Post on 15-Dec-2015
USING JEFF ANDERSON’S
MECHANICALLY INCLINED GRAMMAR FOR THE WRITING CLASSROOM
SUSAN GRINSTEINNER
Gr. 3-8 Writing InterventionistDorchester School District Two
March 7 2015
Empowering writers through positive application strategies
MECHANICALLY INCLINED: BUILDING GRAMMAR, USAGE, AND STYLE INTO WRITER’S WORKSHOP
JEFF ANDERSON, STENHOUSE, 2005
Empower writers through positive application strategies
CONTACT INFORMATION
Susan Grinsteinner
Gr. 3-8 Writing Interventionist
Dorchester District Two
sgrinsteinner@dorchester2.k12.sc.us
843-860-9694
TODAY’S GOAL
LEARN TO EMPOWER WRITERS THROUGH POSITIVE
APPLICATION STRATEGIES
“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
WHERE DO WE START?
YOUR GRAMMAR HISTORY
How confident are you about your own knowledge of grammar and mechanics? Explain.
How confident are you about the quality of your writer’s workshop or writing process instruction? Explain.
What would you like to improve about your grammar instruction?
DEFINITIONS
Grammar: • How words fit into the part of a sentence (Parts of speech)
Mechanics:• Conventions for the technical side of writing (spelling, punctuation, capitalization, abbreviations (sentences vs. fragments, subjects and predicates, subject-verb agreement, and capitalization)
PUNCTUATION TAKES A VACATION
20 MOST COMMON ERRORS (IN ORDER OF FREQUENCY)
No comma after introductory element
Vague pronoun referenceNo comma in compound
sentenceWrong wordNo comma in
nonrestrictive elementWrong/missing inflected
endingWrong or missing
prepositionsComma splicePossessive apostrophe
error
Tense shiftUnnecessary shift in tenseSentence fragmentsWrong tense or verb formSubject-verb agreementLack of comma in a seriesPronoun agreement errorUnnecessary comma with restrictive elementRun-on or fused sentenceDangling or misplaced modifierIt's versus its error
20 MOST COMMON ERRORS IN ORDER OF FREQUENCY
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/easywriter3e/20errors/
Caution: Base your Teaching on the CCSS First and Student Errors Second.
NOUNS AND VERBS HAVE A FIELD DAY
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?
I’VE TAUGHT IT, BUT THEY STILL AREN’T GETTING IT…
IF STUDENTS ARE STRUGGLING, ASK…
Did I…• immerse students in correct models, visually and orally?
• post examples?• demonstrate how to use the pattern in my own writing?
• model correcting this type of error in focused edits?• give students ample practice in editing this type of error?
• place the item on our classes' editor's checklist?• have students edit their own writing for the error?
• Is this error important enough to warrant all of the aforementioned work to teach it?
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.
PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER…Teach quick doses of grammar and mechanics with application to writing daily.
Use the shortest mentor text possible.
Extend the invitation…
Provide models and scaffolds for each skill
Apply skills & play with mentor sentences (writer’s notebooks)
Fill walls with visuals that provide reinforcement.
THINKING ABOUT GRAMMAR AND MECHANICS IN WRITING.
• Notice
• Imitate
• Collect
• Write
• Revise
• Edit
• Celebrate
Invite Students to THINK.
INVITE STUDENTS TO…
THE OTHER WAY TO LISTEN
MAX’S WORDS
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.”
SHOW -- DON’T TELL
MENTOR TEXTS
Where can I 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/
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.
AAAWWUBBISAsAlthoughAfterWhileWhenUnlessBeforeBecauseIfSince
sentence opener , .
WHEN I WAS YOUNG…Imitate ten sample sentences.
Start every sentence with a subordinate
conjunction.
Circle the one you have the most
to say about.
Begin freewriting.
AsAlthoughAfterWhileWhenUnlessBeforeBecauseIfSince
WALL CHARTS THAT WORK
Write big.
Include examples.
Use color.
Use light backgrounds.
Place carefully.
Have students use sentence strips.
MOVING FROM
“CORRECT - ALLS”
TO MENTOR TEXTS
ASK YOURSELF…
Is it a sane educational strategy to have kids stare at something so wrong for the first ten minutes of class everyday?
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)
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.
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.
DAY 2His 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.
DAY 3His 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.
DAY 4
Use your imitation sentence from yesterday as the lead for a paragraph. Write your paragraph in your Writer’s Notebook.
DAY 5
Revise and edit your paragraph from yesterday and turn it in when you have finished.
THINK OF
GRAMMAR AS CREATIONAL
RATHER THAN
CORRECTIONAL.
TEACHING 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.
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.
WEAVING GRAMMAR AND
MECHANICS INTO WRITER’S
WORKSHOP
A WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
WRITER’S NOTEBOOKS: SET-UPNever 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.
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.
HANDLING THE NOTEBOOKS
Do they go home?
Storage?
What if students mess up?
Assessing?
LEONARDO: BEAUTIFUL DREAMER
“WRITE WHAT’S IN FRONT OF YOUR NOSE.”
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.
--William Carlos Williams
NOTHING EVER HAPPENS ON 90TH STREET
FREEWRITINGMany students will “stall out” after only a few minutes.
Freewriting Rules!
Begin with a stimulating piece of literature.
BEDHEAD
METACOGNITION: EXPRESS LANE EDITAfter students complete a piece of writing they do a quick clean-up of their work.
It is important for students to do the recording on the express lane edit shopping list.
By writing the list of editing items, they are internalizing what matters most.
Reflections on what they did well or learned are in the receipt column.
EXPRESS LANE EDIT
Shopping List Receipt
CONTACT INFORMATION
Susan Grinsteinner
Gr. 3-8 Writing Interventionist
Dorchester District Two
sgrinsteinner@dorchester2.k12.sc.us
843-860-9694