Punctuation Power

Anderson offered some really great ideas for thinking about punctuation in this week's reading:

• Quotation marks = lips
• Semicolon = Supercomma
• Colon = drum roll
• Dash = "bumpkin at the genteel table of good English"

I also learned that the dash is twice as long as the hyphen.  I never knew that before!

To teach appropriate use of the exclamation point, Anderson suggests that students highlight the exclamation point use in a passage.  I like this activity because it further encourages close reading for style.

Noden offers a smorgasbord of chunks to engage students in more meaningful and sophisticated writing.  He presents a simple, overarching suggestion: Let "meaning take precedence over rules" (107).  This reminds me of one of Stephen King's rules of writing, which I have recorded as "Rules Schmules" in my notecard booklet.  With King, Noden advocates allowing students to "just say it" in their writing.

"Examining punctuation for its purpose and power, students view writing as an act of creation rather than a burden of correction." (Noden 127)

This hearkens back to the concepts that Weaver introduced.  By teaching grammar conventions as tools, students are empowered to control their writing instead of grammar controlling them.  Each of our class authors have noted that real book-selling authors make a habit of breaking grammar rules . . . and it works!

Gary Provost offers a rather common sense solution to potential student confusion: "Ask yourself . . . Is my meaning clear?  If the answer is no, rewrite.  The second question: What am I getting in return for poor grammar?  If you can't answer that, don't use the poor grammar" (Noden 108).

Provost encourages writers to engage in edits that explore the close relationship between content and style.  Through this analysis, writers demonstrate critical thought about their writing as they explain and defend it.  They must have a clear purpose for both what they are saying and how they are saying it.

Noden offers a plethora of chunks, but these are a few of my favorites:

•  Punctuation Hierarchy -- Offers a visual of the relationship between chosen punctuation and meaning
• Two Voice Poem -- Allows students to examine opposing viewpoints and make connections
• Tantalizing Titles -- Provides a framework for one of the most difficult tasks of writing a paper

On Learning and Teaching

Our readings and presentations have focused on different techniques that add life to students' writing.  We have discussed and practiced effective uses of these techniques, from the five brushstrokes to colorful verbs.  However, teaching writing will not just be providing students with these tools.  I will need to teach them how to use these tools.

The reading this week really hit this home for me.  Anyone can throw a list of adjectives and adverbs into a sentence, but the real power and magic comes when the student is in control of these words.  I suppose this will be my greatest struggle in the classroom: Teaching students how to be effective with these grammar tools.

I appreciate the structure of this course because it has provided a lot of practical experience with teaching grammar.  I have been the subject of a number of really great model lessons.  (For example, I am definitely going to do something similar to Rebecca's match-the-head-to-the-person activity.)  I also have the opportunity to test out different ways of teaching grammar, and there is definitely encouragement to be creative.

I relish the faces that people make in response to my telling them that my Thursday night class is "History and Structure of the English Language."  They are the same kinds of faces that I made when I first read the course name on the major outline.   It does sound intimidating and dull.  However, I am really enjoying it.

I did not expect to pick up on the grammatical concepts so quickly.  Part of this may be because I have naturally incorporated these strategies into my writing without knowing it.  However, I attribute most of this understanding to the fact that, for the first time, grammar is being presented in a clear and beneficial manner.  I am not just filling out worksheets or correcting sentences, but engaging with grammar in a variety of reading and writing activities.

Therefore, I have hope for teaching grammar in my future classroom!  I am looking forward to empowering my students with the same tools that have empowered me. 

Words: A Love Story

When I was a child, I fell in love with words.  I sat with them deep into the night under the glow of a flashlight or, in December, the flood of icicle lights pouring through my curtains.  I whispered them, slowly, hungrily, rolling their sounds.  I tested them, using my voice to give them life.

In turn, words awakened my writing.

Noden suggests that if we provide the instrument, then we will hear the music in the words.  I used to read out loud to myself (and sometimes still do) because the cadences of the words are enchanting.  My mom is usually my victim; I'll run over to her: "Mom!  Mom!  Listen to this!  This is just incredible!" and then proceed to read whatever passage so moved me.

Our Noden reading provides numerous strategies to encourage students to both recognize and emulate music in words.  Again, he uses comparative model texts.  I appreciate the way he presents a mentor text and then strips it of its music in order to demonstrate the power of its rhythm.  Comparing the altered text to the original text makes the rhythms more prominent.

Noden further addresses sentence length with a very clever passage that begins: "This sentence has five words" (67).  I really want to use this passage in my further classroom!  While editing, I have often encountered short, simple, repetitive sentences that can easily be transformed into something more sophisticated and harmonious.

Teaching the patterns of rhythmic writing before the labels is less intimidating to the writer.  It empowers them by saying: "Look at this.  This is how this is achieved.  You can do this."  Noden - and Anderson, too - have students imitate mentor texts in order to practice these rhythms.  They both advocate that if students are immersed in this music, then they will start to sing along.

Anyway, that's how it worked for me.

Multigenre Butterflies

To be honest, I am a little apprehensive about this project.

As a student, I am definitely a product of the current education system.  I am a terrific test-taker.  (Seriously.  It scares me.)  While I enjoy learning, I am also motivated by the grade.  I am the kid who will write the analytical essay instead of drawing a picture or making a video response.

But, as a teacher, I am elated by the multigenre project!  This is the kind of work that I want my students to do.  I love the creative yet critical conversations this project fosters.  I love that it engages multiple literacies.  I love that the creator is in complete control of his project.

However, this does not solve my dilemma.  Before I can assign something like this to my students, I have to complete it myself.

I would not describe myself as creative or artsy.  I anticipate my primary struggle with the multigenre project to be varying the genres that I choose and finding a way to make them all mesh.  I am finding it a bit difficult to swallow my own medicine; this project is really pushing me out of my comfort zone, which is exactly what I want to do to my students. 

The provided examples were helpful.  I have a better understanding of what is expected of me.  I even have the foggy beginnings of a plan.

Overall, I am looking forward to how this will turn out.  I am really excited to see how they all turn out!

Meaningful Revision

Another week of great material from Anderson and Noden!

I especially appreciated Noden's discussions about nonfiction writing and editing.  One thing that he addresses that I believe to be an indispensable focus for English classrooms is the relationship between content and form.  While I got a taste of the omnipresence of this relationship in high school, I did not fully understand or appreciate its immensity.  Content and form are married in writing, but also in so many other contexts.  It is an important pattern for students to be able to identify and utilize.

I absolutely agree with Noden's revision strategies.  Indeed, the revision process is not complete without giving form, content, style, and conventions each their proper due. 

His discussion brought to mind an observation that I completed in a ninth grade Honors English class.  The teacher opened the class with a discussion on how the students viewed peer editing.  Their responses were dishearteningly true.  One student shared that peer editing is simply "an excuse for the teacher not to grade."  Other students asserted that it provides no value because their classmates only focus on correcting basic mechanics, if they even care enough to do that.  The teacher then worked with her students to develop peer editing goals focused around three questions: "Do I understand?  Is it confusing?  Am I convinced?"

The students really seemed to appreciate the opportunity to vent frustrations about the peer editing system and have a hand in designing the expectations for the workshops.  They engaged in great discussions about their classmates' papers for the rest of the period.

Noden's suggestion to begin with style is helpful!  My own experience supports his claim that most Language Arts/English teachers begin and focus the revision process on conventions, ignoring the other three components.  It is also encouraging to read about the checklists, which are essentially scaffolded road maps to stronger writing.  I do not need to overwhelm my students with rules.

This is the first time that I have EVER heard someone suggest that a final draft does not need to be perfect.  "With students, the idea is to begin with one category and progress through the other three" (244).  In retrospect, throughout middle and high school, I was given assignments and expected to demonstrate mastery of form, content, style, and conventions starting in. the beginning of the year.  Noden instead seems to suggest scaffolding the writing.  We want the student to succeed in each of these four categories, but can they be successful if they are bombarded with them all at once?  Is it better to layer these revision categories?

One additional revolutionary concept from the text: "[U]se a checklist, a checklist that has been taught before students revise" (239).

Providing the students with the tools they will need in order to be successful before we assess how well they use those tools...  What a novel idea.

Seeing is Reading

If I can be half as effective as Anderson is when I teach grammar, I will be a very happy English teacher.

I am understanding grammar for what feels like the first time just by reading his text!  In fact, I am tempted to use his book as the grammar textbook in my own classroom!  (But that would mean giving away all of our teaching secrets!  *gasp*)  Anderson's approach to grammar is incredibly clear and straightforward.  My grammar-confidence remains on a rapid rise.

Noden also continues to enlighten and challenge me.  Throughout my secondary education, teachers pounded adjectives down my throat. Noden, however, advocates stronger nouns and, especially, verbs.  This is an incredible concept because it is one that is so often overlooked.  It is a skill that will transform students into writers.

While I understand his theory about moving students away from adjectives that lead to blank imaging, I wonder if it is too complex for the casual student writer.  Is it too much to expect students to be able to distinguish between adjectives?  I feel as though the only way to do this would be to contrast adjectives that create blank imaging with adjectives that are specific in mentor texts and student writing.  However, I still forsee this causing some confusion.

I do love Noden's theory that students are very visual learners.    I can attest; Anderson's visual scaffolding charts have been extremely beneficial to me, cementing the concepts that he has introduced!

"So it is possible that, separated by one generation, students relate to images more intensely than teachers" (Noden 43).

Noden not only caters to students by suggesting visual learning aids and model texts - not to mention the painting motif - but through actual prompts as well.  The zooming and layering writing exercise is awesome because it encourages students to comb through their works to really tap into the power available in grammar.  Noden also suggests using pictures, images, movies, and props to inspire more colorful brushstrokes in student writing.  This is great because it allows students to interact with the objects that they will be translating in their writing.  The visuals offer inspiration and support for student writing.  Students have something tangible to explore instead of having to procure abstractions from nowhere.  Many of Noden's strategies thus further double as good scaffolding techniques.

Getting Dirty with Grammar

I really appreciate the conversations about grammar that our texts create.  It is helpful to read Noden's ideas and theories about teaching grammar, and then to read how Anderson implements some of them in his classroom; it makes the inevitability of teaching grammar more concrete and less intimidating.

Anderson consistently teaches grammar visually.  For example, he uses the Sentence Smack Down and Visual Scaffolding Charts to help his students understand the concepts.  These activities keep the students "doing" grammar; they are actively involved with grammar!  I love his advocacy for wallpapering the walls with posters.  First, this constructively hides the dull cinderblocks.  But it also surrounds the students with grammar.  Students can't escape grammar!

Again: a representation of Anderson's philosophy of a rich and living learning environment.

I also find that Anderson's lessons embody Weaver's view of grammar as a box of tools (versus a list of rules).  ***See the "Write a Sentence" discussion on page 65 of Anderson's text***  As students untangle the rules of grammar, they assume control over grammar and, thus, their writing.  This is not to say that students are able to use certain standards of grammar and discard others but that students are empowered to use grammar to enhance their writing instead of having adding grammar that limits their writing.

Noden's detailed lesson models further illustrate this idea.  Students are taught what a prepositional phrase is, for example, not so they can know what it is but so they can use.

I like to think of it as students getting their hands dirty with grammar.