Seeing Grammar with New Eyes Amy Benjamin Eastport-South Manor Central School District January 13, 2011 Please feel free to access any of today’s visuals: www.amybenjamin.com

Seeing Grammar with New Eyes Amy Benjamin Eastport-South Manor Central School District January 13, 2011 Please feel free to access any of today’s visuals: www.amybenjamin.com

Seeing Grammar with New Eyes Session I : Introduction: Shifting the paradigm Alternatives to traditional instruction on the parts of sp Alternatives to traditional instruction on sentence completeness Understanding code-switching from informal to formal language register Quick fix on pronoun atrocities AVEM (a very effective metaphor) Session II Agenda: How we can teach students to achieve a better sentence style: Compound and complex sentences Adjective and adverb phrases and clauses Parallel structure Other grammatical embellishments, combinations, utilities

I teaching grammar. I never “really” learned it. Shouldn’t they already have had this in the lower grades? Do kids really have to learn all these terms? I loved it! I thought diagramming sentences was fun! There’s no interesting way to teach grammar. It’s just drill and workbook. M 4

All languages leak! Some “leaks” of English: Various irregularities, exceptions, puzzlements The irregular verbs are the most common The most common verb is the most irregular: BE (is, am, are, was, were, be, being, been) Although –s signifies a plural noun, -s (sounded –z) signifies third person singular verb Ex: dances, bears, leads, hands, heads, arms, etc. We use “they” as singular generic pronoun We use “do” to make questions (for no logical reason) Saw you the king, my lord? Think you to be my master? Have you any fours?

Descriptivists Prescriptivists

Students struggle with going from speech to writing, and then from informal to formal style.

Seeing Grammar With New Eyes Visuals Manipulatives Role-Play Problem-solving Wordplay Inquiry Respect for Language Change and Variation Inductive Reasoning High Level of Student Engagement

Basic information about parts of speech and what we can do with this information

8 Parts of Speech: Noun : Person, place, or thing Verb: Expresses action or state of being Adjective: Modifies a noun Adverb: Modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb Pronoun: replaces a noun Preposition: Expresses the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another part of the sentence Conjunction: joiner Interjection: expresses strong emotion

More Accurate, Accessible Description of the English Language Form Class Words: Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Structure Class Words: Preposition Pronoun Conjunction Interjection Intensifier:(Answering: To what extent?) ex: too, very, really… Determiner (Answering: Which one?) ex: a, an, the; these, that… Quantifiers: (Answering: How many?) Etc.

Parts of Speech: Fast and Furious Part of Sp.: Examples: Quick Definition: Hint: monkey, river, America. prize Person, place, thing Noun The______ eat, wish, is, find, cry He______ or He is______ing. Verb Action or state The _______truck dangerous, big, green, curly Describes a noun Adjective He joined the team______. usually, slowly, clearly, eventually sometimes, now. Describes a verb Adverb Somewhere _____ the rainbow Preposition in, on, at, for, with Shows position

Noun: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of a NOUN. Your NOUN may be used to fit into the following frame: The____________. Your NOUN is used to name people, places, things, ideas, qualities, states of mind, and all kinds of other things that need naming. Your NOUN may be easily converted into an adjective. All you have to do is put another NOUN after it and have it make sense. (COW pasture, for example). Your NOUN may be the kind of NOUN that can be made plural. Only NOUNS may be made plural. Your NOUN may be able to be made possessive by adding ‘s. Only NOUNS may be made possessive. When you make your NOUN possessive, it becomes an adjective. You may add all kinds of modifiers before and after your NOUN. You may replace your NOUN along with its modifiers with a pronoun. Feel free to use your NOUN as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object complement, object of a preposition, appositive, or predicate noun Your noun may be called a nominal when we consider it together with its modifiers.

My Noun Palette Proper Nouns: Concrete Nouns: Abstract Nouns: -tion,-sion,-ism,-ence, -ance, -ness, -ment, -itude

Adjective: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of an ADJECTIVE. Your ADJECTIVE may be used to fit into the following frame: The______________truck. Or The truck was very_________. Your ADJECTIVE likes to answer the question What kind? If your ADJECTIVE doesn’t fit into either of these frames, maybe it is the kind of ADJECTIVE that answers the questions Which one? or How many? Your ADJECTIVE may be capable of using the suffixes –er in the comparative form and –est in the superlative form. (If your ADJECTIVE doesn’t like these suffixes, just use more and most to accomplish comparison or superiority.) Your ADJECTIVE reports to your NOUN, and your NOUN can easily become an ADJECTIVE to another NOUN. Often, groups of words decide to get together and do ADJECTIVE-like work. We call such groups of words ADJECTIVALS, and they may be phrases or clauses that operate just like ADJECTIVES, answering those questions that ADJECTIVES answer.

Verb: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of a VERB. Your VERB may be used to fit into the following frame: To______________. Your VERB is the part of the sentence that is capable of turning the sentence into a negative. It is also the part of the sentence that changes when you add yesterday or right now. (If your sentence does not change when you add yesterday to it, then your sentence is in the past tense. If your sentence does not change when you add right now to it, then it is in the present tense.) Your VERB may be an action verb or a linking verb. Action verbs may take direct objects and are modified by adverbs. Linking verbs take predicate nouns and predicate adjectives. You can easily find a list of linking verbs. Your VERB may take auxiliaries (forms of have, be) and modal auxiliaries (could, should, would, can, will, shall, may, might, must). Your VERB sometimes uses a form of the word do to create a sentence, to emphasize, to negate, or to stand in for itself, as in: Do you think so? Yes, I do.

Adverb: Owner’s Manual Congratulations on your wise purchase of an ADVERB. Your adverb may be used to tell where, when, or how. Adverbs that tell where may be replaced by the word there: We drove south for two miles. (We drove there for two miles.) Adverbs that tell when may be replaced by the word then: We ate lunch late. (We ate lunch then.) Adverbs that tell how often end in –ly and may be replaced by the words like this: He joined the team eagerly. (He joined the team like this.) You may move your adverbs around in the sentence. If you do, you’ll want to set them off with commas. Often, groups of words decide to get together to do ADVERB-like work, and when they do, we call these groups of words ADVERBIALS. ADVERBIALS may be phrases or clauses that do the work that adverbs do.

Morphology Chart NOUNS: VERBS: ADJECTIVES: ADVERBS: They will fit into this frame: The_____. VERBS: They will fit into this frame: To____ or Can____or Is____ ADJECTIVES: They will fit into this frame: The ________truck ADVERBS: They will fit into this frame: Do it ___________. Nouns answer the question: What? or Who? Verbs answer the question: What is it doing, having, feeling, or being? Adjectives answer the question: What kind? (They may also answer the questions Which one? and How many? but those kinds of adjectives do not fit into the frame of The______truck. Adverbs answer any of these questions: Where? When? Why? To what extent? How?

Morphology Kit -ment -ness -ation, sion -ity -ism -hood -itude -ence This “Morphology Kit” is a great way to expand vocabulary because most of the words created by these suffixes express abstract ideas. Morphology Kit Noun-Making Suffixes Verb-Making Suffixes Adjective-making suffixes -ment -ness -ation, sion -ity -ism -hood -itude -ence -ance -ide -ate -ify -ize -acious,icious -y -ous, ious -ant -able, ible -er; est Adverb-making suffix: -ly 5

The Language Tree Adjective Branches: very___________ Noun Branches: Verb Branches: very___________ very___________ can___________ the______________ very___________ can___________ can___________ very___________ the______________ the______________ can___________ can___________ the______________ can___________ the______________ the______________ Prepositional Phrase Branches: in________________ on________________ at_______________ for________________ with________________ Topic: ______________________________

Prepositions

Six Reasons for Teaching Prepositions: 1. Prepositions add time and place detail to sentences 2. Students can vary their sentence structure and set the stage for a sentence by beginning some sentences with prepositions. 3. Students can add power to their writing by ending paragraphs with a prepositional phrase. (Conversely: Students can avoid ending sentences with prepositions so that their sentences are not weak or too informal.) 4. Students can avoid subject-verb agreement errors by recognizing prepositional phrases that intervene between the subject and the verb, as in “A box of matches (is, are) on the kitchen table.” 5. Students can create parallel structure by repeating prepositional phrases deliberately. 6. Students can select the appropriate pronoun case as the object of a preposition. (between you and me; for Joe and me)

Writing Complete Sentences!!!

Now Entering the Complete Sentence Zone: The “Guess What!” test How it works: Say “Guess What!” in front of a group of words. If the group of words tells you “guess what!” then you have a complete sentence! Other tests: They believed that…. Can you turn it into a yes/no question? 26

Phrase, Clause, Sentence A phrase is two or more words that go together (without being a sentence). There are noun phrases and verb phrases. Once we have both a noun and a verb, then we have a clause. A clause is a group of words that may or may not be a complete sentence. If a clause can stand alone as a sentence, then we call it an independent clause. (If a clause cannot stand alone as a sentence, then we call it a subordinate clause.

Use worthwhile literature to practice finding phrases and clauses: from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Monday morning found Tom Sawyer miserable. Monday morning always found him so, because it began another week’s slow suffering in school. He generally began that day with wishing he had no intervening holiday; it made the going into captivity and fetters again so much more odious. Tom lay thinking. Presently it occurred to him that he wished he was sick; then he could stay home from school. Here was a vague possibility. He canvassed his system. No ailment was found, and he investigated again. This time he thought he could detect colicky symptoms, and he began to encourage them with considerable hope. But they soon grew feeble and presently died wholly away. He reflected further. Suddenly he discovered something. One of his upper front teeth was loose. This was lucky.

Using the appropriate language register Informal tone Formal tone

Formal Informal

Informal and Formal briefcase backpack dress shoes flip-flops Handout: Page 11 Informal and Formal briefcase dress shoes sit-down restaurant football on the team lunch cooking, baking, roasting backpack flip-flops McDonald’s frisbee on the lawn snack zapping/nuking

Informal and Formal English Set your dial to the level of formality that is appropriate for your audience and purpose.

Using the right pronoun!!!

Objective Team Subjective Team I me us we you you you you he, she, it 1st Person: you you you you 2nd Person: he, she, it they them him, her, it 3rd Person: whom who

As Mom and I walked homewardly, A puppy followed her and me. A Pronoun Poem As Mom and I walked homewardly, A puppy followed her and me. Both she and I were quick to see He had adopted Mom and me. At home we showed him where to pee And where the doggy bed would be. Then Mom and I made lunch for three, A feast for him and Mom and me. from Woe is I Jr: The Younger Grammarphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English. by Patricia T. O’Connor and Tom Stiglich.

A Pronoun Poem, Analyzed subject A Pronoun Poem, Analyzed As Mom and I walked homewardly, A puppy followed her and me. Both she and I were quick to see He had adopted Mom and me. At home we showed him where to pee And where the doggy bed would be. Then Mom and I made lunch for three, A feast for him and Mom and me. Direct Object subjects Object of adopted subject Objects of The preposition for

Binary concepts: formal/informal clause + clause subject/predicate preposition + object adjective + noun subjective case + objective case adverb + verb

I. II. Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers. He advocated for them. He did not encourage violence. He led a boycott instead of violence. The boycott was an effective method of resistance. (30) Cesar Chavez helped the farm workers, and he advocated for them. He did not encourage violence. He led a boycott instead of violence, and the boycott was an effective method of resistance. (32) III. Cesar Chavez, advocate for farm workers, helped them not by encouraging violence, but by leading a boycott, an effective method of resistance. (22) Cesar Chavez, advocate for farm workers, helped them not by encouraging violence, but by leading a boycott. The boycott was an effective method of resistance. (25) Grammar is the most significant determiner of sophisticated style.

GRAMMAR IN THE HEART OF THE WRITING PROCESS: Sharpen your nouns Minimize your modifiers Replace BE verbs and weak verbs with strong action verbs Achieve parallel structure Combine sentences: create complex sentences use appositives use absolutes Expand and shrink noun phrases. Turn clauses into modifying phrases. Decide where to place modifiers for desired effect. Point of intervention for substantial language improvement Pre-writing experience: (non-sentence form) Drafting Revising Editing Publication Point of intervention for surface error correction

An all-purpose sentence-making kit

The Sentence-Making Kit Fold a 5 x 8 index card in half, width-wise: They believed that… Guess What! Yes/no question 2. 1. 3.

The Sentence-Making Kit On the inside of the card: AAAWWUBBIS: although, as, after while, when until because, before if, since If a sentence begins with any of these words, it must have two parts. Place a comma between the two parts if one of these words begins the sentence. These words, plus the comma, may join two sentences. Writers sometimes begin sentences with these words if they are doing so for emphasis. ,and ,but ,so Use as many ACTION VERBS as possible. Flip the switch into formal English: a lot = a great many or a great deal gonna= going to wanna= want to hafta= have to get,got = become, became, receive received, obtain, obtained gotta: must These words will help you give detail in your sentences: Try beginning some of your sentences with these words: Use words and groups of words that answer the ADVERB QUESTIONS: When? Where? Why? How? To what extent? How often? IN FOR ON WITH AT

The Sentence-Making Kit On the back of the card: Substitutions for homophones and spelling problems: their = his there = here they’re = they are your = his you’re = you are its = his it’s = it is; it has woman = man women = men I before E except after C Or when sounded as A As in neighbor or sleigh

Joining ideas!!

Common Hitching Devices Coordinating Conjunctiions Subordinating Conjunctions Conjunctive Adverbs Relative Pronouns As, although, after While, when Until Because, before If AAAWWUBBI However Moreover Therefore Furthermore That Which Who, whom What Where Why How Whichever Whatever, etc. And But So Or/nor Can join clauses Warning: Many sentence fragments begin with these words. Usually, you must hitch these words and the clauses that they introduce to your previous sentence. Can join two independent clauses to make a compound sentence. Warning: You must use a comma with these when they join independent clauses. Can hitch up to an independent clause, creating a subordinate (dependent) clause, forming complex sentence. Can appear after main clause (no comma) or before main clause (needs a comma) Can move within own clause; Requires commas on both sides Warning: If you wish to use these to join clauses, you must use a semicolon.