Grammar Punk Blog

I love this review of our wonderful Grammar Punk Products. Have a truly New Year with Grammar Punk.

As you might have guessed, I did not get into teaching English because I love to teach grammar.  I was behind the imbedded grammar lessons as they related to the students’ writing in their papers when I first started teaching.  Then came the realization that standardized tests ask students to be able to name certain elements of grammar, and I wasn’t teaching my students the needed vocabulary to “slam” those tests. The dilemma then became apparent: how do I teach grammar in a way that is fun for me and for the young people in my class?  A powerful reply came when I went to the Colorado Language Arts Society conference a few years back and went to a presentation by a man named Sam Beeson.  He is a teacher in Utah and created an amazing game to help young people learn about grammar imbedded in their own writing called Grammar Punk.  All of the teachers in the workshop were giggling and enjoying the game immensely and I managed to convince my department chair to purchase the game (it isn’t too expensive either)!  I tried the game this year and my students were actually begging to play “that punk game” and learning the rules of punctuation and whatever other aspect of grammar we were working on at the time. The best part was that I had at least as much fun as my students!  Just try it!

The New Year is here. Resolutions abound, anticipation hovers, change is in the air and it’s all in front of us, just waiting for us to…do something about it. Grammar Punk is a good way to start the new year. Doing something different with a difficult subject is a great way to start the new year. Creating truly phenomenal writers is a stupendous way to start the new year.

Here’s a review sent by an unsolicited review group.  

There’s Nothing Punky about Grammar Punk

Grammar Punk is a rebellious little program that has thrown out the lectures and note taking when it comes to grammar. Forget about having your child spend oodles of time memorizing all those picky grammar rules. Pick up a Grammar Punk package and watch them learn through fun dice games and creative writing processes. Created by an English teacher fed up with traditional grammar curriculum, this system teaches proper grammar in such a way that kids have fun learning and doing. The learning and doing regime actually helps kids retain more of what they learn.

 
Doing is more fun than memorizing, and Grammar Punk dice games require kids to “to create their own sentences, dictated by the Grammar Punk dice and story cards.” Grammar rules are practiced with each written sentence and grammar rules become part of the child’s natural writing ability. There are five Packages which cater to different age groups and each one is packed with quality curriculum materials. The programs come complete with specialized grammar punk dice, grade-specific story cards, worksheets, and more than 180 pages of “lesson a day, exercises, activities, games and challenges.” There is a Creative Writing Course for older children and a Writer’s kit complete with all kinds of “writing how to’s.” They even offer a homework package so that students can reinforce their grammar skills at home. When it comes to learning grammar, this fun “punky” program really has it together.

Our New Year’s Resolution at Grammar Punk is to do our bit to encourage those great writers just lurking beneath the surface of those students struggling with dry rules and diagramming sentences.

 Happy New Year!

The New Year is coming and bringing with it all the possibilities of all that newness. I love new years, whether I think of them in January or September with the new school year, new is new. And new is good.

Grammar Punk is a new way of teaching the same old grammar and punctuation. A really new way that puts the learning back where it belongs: with students doing the learning and the writing and the getting it.

Here’s a review from an educational site that sums it up nicely.

The best game I’ve seen lately is a dice-based game that teaches grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. It’s called Grammar Punk. This is one of those simple games that takes very little teaching, and quickly gets kids thinking about the work they do in order to win at the game — that’s a two-fer! Kids learning and thinking about learning.

So, as the New Year approaches and thus does the urge to turn one’s back on the old and fervently embrace the new, we urge teachers of English, grammar, and writing to scurry over to www.grammarpunk.com and check out our programs and tools and add Grammar Punk to your New Year.

It’s not too late! You can still get your GP Creeper Story in!

The beginning, middle and end of it all

Writing is a process. What a ghastly thought. Processes aren’t fun. Processes are tedious and cumbersome and I reiterate, not fun. Then again…

Process: a series of actions directed toward a specific aim

a series of natural occurrences that produce change or development

I know that sounds dry but it really shouldn’t. After all, most things in life involve a process of one kind or another. Creating something, anything is just another kind of process. The fun is in the getting there. Maybe that’s why writing can seem like such a chore, we’re not teaching kids how to enjoy the journey.

Our annual short story contest, The GP Creeper is just around the corner and we want stories! Lots and lots of stories. We always get lots and lots of stories, of course, but we just can’t get enough. Because we get to watch the process in action. There are story writers who have obviously been practicing the craft for a while, the journey is part of their repertoire. However, there are just as many stories from writers who are just beginning the journey, their path less smooth, their command less sure, but make the journey they have. How? By beginning their story, expanding the middle, and creating an ending. And as we read the entries we can clearly feel the satisfaction of reaching that journey’s end. They created a story that never existed before they wrote it! That’s power. And that’s powerful.

The best part of our contest is that we provide plenty of material to make the journey smoother, easier, and more fun. A lot more fun.

We want to encourage you to begin that journey. Begin at the beginning, flesh out the middle with the bones of a good voyage, and aspire to the end. And let us read.

Tis the season for writing. Now that Back to School is here, Grammar Punk wants to get your students writing while making grammar the best part of the day.

The GP Creeper Cometh! Go to www.grammarpunk.com to find out how to get your students writing with the coolest writing contest of the year. The 6th Annual GP CREEPER Short Story Contest is the perfect impetus to get your students writing. The GP CREEPER not only provides the reason to tackle a short story but also plenty of writing prompts (Characters, Characterization, Location, Emotion, and Situations) writers can choose from to get their stories started. With GP Creeper you can encourage the next Mary Shelley or Bram Stoker, better yet the next J.K. Rowling, R.I. Stine or Lemony Snicket.

More information about the contest as well as an entry form will be coming soon to www.grammarpunk.com/GPCreeper. 

Contact us at info@grammarpunk.com to receive the info now.

Tell Us A Story!

Give us the creeps, make us look over our shoulders, ask what is behind the door, jump at noises, worry about our neighbors, shiver, quiver, quake, walk quicker, scream louder, run for our lives. Make us want to carve pumpkins, shoo away vampire bats, unravel mummies, polish Frankenstein’s bolts, pet black cats, peer about for zombies, wonder what’s beneath the bed, bob for apples, rake leaves, sew costumes, buy candy, create monsters in the basement, stir cauldrons, haunt with ghosts, and tell us a story!