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.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
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.
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.
Monday, January 26, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
"What is AAE?"
Due date for responses: Wed., Jan. 28th, by class time.
_______________________________________________
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!
_______________________________________________
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!
Thursday, January 22, 2009
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.
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.
___________________________________
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.
___________________________________
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.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
"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.
______________________________________
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.
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
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
English 300-1 Mini Lesson: Clauses and Phrases
Audience= 8th grade students
1) Engage: I will engage the students' attention by wearing a Santa hat and giving out candy to those brave enough to participate and answer quesitons correctly
2) Explore: I will give examples of different clauses and phrases, and they will distinguish and analyze them. There will also be a hidden question on one of the power point slides.
3) Explain: I will explain the rules and differences between the types of clauses and phrases and how to distinguish between them.
4) Expand: I will ask the students to write for me an example of both an independent and dependent clause, noting the differences between the two and any conjective adverbs, dependent words, etc.
5) Evaluate: Students will take a quiz on clauses. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/quizzes/indep_clause_quiz.htm
6) E-Search: I will be giving my lesson via PowerPoint as well as giving an online assessment.
Homework will be taking this online assessment and sending me their scores via email at nathan.maul@grammar300.com
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/quizzes/phrase_quiz.htm
1) Engage: I will engage the students' attention by wearing a Santa hat and giving out candy to those brave enough to participate and answer quesitons correctly
2) Explore: I will give examples of different clauses and phrases, and they will distinguish and analyze them. There will also be a hidden question on one of the power point slides.
3) Explain: I will explain the rules and differences between the types of clauses and phrases and how to distinguish between them.
4) Expand: I will ask the students to write for me an example of both an independent and dependent clause, noting the differences between the two and any conjective adverbs, dependent words, etc.
5) Evaluate: Students will take a quiz on clauses. http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/quizzes/indep_clause_quiz.htm
6) E-Search: I will be giving my lesson via PowerPoint as well as giving an online assessment.
Homework will be taking this online assessment and sending me their scores via email at nathan.maul@grammar300.com
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/GRAMMAR/quizzes/phrase_quiz.htm
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Model of Mini Lesson and LC
Model for Mini Lesson:
If your overview is missing, 30 points will be deducted from your mini lesson overall points (200). If for any reason you experience blogging issues, you must email your outline with the URL’s to all peers before your presentation starts; in this case, you can paste your overview onto the blog later when you’ve solved your issue. A non-posted or non-emailed overview before the start of the presentation cannot be made up.
Your “visuals” can be writing on the board, handouts, graphic organizers, manipulatives (= hands-on material), etc.
Note that if you assign homework, your peers are not actually going to do it; but it will be graded as a good component (e.g., as “evaluate”). Just tell your peers what you “would” assign.
Mini Lesson: WHO or WHOM???
Audience = 9th grade students
For homework, the students will
1) go to the Grammar Girl’s site (text file, audio file) and read / listen to an example of how she explains the difference between “who” and “whom” to a listener of her radio show.
2) After that, the students will pretend to be Grammar Girl, and answer a self-selected grammar question about “who,” “whom,” “whoever,” “whomever,” etc. in the same style as she did – funny, but informative. They will google the topic to find questions and answers (research part).
3) The 9th grade students will record their "radio show" on tape and bring it to class to be played for a class of 6th graders whom they are supposed to teach about this topic.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Learning Cycle - Homework for Jan. 16th
Homework for Friday, January 16th:
First task: We are going to learn about the basics for our mini lessons which will be held according to the Learning Cycle (LC) model. Read the following explanation of the Learning Cycle: LC
According to this model, a Learning Cycle consists of 5 E's:
Engage (you catch your students' attention to the topic)
Explore (the kids find things out by themselves)
Explain (students try to analyze the problem; you explain the rules to them)
Expand (kids get a different task to apply what they've found out)
Evaluate (you assess their comprehension)
HOWEVER, some people even suggest that a LC does not only have 5 E's, but 6! The mysterious number six is "E-search." Read the following article: http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2005-05/sc0411_47.pdf
When you're done with this, here's your second task:
Post a short comment of ~ 100-200 words on this blog what you think about the Learning Cycle model. Suggestions for answers: Originally, it was conceived for math or science classes. Do you think it is useful for English (or any language, or ESL) classes? Would you use it? Were you taught this way? What about the 6th E? Do you think it is a good idea, or is it unnecessary (especially when teaching English and/or grammar)??? Your personal opinion...
First task: We are going to learn about the basics for our mini lessons which will be held according to the Learning Cycle (LC) model. Read the following explanation of the Learning Cycle: LC
According to this model, a Learning Cycle consists of 5 E's:
Engage (you catch your students' attention to the topic)
Explore (the kids find things out by themselves)
Explain (students try to analyze the problem; you explain the rules to them)
Expand (kids get a different task to apply what they've found out)
Evaluate (you assess their comprehension)
HOWEVER, some people even suggest that a LC does not only have 5 E's, but 6! The mysterious number six is "E-search." Read the following article: http://science.nsta.org/enewsletter/2005-05/sc0411_47.pdf
When you're done with this, here's your second task:
Post a short comment of ~ 100-200 words on this blog what you think about the Learning Cycle model. Suggestions for answers: Originally, it was conceived for math or science classes. Do you think it is useful for English (or any language, or ESL) classes? Would you use it? Were you taught this way? What about the 6th E? Do you think it is a good idea, or is it unnecessary (especially when teaching English and/or grammar)??? Your personal opinion...
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
ENGFISH - homework for Wed., Jan. 14
Let's jump in at the deep end right away: here's your first prompt, which will be homework for Wednesday, January 14th: go to the following link
http://www.kristisiegel.com/engfish2.htm
Read the excerpt "The Poison Fish" from Ken Marcrorie's book Telling Writing.
It talks about ENGFISH, a common form of student writings (AND textbook writings!!) that you will encounter during your future career as teachers.
Your task: write a short blog comment about your personal experience with ENGFISH - are you maybe student teaching already, and have seen it in your kids' writing? Did they serve you ENGFISH in their final exams when they wrote: "When I came into this class I knew nothing, but this semester I've learned so much; I owe it all to you, and you are a great teacher"?! Or did you produce ENGFISH texts yourself in certain situations? What do you think about the term? Does it work for you, or do you think it is inadequate? Better suggestions? Or do you perhaps have a funny example of ENGFISH you want to share? How can its use be avoided?
http://www.kristisiegel.com/engfish2.htm
Read the excerpt "The Poison Fish" from Ken Marcrorie's book Telling Writing.
It talks about ENGFISH, a common form of student writings (AND textbook writings!!) that you will encounter during your future career as teachers.
Your task: write a short blog comment about your personal experience with ENGFISH - are you maybe student teaching already, and have seen it in your kids' writing? Did they serve you ENGFISH in their final exams when they wrote: "When I came into this class I knew nothing, but this semester I've learned so much; I owe it all to you, and you are a great teacher"?! Or did you produce ENGFISH texts yourself in certain situations? What do you think about the term? Does it work for you, or do you think it is inadequate? Better suggestions? Or do you perhaps have a funny example of ENGFISH you want to share? How can its use be avoided?
Welcome!!!
Welcome to Dr. V's grammar course 300-1 for education majors!
This is going to be a fun course.
As prerequisites, you need three things:
1) your new email address, which is firstname.lastname@grammar300.com, and which you will receive on the first day of class if you were enrolled in this course. Example: mike.fisher@grammar300.com
Your password for the log-in is firstnamelastname. Example: mikefisher
You can change your passwords, if you like. Note that if you don't, your peers and teacher will be able to read your emails -- but, who would...
If you join this course AFTER the first day of class, and were not on the class list before, talk to me in order to receive your email address!!!
This is the ONLY email address with which we will correspond. I have a corresponding email address with my name, Christina Voss. This system will facilitate the correspondence among peers, because if you have a name list, you will be able to email anybody from our class, which is important for our peer-editing session and other exchanges. It also enables me to send out mass emails to all of you, such as your exams or homework. It further saves me the trouble of finding out who is behind dancingqueen@aol.com ;-)
2) an invitation to join this blog. It should be in your grammar300.com email inbox. If it is not there for some reason, talk to me!!! If you got it, click on it to accept it. Your homework for coming Wednesday, January 14th, will be a first blog post, so you all need to be signed up.
3) access to the livetext account I set up for this course. There, you will see our syllabus and schedule. Also, the pdf files of our course readings are attached to the separate classes. Here, you can see what we are going to do each day. I will also post your due dates for presentations there, for example for the mini lessons each of you is going to hold.
You do NOT need to have a livetext account on your own to join our profile (it costs about $90). You simply log into mine with the password I give you on the first day of class. You do NOT need to type anything into livetext; it is for reading purpose only.
This is going to be a fun course.
As prerequisites, you need three things:
1) your new email address, which is firstname.lastname@grammar300.com, and which you will receive on the first day of class if you were enrolled in this course. Example: mike.fisher@grammar300.com
Your password for the log-in is firstnamelastname. Example: mikefisher
You can change your passwords, if you like. Note that if you don't, your peers and teacher will be able to read your emails -- but, who would...
If you join this course AFTER the first day of class, and were not on the class list before, talk to me in order to receive your email address!!!
This is the ONLY email address with which we will correspond. I have a corresponding email address with my name, Christina Voss. This system will facilitate the correspondence among peers, because if you have a name list, you will be able to email anybody from our class, which is important for our peer-editing session and other exchanges. It also enables me to send out mass emails to all of you, such as your exams or homework. It further saves me the trouble of finding out who is behind dancingqueen@aol.com ;-)
2) an invitation to join this blog. It should be in your grammar300.com email inbox. If it is not there for some reason, talk to me!!! If you got it, click on it to accept it. Your homework for coming Wednesday, January 14th, will be a first blog post, so you all need to be signed up.
3) access to the livetext account I set up for this course. There, you will see our syllabus and schedule. Also, the pdf files of our course readings are attached to the separate classes. Here, you can see what we are going to do each day. I will also post your due dates for presentations there, for example for the mini lessons each of you is going to hold.
You do NOT need to have a livetext account on your own to join our profile (it costs about $90). You simply log into mine with the password I give you on the first day of class. You do NOT need to type anything into livetext; it is for reading purpose only.
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