Grammar Punk Blog

Making Sure Writing is Fun

Writing is communication.  Writing is a way to convey ideas, tell others what we’re thinking, share an experience, tell a story, or create a world all our own. When, I wonder, did writing stop being fun? Writing should be fun.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that writing for the sake of writing being fun is in the same category as algebra and logarithms. Don’t get me started. But the fact is that remains that strong writing skills remain an absolute necessity in every aspect of life during school years and certainly beyond the classroom. College admission boards, future employers, we all need strong writers. Thus the inevitable question: How do we create them? An even better question is how do we make this oh so necessary skill fun? Because if it’s something students like to do they’ll do it. And the more they do it, the better they’ll be at it.

Writing for a purpose makes writing fun. Give students a reason to write, a bunch of topics to write about, impetus to improve what they wrote last time, and they’ll have fun with writing. They’ll want to keep doing it. You won’t be able to stop them.

Here are a few Grammar Punk™ sentences an auditorium full of seventh graders wrote. They had about five minutes to get the hang of using the Grammar Punk dice and a few of the cards available from various Grammar Punk programs and this is what they came up with. The dice rolled were: C A 3 and we let them choose one CHARACTER, ONE EMOTION and one LOCATION from the cards. The dice words are underlined, the card selections bolded. They had a blast creating the sentences—you could have heard a pin drop as they were creating—loud laughter and cheers as we read some aloud. Here are just a few of our favorites.

C A 3 | Butterfly Hunter — Serious — Family Reunion

Cassie, a very serious butterfly hunter, can’t go to her family reunion because she knows she will be mocked.

C A 3 | Doorman — Revenge — North Pole

The doorman cautiously guarded the gate to the North Pole because secretly, he planned to revenge the years Santa Claus had left him high and dry.

C A 3 | Tap Dancer — Menacing — Hotel Lobby

Calvin knew, in a very menacing way, his tap dancing would cause the hotel to collapse, so he danced.

Not only were we blown away by the sheer creativity of the “dice words” chosen and the sentences created, we were positively delighted to see that each and every one of the sentences created is an amazing beginning to a STORY.

Writing with a purpose.

It works.

Teaching Grammar With Blogs!

I’ve blogged about blogs before, am doing it again, and will no doubt blog again about blogging sometime in the future. Blogging fascinates me, and not always in a good way.  But for the purposes of this particular blog entry we’ll go with the good kind of fascination.

According to Wikipedia—yet another source of constant fascination—a blog (a portmanteau of the term “web log“) is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Much as I might wish to go off on yet another nonsensical word added to the dictionary tangent I’ll restrain myself and stick to the topic of blogs at large.

When we first created Grammar Punk™ it was ostensibly in an effort to make a difficult subject a bit more palatable, okay, a lot more palatable. And we succeeded. Big time. Grammar Punk™ not only makes grammar more approachable, teachable, and learnable, it manages to make it fun. Laugh out loud fun. Wrack your brain to think of a cool word that contains a specific consonant and vowel fun. Creating sentences that while reaffirming the rules of the comma also happen to be the jumping-off point of a story fun. Why? Because writing, the reason for a sound basis in grammar, is fun. Should be fun. Can be fun. Will be fun. With Grammar Punk™. And exposure through things like reading and teacher enthusiasm and practice, lots of practice.

Practice with things like blogging. Things like good blogging, as in trying hard to add something substantive as well as simply entertaining to the great void of online offerings. Teachers you should be blogging. Why? Here are just a few good reasons and a few more actual suggestions.

      Start (or continue) a classroom blog

      Start a Grammar Punk™ Blog (http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/ffjh/thompson/gphalloffame.htm

      Encourage students to blog weekly. Select a topic (by teacher design or by committee)    

      Assign blog entries with students working alone or in small groups

      Encourage students to research their topics with cross –education (history, science, social studies, etc.)

      Select a Genre from one of the Grammar Punk™ card sets and have students to write their blog entry using Genres specifications

      Select an Emotion from one of the Grammar Punk™ card sets and have students write their blog entry using those specifications

      Select a character type from one of the Grammar Punk™ card sets and have students write their blog entry from that character’s (type) point of view

Blogging can be an invaluable way to steer students towards practicing their writing skills under the guise of something they enjoy. This is the age of technology and instant information, tap into it to create stronger writers.

Be sure and check the Grammar Punk™  Blog at www.grammarpunk.com regularly as we continue to talk about teaching grammar, writing, and whatever strikes our fancy.

I may have mentioned that I walk in a cemetery. Or maybe not. I do. I walk for exercise in our local cemetery which sits atop a hill some five or six blocks from my house. It’s a nice cemetery, as cemeteries go with lots of nice walking paths and, as you can imagine, it’s quiet. Of course I’m not the only one who finds this a nice place to take my daily exercise so it’s a lot of nodding and smiling and good mornings all around.  Fairly non-scintillating. Most days.

So, there we are—my Mom’s with me this day—and I see something out of the corner of my eye. Did I mention there are assorted critters that come along with their owners of the canine variety? Therefore, I thought I was seeing a dog loping across the cemetery—a decidedly odd-looking dog.

Deer! A whole tiny family of deer! In my cemetery! A lovely little doe and two amazing little fauns that couldn’t have stood more than three feet tall. Twins! And standing no more than twenty feet away from us!

Having seen them before my mom, I grab her arm and hiss at her to freeze! So, there we stand, frozen in place as our the little fur family. Mama Deer is staring right at us, her little tail twitching madly, ears pointed and rotating like wee little radar dishes. The two fauns also freeze a few feet behind her, standing so close together they look velcroed. We all stood there staring at each other for a least a minute before Mama decided we were harmless and went on her way.

Now another thing about this cemetery is that it is parallel to a rather busy three lane road. Across from this road is a very overgrown section of hill leading to a small valley that looks like a wee little wilderness. We knew this was her ultimate destination—what she was doing in the cemetery we’ll never know—and this is where the heart attack part comes in. I may have heretofore mentioned that I am a total animal lover. Big time. Therefore, the idea of standing there watching this little family flattened by several cars at once was about to kill me. Literally. Yet as we watched, this incredibly savvy Mom stopped at the entrance to the cemetery—having aimed right for it unerringly, and I swear, looked both ways and started across. And just as astonishing, we watched the vehicles coming both ways ease to a stop—no screeching brakes or chaos, just seeming to be in sync and the three of them were gracefully across this very busy road and disappeared into the trees in a split second.

And I remembered how to breathe again. And tried to get my heart rate back to a normal level as I leaned on a convenient headstone. I will never forget that precious glimpse into an everyday jaunt for that little family. I’d just appreciate it if they didn’t visit again.

http://studio5.ksl.com/?nid=71&sid=11651990

Yesterday Grammar Punk Creator, high school teacher, Sam Beeson appeared on a local television show talking about our favorite subject: the sorry state of grammar in everyday use. And we’re not just talking about kids, shoddy grammar is becoming epidemic.

It’s easy to pshaw the concept of proper language usage once you’re out of school and no one is grading your papers any longer. Bad idea. Writing—which is why we teach grammar in the first place—is communication. Go watch the video, Sam is very entertaining–yes, even talking about grammar!

Sam had a great time on the show and the hosts were great fun. Thanks to all the viewers who tuned in. Grammar Punk rules!

Here is a snapshot of what Sam talked about as well as a link to the show itself.

People slur. We mumble. Sometimes we say things incorrectly, but we understand one another. Because writing requires exactness, the things we say often need to be corrected when they hit the page. The following ten examples clarify some of the frequent oral offenders:

Should of: Incorrect.
Should have: Correct!

Anyways: No such thing.
Anyway: Correct!

Acrossed: Just plain wrong.
Across: Correct!

Alot: Nope.
A lot: Correct!

Alright: No. No.
All right: Correct!

Grammer: Commonly misspelled
Grammar: Correct!

Judgement: Misspelled
Judgment: Correct!

Quote / Quotation: Quote is a verb. Quotation is a noun. This commonly misused term happens daily in classrooms. Teachers erroneously say, “Write down this quote, then respond to it,” or “One of my favorite quotes is this: ‘to be or not to be.’” The correct thing to say is, “I am going to quote my favorite quotation which is this: ‘to be or not to be.’”

Good / Well: These two words may be the two most misused words in the English language. Good is an adjective. It can only modify nouns and pronouns. Well is an adverb. It can only modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

I scored good on my spelling test. (incorrect) The new car runs good. (incorrect)

Both need to be replaced with well.

English: Always capitalize the word English. Always, always, always.

And finally, Grammarsam reminds us to know where to go for punctuation help.

Punctuation often gets in the way (through its absence or superabundance) of the content. Never allow poor punctuation skills to thwart your reader from reading. EVERYONE should have someone they trust who can proofread well, and give honest feedback. Beyond a human helper, the following Web site and book are my bread and butter as a teacher of English. They answer all my questions when it comes to grammar and punctuation:

Web site: grammarpunk.com (wonderful local resource and blog with FAQ and easy-to-use, inexpensive curriculum)

www.grammarpunk.com

Teaching Grammar With Alliteration, Deux

I told you I love alliteration. As we’ve already established, alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or on the stressed syllables. Giving students the tool of alliteration in the context of teaching grammar will open the door to a new way of looking at writing—and reading. Alliteration is one of the oldest rhetorical devices, an early stab at poetry that is pleasing to the tongue and the ear. It’s fun! And as fun as it is to read, it’s even more fun—and easy—to write.

The really great thing about alliteration is how it pushes, prods, and propels not only student imagination but student vocabulary. The second cool thing about alliteration is that there is no age limitation. The youngest students can glom onto this concept with enthusiasm. Even the simplest words can be joined in an alliterative allegory. Give it a go!

Once students have tried their hand at twistingly twining tongue twisters, move on to temptingly tantalizing tall tales of tomes. Think Seuss, think Poe, think Pooh!   

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch.

And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

Oh the Places You’ll Go –Dr. Seuss

This is not to say that effective alliteration is simply a string of words beginning with the same letter or sound; there can definitely be too much of a good thing. The key to having fun with alliteration without pushing it to the limit of human endurance is to temper it with regular speak.

The Grammar Punk Programs and our incredible Constructing Writers Kit offer lessons and cards to introduce your students to the joys of alliteration.

Grammar Punk Alliterative Tale To Be

Always a tad whimsically weird, Gwendolyn was nevertheless a particularly popular porcupine. Thus, when she set off with great abandon and alacrity on her journey she had quite a cadre of compatriots ready to join the adventure.

Share your alliteration with us!

www.grammarpunk.com

Teaching Grammar with Alliteration

Alliteration is one of my favorite rhetorical devices; probably because it fits so well into so many other rhetorical devices. Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds or kinds of sounds at the beginning of words or on the stressed syllables. Alliteration gives a poetic or literary effect. Alliteration is also referred to as “head rhyme.”

Alliteration is also great fun when it comes to teaching grammar, and anything that adds fun is a good thing.

Alliteration is fun to teach because it’s fun to learn. Challenge your students to an alliterate-off by introducing a sampling of tongue twisters, a wonderful—and fun—example of alliteration. Once students are comfortable with the concept, challenge them to create their own tongue twisters. Then once they’ve come up with a bunch—and you’ll be surprised at how easy, not to mention fun it is—have them read the tongue twisters aloud. As fast as possible, of course.

Alliteration rocks!

At one fell swoop: all at once, in one sudden move, finality at its most final.

I don’t know about you but I’ve used this particular phrase a lot. I love this phrase, not only because it so neatly, even elegantly encompasses its definition, but it’s Shakespearean! You can’t do better than that.  Good old Shakespeare, you’ve gotta give him credit for having a way with words. I adore Shakespeare and having read most of his plays admire him as much for his stories and ideas and imagery as I do his way with the language.

I also like this phrase because while it is pretty widely recognizable yet at the same time taking the words apart and removing them from the phrase it doesn’t really make a great deal of sense. Probably why the words that make it up are often misspelled: fail instead of fell; fowl (since the origin has to do with birds) instead of fell.

So where does it come from? Shakespeare we’ve already established, Macbeth is the play. Of course, good old Macbeth which brought us “toil and trouble” as well as “out damn spot!”

This particular phrase is indelibly sad, incredibly tragic, very, very final. The word “fell” pretty much says it all. It’s an old word, in use by the 13th century, that’s now fallen out of use apart from in this phrase and as the common root of the term ‘felon’. The Oxford English Dictionary defines fell as meaning ‘fierce, savage; cruel, ruthless; dreadful, terrible’, which is pretty unambiguous.

Shakespeare either coined the phrase, or gave it circulation, in Macbeth, 1605:

MACDUFF: [on hearing that his family and servants have all been killed]

All my pretty ones?
Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
At one fell swoop?

The kite referred to is a hunting bird, like the Red Kite, which was common in England in Tudor times and is now making a welcome return after near extinction in the 20th century. The swoop (or stoop as is now said) is the rapid descent made by the bird when capturing prey.

Shakespeare used the imagery of a hunting bird’s ‘fell swoop’ to indicate the ruthless and deadly attack by Macbeth’s agents.

In the intervening years we have rather lost the original meaning and use it now to convey suddenness rather than savagery.

Grammar Punk Sentence: P E  

Staring aghast, Clementine was horrified to see that she’d destroyed the towering paper cup display at one fell swoop with a carelessly placed elbow.

Patriotically Patriotic!

Patriotism: a proud supporter or defender of his or her country and its way of life

Is it just me or do you choke up a bit every time you have occasion to recite The Pledge of Allegiance, attend a parade, watch an old war movie on television or pretty much see a flag? It could just be me. Times that by about a million at this time of year. I’ll be pretty much a blubbering ninny the whole weekend long. God Bless America!  

I just have to wax patriotic at this time of year. I am an American and couldn’t be prouder of that fact. As well as feeling incredibly blessed. And I so hope that anyone reading this feels the same way about this country or their own place of birth. Where we come from and live should be more than just where we come from or live. Patriotism, if at all possible, should be a part of our everyday life, if only in theory. While every place has its limitations, problems, and less-than-perfect parts, it is after all, where you’re from.

Take a moment this 4^th of July—or whenever your particular home-town has it’s annual Appreciate Us event—to stop and be happy where you’re from, or, at the very least, where you’d like to be.

Happy 4^th of July! Now go light a sparkler!  

Tarantula and Triantula

Tarantula: a large spider that has a hairy body and legs and feeds on invertebrates, toads, small reptiles, and young birds

Triantula: No definition—not a word!

I know this is hardly the usual commonly confused pairing but it’s one that just annoys the bejeebers out of me. Pronunciation, people!

Like Calvary and cavalry it’s all in the pronunciation. Except it’s worse because there is no such freaking word as triantula! Which makes it more like my previous rant about jewelry and joolery. Again, two words often pronounced incorrectly, with one of the words not a real word!

Yes, you guessed it: I recently heard this particular word being mangled on a television show, which just makes me doubly crazy. Seriously, do you know how many people were involved for something to make it on television! Come on, people! It’s not like this is one of those commonly used words that can get blurred and muffled with disuse. It’s a spider, for Pete’s sakes! 

But listen up, listen for the mention of this particularly hairy and repulsively beautiful of the arachnid family; I’m willing to bet that a good 50-60% of the time it will be pronounced triantula (or joolery). Which is just wrong, wrong, wrong! So stop it!

Summer, ah summer. I used to literally live for summer’s coming. As a kid. From January 2 on it was a countdown to summer and namely, summer vacation. Because of course that was the double whammy of it all, SUMMER VACATION. Not just beautiful warm hot days lazing around a pool, hiking in the mountains, riding bikes, playing hopscotch (one of my all-time favorites) and on and on and on, summer was endless, summer was freedom, summer was there waiting. And altogether too short.

I didn’t realize it then but that idyll called summer was indeed destined to be short-lived. Who knew that as I grew older summer would lose that magical, ethereal feel? Who knew that I would even come to resent (if only slightly) the idea of summer? Who knew, as a kid, counting the school days as they crept closer to the end of May, that there would come a time, all too soon, that would end the concept of a summer stretching before you? What kid knows (in the front of their head) that summer happens without you?

How many of us adults find ourselves peering wistfully out of our office windows at the deep blue sky, cotton candy clouds and endless days? And aren’t those days just longer than they rightfully should be? So if you’re still young enough for summer vacation to mean SUMMER VACATION, don’t squander it. Relish it, be cognizant of it, enjoy every minute of it because adulthood is calling. And it lasts an awfully long time.