementary and middle school, either. I knew the basic verb, adverb, noun, adjective and adverb, but I felt like some of my teachers would just show the class “School House Rock,” and then call it a day. There was really no emphasis on that subject, so I feel like I’m re-learning everything that I should have already known from high school.
I was really happy that Barbara showed us some examples in class on what a transitive, intransitive, and linking verb sentence was, even if she did drop the word ‘fuck’ in a sentence. Did anyone else think that was funny? I couldn’t stop laughing! Anyway, once we split up into pairs and did the magnetic poetry assignment, it really helped make the transitive and intransitive verbs easier to identify. I was happy to see that we got to participate in a fun activity because when I do things like this, it’s easier for me to remember. I am a visual learner, so anything that is in front of me to look at, makes it a lot easier to memorize and comprehend.
I definitely have a stronger grasp on what we learned this week, than I did going into it, but hopefully this stuff will come up again, because I still find myself checking the book to make sure that what I am saying classifies as one of the three verb sentence patterns that we learned. I think that learning anything new takes time, and I feel like the parts of speech have more to them than just verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc; there is a whole branch of elements per part of speech, and it’s a lot like learning a new language. I can already tell that I will be learning a lot in this class, that I didn’t already know. This is a really refreshing feeling, and I am glad that I get to take on a new challenge of learning how a sentence is formed, using the different ideas and parts of speech. I also want to add that I really liked the idea of a “Socratic Seminar.” However, I hope that when we use it in the future, it is for more than four pages of a text and that the observers are encouraged to speak up if something is said within the circle that interests them.

My question for the week is more of an opinion question using the “Socratic Seminars.” I want to know if people liked the idea of using this in the classroom. I liked that it was demonstrated on Monday, but I would have done a lot of things differently, and I felt like there was a lot said in the first group, but the second group (the one I was in) had to come up with their own ideas, basically. Do you like the idea of this in a classroom, or not?

What I've learned...

2009-09-11T00:26:00.000-07:00

So for this blog I’m supposed to write approximately 500 words on what I’ve learned so far in the semester. Well, it’s a little overwhelming how much I’ve learned since August 24th. Seeing as though I came into this class having my no grasp on grammar, I would say that I have learned a lot. I guess what I could talk about is the whole apostrophe, s issue, and Jones’ vs. Jones’s vs. Joneses. I definitely have a new appreciation for editors who have to catch and correct that stuff. Doing this scrapbook assignment has also shed light on what I now know. To me, grammar is somewhat overlooked by people, but it’s pretty important that you know it, because not only does it provide flow, but when punctuation is used correctly, it really adds credibility to what you’re trying to say.
I have also learned a lot about the parts of speech. I’ve always known what a noun, verb, adjective and adverb was, but when we had to do the newspaper assignment and watch the power-point presentation on it, it really solidified everything that I had known. It was comforting to know that I had that as a backup, in case I needed to check on anything. In addition to parts of speech and punctuation, I thought that one of our first assignments where we had to add punctuation to make a break-up and love letter was extremely helpful. I want to do more of those so I can work on my punctuation in a sentence scenario. The more practice I can get with sentence fluency and punctuation will help me to fully understand the use of semi-colons, colons and commas. The usage of punctuation is also the concept that I don’t fully understand, and would like to work on throughout the semester.
I need to know for sure when to use a semi-colon. I have been hung up on this for quite some time, and would like to know a riddle or something to help me remember exactly when to use this silly, and seemingly outdated punctuation. Other than punctuation and making my sentences flow, I don’t think that I don’t not fully understand anything, it’s just a matter of perfecting what I’m semi-comfortable with.

My question for the week: When is it appropriate to use the word, “thus?” I feel like I could say, “I have learned quite a bit, thus far,” but I don’t necessarily know if this is correct. If someone could kindly clear this up for me, it would be splendid!

first blog-focusing on the semester!

2009-08-28T15:59:00.000-07:00

When I found out there was a whole class about grammar, I freaked out. I know that this class will be both a blessing and a curse in that I will learn a lot, but the road to that point will be challenging and frustrating. There are quite a few issues that I am concerned about when it comes to the mechanics of grammar. Sometimes the simplest thing such as what to capitalize in a title throws me for a loop. Also, the idea of commas. Although the exclamation point happens to be my favorite punctuation, the comma is a close second in that I get extremely happy when it comes to using them, even when they are not appropriate. I need help in identifying what area of a sentence needs a comma. I heard when using the comma you should, “when in doubt, leave it out,” but I never thought that way until I heard that quote. So now I am in an awkward position and feel like I should never use the comma, even when I am 99% sure it should be included in a sentence.

Another issue that I really want to master is the prefixes of words, and identifying them to figure out a meaning. For example, I always wanted to be one of those people who was asked a silly trivia question about the origin of a word. To specify, a question along the lines of, “a person who is blahblahblah is said to fear what?” Now if it was something like arachnophobia, obviously I could figure that one out, but for some words that I don’t know, I would like to have an idea of what the word may mean, based on its prefix. This would be a lot easier to explain in person, but what I am trying to get at is the fact that I want to improve my vocabulary, by knowing prefixes of words, to help figure out what the whole word may mean.

Lastly, I want to know how to improve my writing when it comes to the flow of my paper. I love to write and have good ideas when it comes to researching a piece and then coming up with ideas for a paper, but I want to further that with having my paper flow smoothly and getting the words in my head on paper and making sense. I think that these three areas will drastically help my writing if I can improve them.

Question: What is the easiest way to remember when to use a comma, and when to leave it out? Also, has the semicolon completely disappeared? I feel like it’s hardly used anymore and has lost its purpose!