Critical Reading Through Grammar

Essential Questions How can I teach discrete skills for application, retention, and transfer? How can I combine rigor and fun? How can I help students rise to the challenge?

4 YES/BUT Claim: Grammar should be taught again Yes, students do not know how to diagram sentences, but teaching grammar to the Dad did not help him with Standard English

The Trivium: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic Philosophy and the Seven Liberal Arts

Nouns and verbs are the building blocks of our language. Nouns name our world and allow us to communicate with others about it. Nouns help identify main ideas and themes. Vague nouns do not usually add much depth to writing. Concrete nouns create pictures.

Nouns Nouns that name People Nouns that Name Things/Objects Nouns that Name Places Nouns that Name an Idea

Student Directions Identifying and analyzing nouns are an excellent reading strategy. They will help you focus on the main ideas. Listen for nouns as I read the poem "My Papa's Waltz" to you. As you hear a noun, write it in the proper column. After I finish reading the poem two times, your grammar squad will have five minutes to compile a team list and answer the following questions. Your team will receive one point for each correct noun.

The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death: Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pans Slid from the kitchen* shelf; My mother's countenance Could not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; At every step you missed My right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt, Then waltzed me off to bed Still clinging to your shirt. My Papa’s Waltz

Nouns Nouns that name People Nouns that Name Things/Objects Nouns that Name Places Nouns that Name an Idea Bb Boy Pans Shelf Countenance? Hand Wrist Knuckle Belt Ear Head Palm Dirt Bed? Shirt Whiskey Breath Death Waltzing Step Time

Nouns SubjectDirect ObjectObject of the Preposition Adjective whiskey waltzing countenance hand ears boy wrist (object of the relative pronoun “that” buckle time (on your) breath (on like) death (until the) pans (from the kitchen) shelf (on one) knuckle (at every) step (on my) head (with a) palm (by) dirt (to) bed (to your) shirt kitchen mother’s

So What? Who is the poem about? Why is the setting important? What is the significance of the objects? Why do you think Roethke uses the noun kitchen as an adjective to modify the noun shelf? What is the poem’s theme? What is Roethke’s tone? Write a thesis statement.