Invitation to Edit #4

 

To help students become better editors, consider using Jeff Anderson's idea--Invitation to Edit--from Everyday Editing.

Begin by looking at the first sentence, the mentor text, with your student.  What does she notice about it?  She can comment on anything--content, diction, syntax, punctuation, anything.

Once she has studied it and made her observations, cover it and show her the subsequent sentences, one by one, allowing her to point out what is different (i.e. incorrect) about each one.

"In the city of Boston, on a cobblestoned street, a new hat shop was opening for business."                           The Hatmaker's Sign by Candace Fleming

In the City of Boston, on a cobblestoned street, a new hat shop was opening for business.

In the city of Boston on a cobblestoned street, a new hat shop was opening for business.

In the city of boston, on a cobblestoned street, a new hat shop was opening for business.

In the city of Boston, on a cobblestoned street, a knew hat shop was opening for business.

In the city of Boston, on a cobblestoned street, a new hat shop was opening for buisness.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Invitation to Edit, #3

 

To help students become better editors, consider using Jeff Anderson's idea--Invitation to Edit--from Everyday Editing.

Begin by looking at the first sentence, the mentor text, with your student.  What does she notice about it?  She can comment on anything--content, diction, syntax, punctuation, anything.

Once she has studied it and made her observations, cover it and show her the subsequent sentences, one by one, allowing her to point out what is different (i.e. incorrect) about each one.

"As soon as she got home, Marguerite lit the fire, set a small pot of water to boil, and unpacked her basket."                          

Marguerite Makes a Book by Bruce Robertson

As soon as she got home. Marguerite lit the fire, set a small pot of water to boil, and unpacked her basket.

As soon as she got home Marguerite lit the fire, set a small pot of water to boil, and unpacked her basket.

As soon as she got home, Marguerite lit the fire set a small pot of water to boil and unpacked her basket.

As soon as she got home, Marguerite lit the fire, set a small pot of water to boil, and unpacking her basket.

As soon as she got home, Marguerite lights the fire, sets a small pot of water to boil, and unpacks her basket.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Questions, Questions

Do apple seeds dream happily of growing up to be a tree?

How many little fish might see the stone I throw into the sea?

These are questions Marcus Pfister asks in his simple picture book Questions, Questions. Since we know curious children are an endless reservoir of questions, let's record some of them. Give students a sheet of paper with the title "Questions, Questions." When they ask questions throughout the day, direct them to the paper, where they can write them. Add the questions one after another, until students have a healthy list.

If your students are young, they can write and illustrate their best questions in a mini-book. Assignment accomplished. If they are older, you can expand this assignment, having them follow the example of Pfister whose questions are couplets 14-16 syllables long. Now they will have to figure out how to revise their questions, making them sound poetic with rhythm and rhyme.

If your students do this assignment, please include their best questions in the comments!

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

Capital Letters

 

remember mr. wright's classroom in punctuation takes a vacation?  well, robin pulver takes us there again in the case of the incapacitated capitals, where mr. wright tries to teach his students the proper use of capital letters.  he succeeds but not without the help of an emergency team. (Wow, this paragraph desperately needs that team, too!)

Possible activities for students to do with this book:

• The students in Mr. Wright's class write a letter to the principal without a single uppercase letter. Before reading the book together, ask your students to highlight any lowercase letters which should be uppercase. You can find the letter here in pdf format.  After you've read and discussed the book, have them do it again, if the exercise was troublesome the first time.
  
• On various pages of the book, Pulver mentions words which should be capitalized.  Invite your students to make a list with each one.  Once the list is complete, have them make a table, adding examples for each category. Or they can use index cards, one for each category.
• Mr. Wright's students write a letter. Have your students write one, too, using words from as many categories as they can, emphasizing each capital letter with color.

This post contains affiliate links.

Strengthening the Language Arts Program

 

The goal in teaching language arts is to improve a student's ability to listen, speak, read, and write. Tucked in the fine print are skills which include at least the following:

• Grammar
• Vocabulary
• Spelling

How do you ensure you cover these skills with your students?

One way is to buy a workbook, one for each skill, one for each kid, and assign pages. If they faithfully do a page or two a day in each book, they will likely advance to the next level by the end of the school year.

Advantages:

• Mom and students know exactly what is required each day.

Disadvantages:

• Boring!
• It's easy to get bogged down with the habit of filling in paperwork, forgetting that there is an ultimate goal of learning!
• Nothing is really required of the student, other than perseverance.
• Students don't take pride in their work.
• After all those pages are completed, what then? The books likely end up in the trash.

Maybe I'm biased, but those lists are painfully lopsided.

What is another approach to achieve the same goal?

How about learning the skills in context?

When my girls were little and many of their little friends were filling in their workbook pages, my girls were writing. Writing in portfolders. Writing in blank books. Writing stories. Writing journal entries. Writing. Writing. Writing.

They were also reading. Reading fiction. Reading non-fiction. Listening to me read fiction and non-fiction. Reading. Reading. Reading.

How did they learn spelling, vocabulary, and grammar? They learned these skills through reading and writing. As they read--and heard me read--quality literature, they absorbed new vocabulary, proper grammar, and correct spelling. As they wrote, they applied what they absorbed, refining their understanding on assignments in which they were personally invested. They learned early that writing is a process, that their first draft is rarely their last.

Advantages:

• Students get to think.
• Creativity can leak out in all directions.
• They have final products they can celebrate and share with others.
• They are motivated because they have a goal in view.
• Because they are able to express themselves, they realize they are a vital part of the learning process.
• The teacher can inspire a love of learning.
• Students learn how to learn.
• One assignment can serve a range of ages and abilities.
• Supplies are simple and inexpensive: paper, pencils, and time, although a computer does make revisions easier.

Disadvantages:

• Mom may have to think of or find ideas to spark creativity.
• If students are used to filling in pages, they may initially resist having to think and create.
• If Mom doesn't feel comfortable giving feedback, she may need a writing mentor to help her students.

Again, I may be biased, but I like that list better!

The moms of my girls' little friends feared a couple of things about ditching their workbooks: one was possible gaps; the other was standardized tests.

Through a methodical system, your students may be exposed to every jot and tittle of every skill, but when you isolate the skills from real life learning, do children actually know how to apply them? 

From what I have read and seen firsthand, the answer is usually no.  In my first classroom experience, my eighth graders came to me engorged from a steady diet of grammar instruction the prior year. I was happy because I could feed them something different. We could work on writing, incorporating grammar instruction as needed. What I quickly discovered was that, despite learning from an excellent teacher, not only did the kids still not understand or remember the grammar they had learned from her, they also didn't know how to write. Even in a traditional classroom setting, these kids had huge gaps.

And testing? At least in our case, my girls have always tested very high in language arts. Through consistent drafting, revising, and editing, they learned the nuts and bolts of the English language and were able to choose the best answer on the test most of the time.

I know writing is on the top or toward the top of most homeschooling moms' I'm-not-sure-I-can-do-that-well list. If that describes you, you're the one who is inspiring me to build this site post by post. I want to give you concrete writing ideas, tips, and resources to ensure you're covering the whole language arts package.

If you need a few workbooks for security, it's okay, but I encourage you to step out and give real reading and writing a whirl. Because it's fun, you may fear you're missing something, but let me assure you: you're nurturing thinkers, students who can confidently listen, speak, read, and write. With those tools, think of what your kids can accomplish!

Exclamation Mark

 

So I walked into the library to be inspired, and what was the first book that beckoned me?  A book with a smiling exclamation mark posing on the front cover!  I was immediately attracted to the book because, well, I majored in English. But it didn't take long to identify with this precious mark who begins the story, trying to fit in with the periods, and ends the book-- after a memorable encounter with a question mark--celebrating his newfound voice and purpose.

While your students are enjoying the witty text and celebrating !'s personal victory, they can absorb the roles of three important punctuation marks whom they may never see the same way again. (Did I just say "whom"?  Yikes. Personification is a powerful tool!)

Possible writing connection:
Ask your children to imagine and write a sequel to the book. Begin by encouraging them to brainstorm.  If they need guidance, ask questions, such as when and where do the punctuation marks meet again? What do they discuss? Who is the main character in the sequel? Once they have some ideas they like, writing may happily begin.

If your students do this assignment, please consider including it in the comments.

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

Wordles

Play with words this summer. Make a Wordle Word Cloud.  My middle daughter made the one above for her grandfather last year. She framed it and gave it to him for his birthday.

Voice Lessons

 

My daughter's Advanced Placement teacher used exercises from Voice Lessons to help her students develop their writing voices.

Each lesson is one page, including a quotation from literature which illustrates one of five categories--diction, detail, imagery, syntax, and tone--a couple of questions to lead students to examine the text closely, and a short assignment for application. In less than twenty minutes per lesson, students can learn to read as writers, appreciating what authors do well and practicing it in their own writing.

Discovering Voice is similar to Voice Lessons, except that it's intended for a slightly younger crowd. The quotations come from less advanced literature, and a sixth category--figurative language--is added. I used this resource with my 9th and 10th grade students last year, many of whom hadn't been in a prior formal writing class.

Two recommendations:
With either book, discuss the quotations, so that students have the privilege of both sharing and hearing insights.

View the exercises as tools to help students unveil the craft behind the words, not as worksheets to be completed halfheartedly. 

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

Ian and Larissa

 

We are inundated with news everyday that is discouraging, even downright depressing. As Christians we believe in our heads that God is Sovereign, that "light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5), that the gospel of Jesus redeems and transforms lives. But when the news continues to bombard us, we sometimes forget. Testimonies of God at work encourage our hearts and fuel our hope. Here is #5 in the series.

I "met" Ian and Larissa a year ago, through the video that Desiring God Ministries made about them. This beautiful couple paints a picture of marriage we don't often see, one that gives us a glimpse of the mystery mentioned in Ephesians 5:32. Their story baffles and encourages me. It's beautiful.

Sentence Stalking #7

In Mechanically Inclined, Jeff Anderson teaches sentence stalking, a way to use mentor texts of any length to draw students' attention to an author's craft, the goal being to highlight what is done well rather than to take kids on an error hunt.

What concepts can we teach from the following sentence?

“Paralyzed, my face on fire, I could only look at her, shocked at what I had done (Ida B 212).

Notice the participles at the beginning and end of the sentence. Notice the commas that accompany them.

Play with the syntax. Shuffle the parts of the sentence in a different order. Which one is preferable?

Talk about the imagery of a face on fire. What does that look like?


What other concepts do you see?

For more Sentence Stalking, click the label in the sidebar.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Sentence Stalking #6

 

In Mechanically Inclined, Jeff Anderson teaches sentence stalking, a way to use mentor texts of any length to draw students' attention to an author's craft, the goal being to highlight what is done well rather than to take kids on an error hunt.

What concepts can we teach from the following sentence?

"Then I looked straight at Daddy and said, ‘Can I please be excused now?’ and the words I used might not have been angry, but it was in my voice and flashing out of my eyes” (Ida B 116).

Speak Ida's words out loud. What is the expression on her face? What is the tone in her voice?

Talk about the use of Daddy as a proper noun. When should "daddy" be capitalized? When shouldn't it be?

Notice how to punctuate a question in quotation marks.

Look at the pronoun "it" and talk about what "it" is.


What other concepts do you see?

For more Sentence Stalking, click the label in the sidebar.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Invitation to Edit #2

 

To help students become better editors, consider using Jeff Anderson's idea--Invitation to Edit--from Everyday Editing.

Begin by looking at the first sentence, the mentor text, with your student.  What does she notice about it?  She can comment on anything--content, diction, syntax, punctuation, anything.

Once she has studied it and made her observations, cover it and show her the subsequent sentences, one by one, allowing her to point out what is different (i.e. incorrect) about each one.

Tom and Nana, Tommy's Irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in their grocery store.                                                       The Art Lesson by Tomie DePaola

Tom and Nana Tommy's Irish grandfather and grandmother had his pictures in their grocery store.    

Tom and Nana, Tommy's irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in their grocery store.    

Tom and Nana, Tommy's Irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in their Grocery Store.   

Tom and Nana, Tommys Irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in their grocery store.    

Tom and Nana, Tommy's Irish grandfather and grandmother, had his pictures in they're grocery store. 

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Sentence Stalking #5

 

In Mechanically Inclined, Jeff Anderson teaches sentence stalking, a way to use mentor texts of any length to draw students' attention to an author's craft, the goal being to highlight what is done well rather than to take kids on an error hunt.

What concepts can we teach from the following sentence?

“In the hard-packed dirt of the driveway, after the glaring lights are out and the people have gone home to bed, you will find a veritable treasure of popcorn fragments, frozen custard dribbling, candied apples abandoned by tired children, sugar fluff crystals, salted almonds, popsicles, partially gnawed ice cream cones, and the wooden sticks of lollypops” (Charlotte’s Web 123).

Talk about concrete language.

Strip the sentence to its essence. What is left? Compare that with the original.

Look up the definition of veritable.

Count the commas. Discuss their purpose.

Imitate this sentence with a different topic, maybe a messy bedroom.


What other concepts do you see?

For more Sentence Stalking, click the label in the sidebar.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Chalk Verses

You can find a beautiful collection of chalk verses here.

Sentence Stalking #4

 

In Mechanically Inclined, Jeff Anderson teaches sentence stalking, a way to use mentor texts of any length to draw students' attention to an author's craft, the goal being to highlight what is done well rather than to take kids on an error hunt.

What concepts can we teach from the following sentence?

“Avery put on clean underwear, clean blue jeans, and a clean shirt (Charlotte’s Web 119).

Teach or review the serial comma (x, x, and x).

Talk about the effect of repeating "clean" three times.

Review parallel structure.


What other concepts do you see?

For more Sentence Stalking, click the label in the sidebar.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Commas, Commas

 

 

 Commas are important!

If you question that statement, read Lynn Truss's picture book Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Each two-page spread has the same sentence. Well, each sentence has the same words, but the meanings are very different, depending on whether there are commas or not.

Here is one example:

"Look at that huge hot dog!"
"Look at that huge, hot dog!"

See the change in meaning just because of one seemingly inconsequential mark?

Here is a video with an example:

This book is simple, but it makes you think. In case you need a nudge to see the difference between the two sentences, the humorous illustrations and the explanations at the back of the book will help you.

Hand this book to your kids. Let it subtly convince them that commas really are important in conveying meaning.

Following the same pattern:

   

Note: This post contains affiliate links.

Five Minute Friday

 

I went on an unplanned online journey yesterday and ended up at Lisa-Jo Baker's site, where I learned about Five Minute Friday. Each Friday, Lisa-Jo posts a word, her readers sit and write for five minutes about that word without editing or self-critiquing (at least that's the idea), they link their results, and they encourage the person who linked before them.  One of Lisa-Jo's readers, a mom at Desperate Homeschoolers, has regularly participated in Five Minute Friday, inviting her eight-, six-, and two-year-old daughters to join her, writing or drawing as they are able. Until recently, she has linked their work with hers.  Now it has a special spot, and your children's writing can be there, too, on the Five Minute Friday: Kids' Edition!

What a perfect way for moms and their children to write together with an achievable weekly goal and an audience.

Friday is coming! Cast the vision. Find some loose paper or start a writer's notebook. Sharpen the pencils. Ready...Set...Write!

Sentence Stalking #3

In Mechanically Inclined, Jeff Anderson teaches sentence stalking , a way to use mentor texts of any length to draw students' attention to an author's craft, the goal being to highlight what is done well rather than to take kids on an error hunt.

What concepts can we teach from the following sentence?

“’Struggle if you must,’ said he, ‘but kindly remember that I’m hiding down here in this crate and I don’t want to be stepped on, or kicked in the face, or pummeled, or crushed in any way, or squashed, or buffeted about, or bruised, or lacerated, or scarred, or biffed’” (Charlotte’s Web 125).


Highlight the verbs in this sentence.  How many are there?  What effect do they have?

Talk about parallel structure.  

Discuss the commas separating each of the verbs.  Are they necessary?

Notice how to punctuate a quote within a quote.

Observe the punctuation when interrupting a quote with "said he."

Talk about the effect of "said he" vs. "he said." 


What other concepts do you see?

For more Sentence Stalking, click the label in the sidebar.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Sentence Stalking #2

 

In Mechanically Inclined, Jeff Anderson teaches sentence stalking, a way to use mentor texts of any length to draw students' attention to an author's craft, the goal being to highlight what is done well rather than to take kids on an error hunt.

What concepts can we teach from the following sentence?

“For one second, before the metal cooled, the inside of his right hand, from wrist to fingertips, was coated with solid silver” (Johnny Tremain 33).           


Talk about prepositional phrases. How many are there? 

Strip the prepositional phrases from the sentence. What is left? What does this tell us about the function of prepositional phrases?

Rearrange the prepositional phrases. Is there a better order, or is Forbes' syntax purposeful?

Discuss the imagery of the sentence.


What other concepts do you see?

For more Sentence Stalking, click the label in the sidebar.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Sentence Stalking #1

 

 In Mechanically Inclined, Jeff Anderson teaches sentence stalking, a way to use mentor texts of any length to draw students' attention to an author's craft, the goal being to highlight what is done well rather than to take kids on an error hunt.

What concepts can we teach from the following sentence?

“A florid woman was flapping a pink feather fan” (Johnny Tremain 75).

Talk about alliteration, the repetition of the initial sound in florid, flapping, feather, and fan.

Notice the adjectives that describe woman (florid) and fan (pink, feather).

Look up the meaning of florid.

Discuss the choice of "was flapping" vs. "flapped."


What other concepts do you see?

For more Sentence Stalking, click the label in the sidebar.

Note: This post contains an affiliate link.

Freerice

 

If you want to give your student practice with vocabulary and grammar while earning rice for hungry people around the world, go to Freerice.com and begin answering multiple choice questions.

Replace the Missing Punctuation

 

Type an excerpt—a paragraph or two, double-spaced—from any literature, excluding a specific punctuation mark you want to review or, if your student is ready for more extensive editing, removing all punctuation marks.  Instruct your student to be the editor, inserting the proper punctuation marks where appropriate. Compare with the original.

An Example from Johnny Tremain, page 43, without punctuation:

Weeks wore on September was ending a large part of every day Johnny spent doing what he called looking for work’ he did not really want to follow any trade but his own he looked down on soap-boilers leather-dressers ropemakers and such he did not begin his hunt along Hancock’s Wharf and Fish Street where he and his story were well known and the masters would have been apt to employ him from pity he went to the far ends of Boston

An Example from Johnny Tremain, page 43, with punctuation:

Weeks wore on. September was ending.  A large part of every day Johnny spent doing what he called ‘looking for work.’ He did not really want to follow any trade but his own. He looked down on soap-boilers, leather-dressers, ropemakers, and such. He did not begin his hunt along Hancock’s Wharf and Fish Street, where he and his story were well known and the masters would have been apt to employ him from pity. He went to the far ends of Boston.

Sentence Combining

 

Take a published sentence and break it into simple sentences. Then instruct your student to combine the sentences into one complete sentence. Compare his sentence with the original one. Which one does he prefer? Better yet, do this with several students to compare the different results.

We'll start with an easy one and work our way to more difficult ones.

The original sentence:
"The path was rough and covered with small stones" (Island of the Blue Dolphins 89).

Simple sentences:
The path was rough.
The path was covered with small stones.

***

The original sentence:
"When a week had gone by and still no results from my traps, I gave up" (Where the Red Fern Grows 60).

Simple sentences:
A week had gone by.
There were still no results from my traps.
I gave up.

***

The original sentence:
Johnny had always thought her a shy girl, but she stood up straight before the Judge, speaking in her clear, low voice" (Johnny Tremain 83).

Simple sentences:
Johnny had always thought her a shy girl.
She stood up straight.
She stood before the Judge.
She spoke in her clear voice.
Her voice was low.

***

The original sentence:
"High in a tree, at the swampy edge of the pond they had called Loon Pond, the bees were buzzing in and out of an old woodpecker hole" (Sign of the Beaver 22).

Simple sentences:
The bees were high in a tree.
They were at the edge of the pond.
The edge of the pond was swampy.
The pond was called Loon Pond.
The bees were buzzing.
They were buzzing in and out of a hole.
The hole was an old woodpecker hole.

When you make your own exercises, browse a favorite book for a sentence you like. Break it into as few or as many sentences as you like, depending on the ability of your student. Ask her to do the same thing, giving you simple sentences to combine.

Benefits of this activity:

• Students must play with language, putting all of the pieces into a puzzle.
• As the sentences become more difficult, students won't immediately see a solution. They will have to try different possibilities--aka revising--always an excellent skill to develop.
• Students will strengthen their understanding of what makes a sentence. It will be tempting to use comma splices and run-ons to incorporate all of the information from the simple sentences. If this happens, they will have to revise until they have a legitimate sentence.

In the comments, share your list of simple sentences for us to manipulate. How close to the original can we come?

Vacation Workstation...a Brain Playground

 

I have a friend who seemingly never stops thinking of creative teaching ideas. Seriously, she is like a vending machine. Pop in a need, and out comes a lesson, a class, or a curriculum, all creative, motivating, and unique, covering different learning styles.

Her latest contribution to homeschooling moms and their children is Vacation Workstation...a Brain Playground. The idea is simple but brilliant. All you have to do is make a workstation from file folders and set your students loose to explore nature, play math games, and read books. They keep track of their accomplishments with Bingo grids, a mini journal, and a log, taking away the headache of monitoring multiple children.

This is an excellent way to build a little structure into your kids' summer and keep their skills from rusting. Enjoy!

Note: I receive nothing in return for my review, other than the pleasure of knowing others are benefiting from an excellent teacher.

Sentence Staircases

 

I like using Harvey S. Wiener's idea from Any Child Can Write (68-69) to help young or reluctant writers transform a simple sentence.

Begin with a simple sentence. In his example, Wiener uses "A child played."

Describe the Child: A child with brown eyes played.

Tell When: A child with brown eyes played one crisp winter morning.

Name a Sound: Giggling, a child with brown eyes played one crisp winter morning.

Tell Where: Giggling in front of his house, a child with brown eyes played one crisp winter morning.

Use Other Specific Words: Giggling in front of his house, a boy with brown eyes jumped up and down one crisp winter morning.

Once the student is happy with his improved sentence, ask him to rearrange it several times.

• A boy with brown eyes jumped up and down one crisp winter morning, giggling in front of his house.
• A boy with brown eyes, giggling in front of his house, jumped up and down one crisp winter morning.
• Jumping up and down one crisp winter morning, a boy with brown eyes giggled in front of his house.
• Giggling, a boy with brown eyes  jumped up and down in front of his house one crisp winter morning.
• In front of his house, a giggling boy with brown eyes jumped up and down one crisp winter morning.

Possible discussion cues:
    Have the student rank his sentences from his most favorite one to his least favorite one.
    Notice how the punctuation changes from one sentence to another.
    Discuss what happens to the sentence when the subject is not mentioned immediately.

Other simple sentences from Wiener (69):
A man worked.
The book fell.
A tree moved.
The car drove away.
A cloud passed by.
A woman danced.
A girl ran.
The baby cried.
The radio played.
She pulled him.

Note: This post contains affiliate links.