A Vision for Writing

Please, please share this vision for writing with your students. Spectacular! You might even need a tissue.

The Grammar of Nonsense

Last night at a grammar presentation, I was asked to read an excerpt from Anthony Burgess's A Mouthful of Air. It began simply enough, but then I arrived here:

When I corkled the veriduct in morful wurtubs and, prexing the coroflock, chonted the furpool by crerlicoking the fark, wottled the duneflow by fonking the raketoppled purnlow and then asserticled the prert (in both slonces) through a clariform rarp of werthearkers.

Do I need I tell you what an exhausting sentence that is to sight-read? Try it...aloud!

Once home, I silently read and reread the sentence. Something is not right. I translated it and found the same problem. The first word seems to be the culprit. Eliminate when and all is well, unless, of course, I lack proficiency in the grammar of Nonsense.

My translation:

When I noticed the child in dirty overalls and, assuming the worst, beckoned the teacher by ringing the bell, called the principal by banging the office door and then led the students (in both classrooms) through a long list of questions.

I wonder if students can translate the sentence from Nonsense to English. Can they spot which words are verbs, nouns, and adjectives? What about participles? While they may not be able to explain the grammar, my hunch is that they can feel it.

If they need a little boost, they can do it in steps.

Step 1: Figure out the part of speech for each unrecognizable word.
Step 2: Rewrite the sentence with blanks, placing a clue (a part of speech) beneath each line.
Step 3: Read the result.

Try it yourself first and include your translation in the comments. Then let me see theirs!

And, if that is a hoot for you or your students, you may like playing around with Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" as well.

P.S. The idea for steps came from my daughter who saw what I was doing, shrugged her shoulders, and said, "It's like a mad lib, only there are a lot of blanks." Well, okay then.

Diary of a Critter

Who: Students in the elementary years

What: Write a diary from the perspective of a critter, as Doreen Cronin did in Diary of a Worm, Diary of a Fly, and Diary of a Spider.

How:
1. Simply enjoy Cronin's books: the illustrations, the humor, the brilliant use of personification. (If you want to review personification or show your students examples of personification in movies, watch the video below. While you're at it, do a little Editing-on-the-Go and see if you can spot a spelling and grammar error. Tsk. Tsk.)

2. Notice similarities in each of the books. We'll start with the obvious: they are all diaries. (Phew, I'm glad we figured that one out!) They are written in first person. They mix fiction and non-fiction. (One excellent example is the June 7 entry of Diary of a Fly. Fly is nervously anticipating his first day of school (fiction) when he asks (fiction): "What if I'm the only one who eats regurgitated food?" (non-fiction). They have scrapbook pages, including pictures and captions. Anything else?

3. Brainstorm possible critters to study. Actually, anything non-human will be fine. Find books and websites about the topic. Read and study, recording interesting and important information on this sheet*. I recommend setting sources aside when it's time to write. Otherwise, it's very tempting to use another person's words with minor tweaking here and there.

4. Plan the diary. This sheet* might be helpful.

*I found these sheets at Writing Fix. For some students, they provide needed support. If your students can run with their ideas, no props necessary, by all means let them. Don't mush them into a mold.

5. Revisit the planning sheet (or first draft). Ask questions for revision. Is the order of the entries logical? Can any words be strengthened?  Can any sentences be reworded to make them flow better? Have you read the entries aloud to hear how they sound? Are there any words or sentences that confuse you or make you stumble?

6. Check the conventions: spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. 

7. Ready the text for sharing with others (illustrations, a fun scrapbook page, a cool font, whatever will announce to potential readers that they must pick it up).

I'd love to see your favorite entry in the comments. Please share!

Note: Although the planning sheets come from Writing Fix, I did not take this lesson from there. It came from my own thinker. : )

A Second Note: This post contains affiliate links.

Woe Is I, Jr. Lessons: Wrapping It Up

I have written lessons to accompany Woe Is I, Jr., a grammar handbook for kids. You can read my introductory comments here.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12

Congratulations! You have completed twelve chapters of grammar study. You are practically an expert.

Actually, let’s check to make sure. Remember the Grammar Glossary you completed in the Introduction? Return to it now, this time filling in the column on the right.

And one more thing: at the beginning of this supplement, you pitched your tent on a line. Where do you put it now? Leave a comment to tell me which way your tent moved--or if it stayed put.

 

I leave you now with this quote from Carl Sandburg:

Additional Resources

Grammar-Land: Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-shire  and accompanying worksheets

http://growingbydegrees.blogspot.com/grammar-in-context.html

Sentence Stalking #8

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. This time our goal will simply be to imitate a style. Students whose sentences all sound the same may find this exercise helpful.

A mole, tired from tunneling along, discovered the mitten and burrowed inside.

 As soon as the hedgehog disappeared into the mitten, a big owl, attracted by the commotion, swooped down.

The bear, tickled by the mouse's whiskers, gave an enormous sneeze.

These three sentences, all quoted from Jan Brett's picture book The Mitten, have a similar structure. Do you see it?

A MOLE, tired from tunneling along, discovered the mitten and burrowed inside.

 As soon as the hedgehog disappeared into the mitten, A BIG OWL, attracted by the commotion, swooped down.

THE BEAR, tickled by the mouse's whiskers, gave an enormous sneeze.

No need to get bogged down with terminology. Observe the pattern; then use it as a springboard for students' original sentences. Include their best ones in the comments!

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

A Blog Worth Visiting

All because of a pin, I stumbled onto Wonder Farm, a website written by homeschooling mom Patricia Zaballos who "loves to write and wants others to love it too." I was immediately wowed by both her writing and content.

The pin was about writing workshop. What's there not to like about writing workshop?! It's an excellent way for students to write the content they want in the format they want for an audience of peers who give personal feedback. She had my attention.

I saw a post describing a method of research using post-it notes. Someday, and hopefully someday soon, I will find a student to test it.

Then I saw her eight-part series: "Becoming a Writing Mentor to Your Child." Now here is a campground where you can pitch your tent awhile. She writes lengthy posts explaining her philosophy on nurturing student writers, including practical tips for application.

Come with me. I'll take you on a quick tour.

In the first post, Zaballos contrasts a teacher and a mentor. During my homeschooling years, my teacher hat has constantly beckoned me. I've had to intentionally resist it and wear my mentor one instead. Which hat do you wear?

In part two, she contrasts two approaches to learning writing: scope and sequence, on one hand, and osmosis in a language-rich environment on the other. This one came easily for me from Day 1 of parenting; bathing my girls in words was one of my favorite parts of their younger years. On which side of the spectrum do you find yourself?

In the third post, Zaballos shares three "gems" she learned from Verlyn Klinkenborg, author of Several Short Sentences about Writing. I had never heard of this book before reading her post, but you can bet I've already placed a hold on it at the library. The gems further illustrate what it looks like to be a writing mentor, especially helpful to those of us who didn't grow up with one.

Typically, homeschooling moms think they must appropriate the "eye for an eye" philosophy when dealing with spelling and grammar. We all had to suffer through pages of spelling lists and grammar exercises, so of course our children should, too, right? Not if you want to mentor your kids. Zaballos shares her views and tips on spelling in the fourth post. Then, in the fifth part of the series, she does the same with grammar.

In part six, Zaballos offers a mother of reluctant writers advice for engaging her kids in the writing process. One of her more intriguing ideas is list-making. Seriously. Did you ever consider building paragraphs (and an essay!) from a list?

We learn in part seven how to offer positive feedback to students' writing because, after all, don't we all thrive more when we see what we're doing right rather than focus on what we're doing wrong? She continues in a similar vein as she wraps up the series with an eighth post.

If you've ever read something and thought, "Man, I wish I had written that!" you know how I feel now. This is good stuff. Really good stuff. Let me know what you think.

A Poem of Excuses

Who: Students in the elementary grades

What: Joining poet Bruce Lansky, children gripe, groan, and grumble as they write their best excuses for why they can't write a poem.

How: 

1. Show Lansky's poem to your students, so they can read it aloud and count the excuses. (It must have been one of those "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad" days to write a poem!)

Here is Lansky's poem:

I Can't Write a Poem

Forget it.
You must be kidding.
I'm still half asleep.
My eyes keep closing.
My brain isn't working.
I don't have a pencil.
I don't have any paper.
My desk is wobbly.
I don't know what to write about.
And besides, I don't even know how to write a poem.
I've got a headache. I need to see the nurse.
Time's up? Uh oh!
All I have is this dumb list of excuses.
You like it? Really? No kidding.
Thanks a lot. Would you like to see another one?

-Bruce Lansky

2. Set students loose to outdo Lansky's excuses with doozies of their own. If it helps to have a planning sheet, you can find one here.

3. Include your students' best excuses in the comments. I may need one or two of them if I ever have to write a poem.

Note: I found the original lesson here.

Woe Is I, Jr. Lessons: Chapter 12

I have written lessons to accompany Woe Is I, Jr., a grammar handbook for kids. You can read my introductory comments here.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11

1. Read chapter 12.

2. Write two messages from a deserted island, one appropriate for an English teacher, one for a peer.

3. Will you share one or both of your messages in the comments?

Go to Wrapping It Up.