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.