Revising to Clarify Meaning

Chapter 8

Students need to revise

Revising is the strategies used to review and improve prove language through what is written and comprehended as they read or talk to ensure that the meaning is clear. First students must reflect on their global coherence

and use their holistic impressions to ensure integration of all that has occurred.

Second they need to examine their serial structure to make their meaning more explicit and to connect their thoughts into inferences for the readers.

Effective Grammar Instruction

Grammar is the description of the structure of the language.

Papers written by students who studied grammar through the traditional worksheets for two years had more errors than students who merely wrote daily.

Students need to self initiate the use of grammar principles to learn them.

Principles of Language Structure

Traditional GrammarUses parts of speechBased on the rules that govern LatinInflected language (words signal meaning through the

word endings)Modern English has more that eight categories of

words.Need to teach how sentence patterns, word order,

sentence structure, and paragraph organization effect meaning.

Structural or Descriptive Grammar

Helps students understand subtle differences of meanings in our language.Many words serve more than one function

Introduce word functions within basic sentence structure.Transcribe an oral story and give to the students. Then

distribute a second account of the same story as it would be in printed form. Have students compare grammatical differences in oral and written forms.

Transformational-Generative Approach

It explains what we do when we invent and change sentences and why the same thought tales on slightly different meanings in different sentences.

Sentence have a deep structure and a surface structure. Surface structure helps to convey the deep meaning of the sentence.

Need to use activities that take the same subject and change the sentence different ways to say the same thing.

Sentence-Building and Combining Approach

Goal is to have student to elect to use correct usage.

Increased awareness of what language is and cultivates their flexibility and revising abilities so they make more powerful sentences.Use student’s writing and talk about what the exact

meaning is,Create selective cloze paragraphs and exchange clozes

with another student. Fill it in and discuss how the different part of speech changes the meaning.

Use chants, choral readings, nursery rhymes, and language experience stories to discover the positions, power, and functions of words.

Teach to combine sentences more effectively.Write a science report and combine sentences to make

it clearer.Combine sentences in their own writings.

Refining Meaning through Precise Word Choices

Learn to alter and expand sentences patterns to enhance their meaning.Expand basic sentence patterns in language experience

stories.

Older students need to learn to refine their meaning.Use kernel sentence and expand it.Teacher copy a page of literature that has a powerful

message and discuss grammar used in their favorite parts.

Revising Committees Approach

An impromptu mode of instruction that provides grammatical instruction when needed.Peer sharing on how they created the

sentences.Grammar will be discussed in revising

committees.

All of these approaches need to be combined to have an effective approach to teaching grammar!

Teaching Students How to Revise

Lessons from the textbook should be used on an individual or small group basis and determined by the errors students make in their speaking and writing.Use textbooks as a reference manual.Teach a mini lessons and refer to the text for

examples.Have students to use the new principle in their

writing.

Oral-Written Grammatical Awareness

The student’s ability to use correct oral and written sentence structures and word choices is important. ImpromptuMini lessons on an

individualized basisReading writings aloud

Recognizing differing points of view

The purpose isincrease student’s sensitivity to point of viewunderstanding the impact that points of view haveteach strategies to resolve conflicts between different

points of view1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person, and omniscient point of

viewRetell story from different points of viewRole play person’s point of view that they are in conflict

with

Using your own, famous people, or students revisions as samples

Model your own revisionsFind an author's revisions for them to seeStudents can share their own revisions

Teaching idioms, figurative language, metaphors, and similes

Teach within literature contextChose a book with the devise in itPut idiom, proverb, or figurative language on the

board each day and discuss

Using oral rephrasing to increase written revisions

Observe other student for a week and then write a description of them for other students to guess.

Do same thing with objectsUse discovery discussionsJournal tips to improve their writing and

speaking

Integration of the language arts

SSR, DEARSSW- use sharing session at endAuthor’s theaterWrite science fiction

How to teach story grammar

It is the rule system that describes the regularities found in stories.

Need to teach about characters, setting, problem, goal, climax, and outcome.Types of conflict

Between characters and naturebetween main character and societyBetween charactersMain characters and themselves

Cultural Sensitivity

Story grammar, grammar, and revision vary in different cultures

Learn English survival words

Must be taught the structure of the English sentence

Use story frames

Group assessment

It is the most effective assessment of drama, dyadic paired learning sessions, and long term projects.

Odds and Ends

Computer grammar programs

Effective feedback

Homework journals

Magazines for students