Here’s the deal – there is no easy way to teach grammar. Ask any English teacher across the United States and you might find a handful that would disagree. I learned this the hard way this past week when I realized that my formal grammar education was lacking. SO, on the way to a Houston Texans game I taught myself (with the assistance of BRP) gerunds, infinitives, participles, auxiliary verbs, linking verbs, action verbs. I think he was astonished that I was teaching myself what I had to teach to my kids the next day. I struggled. So did they. I had a bad attitude all week, cussing grammar publicly to my colleagues. I hate not being good at things, but I learned from my mistakes this week and now it’s time to move on.
There may not be an easy way to teach grammar, but there are most certainly fun ways to teach it. On their third day of high school, my emotionally fragile and petrified freshmen were in for the surprise of their lives. The lesson for the day – how to stop a run-on from running on. Now, if you do the math, by this point they had spent a grand total of 100 minutes with me, so imagine their looks of shock and horror when they show up to class on Wednesday and a man they barely know is wearing a t-shirt, athletic shorts, bright yellow sweatband, and purple-striped tube socks. Not only this, but he commits to running in place throughout the entire period until someone stops him. How, you ask?
Well, Randy Run-On can’t stop running so he needs some water, of course! I cleverly labeled three bottles of water corresponding with the three ways to stop a run-on (semicolon, comma & coordinating conjunction, semicolon + conjunctive adverb + comma) and when the time came to discuss them, would sprint to a student that I had randomly given a bottle to on their way in the door and shout something cheesy like, “Oh great! It’s a semicolon!” before downing about half the bottle in dramatic fashion. I’m pretty sure that at one point I heard “Oh no” from one of the students that I had given a bottle to when I started running towards them. It was a great lesson and I plan on using it again next year to break the new fishies in.
I had to pee a lot that day.
THAT IS AWESOME! And that is why you will be a spectacular teacher and your students will NEVER you, run-ons, or the purple striped tube socks!
You rock, Kahlub, you rock!
Makes me want to be a fishy again…okay, maybe not, but you get the idea.
Oh, and I just HAD to add, as the teacher of such grammar nonsense, that yes, indeed, it DOES SUCK!
Pfsh…grammar, who needs it?
Oops, in my first comment, I meant to say “that is why your students will never FORGET you…”
Seriously, after this week, I’m now a pro; however, it has come at the price of my sanity.
Good thing I work with people who balance me out.