End of a magnificent blog

On August 31st, eNotes brought an end to one of the absolutely best teacher-blogs ever, in my opinion! English Teacher Blog on enotes.com This was a treasure trove, not just for teachers, but also for parents (and sometimes for students!).

Fortunately, Carla has her own quite superior website for all things relating to the teaching of English - including great ideas and websites for all grade levels and subject areas within language arts instruction: WebEnglishTeacher.com.

Parents, grandparents, teachers, even students - all should bookmark this site and come back to it over and over. Who knows? She may even decide to start blogging here, too!

Happy new school year, everyone!

Practice, practice, practice

Did you think that all the practicing in the world is mainly done by athletes and musicians? Have you ever wondered why they do this ... the good ones, that is?

In 1994, Daniel Goleman published an excellent article called "Peak Performance: Why Records Fall," and it's amazing. I discovered the article when I was teaching freshman comp classes at a community college in California; the article was included in the text I used, The Riverside Reader. Over the eight years I taught that course, I learned that this one article was remembered by my students better than almost any other in that text. I don't think it's difficult to figure out why! The article not only makes sense, but the concepts are easily applied to many other areas of anybody's life.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the article:

"Perhaps the most surprising data show that extensive practice can break through barriers in mental capacities, particularly short-term memory. In short-term memory, information is stored for the few seconds that it is used and then fades, as in hearing a phone number which one forgets as soon as it is dialed.

"The standard view, repeated in almost every psychology textbook, is that the ordinary limit on short-term memory is for seven or so bits of information -- the length of a phone number. More than that typically cannot be retained in short-term memory with reliability unless the separate units are "chunked," as when the numbers in a telephone prefix are remembered as a single unit."

If you think in terms of reading and writing (in addition to music, sports, chess, etc.), it's quite understandable why people rarely misspell their own names once they're past first or second grade, why the students who actually memorize the multiplication tables (rather than depending on tricks, tables, or fingers!) usually are the better math students, why students who read and read and read are usually better writers than their peers since they have been "soaking up" all those words and sentence patterns for a long time.

If you have a child who is out for a sport or marching band, the practice will be enforced! It's that kind of constant practice that is needed for students not only to learn their academic and other subject areas, but also to excel in an area of study.

I hope you'll read the article and think about how Goleman's ideas can help your own children or students. If the child is old enough, have him or her read the article, too, and then help with setting up areas in the house for reading, study, music practice, artistic pursuits, or other areas of concentration.

Pink Monkey has a marvelous collection of study skill ideas - called Study Smart. If you look into this, be sure to read the introductory articles first and then follow the lessons in order. You and your student will build better habits if you do this! There are lots of other study guide and test-taking guide websites online. If you want to know more of them, just drop me an email: writeacher@hotmail.com.

For Shakespeare assignments

Here's the best website I've found to help students read Shakespeare's plays:
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/ Click on the title of the play you're reading, then on the act and scene you want. You'll find original Shakespearean language on the left and a modern-day "translation" on the right.

Here are several other really good websites about Shakespeare, his works, and his times:

http://shakespeare.palomar.edu/

http://www.shakespeare-online.com/

http://www.bardweb.net/

http://www.enotes.com/william-shakespeare/

http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/

Kids and state testing

Spring has sprung! And so have state tests across the country.

In Texas, they're referred to as TAKS tests ... standing for Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. The Texas Education Association posts released tests that can be used to show parents and others what questions are asked and how, plus answer keys, as well as the obvious -- having kids use these to prepare!

This spring, I have grandkids in grades 3, 7, and 10, so we've downloaded and printed some of the released tests to use with them. It was very instructive to me, as well as to them, I'm sure. We discovered how incompletely the 3rd grader was reading; she was missing so many details that she ended up guessing on answers -- and most of the time guessed incorrectly. By working with her on the released reading tests and making sure she was catching all the details, her score was amazing. She missed only one question on the entire reading test earlier this month! Now to see the other two grandkids' results. In 7th grade, they took writing and editing tests; in 10th grade, they took reading, writing, and editing tests. Math and other subjects will be given in April -- about 2 weeks from now.

Some of these released tests are online interactive versions. These work really well with kids, too, because they get immediate feedback from the computer -- and we all know kids trust computer information more than the same information from humans, especially their parents or grandparents!!

In other states, all you have to do is to search online for your state's department of education. Here are a few:

California: http://www.cde.ca.gov/
California's released tests: http://www2.cde.ca.gov/scripts/texis.exe/webinator/search?query=released%20tests&submit=GO

Missouri: http://dese.mo.gov/
Assessments (fancy word for tests): http://dese.mo.gov/divimprove/assess/

You get the idea. Find what you need and read, read, read ... and have your kids practice, practice, practice. And remember, if the curriculum is good and if the tests measure what kids have learned from that curriculum, it's not a bad thing to have them practice a lot. The more reading and writing and math and thinking they do, the better!

Questions? Email me at writeacher@hotmail.com

The SAT essay

Students who will be taking the SAT this year (and on into the future) will need to write an essay in addition to the objective questions (you know, multiple guess choice?). Before writing such an essay, it's quite helpful to know how such a thing is graded. A friend of mine found a good explanation online:

How the SAT Essay is Scored

And here's a link to the SAT scoring guide (rubric).

So ... what should you learn from this?

1. Read the directions carefully and make sure you understand exactly what you're being asked to write about.

2. Plan well and quickly. Make a quick outline that will produce a 4 or 5 paragraph paper. Don't skip this step! Lack of planning will result in a rambling essay ... and a low score.

3. Write a careful rough draft, staying with the outline. Don't go off topic now!

4. When the rough draft is done, read over it and make any corrections needed -- not major revisions, but mechanical errors, such as spelling, punctuation, capitalization, etc. If you need to change a word or three, draw one horizontal line through it/them and write the correction just above it.

5. Stay on topic. Off-topic papers are given zeroes! That's right, zeroes, no matter how well written the paper is. Off-topic = 0.

Here is another site that will help with preparation -- for all the sections, including writing:
SAT Preparation at CollegeBoard.com

Take advantage! And let me know if you have questions or want me to read over any practice essays. writeacher@hotmail.com

Confusing contractions!

... and in addition to the problem of writing/recognizing/fixing fragments, plenty of students are forgetting what their teachers taught them in second grade - the spelling and usage rules regarding contractions and related homonyms. Here are a few of the most misused, with correct words indicated:

it's = it is or it has
its = possessive form of it (The bird built its nest in our tree.)
(There is no such word as its' - for any reason!)

they're = they are
their = possessive form of they (The children piled their jackets in the corner.)
theirs = another possessive form of they (The red car is theirs.)
Notice that possessive pronouns have no apostrophes at all.
(The word there indicates a place or sometimes serves as an introductory word in a sentence.)

you're = you are
your = possessive form of you (Where are your gloves?)
yours = another possessive form of you (Is that notebook yours?)
Again, notice that there are no apostrophes at all in possessive pronouns.

So - what would you say about these?
he's
she'll
his
hers
What other possibly confusing contractions can you think of? There are certainly plenty of them out there!

And, finally, how do you make y'all possessive?! (LOL!)

Finding and fixing fragments

Once a student is pretty good at identifying the subjects and verbs in clauses and sentences, he or she should be quite well on the way to writing only in complete sentences. Should be! But we can't count on it! Students these days are surrounded by sentence fragments - in casual speech, on television (just listen to those news- and weather-forecasters - yikes!), everywhere!

If you notice that your child's writing grades have been slipping, this might be one thing to look for - and help him or her learn to find and fix any fragments before turning in written work.

Fragments are in bold:

Maria wasn't watching her plate of barbecue very carefully. Santana, the family beagle, snatched a chicken leg hanging over the edge. As baked beans and potato salad slid onto Maria's new sandals.

James opened the door of his cluttered refrigerator. Which caused a pint of blueberries to fall to the floor. The fruit bounced and rolled everywhere in an explosion of indigo.

Chewing the dry, tough, whole-grain bread bought from the health food store. Lorena tried to enjoy her lunch. Fantasizing about a juicy cheeseburger on a soft white bun didn't improve the taste of the soy product sandwiched between leaves of organic lettuce.

(from Grammar Bytes - Exercises)

If your child has been well trained to find the verbs and subjects in clauses and sentences (especially in his or her own writing assignments), then identifying each of those fragments should be easy. Each of those fragments above is missing at least one of the main elements of a complete sentence and/or has an introductory word indicating that the fragment can be fixed easily by simply attaching it to the sentence before or after it.

Questions? Write to me at writeacher@hotmail.com or post in the comments here.

Subjects and verbs

Often, students are given lessons in sentence structure, and if those lessons are to succeed, students need to understand the basics -- the subject and the verb. They need to be able to identify each and be able to recognize that the idea is a complete one; that is, students need to recognize whether the clause (all clauses have subject and verb) is independent (can be a sentence) or dependent (subordinate, not a complete sentence).

What I learned a long time ago is that it's easier for a student to identify the VERB first and then the subject. It's easier to identify the action (what's going on) in the sentence first, and then ask, "Who or what is doing this?"

Here are some sentences from a student's grammar exercise I saw recently:

Edgar Allan Poe lived a double life in many ways.
VERB = lived ~~>This is the active verb in the sentence; no other word indicates what someone can do.
SUBJECT = Edgar Allan Poe ~~>This is obviously who "lived..." in the sentence. Also, since this is his full name, all three words are being treated as one noun; therefore, his full name is the subject.

Poe was adopted by John Allan, a Richmond merchant, after the death of his itinerant actor parents.
VERB = was adopted ~~>This is a passive verb that is the sole action in the sentence.
SUBJECT = Poe ~~>This is the answer to the question, "Who 'was adopted'?"

Easy, huh?

The difficulty comes when students are dealing with linking verbs or even active or passive verbs which don't seem to have any action to them!

Try this:
Allan was enraged by his talented adopted son's lack of discipline.
VERB = was enraged ~~>It's the verb, including its auxiliary (helping) verb was, but it doesn't seem like an action. It isn't like run or jump or even write. The verbs think and read also seem to be non-action verbs, but they are!
SUBJECT = Allan ~~>Well, at least that's pretty obvious. He's the one who was enraged !

And then there are linking verbs. Most of the time, the linking verbs we use are these: am, are, is, was, were, have been, etc. - all some form of to be. These verbs link the subject to the word(s) after the verb; that is, the word(s) after the linking verb either describe or are the same as the subject.

My brother is a good fisherman.
The child was tall for his age.
Those people are late for the play.

But there are other verbs that can be considered linking verbs, depending on how they are used:

The play seems absurd.
The cast appears confused.

Identifying subjects and verbs can become automatic if students practice it, and if they use the ability in writing their sentences. Making sure every sentence or clause has a subject and verb is the first step toward writing good sentences.

Questions? Be sure to post them in the comments or email me at writeacher@hotmail.com.

Long time, no post!

Busy times, those holidays! It was hard to keep up with activities, much less find time to blog about anything!

One thing that I've kept up with, though, is The English Teacher Blog on enotes.com. Carla posts lots of interesting items, including this one about the Education Podcast Network and many others. They are all good reads.

Another excellent source of information I discovered is on Power Line today: The Atlantic Monthly has opened its files and archives up to all of us, and there's some great stuff in there. Check it out.

Errors? Non-errors?

If you haven't found this blog yet, be sure you read through it, enjoy it, and add it to your favorites: The English Teacher Blog at enotes.com. Today's post about non-errors is terrific. Be sure to share this with your kids, especially those in intermediate or high school who may have picky or pedantic grammarians for their English teachers.

So, you're asking, what should my student do -- go with his teacher's marks on his paper or insist on his own voice? Well, while in school, a student needs to follow his teacher's directions. No way around that! The fortunate thing is that, throughout junior high, high school, and college, a student will take English courses (composition, literature, speech, etc.) from many different teachers, and from each one, the student will learn new things. Eventually all this will meld into the student's own writing style, hopefully with élan.

Just, please, don't follow the bad examples of TV news and weather people!

Writing that college application essay

Just about every college or university application these days requires the student to write an essay. The whole point of these essays is for the student to make himself or herself come alive - be an individual - in the mind of whoever reads it. One thing to avoid is repeating information the admissions committee already has - grades on the transcript, test scores, application information, etc.

The first thing to be careful about is to follow the specific directions on each application. Some schools ask applicants to write a biographical sketch (pretty broad topic!), while others ask specific questions and expect responses that address those questions. Follow those directions explicitly! Anything off-topic indicates to the admissions committee for that school that the student cannot (or will not) follow directions.

There are many places online to get help writing that college app essay. One of the best places, of course, is at The College Board's website: http://www.collegeboard.com/. Just click on For Students (at the left) and then, a little right of center on the next screen, click on College Essays in the Apply to College section. The Dos and Don'ts on their College Essay Writing Tips webpage are excellent.

Other places to get help can be found by going to http://www.google.com/ (or any other search engine) and searching for college application essay or college admission essay. Just be wary of any that promise to write it for you or that want to charge you for entering their site, "mentoring" you, or proofing/editing your essay.

And then there's this from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/16/AR2007101600543.html?hpid=news-col-blog
What an excellent collection of don'ts from this writer!

If anyone out there is writing a college app essay and wants input or feedback, just let me know. Email me at writeacher@hotmail.com.