Grammar Research

I started this research project by simply googling "Grammar in the Classroom." I found thousands of articles and books about this subject, but honestly they all seemed to revolve around the same thing; rules and what to do with those rules. Sometimes I feel that people get so caught up in rules that they totally forget about the artform of writing. Yes, rules are important and there are certainly right and wrong ways of doing certain tasks in writing, but when we do nothing but pound these rules into our students the creativity gets lost in the shuffle and this is where we begin to see our students loose imagination in their writings. Am I saying that we shouldn't teach grammar rules? Absolutely not, but I do believe that some teacher put too much of an emphasis on them to the point where the students are no longer worried about writing a good paper, but more of a correct paper.

Group Teach 1 blog

One of the most difficult topics to teach, in my opinion, is exactly what Noden talks about in this chapter. During my short time in the classroom and reading papers from various age groups it has been a common occurrence when students don't necessarily lack in grammar, but more visuale observations, or bringing their stories to life using descriptive words. I believe that Noden's concept of "painting with 5 basic brush strokes" could be a great way of allowing our students to explore this extremely artistic/creative approach to writing and could help immensely with helping students grasp this somewhat diffult task of bringing words to life.

Indy Teach Lesson Plan

Essential Question: How do you bring excitement to papers?

Main Idea: The main purpose of this lesson is to encourage the students to be more creative with their writing. Over my short time interning and grading papers I have found that one of the most difficult things for students to grasp in their writing is using their senses and creativity to make their topics come more to life. This lesson will deal primarily with waking their senses up and showing the students how they can transfer these adjectives or "exciting words" as I have called them sometimes, onto paper making their writing far more interesting and allowing the reader to feel a part of the journey.

Activity: Students will think of 5 objects. These objects can be anything from a pop bottle, a car, a tree, etc. They will then take these objects and outline each one on a separate piece of paper. The drawing does not have to be in great detail, just something simple where you can easily make out what it's suppose to be. Students will be asked write down words (Adjectives) that describe the object and write them alongside the outline of the object. In other words, the words will circle around the object and once students completely encompass the picture they will be done. Once this is all done students will be able to easily see how many words can be used to describe even a simple object and will be able to see how their writings can be more exciting by using these words.

Unleasing Potential with Emerging Technologies

This article really explored the realm of the different technologies that are being used in today's classrooms. Podcasting, blogging, wikipedia journals, and many other forms of technologies are changing the face of teaching as we know it. Our students are growing up in the age of where computers are very easy to obtain and the internet rules the world, so why not use these tools in the classroom. Students love going online and "googling" and researching new and unventured plots of information and as teachers we can make are classroom and assignments more enjoyable by allowing the creative nature of our students to show us how they are learning through these tools. Wikibooks

I am from...

I am from open lands enriched
with homes
football in the front yard
where hereos were made one bruise at a time.

I am from bar-b-ques and friends
constantly engulfing
the street light lit night

I am from "You're a Miller, what are you doing?"
chocoalte chip cookies
Pretzels
"Don't eat anything before dinner."
Oops.

I am from cracklin fires
dogs roaming freely from couch to couch
and older sisters screaming
thinking they're my second mom.

I am from chores
"Clean your room."
Ice cream man
Oops, is this before dinner?

Murray Chpt. 2

"The world is full of details that can ignite writing." pg. 36

How true is that! Everywhere one looks they can something that sparks a certain interest. Writing doesn't always have to a story, but rather writing can be just a brief "spark" of interest. I have found over my short time in the classroom that students who don't like to write often feel that writing often is a drag because they can't write what they want to and often feel confined to the rules the teacher gives. We have to eventually allow our students to break out and do some things on their own and often free writes are a great way of doing this.

Murray

1. To be a writer is to willing share your creativity with words in depicting a story. Whether that story be true or not is beside the point, writing is an activity that allows an individual to express who they are in words and can open the minds of readers to different view points and atmospheres.
2. "The reason I continue to write is not so much for publication, for fame, form money, but for suprise."

This is really how you can tell great writers from average one; the surprise feeling they get from their own thoughts and words. Writers have a gift that allows them to explore new avenues of thought and can take those view points and illustrate them with words that create a landscape of emotions in the reader's mind.

Daniels and Bizar

1. My understanding of "Best Practice" teaching is that it is an array of student focused discussions, activities, and demonstrations where it is more the students learning from each other rather than the traditional ways of having only the teacher lecture. This way creates a more student centered classroom and in return allows the students to be more creative and latch on to topics more easily and quickly.
2. The tenants of "Best Pracitice" teaching are that it is student-centered, experimental, reflective, authentic, holistic, social, holistic, social, collaborative, democratic, cognitive, developmental, constructivist, and challenging.
3. "Best Practice" teaching is not teacher centered and full of lectures, silence, stress, competition, and reliance on standardized tests.
4. The easiests way of incorporating this type of teaching into an English classroom is simply being active in the classroom. Allow the students to do skits and readings. Allow students to sing and even rap a poem. Creativity is the key with this type of teaching and allowing the students to be free.