Grammar Punk Blog

Distracted from distractions by distractions

I love this one though I can’t recall who said it. It’s just such a perfectly quotable quote, especially since it is so true—and so relatable. And so much more

The word distraction: something that interferes with concentration or takes attention away from something else seems pretty cut and dried. We have a lot of distractions, maybe more than at any other time in history—or so we keep being told. I’m not sure I agree wholeheartedly.

Yes, there are distractions. Fun ones that beep, blink, shriek, hum, vibrate, chime, sing, speak, and even shout at us. Best of all the source of many of these distractions can fit in our pocket.

My main argument is that there have always been distractions, of one kind or another. Life is distracting. Distractions keep us  sane.

We used to be distracted by different things is all. If it wasn’t being distracted by those pesky saber toothed lions it was being run over by a horse-drawn carriage or avoiding the Bubonic Plague. Human beings are made to be distracted, it’s how we’ve
entertained, learned, tempered, communicated, and managed to keep from killing each other off entirely. We distract ourselves from the moment or distract someone else.

Distraction is not a bad thing; it’s just a…distraction. And if there is one thing you can say about our modern-day distractions it’s that we’re improving on the distractions themselves. After all, these distractions won’t eat you.

Teachers of English, we invite you to sound off on this particular subject. How do you feel about all these distractions? How distracting do you find them? How useful? How maddening? Challenge your students to compare distractions of old with their modern version—how do they stack up? Write about it. Then share.

Literary Allusions Abound

I’m sure there are other works of literature that have inspired literary allusions but I must say one of my all-time favorite works of fiction, Alice In Wonderland positively corners the market. I’ll be parsing these out one by one because there are so many and
they are all pricelessly perfect.

More correctly titled: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, the story itself is classically and wonderfully absurd enough to be forever memorable but it is the characters who have stayed with us—literally—ever since. And onward.

Alice herself has become synonymous with curiosity if not absolutely rampant common sense. Nowadays of course we would
not dream of taking a chomp out of a stray piece of cake simply because its label demands it. Ditto the beverages which proved nothing but trouble. However, I always admired her dogged spirit of adventure. You go Alice.

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, we sincerely hope you and your students have already explored the many wonders of Alice and her Wonderland. Johnny Depp notwithstanding, this is a jewel among classics that MUST be read, examined, and ultimately marveled at.

Challenge your students to examine Alice a bit more closely. How did Carroll’s characterization bring this character to life? So much so she’s all but unforgettable.

Don’t Settle For Easy

Carrying on the thought that choosing words is a creative right, I want to explore big words versus small words. I remember being quite small and already absolutely enamored of the lively lilt of large, often incomprehensible words. The right words. And even though I often didn’t understand the words, certainly not the context, forget about the spelling of such words, I loved them. I yearned for them. I wanted them. And just as early on I realized that flaunting them was not always the…popular choice. But I was not deterred.

I will not argue that there is a time and a place for elevated jargon. I do not pull out my favorite argot for discourse with the clerk who is checking out my groceries. Nor do I tend towards parsimonious when I sit down to pen my blog. I love the searching for words while I simultaneously seek the concepts.

Which means there has been an occasion—or a thousand— when I have detected the subtlest of eye rolls when an esoteric sort of word slips out. Do I mind? Not a bit. Will I stop searching for that right word? Never.  

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, this is one you—and your students—can really sink your teeth into. So to speak. Challenge your students to push their word choices to the limit. In doubt about the meaning of a word? Look it up? Google will send them right to the appropriate dictionary. Then challenge them to put that very cool, newly discovered word into a sentence. Then a story. Then share!

Resent or Resent

A fairly common homonym that I’ve not really noticed before. It is one of those pronunciation ones; therefore it’s not as flashy or annoyingly confusing at its counterparts. But it’s a good one.

Resent: to feel aggrieved about something or toward somebody, often because of a perceived wrong or injustice Resent: to send something that has already been sent once already!

The really funny thing is that I can’t even find the definition for the second case of resent. The one with the S sounding like an S instead of a Z. Which brought me around to how I stumbled across this one in the first place: I was finding myself resenting have to keep resending a particular document I’d resent more than once!

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing, examining homonyms is a fun way to help students struggling with grammar to see that they needn’t take it too seriously. This language of ours should at least elicit a chuckle or two. Challenge your students to dig up their own less than obvious homonyms. Then write about it. And share!

Good Listener—Good Listening

I’ve been told fairly often that I am a good listener. I thought of this the other day as I was on the receiving end of a rather long—semi-amusing—story concerning a missing sock and a stubborn preschooler—and I realized in the front of my head that I am indeed a good listener. Which of course means I am often on the other side of discourses that Which also means I am often
the person who hears more than one side of the same stories—from different points of view. And while this can be interesting and even enlightening, it can also be quite awkward when you find yourself in the middle of a battle which
you have no interest in—nor the wish to be wounded in said battle.

Anyway, I got to thinking about what makes me a good listener and I realized that you have to be good at listening to be a good listener. Not as easy as it sounds. It helps to find some little nugget of interest in the talker, empathy is a must, fascination with the human condition is a given, and being able to mentally balance your checkbook or complete the Times Crossword Puzzle while listening is helpful as well.

What was that? Did you say something?

Teachers of English, grammar and writing, talk to us. Ask your students what they think makes for a good listener—or good listening. What do you think? Write it down. Then share!

Parsing Your Words

I’ll say it again, I love this language.  And there’s so much of it to love. And those choices shouldn’t be squandered. Or neglected. Or abandoned.

I’m talking about the either or’s that come into play when choosing which word to use in a particular situation. The real fun is choosing the word that not only explains what you want to explain but also conveys the emotion behind the thought. And if you also come across as a bit smarter than others may have thought you were, well, that’s just the frosting on top.  

This occurred to me when I was searching for the word obfuscate. Excellent word, obfuscate, it means to confuse, disguise, conceal. Any of those words would do, any of them would have filled the concept I was reaching for but obfuscate gave the thought that extra bit of…oomph. And oomph, when it is called for, is everything.

Gravitas is another great example of a conceptual sort of word. Yes, you could say dignity but doesn’t gravitas sound more…dignified? Snuffle rather than sniff, prevaricate over lie, gesticulating over gesturing, reconnoiter instead of investigate.

The key to concision in writing is choosing carefully but not so carefully that you stifle the creative flow, just pad your vocabulary with enough inventory that the choices will make themselves.

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing this is a great point of discussion for your students. Challenge them to explore the limits of their vocabularies. And then to push those limits. Then write about it. And share!

Janus: January

In ancient Roman religion and mythology, Janus is the god of beginnings and transitions. He is usually a two-faced god since he looks to the future and the past. Thus we have the month of January. I like this idea that we begin our new year looking forward with resolutions and goals and transitions while also looking back with just as much intensity. After all, how do we resolve to change if we don’t first examine what needs changing? Happy New Year!

Teachers of English challenge your students to write down their past and their future goals.

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!

Parsing Your Words

I’ll say it again, I love this language.  And there’s so much of it to love. And those choices shouldn’t be squandered. Or neglected. Or abandoned.

I’m talking about the either or’s that come into play when choosing which word to use in a particular situation. The real fun is choosing the word that not only explains what you want to explain but also conveys the emotion behind the thought. And if you also come across as a bit smarter than others may have thought you were, well, that’s just the frosting on top.  

This occurred to me when I was searching for the word obfuscate. Excellent word, obfuscate, it means to confuse, disguise, conceal. Any of those words would do, any of them would have filled the concept I was reaching for but obfuscate gave the thought that extra bit of…oomph. And oomph, when it is called for, is everything.

Gravitas is another great example of a conceptual sort of word. Yes, you could say dignity but doesn’t gravitas sound more…dignified? Snuffle rather than sniff, prevaricate over lie, gesticulating over gesturing, reconnoiter instead of investigate.

The key to concision in writing is choosing carefully but not so carefully that you stifle the creative flow, just pad your vocabulary with enough inventory that the choices will make themselves.

Teachers of English, grammar, and writing this is a great point of discussion for your students. Challenge them to explore the limits of their vocabularies. And then to push those limits. Then write about it. And share!

Just when you thought it was safe…  

In the west of France they have the Twelve Days of, known as a song, “La Foi de la loi.” It involves: a good stuffing without bones

1. two breasts of veal,
2. three joints of beef,
3. four pigs’ trotters,
4. five legs of mutton,
5. six partridges with cabbage,
6. seven spitted rabbits,
7. eight plates of salad,
8. nine dishes for a chapter of canons,
9. ten full casks,

10. eleven beautiful full-breasted maidens,

11. and twelve musketeers with their swords.

Leave it to the French to turn the Twelve Days into an orgy of eating things. Oh that and the…well-endowed maidens and some musketeers to round out the picture.

And don’t leave out the Scots. In Scotland, this goes back to the early 19th century and begins with:

“The king sent his lady on the first Yule day,

1. 1.    A popingo-aye [parrot]; Wha’ learns my carol and carries it away?”
2. 2.    Then there are two partridges,
3. 3.    three plovers,
4. 4.    a goose that was grey,
5. 5.    three starlings,
6. 6.    three goldspinks,
7. 7.    a bull that was brown,
8. 8.    three ducks a-merry laying,
9. 9.    three swans a-merry swimming,

10. an Arabian baboon,

11. three hinds a-merry hunting,

12. three maids a-merry dancing,

13. three stalks o’ merry corn.

They like three, the Scots do.

Thus the Twelve Days of Christmas is officially put to bed. And since the twelve days is officially going on for the folk who thought it up…yes, I’m still talking about Christmas. And now I’m done.