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Teaching Grammar in Writing Workshop

Agenda

• What is grammar? Why teach it in context?

• Routines for Teaching Grammar using Mentor Sentences

• Types of Sentences– Simple– Compound– Complex

Objectives

• Explain why teaching grammar in context is more effective.

• Discuss a procedure and process for teaching grammar in context using mentor sentences.

• Name the different types of mentor sentences.

Grammar vs. Mechanics

• Grammar includes principles that guide the structure of sentences and paragraphs.

He likes to eat pizza, but I like spaghetti.

Grammar vs. Mechanics

• Mechanics is how we punctuate to achieve meaning (punctuation, capitalization, paragraphing, formatting).

“Let’s eat Grandma.”

“Let’s eat, Grandma.”

Why Teach Grammar and Mechanics?

• Grammar and mechanics shape meaning.• Allow writer’s words to be understood by the

reader.

“I say we spray!”, shouted Dad taking aim with a squirt.

“Yes! Spray! Spray!” cried out Mom and Emily.

“So spray already!” sputtered Oliver.So they spritzed him and sprayed him. And they gooped, glopped, and moussed him. They even hair-pinned him flat in five places for good measure.

“Aaah,” they said, sighing a confident, job-well-done sigh.Oliver’s bedhead was now one slick gelhead.And then…

Margie Palatini, Bedhead

How do we teach it?• Studies show that teaching

grammar in isolation is not the most effective teaching strategy.

• Teach grammar in context.

• Apply grammar/mechanics to students’ writing.

Teach Grammar and Mechanics

• As principles to be studied, explored, examined, and practiced rather than rules

• Tools to serve a writer in creating text reader will understand

Focus on Craft instead of Correctness

• Students need grammar and mechanics tools so they have choices and can make decisions about crafting their writing

• Make editing and revising activities as regular as breathing.

They can’t even…• What are they using correctly?• What are they attempting to do?• Make a list of grammar and mechanics

errors you notice over and over in students’ writing

Hair- Is the writer able to arrange words, sentences, and paragraphs to convey meaning?

- Does the writer understand the sentence as a unit, even if the punctuation isn’t correct?

-Does the writer understand verb tense?

--What grammatical understandings is this student approximating?

-- Does the writer understand simple conventions such as contractions, indenting, use of punctuation, subject-verb agreement?

Spending hours correcting grammar and punctuation?

• Hours of work…tons of hope… little result

• “Marking every error does as much good as yelling down a hole.” Nancie Atwell

What do I teach?

• Base your teaching on the errors they make. Base your teaching on the strategies they need.

• 20 Most Frequent Errors

20 Most Frequent Errors1. No comma after introductory element

2. Vague pronoun reference

3. No comma in compound sentence

4. Wrong word

5. No comma in nonrestrictive element

6. Wrong/missing inflected endings

7. Wrong or missing prepositions

8. Comma splice

9. Possessive apostrophe error

10. Tense shift

11. Unnecessary shift in person

12. Sentence fragments

13. Wrong tense or verb form

14. Subject-verb agreement

15. Lack of comma in a series

16. Pronoun agreement error

17. Unnecessary comma with restrictive element

18. Run-on or fused sentence

19. Dangling or misplaced modifier

20. It’s versus its error

Argument: Daily Oral Language vs. Mentor Texts

• DOL helps with editing…sometimes.• More than one concept• Visually absorbing incorrect writing

MENTOR SENTENCES

What is a mentor text?• Any text or piece of text that can

teach a writer about an aspect of writer’s craft, from sentence structure to quotation marks to “show don’t tell”.

• Sentence Stalking

• His room smelled of cooked grease, Lysol, and age.

-Maya Angelou, Why the Caged Bird Sings

• Matilda’s wonderfully subtle mind was already at work devising yet another suitable punishment for a poisonous parent.

– Ronald Dahl, Matilda

We Know We Need to Teach Grammar in Context…

• Context is about meaning.• The key is meaning, not length.• Use mentor sentences to teach

grammar and mechanics principles.

Teaching Grammar• Teach one thing at a time• Apply it to daily writing• Use the shortest mentor text possible• Give students time to work with the

principle• Scaffold for maximum success• Display visuals for constant

reinforcement

At first they may…

• Copy directly• Overuse concept• Attach meaning to the

wrong things

And you…• Keep teaching, re-teaching,

repeating, mentioning, thinking aloud, noticing, encouraging

• Writing is recursive• Students may need WEEKS to

master one principle

If struggling readers need to see a word forty times to learn it (Beers 2002), then I’ll make a leap and say students need to see grammar and mechanics rules highlighted in different contexts at least as many times

to own them.- Jeff Anderson

Mini Lessons on Grammar and Mechanics

• Short! 5 Minutes!• Best taught at the beginning of Writing

Workshop• Display and read mentor text

– Make observations– Play around with punctuation, etc.– Make more observations

• Discuss rule or principle

TYPES OF SENTENCES

Various Sentence Structures are Used

• Simple sentences• Complex sentences• Compound sentences• Sentence variety ., !, ?

Assumption

A sentence has a subject and verb. It must make sense and stand on its own.

His mother yelled, “Be careful crossing the street.”The boy raced across the street.

+

Sentsentence

Subject(who or what did something)

Verb(what did they do?)

stands on its own

What makes a sentence?

Cows moo.

Cows moo?

Cows moo!

Sentence Fluency begins in the ear.

A fragment is missing a subject or verb and/or doesn’t make sense.

A car came zoomingbig and bold

when I was little

Kids need to be able to identify and fix fragments. In order to do this, they must understand the simple sentence. Everything builds

on this understanding – from compound to complex.

The ability to pare down a sentence to its essential core is the first tool students need in

order to uncover the craft of all sentences.

Jeff Anderson, Mechanically Inclined

Sentence Smack Down

SENTENCE SENTENCE SENTENCE SENTENCE

SMACKDOWN!SMACKDOWN!SMACKDOWN!SMACKDOWN!• Jobs

– 2 sentence readers

– 2 writers

– 2 smackers

• Analyze the two sentences assigned to your group.

• Focus on WHO or WHAT did something (subject) and WHAT they did (verb).

*It is helpful to find the verb (usually action) first.

Sentence Choices:1. “Our knees and elbows rose and fell together.” (Fogelin, Crossing Jordan, p.

18)

2. “For some reason, my temper was hardwired to my tear ducts.” (Meyer, Twilight, p. 25)

3. “My name is Inigo Montoya.” (Goldman, The Princess Bride, several pages)

4. “A mischievous grin rearranged his features.” (Meyer, New Moon, p. 240)

5. “You killed my father.” (Goldman, The Princess Bride, several pages)

6. “At first, Zinkoff shades his eyes.” (Spinelli, Loser, p. 3)

7. “Two vampires edged slowly into the small opening of our camp.” (Meyer, Eclipse, p. 541)

8. “In rainy weather, the streets turned to red slop.” (Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, p. 5)

9. “Prepare to die.” (Goldman, The Princess Bride, several pages) [This one is a little

tricky!]

10.“In the same second, he shoved the needle straight into her heart.” (Meyer, Breaking Dawn, p. 354)

11.“With the shoe factor on our side, we’d win this thing for sure.” (Fogelin, Crossing Jordan, p. 121)

12.“The lights cluster brilliantly up the street at Claudia’s house.” (Spinelli, Loser, p. 174)

When I was five. I had a Chuckie doll. I would scare everybody with Chuckie. Chuckie was about two feet, had orange hair, little red and white shoes, overalls, and plastic knife. To make Chuckie look more like the real thing. From the kitchen drawer. Like a mini-butcher knife. I super glued it into Chuckie’s hand.

Sound familiar?

• I went to Disney it was awesome and we took my friend Sam and then we went to the Frontier for lunch and we had barbeque and then we went swimming at the pool it was so much fun!

The classic run-on!

Compound SubjectMy mother looked at the map. My sister looked at the map.

My mother and my sister looked at the map.

Compound PredicateThe leaves fall on the ground. The leaves cover the ground.

The leaves fall and cover the ground.This is easy!

ROUTINE FOR MENTOR SENTENCES

Invitation

• Invitation to Notice• Invitation to Imitate• Invitation to

Celebrate• Invitation to Write

• Invitation to Revise• Invitation to

Combine• Invitation to Edit

Invitation to Notice

Prompt: What do you notice?Probing beyond “What do you notice?”Craft:• What’s working with the text? • What’s effective?• Where’s the good writing? What’s the

effect? Where’s the craft?• What else?

Invitation to Notice

Punctuation• What’s the punctuation doing?• What effect does the punctuation have

on my reading aloud?• What changes if we remove it? Use

something else?• What is the writer accomplishing with

his or her choice?• What else?

Invitation to Notice

Invitation to Notice

Invitation to Imitate

• Deconstruct the sentence for its prominent features.

• Show an imitation of your own (model) or a student’s (model) and connect back to the prominent features.

• Show students how to insert their ideas and experiences and still imitate the structure or pattern.

Invitation to Collect

• Collect sentences from student’s own writing and other text that follow the patterns introduced.

Invitation to Edit

• After seeing the correct sentence, students identify what has changed as each sentence is uncovered separately. We are open to changes from sentence to sentence so that the activity continues to be generative.

Invitation to Edit

• When the web is finished, the spider waits for insects to fly into its web.

-Seymour Simon, Spiders (2003)

Invitation to Edit

• When the web is finished, the spider waits for insects to fly into it’s web.

• When the web is finish, the spider waits for insects to fly into its web.

• When the web is finished, the spider wait for insects to fly into its web.

• When the web is finished the spider wait for insects to fly into its web.

Let’s Try It

• Dad dished up three plates, side by side, with big pieces of pie and giant scoops of ice cream.

Enemy Pie

TYPES OF SENTENCES: COMPOUND SENTENCES

What do you notice?

Every day was a happy day, and every night was peaceful.

-E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

Nick Allen had plenty of ideas, and he knew what to do with them.

-Andrew Clements, Frindle

I want to buy a new car, so I have to save some money.

I want to take a cruise to Hawaii, but I don’t have enough time.

What do you notice?

Every day was a happy day, and every night was peaceful.

Every night was peaceful, and every day was a happy day.

Every day was a happy day and every night was peaceful

Every day was a happy day every night was peaceful.

Probing Questions

-What do you notice?-What else?-What’s the punctuation doing?-How does it sound as we read it?-What would change if we removed this or that?-Which do you prefer? Why?

Building the Compound Sentence Pattern

Sentence

forand *norbut *or *yetso

sentence, .

I want to go, but I have to clean my room.

I want to go, but I have to clean my room.

A compound sentence contains two subjects and two predicates. A conjunction is used to combine the two sentences.

F - forA - andN - norB - butO - orY - yetS - so

Compound Sentences

Notice, Notice, Notice

I hit a double, and then everything changed.

He forgot his lunch money, so he had to eat a peanut butter sandwich.

I thought I lost my homework, but it was under my bed.

Build Grammar Section of Writer’s Notebook

• Explain principle• Students cut and paste principle and mentor

sentence in writer’s notebook.

Subsequent days…• Students imitate sentence and/or pattern• Leave room below -- encourage students to find

more sentences from their reading to add

Let’s Give it a Try• Invitation to imitate

I sat near the back with Stephen, and he kept pestering me.

Stephen is my best friend, but I’m not sure he would admit it.

There was only about a block to go before our bus stop, but I couldn’t stand Stephen’s whining.

-Andrew Clements, The Report Card

Let’s Give it a Try• Invitation to imitate

I sat near the back with Stephen, and he kept pestering me.

I sat on the floor with Harry, and he kept licking me.

-Andrew Clements, The Report Card

Collecting Sentences

Next Steps• Add compound sentence(s) to daily writing• Collect sentences• Practice combining

I tried calling her as soon as I got home from school.Her line was busy.

Celebrating Grammar• For homework have children, “Shop the

World” looking for sentences that follow the pattern (or have them write one)

• Share the sentences aloud• Celebrate, reread, compare, contrast,

enjoy, and review the craft of grammar• Display sentences all over the room• Empower kids -- “I can do that, too!”

If struggling readers need to see a word forty times to learn it (Beers 2002), then I’ll make a leap and say students need to see grammar and mechanics rules highlighted in different contexts at least as many times

to own them.- Jeff Anderson

Principles We’ve Learned• Construction of a Simple Sentence

Subject + Verb + stands on its own

• Construction of a Compound SentenceSentence, + Conjunction +

sentence.

Moving on…Complex Sentences

COMPLEX SENTENCES

Dependent

Vs.

Independent

If independence means to stand on your own, what does dependencemean?

What did you notice in those lyrics?

• Now, it's your turn to write some lyrics. Write 10 of your own "If I had a million dollars," lyrics.

• Make sure to follow it with a comma!

Comma after the clause!

AAAWWUBBIS !!! ...the most used subordinating

conjunctions• After, Although, As• When, While• Until• Because, Before• If• Since

Invitation to Notice

They are shouting your name, asking if dinner is ready yet.-Jim Grisley, Winter Birds

Abraham was growing fast, shooting up like a sunflower.-Russell Freedman, Lincoln: A Photobiography

Furlough found his brother in the library, standing on the top of the great open book.

-Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux

Sentence closer, .

Independent clause(Simple sentence)

Subject Verb

An Independent Clause

•Is a sentence•Stands on its own•Is perfectly fine as it is

But sometimes we want more

� Pictures or images� Information� Specifics� Description

So how do we add information to our sentences without making run-on or incorrect sentences?

We can write complex sentences.

Not all of our sentences have to be short; We need long and short sentences.

What you add to the sentence

• Can’t be a whole new sentence• Can’t stand on its own— it must be…

Independent

This has a noun and a verbDoes it stand on its own?Does it express a complete thought?

It’s Dependent

independent clause (sentence)

must lean on an

Let’s Give it a Try

The dog approached me.

There are three basic complex sentence patterns

• Add information at the beginning of a sentence

• Add information in the middle of a sentence

• Add information at the end of a sentence

, closing .

Beginning ,

, interrupting ,

Complex SentencesThe three basic patterns…

Where should we add the dependent?

At the Beginning?, Middle?, End?

• Which one sounds the best?• Does it add detail to the sentence?

Flapping its wings, the duck flew.

The duck , flapping its wings, flew.

The duck flew, flapping its wings.

Which do you like better?

You are the artist you get to decide which is best.

Dependents can be many things, but they will always:

> Begin> Interrupt> Close> Add detail to an independent clause

Express Lane Edits

• Support students in integrating the grammar skills they have learned into their writing.

• Ask students to edit for one grammar skill that you have taught.

• Students record the “item to check out” or skill they edit for. Students record the “receipt” or changes they have made.

When I was five, I remember riding around in my dads taxi. He was proud of his taxi. He kept it’s interior spotless. Hed spend one day a week cleaning every spot on the car. My sister and I loved to run around the car, playing tag and listening to the music from the radio. It seemed when we drove in it we werent allowed to breathe or touch anything.

We need to teach students that sentencesare as much fun to

build – and play around with as Lego castles.

You build them, stand back to check them out, break them up and build them another way.