In-Class Activity, Apr. 29: Tom Swifties

Tom Swifties - Using Adverbs Abundantly



Today, we are going to work on our last grammar topic of the semester: the overuse of adverbs!!!!


First task (everyone on his/her own):
Go to the following website and learn what "Tom Swifties" are.


Task 2:

Get together in groups of 3-4. Go to the following webpage. Your group's task is to create a 5-item test for another group that this group has to solve. Get the emails of the other group's members, and email them your quiz. The group that solves most of the 5 items it gets from another group wins!! You need to retype the Tom Swifties that you find on the webpage, but you leave out the last word, i.e., the pun, for the group to fill in the blank. Don't invent them yourself yet!!!

Examples:

1. How do you start a model-T Ford without a battery?" asked Tom _____________ .

(answer: CRANKILY)

2. "I have to wear this cast for another six weeks," said Tom _________________ .

(answer: DISJOINTEDLY)

3. "I'm shocked," said Tom _____________________ .

(answer: ELECTRICALLY)


You should select sentences that people are able to guess when they think hard.

EMAIL me your 5-item quiz (with solutions). Only one per group, please! Indicate your group members names in this email (because you'll all get participation points for the quiz).


Task 3:

Now, invent 1-3 Tom Swifties on your own!!! Publish them as a comment to this blog.

Brazil's Piraha Tribe: Keeping it Short and Sweet

Imagine living in a world without history or a concept of numbers. Imagine living in a world without the use of dependent clauses, but instead, only short and stubby independent clauses. For Brazil's Piraha Tribe, this is not imaginary--it is reality. This phenomenon has the whole linguistic world abuzz; causing debate on the effects this language has on its people. Of all of the linguistic scholars, however, none other can claim as high a level of expertise as Britian's Daniel Everett. Since 1977, Everett has spent a combined total of over seven years living with and studying the people of the Piraha Tribe. Some of his findings have been both facinating, and above all, shocking.

The first abnormality Everett noticed about the Pirahan language was the lack of the subordinate clause. Little description is ever given in a sentence, thus, there is no need for the dependent clause. In America, if one would like to speak to another once he himself had finished eating, he might say, "When I have finished my meal, I would like to speak with you." In the Pirahan Tribe, however, Everett says that they would simply say, "I finish eating, I speak with you."

Just as baffling to Everett was the complete lack of numbers in their society. They base their count on either "a lot" or "a little"--using concepts of "all," "most," and "every." They do not have a words to describe a specified amount, but they do not count anyway according to Everett. This has led to the belief that they lack to concept of exact numbers all together. To test this, Everett tried to teach them Portugese numbers. After several months, not a single person could count to ten.

What has Everett concluded thus far? "The language is created by the culture," he says. He goes on to explain that they live in a carpe diem society, where the only thing that matters is the here and now. This also goes along with the tribe's theological views. When asked about a diety, they simply respond with, "everything is the same, things always are." However they may be seen by the world, they could not care less. They just continue to live day by day on their own, simple terms.

How do you view this language? Do you think they are too simple or that the rest of the world is too complex? Do you think their system poses any problems for them?

Another planned languge: Klingon

Due Date: Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
______________________________________________

Please post your comments about the Klingon language (another "planned language," next to Esperanto....) on this blog!

Prompt was on Livetext. Here's the reading again.

1. Engage- I will have a sentence with an incorrect verb form on the board.

2. Explore- I will ask the students to identify what is wrong with the sentence.

3. Explain- After the students have identified what is wrong I will ask if anyone knows why it is wrong as well. I will then go on to explain why it is wrong.

4. Expand- I will then go over multiple examples of sentences where there are subject and verb agreement problems. I will ask the students for examples they themselves have written. After that I will further explain cases in which the meaning of a sentence may be lost with incorrect subject/verb usage and the need for singular subjects with singular verbs and plural subjects with plural verbs.

5. Evaluate- We will take a short quiz together and go over the answers as a group.

6. E-search- The quiz will be emailed out to the students so they will need to use the computer and the internet in order to participate.

Dangling Modifiers

7th grade English

1. Engage- Picture of Dangling Man
2. Explore- I will ask the students to tell me what a dangling modifier is and give them the opportunity to figure out ways to fix a dangling modifier.
3. Explain- I will explain what a dangling modifier is and give some examples. I will also show the students some possible ways to fix a dangling modifier.
4. Expand- I will put five sentences up on the board and they must identify where the dangling modifier is and how to fix it.
5. Evaluate- The students must complete the quiz and show me their grades.
6. E-search- The mini-lesson is given via powerpoint and the students must take an online quiz.
http://wwwnew.towson.edu/ows/exercisedmm.htm

Jacqueline Bessette

Links to Our WebQuests

1. Lara Nederveen Pieterse: Brooklynisms

2. Julia Longueville: 1920's Slang

3. Lauryn Fisherkeller: 1920's Slang

4. Nadia Aldroubi: 1980's Slang

5. Henry Phillips: Drug Slang

6. Jennifer Bond: Coal Miners' Slang

7. Nathan Maul: Baseball Slang

8. Diana Howell: Medical Slang

9. Emilie Collier: Teen Slang

10. Jacqueline Bessette: 1920's Slang

11. Romona Jackson: Hip Hop Slang

12. Adam Chadderton: Teenagers and Drug Slang

13. Sara Childers: Police Slang

14. Megan Caraballo: 1920's Slang

15. Monica Brennan: Prison Slang

16. Daniel Sokolowski: Baseball Slang

Tenses

¢Audience: 6th graders

¢Engage: Gain the students attention with a PowerPoint presentation. Before the presentation I will ask the class to list as many of the tenses they know.

¢Explore: Students will learn how to recognize what verb tense is being used.

¢Explain: I will explain to the students the rules of each basic verb tense. I will show an explanation for each one in depth.

¢Expand: Their knowledge will be expanded by numerous examples of each tense and applying it to the homework.

¢Evaluate: At the end of class students get into groups and come up with their own creative sentences for the assigned tense.

¢E-search: For homework the students will find an advertisement online or in a magazine and identify what verb tense is being used.

Mini Lesson 19:The Apostrophe

The Apostrophe

Audience: 6th Grade

Engage: To catch my students attention I will put a sentence on the board and have students identify the apostrophes. "Brad's book didn't inform him of the answers to his questions on his p's and q's."

Explore: After the students have identified the apostrophes I will then have them explain how the apostrophe is being used.

Explain: I will explain to the students the three rules of using an apostrophe. In my explanation of each rule I will give examples. I will use PowerPoint to make the learning process more interesting for my students.

Expand: To expand on the apostrophe lesson I will have students give an example sentence of each rule.

Evaluate & E-Search: To test what students have learned I will use a short on-line quiz about apostrophes.

The quiz link is http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/apostrophes_1.asp

For homework the students will form groups of three and make up a paragraph using the three rules of the apostrophe.

Esperanto

Esperanto was designed by Dr. Lejzer (Ludovic) Zamenhof in Warsaw as a "nutra lingua franca", or second language, for worldwide use. Several countries and groups advocate the teaching and use of Esperanto despite others disagreeing with it.

Dr. Zamenhov restricted his development of Esperanto, with the goal that it should grow through collective use. His version of Esperanto started with minimal grammar rules, around 900 words, and a few samples of literature. During the First World War was the first time Esperanto was successfully used, a common language that helped the war effort across international lines.

In 1922, the Rousseau Institute of Educational Science in Geneva organized a study on Esperanto, finding a link between the teaching of Esperanto and a further interest in other cultures on the students' part. It was also found that learning Esperanto also made the acquisition of other foreign languages easier.

Further experiments after WWII also confirmed Esperanto's relative ease of learning. Some classroom instructors cited that students studying Esperanto for one year had a higher ability in the language relative to those having studied French for four years.

These experiments have limitations which weaken the argument for a widespread implementation of Esperanto. Experimental controls have not always been accurate, and comparison language studies have all used Western European languages similar in lexicon to Esperanto.

There are problems with the concept of a global language such as Esperanto. The lack of a strong social base for the language has stalled any advancement Esperanto may have in the educational community. People are also generally concerned that national languages and identities will be demolished. Those that argue against this claim that replacing the languages of the entire world with a single one is not the goal of Esperanto. Rather, they say, it is best used as a gateway to other educational goals.

The writer of the article lists two ways in which Esperanto could be successfully integrated into the global community: to coordinate studies of the language with more established research programs, as well as to develop resources to teach Esperanto to its full potential.

Mini Lesson 18: Not only, but also...

Mini Lesson #18:

Not only, but also/ Neither, nor/ Either, or

Audience: 10th graders

Engage: Gain the students attention with a PowerPoint presentation and some humor. Making them take a pre-test and a after test, to see if they know, their grammar.

Explore: Students will learn when to use, Not only, but also/ Neither, nor/ Either, or, in the right context.

Explain: I will explain to the students the rules of each of the conjunctions. Showing them when to use which one.

Expand: Students will then use their knowledge of the conjunctions in a quiz provided for them.

Evaluate: At the end of class students will take a quiz to see if the material is understood.

E-search: For homework the students will take an online quiz at:
http://www.grammar_quizzes.com/conj-paired.html


by: Lara NP

"History: Middle Ages"

The Middle Ages also referred to as the "Medieval era", was a period of time in which grammar was evolved but not fully understood. During this period, Latin Grammar was the primary focus for medieval scholars.

As Latin rose during this time, it soon became a very important language needed in society. During The Middle Ages children used instructional methods including Latin, and Colloquium, better known as "Conversations". As time passed, scholars focused more on English speakers; there was an increase in interest among them. One contribution made during this period was known as "speculative grammar", a belief that language referred to the many things in the world. A person could then relate a "word" to something similar in society. Most people were concerned with questions like; "How do words match mental perceptions of things?"

An important representative during this time was Thomas of Erfurt's. This German scholar theorized several ideas. One idea was that a word should coincide with other adjacent words. Typically, the word order in a sentence would follow a "subject object verb" agreement. Latin is very flexible when choosing the order of words in a sentence.

Overall, Latin is an important aspect to The Middle Ages. A lot of information has been obtained regarding its use and structure. Today, a lot of what people inquire in their own language, has some similarities to other languages. Latin is an important contribution to grammar.

Mini Lesson "The Dash"

Audience= 5th grade students

1. E (engage): Gaining the students attention with humor and power point presentation. The students will be asked questions to determine their knowledge of the dash.

2. E (explore): The students will learn what dashes are and why they are used.

3. E (explain): I will explain the rules and exceptions of using the dash.

4. E (expand): The students will apply what they have learned with the examples sentences provided.

5. E (evaluate): The students will take a brief quiz in class to determine if the material is understood.

6. E (e-search): The students will be given an online quiz as homework.

Homework: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/punct_quiz.htm

Blog Summary 17: Grammar Without Grammar

The responses are due on Monday, March 30th, at class time.
____________________________________

by Julia Longueville

All of us from time to time have wondered why we need to know the rules of grammar. While proper sentence structure and grammar are important for good writing, is it really necessary to know the names of prepositions, subjects, adjectives, etc? While some people believe that these terms are important for communicating about writing, the author of “Grammar Without Grammar,” has her doubts.

This particular teacher started out being forced to teach grammar. Her students did not grasp it well and she even had some bad reviews from the parents about it. They did not understand how learning this information made them into better writers, especially since they were having such a hard time applying this knowledge to their own writing. Throughout the next couple of years, this teacher tried many different methods of grammar instruction, desperate to find something that worked that would help her students! Finally, she found a winner.This teacher, like most good teachers, was mainly focused on making her students’ writing better.

In order to do this and teach proper grammar, she decided to take the drills out of her grammar instruction. She dropped all of the terms. Her main form of grammar instruction was through something called imitation. Sentences from different magazines or novels from the class were taken and one by one put up on the board. The students would be given a moment to analyze these sentences and then were instructed to created a sentence in the same format.

By imitating different styles and sentence patterns, these students began to realize what a more effective sentence looked like. They did this everyday, each time creating more and more types of sentences that they could use in their writing. Sure enough, they began developing more complex sentences and understood what and was not acceptable in sentence structure.This particular teacher believes her tactics of using imitation to be a success. She claims that although her students do not know the terms of grammar they know how to use it.

Is knowing how to use grammar properly in writing the only thing that is important in grammar instruction? Do you think that imitation is an effective tool in teaching grammar? Are old-school grammar drills a thing of the past? How will you teach your students?

Grammar Instruction: What Teachers Say

There has been much debate on the teaching of grammar in schools. Long ago it was thought that grammar had no real bearing on ones writing, but now some would disagree with that assumption. In fact, grammar is an important aspect in ones writing. Without the knowledge of basic grammatical concepts like nouns, verbs, pronouns and punctuation, one would not be able to write correctly. Formerly, an interview was done with twenty-five teachers on their thoughts and views of grammar. Each instructor had their own way of teaching grammar; in fact, almost all the instructors that were interviewed agreed on the best way to help an individual understand the concept of grammar.

Writing can be a difficult task if the proper instruction is not taught. Students do not generally learn how to write given only the basic concepts of grammar. However, some students only write what is heard and not what is actually correct. One stated that the students can't go by what sounds right because they have no good role model. Therefore, the teachers must engage the students in their own writings so that they can see what mistakes they are making.

According to some of the instructors that participated in the interview with Brenda Petruzzella, several instructors felt that the most effective way to teach grammar was through individualized learning. They felt that most students would benefit from grammar if they were shown what mistakes they were making. However, in order to learn grammar one must understand the basic forms of writing like nouns, verbs, punctuation, and more. Amoung the many concepts of approaching grammar, many felt that sentence diagramming and sentence combining would benefit their students. The more and more students practice diagramming typical errors in writing, the easier it can be to pick out their own mistakes.

All in all, students must understand basic concepts so that they can apply these rules to their own writings. Students seem to benefit most with constant peer revision. But, peer revision is not always available since the amount of time that is needed with each student will vary. Practice makes perfect and the more one does something, the better he/she will get. So it is understood that grammar is vitally important to students whether they are going to teach English or not. At some point in their education, correct grammar will be needed so why not take the time to teach the mechanics and usages of it?

Do you feel that grammar is an important part of our education? Do instructors teach grammar effectively?

Slang of Insider Groups: WebQuests

We are going to create a Lesson Plan again; this time focusing on the 6th big E, the E-Search. We will also have a big chunk of Engage and Explore in our Learning Cycle.
________________________________________

Today, we are going to learn a new software tool: WebQuests.

These are meant to be online lesson plans that teachers can use in class, providing their students with links to do research about certain topics. (This is point 6 from our Learning Cycle, the "e-search.") The kids go on a "quest" on www and expand their previous knowledge.

The WebQuests have several different steps the kids have to follow, and they also offer a rubric at the end, so the kids know what they will be graded for. Also, they have a welcome page that explains the topic and what they are going to do.

Our task: WE ARE CREATING A WEBQUEST LESSON PLAN ABOUT THE TOPIC "SLANG."


PROMPT 1:

Read the following 1-page excerpt from the DIARY of a medical intern, written by Perri Klass. In it, she explains how she had to learn a "totally new language" in order to understand the slang of nurses and doctors. It is like a "secret language," so that the patients won't know what is wrong with them when the medical staff talks about them. Beware - some expressions are quite offensive!

PROMPT 2:

Choose a topic from the following list of slang dictionaries (or google your own topic) - it needs to be the special language/dictionary of ONE group of society.

1. soldiers' slang
2. prison slang
3. Cockney Rhyming Slang (London, England)
4. police slang
5. computer slang
6. railroad slang
7. 1920s slang
8. 1960s slang
9. Mountainbike slang
10. Australian slang
11. Death slang
12. Antarcic slang
13. drug slang

or ANY other slang dictionary you want to find on your own!!!
Last semester's students found such interesting slangs as Nadsat (from A Clockwork Orange), skateboarders' slang, etc....

(Attention: AAE is no SLANG! Dialects are no slang, either. Invented languages like Esperanto and Klingon are no forms of slang, either.)

When you have chosen your topic (and your dictionary of a certain slang), you have the FIRST COMPONENT of your WebQuest lesson plan. Here's an overview of all the components you need:

COMPONENTS of WEBQUEST lesson plan:

1. a link to your slang dictionary

2. a welcome page (Intro) that tells the kids (address them; let me know their grade level) what the topic of your lesson is (which group you're talking about)

3. a TASK page that tells the kids what the purpose of your lesson is (why they need to learn about it), and what they will do. This is your "table of content."

4. an assignment page (Process) with e-search assignments (working links!!!) for the kids. Here, you need to tell them how to present their findings (such as, to write down what they researched on a piece of paper, fill in a study guide that you prepare, do a ppt presentation, etc.).

4. a grading rubric



For task 4, the PROCESS, you should have the following components:

3.1 I expect you to define the word SLANG for your students, so they are able to tell the difference between LANGUAGE, SLANG, ACCENT, and DIALECT. If you want, you can define other key terms, such as LINGO or JARGON, too.

You can also make them write down their own definitions, and then let them click on a link to an online dictionary that defines those terms correctly.

3.2 Create a brief text using the slang you're talking about (either, write it yourself, or use the translation engine on your website). Let the kids translate it into Standard Written English without looking at the dictionary for help. Then, give them the solutions in a later section of your webquest, to check their responses.

3.3 Give them the link to your dictionary, and invent their first assignment (e.g., create a 10-item dictionary with words chosen from it on their own, etc.)

3.4 Give them some kind of writing assignment about YOUR insider group's slang that you will grade with your grading rubric (prompt examples: "Write a short story using this slang." or "Write an essay about why it is important to learn a certain slang if one wants to "belong" to a group of insiders." or "Is it better to remain true to one's origins and speak one's own language, or does one have to adapt when joining a different group?" or "Why can the use of metaphors be good/bad sometimes?" or "If you were a patient, would you prefer that the doctors speak clear text with you, or wouldn't you mind them talk in secret language?" or "Is a secret language ment to INCLUDE or EXCLUDE people?" or "Develop your own secret society. Write a short essay about what kind of language you would use." BE CREATIVE!!!)

3.5 Create your Grading Rubric with the online functions that WebQuest offers.


SOFTWARE: modeling how to create WebQuests

Go to the homepage of WebQuest. You need to sign up and register for a "30 day free trial." Then, we'll model together how to create the background template and colors, etc. The online builder is pretty easy and self-explanatory, and will guide you through all steps. Remember to ALWAYS SAVE what you typed before you click on another field; otherwise, you'll lose everything!!! You can also insert pictures (which you should do, depending on the grade level you instruct.) IF you insert pictures, you have to hyperlink them to the page where you got them from; otherwise, it is plagiarism, since most photos on the Internet are copyrighted, and their owners could sue you for using them without permission!!!


TIMELINE for this project:
We will have at least three in-class workshops about our WebQuests, and will do the different components (such as the IL Learning Standards) together in class. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to make up.

If you need to, but cannot work on the computer at home, use our classroom before/after class, during my lunch break (12-1 on M/W/F when it is open), the Faner computer labs, or come to my office hours.

DUE DATE: posted on Lifetext. On that day, We will all put the links to our WebQuests on a blog thread I will create, so that we can view each other's works. Your peers will select three WebQuests of their choice and test-take them, grading them with our WEBQUEST GRADING RUBRIC published on Lifetext.


Here are a few links to sample WebQuests from last semester:

1. Beatnik Slang
2. 1960s Slang
3. Cockney Rhyming Slang

Mini Lesson: Lauryn Fisherkeller

ARTICLES: WHEN TO PUT THEM, AND WHY
There are two types of articles:
1.Definite
2.Indefinite

Definite = in the English language the definite article is “the”.

-“The” is considered invariable, so it does not depend on the number of the noun. Basically it can be singular or plural.

- “The” also refers to a specific thing when contrasted with “a” or “an”.

Indefinite = this article is opposite of the definite article
-Indefinite articles are singular and cannot be used with a plural noun. Some example of indefinite articles are “a, an, some, and any”
- The reason that “a, an, some, and any” are labeled as “indefinite” because they do not refer to a specific thing as “the” does.

GENERAL RULES

Use of “a” or “an”
Use "a" or "an" with a singular count noun when you mean "one of many," "any," "in general.
For example:
“I like a good television show (one of many television shows).
“Julie is a good Dancer (one of many dancers).

Use "a" or "an" the first time you use a noun in a paragraph
“I saw a movie last week.”
“A woman ran into the dark room.”

Use “the”
Use "the" with any noun when the meaning is specific; for example, when the noun names the only one (or one) of a kind.
For example:
“April was the first lady (‘the only first lady’).
“New York is the largest city in the United States (only one city can be ‘the largest’).
“Did you hear the broadcast (specific broadcast)?

Use "the" the second time you use that same noun in the same paragraph.
For example:
“I saw a movie last week. The movie was hilarious.”
“A man ran into the street. A car hit the man."


Don’t use “a,” “an,” or “the”
Don't Use "a," "an," or "the" with a non-count noun when you mean "any," "in general."
For example
“We believe in love (in general). “
“He gave me information (not specific).”

Don't Use "a," "an," or "the" with a plural count noun when you mean "some of many things," "any," "in general.
For Example:
" Movies are entertaining (some movies; movies in general).
“She likes men (in general).”

QUIZ

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/cross/articles_quiz.htm


This quiz link is posted in the Grammar300 blog. Go there, and we will take it together.

Folk Linguistic Perceptions and the mapping of Dialect Boundaries

In Erica J.Benson's introduction she discusses some studies that show folk boundaries parallel linguistic divisions while other studies show subjective regions are influenced by political and civil demarcations. The linguistic atlas of the North Central states (LANCS) never produced a definitive map of the dialect boundaries of the area. She compares three boundaries, LAP,DARE, and TELSUR. Northern boundaries are similar; southern boundaries are not.

The method she uses is a pilot study of 12 respondents from four cities in different regions of Ohio, all were upper working/ lower middle class ages 30-70, five female and 7 male, all lifelong residence of their area. She used two survey instruments. One is a blank map of Ohio and surrounding states where they circle and label areas where people speak differently; The second is a degree of difference task where they rank 24 cities on a four point scale indicating the difference in speech from where they live.

Findings were that they did not agree. Some of the respondents used geographic boundaries such as interstate 70 or the Ohio River. Others used communities such as the Amish/Mennonites, blacks, coal miners, Dutch and other cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Boundaries also included urban vs. rural and educated and non-educated identies.

In the discussion section she discussed three findings. First, perception of different dialects can be collected in a small area; a small group of 12 made judgements for the survey. Second, people from different part of the state respond differently; these differences could be explained by their exposure to speakers, the amount of travel, the small sample size, and their linguistic security and insecurity. Lastly, Perceptual dialectology and Traditional dialectology can yield similar results.

What is your perception on dialect boundaries? Do you want to maintain a distinct identity from others?

TXTNG: the gr8 db8.

Texting has several unique features that attract users of all ages. David Crystal identifies six of these traits in his chapter entitled, "What makes texting so distinctive?" from his book, TXTNG: The Gr8 Db8. These include: pictograms and logograms, initialisms, omitted letters, nonstandard spellings, shortenings, and genuine novelties.

1) Pictograms and logograms are the most noticeable features in texting. Logograms can be used either alone or in combination with other letters and/or words.
Examples of logograms:
b = be
2 = to/two/too
@ = at
b4 = before
2day = today

When visual shape is what matters, graphic devices called emoticons are used. These are normally used to represent pictures and faces through texts. If this is the case, they are known as pictograms. Several hundred emoticons exist, however only a select few are used regularly.
Examples: :), :(, :P, ;), etc.

2) Initialisms are often called acronyms, like NATO or BBC. With text messaging, everyday words are shortened for quick communication. Initials are used for single words, compounded words, phrases, and even whole sentences.

Examples for single words: n = no, w = with, y = yes
Examples for compounded words: gf = girlfriend, dl = download
Examples for phrases: np = no problem, ftf = face to face
Examples for whole sentences: cmb = call me back, swdyt = so what do you think

3) Omitted letters are less noticeable than intialisms, but are far more common. Normally, the letters dropped are vowels. This feature is altered quite often. It changes with every person who texts, and there are sometimes more than one version of a word.

Examples: msg = message, fwd = forward, btwn = between, 2nite, 2nt, tnight = tonight

4) Nonstandard spellings occur, both intentionally and unknowingly. Regardless of whether or not the person texting knows how to spell correctly, he/she may still spell a word wrong. The reasons for this vary upon the user. Some nonstandard spellings are used so often, they have been given entires in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Examples of nonstandard spellings are easy to spot: cos, cuz = because, luv = love, skool = school, thanx = thanks

5) Shortenings occur when a word is reduced by omitting an important component. This can happen either at the end or the beginning of a word. There have been shortenings recorded in history books dating back to the origin of writing. Many words have become used as everyday terms themselves.

Examples of shortenings: prob = probably, approx = approximately, exam = examination, fridge = refrigerator

6) A genuine novelty is made within texting when language play has improved or increased. All of the six distinct features of texting can be juxtaposed. This allows for a vast array of word and sentence combinations. However, novelties are not used often. It solely depends on the person utilizing texting, and whether or not he/she is conservative or innovative
Example of a novelty: iydkidkwd = if you don't know, I don't know who does

Personally, I use texting on a daily basis. However, I only use three of the six traits featured in this chapter (logograms, initialisms, and shortenings).

How often do you text? Do you use any of the six mentioned characteristics of texting? Should there be any additional attributes added to these six?

Blog Summary: 1925 Lesson About Slang

Responses are due on Monday after Spring Break!!!
________________________________________

This article is the dialogue from a discussion that took place in a ninth grade composition class. The teacher asked the students what language exists for. One student said, “To make your thoughts clear, and to have thoughts, and to express thoughts.” Based on this answer, the teacher asked the students whether or not slang fits this definition. Slang makes thoughts clear and expresses thoughts to those who understand it meaning. Slang exists to express thought to everyone, depending on who is hearing it and the current language in existence.

One interesting point in this article is the explanation of the origin of slang. According to this article, slang originated in England. In Shakespeare’s time, slang was used by thieves to conceal the meaning of their words from others. Slang existed to express thought, but only to the small group of people that understood its meaning. Slang had two purposes. It was used to conceal and convey meaning, depending on who was listening.

Over time, slang became incorporated into the speech of everyone. Words that were once considered offensive slang are now a part of everyday language. For example, the word “kid” was originally used by thieves. It came from the word “kidnapping”. During this time, the word kid would have been considered offensive slang. Today, it is simply another word for child.
Today, slang is used by different cultures for many different reasons. Most people use in casual settings. It is a way to communicate with those whom we are most familiar with. Some use slang to show that they are very familiar with something. For example, those who use slang when talking about drugs are usually trying to convey that they are familiar with drug use. Others use slang to be part of a group. A high school student who desires to be a part of the “popular” click may use slang to prove that he or she is worthy of entrance into the click. The majority of people in America are more comfortable using slang than using proper English. This means that slang is often used inadvertently in professional and academic settings.

What is your definition of language? Does slang qualify as language? Is there anything inherently offensive about slang? Should it be incorporated into our speech, or should it be left out completely? Are there situations in which slang is appropriate? Are there situations in which slang is not appropriate?

Posted by Laura Melfi

English 300-1 Mini Lesson: That/Which

Audience = 10th Grade

1) Engage: I will engage with the students by asking them a question prior to starting the powerpoint presentation. If it is answered correctly, he or she will get candy.
2) Explore: I will give examples and answer any questions the students may have.
3) Explain: I will explain the rules of "that" and "which", as well as show students how to distinguish between the two.
4) Expand: I will have the students get into groups and make sentences using "that" and "which".
5) Evaluate: For evaluation, the students will be given a quiz over the usage of "that" and "which. Homework will also be assigned.
6) E-Search: Students are to take the quiz in a timely manner. You may not use a partner!

Homework: Get into groups of four. Each group needs to use posterboard and make up a semi-difficult sentence using "that" and "which". This is to be done outside of class. It is due tomorrow. The group that makes the best sentence, gets ten bonus points.

Quiz: It is over "that", "which", and "who". It never hurts to learn more!
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/quizzes/which_quiz.htm

Mini Lesson: Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement

Engage: I will give each student a worksheet for pronoun-antecedent agreement. I will randomly put a sticker on four worksheets before I pass them out. They will then have the option to come to the board or pick someone else to.

Explore and E-Search: The four students will then come to the board and write the correct antecedent and pronoun on the board. They will have the choice of which sentence they chose.

Explain: I will explain through my power-point presentation the correct way to use pronoun-antecedent agreement and the rules that go with it.
Expand: Together we will go over the worksheet to see if the students did the sentences correctly.

Evaluate: I have provided a homework link, as well as a quiz link for the students. If they feel uncomfortable with pronoun-antecedent agreements these links should help them tremendously! :)

Homework: http://www.towson.edu/ows/modulePAAex1.htm

Quiz: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/pronoun_quiz.htm

Blog Summary: Minimalist Tutoring

Definition of minimalist: (1)one who advocates a moderate or conservative approach, action, or policy as in a political or governmental organization. (2) of, relating to, characteristic of, or in the style of minimalism.

Minimalist tutoring (student-centered tutoring) is an approach to tutoring that seeks to minimize a student's dependence on their tutor. Therefore, the role of the tutor is to act as a guiding tool. The tutor does not proof-read, correct errors, check the style, or explain readings to the student. Instead the tutor works with the student in revising, complicate and develop readings of his or her texts. Basically a minimalist tutor is some-what like a study-buddy. With the tutor the student will find ways to identify her problem areas in writing, plans and ideas on how to improve that writing, and just provide the student with the needed guidance to become an excellent writer.

This form of tutoring works on an individualized basis. Each student has their own tutor to spend one on one time with to ensure that writing, reading and comprehension will be improved. With this basic hands off approach and the comfortable environment of one on one with the student, the tutor allows the student to figure out problem areas on their own, ask questions when needed and to not feel embarrassed when making mistakes.

ENG 300-1 Mini Lesson: Semicolon & Colon

8th grade

Engage: Each student will be given an Easter egg. Five so-called lucky students will then be asked to come up to the board.

Explore and E-Search: Five students will come up to the board and correctly place a semicolon or colon in the sentences provided.

Explain: I will explain through my power point presentation the correct ways to use a semicolon and colon.

Expand: The class will then go over the sentences on the board to see if the punctuation was placed correctly.

Evaluate: The students can go to the following website to get a free online quiz. Here they can test their knowledge on the semicolon and colon.
http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar_quiz/semicolons_and_colons_1.asp

Blog Summary 11: A Comparison of English and German SLI Children

FORMAL FEATURES IN IMPAIRED GRAMMARS: A CAMPARISON OF ENGLISH AND GERMAN SLI CHILDREN

Writen by: Harlad Clahsen, Susanne Bartket, and Sandra Gollner

SLI stands for specific language impairment.

Introduction
SLI is a developmental language disorder that can affect both expressive and receptive language, it is not related to or caused by other developmental disorders. For example hearing loss or a brain injury that has accured. SLI researchers are trying to set the language problems or SLI kids in the categories of Grammatical theories and theories of grammatical development. It is difficult for SLI kids to know the difference between the elements of a phrase and a clause.
SLI grammar is not the same as impaired childrens grammar. Data has been collected for 9 English and 6 German SLI children. Some of the symptoms that come with SLI are the use of short sentences, and issues making complex sentences. SLI can also be linked with impoverished vocabulary, difficulty learning new words, and complex word finding problems. SLI does continue into adult hood.

SLI GERMAN Children
German SLI children use root infinitives, these are the same grammars as unimpaired children. These children also tend to score low on verb exams, as do SLI English kids. Still with this knowledge SLI children are not incapabale or memorizing irregular verb forms. These children do not have a general idea of the subject verb placement.

SLI English Children
SLI involves a specific impairment of TENSE marking. English SLI students sometimes experience difficulty using the past tense -ed forms. For example SLI English students would confuse a sentence that's in the past tense, and they might say "they was" instead of "they were" or "he don't know" instead of "he doesn't know".

CONCLUSIONS
SLI children tend to have problems with the agreement features of verbs, while the TENSE verbs are far less affected. Alternative explanations have been explored to explain the oddness of SLI, but none that seem realistic.

Blog Summary 10: ASL and Grammar

Since our student, Casey Shepard, did not publish his blog summary that was due today, Wed. 11th, here's the one from the other section. Responses are due on Friday, Feb. 13th, by class time.
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People who communicate through the use of American Sign Language face many of the same dilemmas in learning SWE (Standard Written English) that other ESL students face.

ASL is considered to be a foreign language, just like Japanese, Spanish, or French. ASL “speakers” follow a much different set of guidelines in their language than English speakers. For example, when they are communicating they only use the major words in the sentence – leaving out the articles English speakers are accustomed to. For example, instead of saying “I sit in the chair”, the ASL “speaker” might say “I sit chair”.This is not the only difference in the two languages.

Those you communicate through the use of ASL construct sentences different from what would normally be expected in SWE. When asking somebody a question the ASL “speaker” will typically put the question part of the sentence (such as who, what, when, or where) at the end of the sentence much the way SWE uses a question mark. When stating that something happened in the past ASL “speakers” do not simply change the tense of the verb; they place the word finish before the action. For example:

SWE: I wrote this blog post.ASL: I finish write this blog post.
When citing a specific time, ASL “speakers” place the time at the beginning. To take the last example a step further:

SWE: I wrote this blog post last night.ASL: Last night I finish write this blog post.
To take it a step further, ASL requires that the “speaker” perform movements to help the “listener” understand the message. These movements include head movements, holding signs longer, or even raising/lowering their eye brows.

It is nice to know this information but unless it is applied it is only information. It is important to know this because ASL ‘speakers” are required to write in SWE when they write. This means that they are required to take their own words and translate those words into a different language (SWE) every time they must write. To best help the ASL “speaking” student a teacher must understand the dilemmas faced by the student as well as what kind of errors to expect and how to help them fix those mistakes and become better writers.

By: Eric Yearian

Blog Summary 9: Twins and Language

Since our student, Ryan Magee, did not publish his post, please find below Blog Summary 9 from my other section. Responses are due on Friday, Feb. 13th, at class time.
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There is a pervasive assumption in the twin and language development literature that twins are somewhat delayed in language development and more prone to language disabilities.

In the assigned article, the author summarizes several different case studies performed with the intention of discerning whether or not there was a language delay in twins. One early study in particular found that twins usually either spoke in shorter sentences or not very much at all compared to a person of single birth.
There was also a slight difference in a twin's vocabulary than that of a singleton.

Also it was not just biological factors, low birth weight and birth order, that separated the twin case studies but that of maternal speech to the child that added into the resulting language delays. So both biological and environmental factors effect the speech of twins. Even with these factors, most twins don't suffer from any sort of language impairment once they've reached early childhood.

The author does state however that there are several flaws in these case studies. One study described that the researchers did not find it necessary to separate the twins with actual learning impairments from the other twins which lowered the overall results of the study. The researchers also did not record birth weight and birth order of the twins, which has been learned to factor in to language delay. The twins also were not observed independently from one another which might have skewed the results as well.
Most research though has come to the conclusion that it is not biological but social factors that leads twins to having more of a language delay than singletons. They believe this is because as a twin you tend to receive less direct parental speech.

The article also concludes with the idea that the more older siblings you have, the lower your IQ. The general sibling situation states that the lower a child's birth position the lower his or her IQ will be. Even more so when it comes to twins because having a twin is the most extreme case possible of having a sibling.

I felt that the article showed so much fault in the studies that I could not really believe in the results. And since the author said no language delays exist after early childhood, that it really is not fair to single out twins as having language development issues.

by: Danielle McCarty

Blog Summary 8: Down's Syndrome and Nonword Repetition Test

Responses are due on Monday, Feb. 9th
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The Use of Nonword Repetition as a Test of Phonological Memory in Children with Down Syndrome


Recent research suggests a significant relationship between verbal short-term memory and normal language development. Poor short-term memory and impaired language are features of Down Syndrome.

This study report the use of nonword repetition with 33 children and teenagers with Down Syndrome aged from 5-18 years, and investigates the relationship between this test and other memory and language measures.

Nonword repetition was significantly correlated with age, and when age and nonverbal cognitive ability were controlled, nonword repetition was significantly correlated with all other language-based memory measures, i.e. auditory digit span, word span, sentence repetition, and fluency, and also with memory for a sequence of hand movements, but not with memory for faces or a visual digit span task.

Down Syndrome, or trisomy 21, is the most common cause of learning disability, affecting an estimated 1/700 to 1/1000 live births. (Hassold & Jacobs) Besides physical appearance a number of other features are associated with the syndrome such as language impairment (Rondal), language development and dissociation within the language system (Fowler & Lenneberg).

There has been considerable research to investigate the memory deficit itself. One way to think of it is with a working memory model created by Baddeley and Hitch. The model includes the notion of separate systems for the processing of visuo-spatial material and verbal material.

The main focus of research on memory in Down Syndrome has thus been on the description of syndrome-specific deficits, the investigation of possible causes, such as a lack of rehearsal, or the remediation of these memory problems.

Hulme and Mackenzie hypothesize that language problems lead to memory problems that, in turn, affect skills such as reading comprehension. In normal development, individual differences in short term memory capacity correlate with reading ability. Findings suggest that learning to read may lead to improved auditory and visual memory skills as well as better vocabulary understanding and language comprehension.

By Lara Nederveen Pieterse

Our Survey Topics for Test-Taking

Below are our survey topics for test-taking of the surveys on Wednesday, Feb. 11th.

INSTRUCTIONS for in-class activity on Wed., Feb. 11th:

We are taking each other's surveys, to make sure everything works!!!

Before you start, open the SURVEY GRADING RUBRIC posted on livetext in the "evaluation" section. You will fill it in, and email it to your peers whose surveys you are taking. You will assign the student a final grade for his/her survey.

1) Each student has to test-take the three surveys following his or her name on the list below. The last student on the list skips to the first three names from the list!

(If you don't finish in class, test-take them from home. Deadline for test-taking and comment emails to peers and me is Wednesday, Feb. 11th, at midnight, because the survey authors need at least one day to fix their surveys which are due Friday, Feb. 13th.)



2) When you test-take your peers' surveys, take a piece of paper and write comments on it (which bullets make no sense, which "default section" headline was not changed to a meaningful title, which words were misspelled, which question should be re-formulated, which additional options should be added, whether it was customer-friendly, etc.), and then email these comments to the author of the survey you took. You all know each other's email addresses ;-)


3) Email your three "comment emails" to me as cc, for credit!

4) DEADLINE for our audiences to take our surveys is Monday, February 23rd, at 10:00 a.m. Type it into our header.

5) As soon as you have received your 3 peer-feedback emails with the comments, go ahead and repair your survey accordingly! The repaired survey version is due on Friday, Feb. 13th, for grading by me.

EMAIL me the link of your final (repaired) survey. CAREFUL: it is NOT the link you see in the "menu list" on your screen (this one leads only to the surveymonkey.com login page).

Here is the path how to create the link:

go to "My Survey" --> go to "Collect" --> put the bullet in "Create a link to send in your own email message or to place on a webpage --> click on "Next Step" --> copy the URL you see under "Sending Survey Link in an Email" --> put this URL in an email you send to me on Friday, Feb. 13th!

If you want to see how I am grading the surveys, go to "Evaluations" in our livetext profile, and look at the "Survey Grading Rubric."

EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITY for people who missed more than three (allowed) classes unexcused: You can make up ONE day in the past by test-taking THREE additional surveys. In this case, proceed as above, just pick any three surveys you'd like to take (email your peers and me your comment email and grading rubric, but WRITE IN THE EMAIL TO ME: MAKE-UP for.... (and the day for which you are making up)!!!

You can make up for as MANY missed blog COMMENTS as you want by taking an additional survey for each!!! Proceed as above; email the authors and me (as cc) your grading rubrics and comments, and write in the email, "make-up for.... and the topic of your missed blog comment."

SURVEY TOPICS:

1. Nadia Aldroubi: Ebonics in the Workplace

2. Jacqueline Bessette: The Effect of Computers on College Grammar

3. Jennifer Bond: Internet Lingo

4. Monica Brennan: Ebonics and Prejudice

5. Megan Caraballo: Ebonics

6. Adam Chadderton: Internet Lingo

7. Sara Childers: Gender & Grammar

8. Emilie Collier: Autism

9. Jason DeBoer: Text Messaging and its Effect on Grammar

10. Edward Dover: Autism

11. Lauryn Fisherkeller: The Effectiveness of ENG101

12. Jeremy Garrett: Ebonics

13. Diana Howell: The Importance of Teaching Different Learning Styles to Autistic People

14. Romona Jackson: AAE

15. Julia Longueville: English Teachers in SI & Grammar

16. Nathan Maul: Correctness of Grammar vs. Level of Education

17. Lara NP: Internet Slang

18. Henry Phillips: Is AAE a Real Language?

19. Jermaine Pryor: Ebonics

20. Casey Shepard: Ebonics & Slang

21. Daniel Sokolowski: The Effects of Texting Slang on English Language


ATTENTION:

You are NOT sending your surveys out yet!!!!!!

We are taking them in class first, then I'll grade them, then we'll compose an introductory letter, and only when you have MY WRITTEN APPROVAL you can email them out to a list of at least 20 people!!!!!!!!!

Ebonics Debate: Inverview with Carrie Secret

This is the post about the Ebonics Debate reading that your peer never published; it is composed by Chris Lacy from ENG300-2. Responses are due on Friday, Feb. 6th, by class time.
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*Post from Jan 30th due to snow days*Article

This article is adapted from an interview with Carrie Secret, a fifth-grade teacher at Prescott Elementary School in the Oakland Unified School District. Prescott had been the only school in the system where a majority of teachers voluntarily agreed to adopt the Standard English Proficiency program, a statewide initiative which acknowledges the systematic, rule-governed nature of "Black English" while helping children to learn Standard English.

Carrie Secret instills a very hands-on approach to teaching English as a Second Language to her students. Although she promotes a strong push to use standard English in her classroom, she accepts that Ebonics and other languages are the students "home" or native languages. She allows them to interact in the language that they are most comfortable speaking in. Critics of this approach attest that allowing Ebonics to be used in the classroom will prolong the switch to English. Carrie argues that "If you are concerned about children using Ebonics in the classroom, you will spend the whole day saying, "Translate, translate, translate." So you have to pick times when you are particularly attuned to and calling for English translation." I believe that this method of teaching proper English will be most effective. It reminds the students to embrace their cultural roots, but become mindful of the goal of learning English.

Carrie teaches the students through active listening; making the students read and write in proper English and listening to proper English being spoken. She emphasizes hearing proper English at a young age before habits become too much to overcome. She still reads to her 5th grade students to reinforce proper speaking techniques. She also incorporates black literature into her teaching methods to show students that their own people did wonderful things with standard English.

lie/lay sit/sat raise/rise

Audience: 6th Graders

Explore: I will go over lie/lay, sit/sat, and raise/rise. I will then give examples and have the students attempt a couple sentences to determine what word is the correct one to be used.

Explain: I will explain the grammar rules for lie/lay, sit/sat, and raise/rise. Then I will distinguish between transitive verbs and intransitive verbs. I will then show easy ways to remember how to use the correct word.

Evaluate: After the class I will have a quiz for the student to take over the material in class.

E-search: I will be using power point and using an online quiz for the students to use.

The quiz:http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/cgi-shl/quiz.pl/lie_lay_quiz.htm

Homework:http://www.english-zone.com/verbs/raise.html

Speeded Processing of Grammar & Tool Knowledge in Tourette's Syndrome

Tourette’s syndrome is a developmental disorder characterized by the presence of verbal and motor tics. Tics, which may be expressed as “simple” or “complex” motor movements or vocalizations (e.g., “simple” grunting, or “complex” shouting of phrases), are both fast and involuntary. The tics appear to be caused by disturbances of the basal-ganglia and closely connected regions of the cortex.

There are two basic aspects of language profile in TS: idiosyncratic and rule-governed knowledge. Idiosyncratic knowledge includes all arbitrary sound-meaning associations and word-specific morphological and syntactic information. Rule-governed knowledge underlies the combination of words and parts of words into complex words.

Several lines of evidence suggest that Specific Language Impairment is associated with deficits of grammar and of non-linguistic functions that depend on the procedural memory system. All idiosyncratic linguistic knowledge, such as of sound-meaning associations and irregular morpho-phonology (e.g., spring-sprang), is stored in the mental lexicon. Rule-governed complex forms, such as real and novel regular past tenses, are generally computer by the mental grammar (e.g., walk + -ed). Evidence suggests that lexical memory depends on the declarative memory system, whereas the mental grammar relies on the procedural memory system.
However, language in Tourette’s syndrome has not been thoroughly examined. Two studies are mentioned in the text, where eight subjects diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome and eight typically-developing subjects were tested.

Study #1

Past Tense Production Task: Subjects were asked to produce the past tenses of verbs presented in sentence contexts. Four types of verbs were presented: 32 consistent regulars matched to 32 irregulars; 16 inconsistent regulars; and 32 novel verbs. The test was conducted by two trained transcribers, with a third resolving rare disagreements. In this study TS patients averaged slightly lower than the average person in consistent, novel, and inconsistent regulars. However, TS patients scored better in irregular verbs section.

Study #2

Picture Naming Task: Sixty-four pictures were presented to the subjects for them to name. Thirty-two objects were commonly manipulated and the other 32 not commonly manipulated objects. The objects were rated, on a scale from 1 to 7, by seven adults from Georgetown University community. In this study the TS patients scored lower than the regular patients but not by a large margin.

In conclusion, the procedural speeding appears to be accompanied by a slight decrease in accuracy.

Autism: Disabled or Differently Abled?

I'm Adam Chadderton and I'm writing this blog about Autism, specifically on 'The Language of Autism' as featured in Wired magazine.

Autism is a brain developmental disorder that is often diagnosed in young children. Those who have autism often suffer from what many would call mental retardation. There is no set standard for how autism effects individuals. While autistic people may lack certain communication skills, or exhibit strange or repetitive behavior, these traits or symptoms occur in various degrees among individuals with autism. Because of this, there can be no set standard for aiding the autistic community. Each person must be provided for on a individual basis.

Generally, autism is seen as a disorder or a defect; a bad roll of the genetic dice. Amanda Baggs, an autistic woman explains the condition differently. She describes it as thinking in a language all her own. This language is not so much communication, instead a reaction to all aspects of her surroundings. While this is a language all her own, Ms. Baggs vehemently believes that it is equally important as any other spoken language. It's obvious through Ms. Baggs 'translation' portion of the video that she is very articulate and intelligent, and that her autism serves as no real disability, only a completely different thought process that seems unintelligible to those on the outside looking in.

Amanda Baggs had a specific reason to post her youtube video. She states in her video that she wished there was as many autistic support sites as there are for the homosexual community. She goes on to state that the video was to serve as a political statement, wishing to disprove claims that autistic people are unable to function effectively in society. Currently, Ms Baggs is working to achieve her goal and is becoming a part of a growing network of autistic individuals. We're beginning to realize that we need to rethink our stereotypes of 'disabled' people. This video is like the beginning of that.

In-Class Friday, Jan. 28: AAE practice texts

Since Wednesday, Jan. 28th, was a SNOW DAY with classes canceled, we will do the in-class activities planned for that day on Friday, Jan. 30th. This doesn't change the due dates of your homework. This means, the blog responses due for Wednesday, Jan. 28th, are still due on Wednesday; as well as your paragraphs about how you would teach the Asian ESL learner.

P.S. If you can't make it to class on Friday, Jan. 30th, due to the snow, take one of your 3 allowed sick days for it, and do the in-class assignment by choosing one of the text samples below that we did in group work, find the typical mistakes of AAE speakers according to what you have read so far (since you won't have the handout distributed in class), and email me what you think/can prove are typical AAE mistakes in Standard English. This way, you'll get the participation points the others got when they did the group work.
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In-Class Prompt for Friday, Jan. 30th:

In 10 minutes, find the typical mistakes in your text sample from AAE speakers writing Standard English (SE). They must be characteristic mistakes, mentioned in your "rules sheet" of AAE which I distributed in class. (Not the kind of mistakes every writer can make. You need to prove to your peers that it is actually a "rule" -- best by mentioning the page number on your "rules sheet" where you found the rule.) Find out to which "category" of typical AAE mistakes those errors belong, and present your findings to the class (2-3 min.). You can write on the board, or type an overview, email it to yourself, open it on the Smartboard PC, and show it on the Smartboard.

Here are the practice texts for our group work. They are drawn from AAE-speaking, first year college students' essays, written for an introductory expository writing course. Careful: there are not only "mistakes" in SE, but also characteristic stylistic features of AAE!!! Don't mark "non-typical" mistakes, such as typos.

Group I:

When entering a university or college, most students parents put a word or two into their child ear. If the student listen, its on him or her. But the advice your parents usually give you is right. Most students are introduce to drugs and alcohle and is put with the delima should they use it. Then start to think back at what they parent told them. They let it float in one ear and out the other.


Group II:

Big Blow Out Sale! Final Sale! Save 50% of entire store! Shop at Priceline.com for the lowest prices. Today that is pretty much all you see on television. Every channel was some advertisement about either shopping online or going to your local mall for a big blow out sale. To many people the mall is a disaster area that should never been seen. To other the mall is a haven, a chance to meet new people and get hands on sales associate. With the invention of computer and the internet been so powerful, online shopping has become the norm for many customer. These two shopping techniques can have their advantages and disadvantages.



Group III:

As the showed end for that week my friends and I were preparing to leave, but stop to socialize like everyoneelse was doing. For some strange reason we were singled out. "Gentlemen, cross the street", yelled the officer. We kept talking because we didn't know if he was referring to us. "Get off the property and cross the street", yelled the officer. So, I turned around and gestured to my friends lets leave and as we were crossing the street me friend Theron (Chocolate) got snatched up by an officer for no reason. The officer grabbed Choc threw him up against a car and twisted his arm behind his back for no reason. Choc ask what did he do and he said, "Shut up, your getting arrested tonight", and handcuffed him. Naturally, as friends we tried to help; in all the comotion my friend Chris got hancuffed also. So, they took Choc and Chris back inside the building.



Group IV:

Finally, If a child is not in the home or school, the community must serve as a rearing force. "It take a village, to rage a child" (African proverb), is correct. It also take a village to stop violence in community. These two thoughts will make the community a safe place to live. Neighbors should pay attention to the behavior of children in the community. If they see children misbehaving, don't be afraid to tell the child's parents. That same child could be the future drug dealer that destroys the community even more. Communities should also ban together to stop crimes. Programs such as neighborhood watch has reduce crimes by 30% in the Crenshaw Blv. Area (Compton, CA). Awareness is the key to reduce violence. Along with watching children, neighbors should also watch property. Keep an eye out for crime decreases the chance of it happening.


Group V:

We will never be free to be until we achieve the kind of freedom that does not make it easier to criticize than it is to contribute. We will never be free to be until we achieve the kind of freedom that does not make the rich even richer while the poor become poorer. We will never be free to be until we achieve the kind of freedom that encourages children to dream big things that may be difficult (but not impossible) to attain instead of small endeavors that pose no challenge. We will never be free to be until we achieve the kind of freedom that allows us to celebrate our history while looking to a better future. We will never be free to be until we achieve the kind of freedom that urges us to support one another in a united cause as opposed to everyone "doing their own thing." Only then will we be truly free to dream, free to make our dreams a reality, and simply free to be.

How can AAE Speakers Become Effective SWE Writers?

Chapter 3 went into detail on what AAE is. Chapter 4 goes on to discuss different strategies on how teachers can show AAE speakers how to write in Standard English to become effective writers. There are many different aproaches listed and explained in the chapter to teach a student that speaks AAE how to write in SWE.

The Traditional Approach: This focuses on the finite grammatical rules and stressing the correct usage. The philosophy behind this approach focuses on immersing the student in SWE to avoid confusing the use of AAE. To explain how to instruct a student using AAE in the classroom, the author says while in the classroom, correct the student while reading outloud of writing immediatly. The student then must reread or write the sentence in correct SWE. Teachers of this approach usally are in favor of standardized testing as well.

The Second Dialect Approach or ESD: This approach treats the student more as a ESL student. The ESD stands for English as a Second Dialect. The philosophy behind ESD is more in depth than the traditional approach. The article explains the usage of code-switch, metalinguistic awareness, and contrastive rhetoric. It details these because this approach believes for success the student will need to listen, then speak, then read, and then finally be able to write. Assesment for this approach does agree with standardized testing, but also relies on writing and oral exams more.

The Dialect Awareness Approach: This approach has certain characteristics of ESD, but focuses more on acknowleging AAE as its own language variation. This philosophy is geared towards stopping prejudice in society. Instruction while using this approach is to help students become aware of other dialects and to stop different myths. Language attitudes are stressed in the article as well.

The Culturally Appropriate Approach: This focuses on making a curriculum and enviroment that stresses African American culture by using CAT (culturally appropriate teaching). Assesment through this approach is different and focuses on BSE or Black Standard English. Peers are used to help one another notice their mistakes. When the final draft of a paper is handed in the teacher accepts the word usage of certain parts of AAE as his or hers own word choice.

The Bridge Approach: This last approach oringinated in bilungual education. Traditional and non traditional writing is discussed and instructors do not like to rely on multiple choice exams. Through this approach the instructor recongizes certain works that use AAE (ie. The Color Purple) and shows the students the differences in certain works and afrocentric word usage.

This chapter helped explain the five different approaches a teacher can use in order to help student who speak AAE become effective writers. Most of the approaches have the student recognize their cultural and how to use certain words appropriatly. I think using a combination of some of these different approaches would be most benificial. Every teacher is going to come across diversity. Learning different approaches to help form a bias free and culturally acknowleging enviroment would help the students learn and grow into effective writers.

In-class, Jan. 26: Lesson Plan for Asian ESL Student

Today, we are constructing another mini lesson; this time for an Asian student who has English as a second language (ESL).

In order to deal with diversity in our students, we need to understand the background of their native languages. We do this by reading research, by observing our students, and by simply asking them. The grammar of their native language might be completely different from the English grammar.


Task 1: Proofread the sample text below. It is an original text written by an SIU TESOL student in 2007. Then, take a piece of paper, and repair as many mistakes as you can find. Rewrite the sentences correctly, with regard to good grammar AND style.


The Beijing is a modern city and there are a lot of places to visit. First, there are many new building was build. One of the new buildings, it looks like a bird’s nest. Then, it have a big history. You can visit a lot of old buildings to know the history, just like “the summer Palace”. Finally, many people come from different country, there are kinds of restaurant. You can eat which you want to taste. Beijing is a nice place.


Task 2: In class, we will discuss a list of specific errors that occurred, and we will group these errors into categories. We'll fill in a category table on the board.

Here is an example for a category: modifiers

In Chinese, modifiers always precede the noun, whereas in English they can follow the noun, especially for attributive clauses. Therefore, Chinese students often have problems constructing an attributive clause. For example:

· Their owners may want to come to the store knows the pets better.
· These are all good strategies should be used.
· There are some people want to live in the countryside.
· The Plan provides lots of good statistic numbers which very helpful.
· My grandfather is the only person who influenced by his actions.

Another category: pronouns

One salient error is the leaving out of the relative pronouns, because they don’t exist in Chinese. For instance, the first sentence, if written in Chinese, would be like: “Their owners may want to come to knows the pets better the store.”

To find more categories, take a look at the homework reading which was due today: ERIC document (look only on pp. 47-62 for specific error types of Asian ESL students.)


Task 3: Pick one of your categories, or one category mentioned on pp. 47-62, and write a short passage how you as a teacher/tutor/editor would explain to the Asian writer above WHY this can’t be said in English. Use her sentences as samples, and give her some other examples, too. Please write with quotation marks (how you would actually say it to the student). Give plausible examples of right/wrong sentences, and explain to the ESL student how to use the grammatical form you picked correctly. (Don't just explain, "we do it this way in English.")

Email this assignment to me. If you can't finish in class, this will be homework for Wednesday, January 28th.

Here is an example of how a teacher explained article use to an ESL student:

In a case study, a Costa Rican boy used the “the” too often, for example, “the nature has a lot of secrets.” The teacher replies: “Let me ask you, if you are walking in the woods, where is nature?” – “It’s in the trees. It’s kind of … everywhere,” the student replies. “Right. It’s everywhere. So nature is a very general noun. We talk about nature but we are not talking about a specific place or specific trees…” (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman 1983, 9-10).


Task 4:
Post a short comment to this blog about your own experience with Asian students, if you are observing/student teaching and have made any experiences so far. You can also write about what you observed outside of class with regard to Asian ESL persons. Or, post your personal thoughts about teaching children of diverse cultures. What would you do to make it easier for them? Any accommodations? Or would you treat them like the rest of your students? If you had an Asian student in your class who wrote great essays but placed the articles wrongly each time, would you take points off or give her the good grade her content deserves? If you give her the good grade, would it be fair to your American students who get points off for mechanics??? Let your conscience speak.

"What is AAE?"

Due date for responses: Wed., Jan. 28th, by class time.
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Well, here it goes. These are the highlights I found the most interesting about the article and I will throw in some personal observations and comments as well.

AAE is African American English. It is widely debated whether or not this should be recognized as a language, a dialect, or if it is just a for of "'broken english."' Whatever your view is on the subject it is real. Therefore since it is real it is something to consider.

Is seems to me that it is obvious that at the least AAE is a dialect of English. As the article points out it is widely used, recognized, and understood by African Americans. Many White Americans as well as other ethnicities can identify and in some cases use this language too. Too call this merely slang is stupid. Slang changes over time. Take the word gay for example. Gay used to mean happy but now is a word used for homosexual. The word is even changing now from meaning homosexual to stupid in some slang instances. AAE is not merely slang because it has roots that are steadfast.

It is a possibility that AAE is its own language as well. When one thinks about it English is a language made up of borrowed words. There are French, German, and Latin influences on the English language. But English is not said to be a dialect of these languages. Just as the romance languages are not considered to be dialects of one another, instead they are considered seperate.

AAE is easily identifiable by English speaking people. Just as Scandanavian and Norwegian people can understand eachothers languages quite easily, yet at the same time they are considered seperate languages! So the connection between AAE and Standard English is strong, yet AAE shows signs of African roots as well. The verb be is where much of the controversy revolves. Many times there is a complete lack of this word which is against standard english rules.

Yet my question is is the lack of a principle part of a sentence really against the rules of Standard English? Everyone leaves out a principle part of a sentence all of the time whether or not we are aware of it. A sentence is supposed to have a subject and a verb that's it. But the sentence "Fetch me a drink," is perfectly acceptable. The reason being the Subject "You" is understood. Is it too far of a stretch then that if we look at AAE as a dialect that it is completely acceptable to leave out a "be verb" and let it be understood as well?

Then we must ask ourselves is this really even worth debating about whether or not AAE is a seperate language or dialect? I believe it is definitely worth asking if it is another dialect because as the article points out there are rules to speaking AAE. Using terms like slang or broken english are derogatory toward this speech and I feel that is wrong. The people who use this speech whether they be black, white, hispanic, or any other ethnicity are not breaking the rules in my book. AAE is just another form of a very broken up language that ought to be accepted and not rejected by the majority and those in power. People in the Southeast do not speak the same as the people from the midwest or the New England states and that is viewed as okay. So why is it that there has to be so much controversy about a language that does seem to be uniform among the majority of a large group of people in our country? It seems to me that if people would just let go of their prejudice and accept this form of speech instead of trying to point out everything that is wrong with it we could all let go of a little bit of controversy and focus on other things to try to fix in our lives, because in my opinion AAE is not something that does not need fixed. If it is not broken do not fix it!

Mini Lesson: Run-On Sentences and Comma Splices

Grade Level: 9



1) Engage: The first slide of my Power Point presentation will be a funny quote with a graphic.



2) Explore: Example sentences containing each type of grammatical error will be shown, and the students will be asked to guess what the error is.



3) Explain: I will define what each type of error is



4) Expand: I will show several ways to correct the sentences seen at the beginning of the presentation.

5&6) Evaluate and E-Search: There will be a selection of related quizzes here, here, and here. The students will complete one (or more!) to test their comprehension.

Chinese English Learners

Due date for responses: Mon., Jan. 26th, by class time.
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My reading summary was on the text called A Contrastive Guide to Teach English to Chinese Students by Nancy Duke S. Lay. In the book, Nancy discusses many issues that teachers face when teaching English to Chinese students. She talks about the problems these students have with speaking, writing, and understanding English. The text is too long to summarize fully in a short blog. However, I will summarize the differences in grammar between Chinese and English that cause these students to write with improper grammar.
Nancy explains that in Chinese word order, or syntax, determines the function of the word. The position of the word indicates numbers, persons, and tenses. A sentence in Chinese is understood by the meaning of the sentence as a whole, whereas in English the sentence gets its meaning from each word. Chinese students’ grammar problems stem from the differences in the way that words are ordered in a sentence in Chinese compared to English. Example: Chinese: I no want.
English: No, I do not want it.
Or
Chinese: She why leave?
English: Why did she leave?
These examples bring up another grammatical difference between English and Chinese. In Chinese the auxiliary verb ‘do’ does not exist. As a result, Chinese students tend to leave out verbs like do in their sentences. There is a word that is similar to ‘do’ in Chinese but it is closer to the meaning of the word ‘are’. From this confusion, Chinese students tend to write ‘are’ when they should write ‘do’ in their sentences.
One other difference that I feel would cause Chinese students to write improperly is the difference between our punctuation marks. In Chinese, a dash is used to separate a list of things in a sentence, whereas in English a comma is used. Not to mention, commas are not used in the same way that they are in English. Instead of quotation marks, they use a colon or a symbol. Their exclamation mark is used to express hope, fear, hate, or a command. Having different meanings and symbols for punctuation marks makes it difficult for these students to use the proper punctuation in English.
There are many more differences between correct grammar in English and Chinese. However, these are the ones that I feel cause the most problems for teachers to teach English to Chinese students.

"Sharpening," by Ken Marcrorie

Since Dustin Heap did not publish his reading summary, here's one from another section. The comments are due this Friday, Jan. 23rd.

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Hi! It’s my turn to do the summary for the day, so here we go. “Sharpening”, the selection we had to read was from the same book we read about Engfish from, Telling Writing by Ken Marcrorie.

A lot of what Marcrorie discusses in this section expands on what he started mentioning in Engfish. Remember how Marcrorie talked about how we tried to make overly wordy sentences that didn’t really mean anything? Marcrorie discusses in this section ways to “sharpen” our sentences, or to make them sound better, and this process really will make our sentences sound less “Engfishy”.

One of the main points Marcrorie makes is using active verbs instead of passive verbs. Instead of using a lot of linking verbs like ‘is’, we should try to use action verbs that suit what we’re saying instead.

Example:-- Reading this section is assisting us in becoming better writers. (Passive verb phrase is assisting.)Versus-- Reading this section improves our writing style.

Clearly, the second one sounds a lot more convincing. It also cuts down on the number of unnecessary words, which was one of the main aspects of Engfish.

The other main point that Macrorie brings up is all the use of unnecessary words and the overuse of the pronoun ‘it’. Rather than beating around the bush by saying things like ‘It seems that reading this will help me’, Macrorie argues that we should just get to the point and say ‘Reading this will help me’. By avoiding all the extra words, we sound a little more authoritative, don’t you think? We also sound a lot more convincing, or at least that’s how it seems to me, and I can’t really think of any situation where we wouldn’t want to sound convincing in our writing.

Obviously, passive verbs and ‘it’ can’t always be avoided, but we should always try to avoid them in situations where we could be using better and more colorful words!

For discussion:What did you think about the article? Have you had any experience with writing that needs a little sharpening, or maybe have you seen instances in which you’ve used a lot of “its”, “seems”, and passive verbs yourself? (I know I’m guilty of it!) What do you think is the best way to try to avoid this? (Since these aren’t really errors, I know it’s a lot harder for me to catch myself doing it. I mean, I just used the word ‘it’ and ‘is’ in that sentence!) If you have any other thoughts, too, you can just put them here.

Thanks!--Laura Treat