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Discussion
on TEACH
has been focusing on ways to use Mail in writing classes,
and Catherine Gould Barrows from Orangeburg-Calhoun
Technical College asked about ways to work on Grammar in
Mail. She's had students share and correct fragments and
compose sentences as grammar quizzes.
These exercises can be adapted for
whatever particular topic you're working on. I'll use
examples, but you could change the subject easily (changing
"comma splice" to "subject-verb agreement," for example).
Some of the ideas are straightforward exercises while others
are discussion starters.
PREPARATION: Several of the
exercises require students to look at the messages and
documents that the class members have written. For these
exercises to work as they're conceived here, your students
will need to participate in regular writing activities and
share their drafts and writings publicly, either using
Daedalus Mail or using the Turn In A Document feature. The
messages do not have to have any specific content. Anything
will do.
Additionally, you'll need to decide how to
manage classroom interaction. Many of the exercises suggest
having students do the electronic equivalent of exchanging
exercises. You might set up groups and ask students to read
all the exercises composed by members of their own group to
make tasks more manageable. You can also ask students to
work on the three (or four or five, whatever) messages that
are posted immediately before their own (or immediately
following). Or you might have their interaction based on
some other system -- read the messages of everyone sitting
in the same row as you, for instance. In the exercises
below, I'll suggest that students work with the messages
from their group members. You can adjust the exercises to
fit your class.
- Find a message that you've
written and choose the first three sentences of more than
5 words each. Find all the verbs in the passage and
replace them with the infinitive version in square
brackets. Here's an example:
Sentence from my
message:
When I arrived on campus yesterday, I learned that our
class had been moved from the classroom to the
library.
Rewrite:
When I [to arrive] on campus yesterday, I [to
learn] that our class [to move] from the
classroom to the library.
Send the three
sentences with the square brackets in a message to the
class. Once you've sent your messages, read the sentences
posted by the others in your group. Reply to the author,
changing the infinitive in square brackets to a sensible
verb form.
Once everyone has
had a chance to rewrite the sentences, post a Mail
message that discusses the differences in your group
member's versions of the sentences. Did everyone change
the infinitive in the same way, or were there a variety
of responses? Did the sentences match your original
sentence? What do you make of the way that the rewrites
matched (or didn't match) the original and one
another?
- Write three multiple choice
questions on comma splices and/or fused sentences and
post them to your group. Your questions should be
something like this:
My brother and I
are going to a concert tomorrow night, after the concert,
we're going to drive to Dallas so that we can see the
band again Friday night.
The correct
punctuation is:
a. My brother and I
are going to a concert tomorrow night; after the concert
we're going to drive to Dallas, so that we can see the
band again Friday night.
b. My brother and I
are going to a concert tomorrow night. After the concert,
we're going to drive to Dallas, so that we can see the
band again Friday night.
c. My brother and I
are going to a concert tomorrow night. After the concert,
we're going to drive to Dallas; so that we can see the
band again Friday night.
d. My brother and I
are going to a concert tomorrow night. After the concert,
we're going to drive to Dallas so that we can see the
band again Friday night.
e. No revision. The
sentence is correct as is.
Once you've written
your questions, post them to the members of your group;
then read and reply to the messages of your group
members. When everyone has had a chance to answer the
questions, your group can discuss the correct
answers.
NOTE: If your
teaching students who are also preparing for an exam like
the TAAS exam, you might use an example from the exam
itself and mention that the multiple choice question is
like those that they will see on the exam.
- Discuss that ways
that grammar, mechanics, and usage affect style? Style
Checkers gather details on the words, sentences, and
paragraphs, but it cannot evaluate for things such as
subject-verb agreement or comma splices. How do these
issues affect a document's style?
- What do you
remember about learning grammar? Who do you think
influenced the way that you talk and write the most -- a
parent? grandparent or other family member? a teacher?
someone else? Describe your first memories of learning
grammar. How do your memories of learning to read and
speak compare to the ways that you've been taught in
formal settings such as classrooms?
NOTE: The idea with this discussion starter is to explore
biases and misconceptions about how we learn grammar.
- Check any of the
Mail messages posted last week and send me a message
demonstrating examples of the following grammar
structures:
a. A compound sentence
b. A complex sentence
c. A sentence using passive voice
d. A sentence written in past tense
e. A subordinate clause
Include details on
the message where you found your examples (the author,
subject, and date of the message).
- Examine all the
messages that you wrote last week. Count the number of
times that you used passive voice. Choose several
examples that demonstrate the ways that you use passive
voice. Post a message to your group that shares your
findings and suggests some conclusions about how and when
it's appropriate to use passive structures.
- This exercise has
two parts.
First: Write a
message using only present tense that describes an event
that you participated in or observed recently. You need
only a paragraph. If you need help, check your handbook
for details on the difference between past, present, and
future tense. Post your message to your group.
Second: Read the
messages of the other members in your group, and then
rewrite the paragraphs in past tense and post them back
to the list. Once you've finished, your group can discuss
the process of changing the tense for the paragraphs --
did you all write the same thing? Which parts were
difficult to rewrite (and which parts were easy)?
- This exercise has
two parts.
First: Write a
personal narrative paragraph, using first-person. Tell a
very short story about something you've done recently.
You only need a paragraph. If you need help, check your
handbook for details on using first-person. Post your
narrative to your group members.
Second: Read the
paragraphs written by your group members. Rewrite the
paragraphs in third-person, and post the results to the
class. Once you've finished, your group can discuss the
revisions -- what do you notice about the changes that
you and your group made to the originals as you changed
to third-person?
- This exercise has
a homework assignment. You might skip the homework and
bring your own collection of advertisements to class for
students to use.
Homework: Find a
full-page advertisement that relies on fragments to sell
a product or service. Type the text of the advertisement
in an ASCII text file.
Class Exercise:
Paste the text of your advertisement in an ASCII text
file; then skip down a few lines and write complete
sentences that incorporate the fragments. Post your
message to the class. Once all your group members have
posted messages, read the messages and engage in a
discussion of the difference between the fragmented
version and your rewrite. As a group, sketch out some
rules that seem to guide when and how to use fragments in
advertisements, and consider how the rules for
advertisements compare to the rules you would follow in
your formal and informal writing.
- Write a message to
your classmates that explains comma splices and suggests
how to avoid them in your writing. Consider your message
as a rule sheet for your classmates -- you're explaining
the rules for them to use as they prepare for a test or
exam. Use these example in your explanation:
- The car
outside the football field was filled with cheering
fans, as we passed by their car, they broke into the
school fight song.
- All the dogs
in the neighborhood began barking at once, I knew
right away that something was
wrong.
In addition, write
two example sentences of your own. Once you've finished,
post your message to the class.
NOTE: This exercise
works well as a review -- you can assign a different rule
to every student. Or students can write a grammar rule
message every week to gather their ideas together before
moving on to the next topic, creating a personal journal
of grammar rules.
Originally
Posted October 22, 1998 on
the Daedalus Website.
Posted Sunday, 12-Jun-2005 09:09:14 PDT
Copyright © 1998-2011 Traci Gardner, P. O. Box 11836, Blacksburg, VA 24060-1836.
These materials may be referenced, linked to, and indexed, but their contents
may not be duplicated without express written consent of the author. See the
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