Vikram - Voyager Course 2017

Jeff Anderson Writing PD

Jeff Anderson

When Reading and Writing Collide: Teaching Grammar and Editing Effectively

Friday 14th July 2017

Grammar is there to make writing better.

Ways to ruin writing

• Flood lessons with unnecessary, abstract terminology.

Instead- show what conventions do for readers and writers.

• Take a right-or-wrong stance. (Correcting is not teaching). If there’s only one answer, it's a worksheet.

Instead- show how conventions activate meaning.

Grammar is reading and writing crashing together, making meaning.

• Talk
• Grammar
• Craft
• Effect
• Meaning
• Composition
• Comprehension.
• 
• Focus on product over process

Instead- Teach the writer, not the writing. (Give them patterns of power.)

Patterns of power process.

Make a plan:

• Select a standard.
• Dig into the craft (the author’s craft) and function of the convention (what it does).
• Consider what the learners actually need to know.
• Create a focus phrase.

Eg:

Standard - Capaitalise days of the week and months.

What do capital letters do? ( what do your eyes do when you come across a capital letter in the middle of a sentence? - it gives a word emphasis. It makes a word standout.) Goal- I only use capital letters for a reason!

Terms to know- capitalise, days, week.

Author's purpose - why?

Author's craft - how?

What do capital letters do for writers and readers? (Function)

Create a focus phase:

• Concise and manageable
• Written in student-friendly language
• Based on a clearly defined goal (Use I to focus the student and give ownership). Or (Writers use…) interchange between writers use and I use.

Eg: I capitalise days and months.   Writers capitalise days and months.

Into the classroom:

What do you notice?

Eg: On Saturday, D.W. went out to eat.

Full stop at end of sentence…

• What do you see?
• What do you already know?
• Is there anything you're Wondering about?
• What else?

What is the comma doing when you read the sentence aloud? What is the comma doing when you just read it with your eyes?

Mistakes are sign of growth

When you struggle- that's your brain growing!

Commas, periods, capital letters - all have a function, all have meaning.

Compare and contrast

How are they alike and different? Create another sentence that models the skill from the first sentence.

On Saturday, D.W. and her family went out to eat.

On Monday nights, my mum goes bowling.

Use a standard: Author’s craft and purpose.

What do serial commas (commas in lists) do for readers and writers? (Function)

• I use commas to seperate three or more items in a series.

RAS (reticular activated system)

Acts as a filter. You consciously see it everywhere.  With commas etc, students will start to become consciously aware of them and will start to see them everywhere.

Compare and contrast

Practical application: Trying it out.

Imitate

• Shared - teacher writes what they hear from the kids
• Interactive - kids add to the writing (add the comma, full stop etc)
• Paired - try it out with a partner
• Individual

Eg: Christmas sounds like happiness, singing, and the jingle of sleigh bells.

Let’s celebrate

What is celebrated gets repeated.

Read the sentence aloud twice because you hear more the second time. First time you hear the ideas, second time you hear the structure and the ideas.

Micro workshop

• Draft ideas
• Get feedback
• Edit
• Recraft

Quick Edit

Have the student read their writing aloud - only the words on the page,  or the words they would fill in if corrected.

• I read my writing twice, so my reader only has to read it once.
• Highlight correct use of focus skill
• Make changes as needed
• Read one more time

Respond

Collect

Collect beautiful sentences, then sentences with serial commas, then closes etc

Write

Rapid Revision

• Reread my writing twice
• Look for phrases to use the convention to make my writing clearer for my reader.
• Make change(s). Reread my writing, making sure it makes sense.

Subjunctive mood: (in the below sentence, the use of were instead is was is subjunctive mood).

• Contrary to fact
• Wish
• Fantasy
•