Boom Cards for Punctuation and Grammar Review

Digital resources are becoming more popular as schools go paperless, and one of the best platforms is Boom Learning. I've begun making decks of digital task cards for my students, and they are not only engaging for the students (and a nice break from exercises or worksheets), but they are self-grading, so you don't have to do anything. I use them for my older students as a way to review grammar and punctuation at their own pace on their own time. The Boom membership is free to start with options for upgrades. You can purchase decks from other teachers (like me!) or you can create your own for your students. All in all, it's a great paperless tool for you and your students. 

Here are some examples from a few of my decks. Click on the pictures for a preview.

Verbals: Participle, Gerund, and Infinitive identification and how they function in a sentence.

Commonly Confused Words:  Pick the correct word in context.

Commas:  Drag and drop commas where necessary.

Fun, paperless, and self-grading. What more could you ask for?

Split Infinitives - To Teach or Not to Teach?

I vote "Teach" despite the fact it is not always wrong to split an infinitive.

Infinitives are an important part of English grammar. In fact, they are included in the common core standards for 8th grade Language, so although most grammarians nowadays will say to go ahead and split the infinitive, students should still understand the concept and decide when to split and when not to split (see what I did there?)

First, a refresher: the infinitive is the word "to" plus the verb.  For example, "to love." Splitting the infinitive means to put a modifier between "to" and the verb "love." For example: "to only love" instead of "only to love" or "to love only."

I recently heard a famous forensic linguist (I missed my calling in life!) say that the root of the rule for not splitting infinitives is illogical: In Latin, infinitives cannot be split because they are one word, so it followed that English infinitives should also not be split. He said, then, go ahead and ignore the rule because it makes no sense and we split infinitives all the time and are clearly understood.

He is correct on the second point (the first point - the origin of the rule - is in dispute), but I would say the rule must not be ignored, but understood and then applied or not according to the situation.

Most infinitives can be split and sound perfectly natural; in fact, sometimes it is necessary to avoid awkwardness or changing the meaning of the sentence.

For example, in the sentence "The farmer expects her crop to almost triple next season," the split is necessary because the modifier "almost" can't go anywhere else in the sentence and make sense or not sound awkward.

In addition, take our previous example of the infinitive "to love" and the modifier "only." Moving the word "only" around changes the meaning of the sentence:

Claire wants to only love you.

Claire wants only to love you.

Claire wants to love you only.

The three sentences have different meanings depending on the shade Claire's intentions, and the first requires a split infinitive.

So that leaves the question of whether we should teach students to avoid splitting infinitives when the meaning of the sentence is not affected.

For example:

Split:  "The coach expected us to quickly learn the drill."

Not split:  "The coach expected us to learn the drill quickly."

I make my students aware of the rule and call it a "best practice," as it sounds better "to the educated ear," as some grammarians put it, but I do not generally correct or mark a split infinitive if it's working well in the sentence. If there is a problem with a split infinitive, it is far easier to explain if they know the grammar and reasoning behind it.

Although you can avoid correcting split infinitives in students' work when it does not affect clarity, it is worth teaching what it is and how to make a conscious choice about its use to avoid a misplaced modifier or an awkward sentence.

In addition, on a purely practical level, if you are teaching for common core assessments on verbals, it is helpful for students who are asked to identify an infinitive to understand that it can be separated with modifiers.

Success Writing Prompts - Four Rhetorical Strategies

There are a lot of good writing prompts out there that ask for an opinion, but there are few that ask for rhetorical strategies beyond that. I created this product to help students practice writing with different methods - expository, narrative, persuasive, and research-based. Each prompt has a quote from a famous person on an aspect of success, and then a writing prompt that promotes critical thinking. Students write in the mode specified at the top of the page. There are ten for each strategy.

I also created this product in three versions for maximum flexibility: print, digital (for Google Drive and MS One Drive), and a Power Point presentation. Whether you want to hand out copies for students to write on, have students write on the computer, or project a slide and have students use their own paper, you're covered. Click on the picture above or here to get to the product preview.

Pay for Grades?

Should kids get paid for good grades? As a parent, I did not offer any incentive for good grades, other than a trip out for ice cream on report card day. It was part of an overall philosophy about kids learning to be responsible without a dangling carrot. Along the same line, I never paid for regular chores, either. Doing well in school and pushing back your fair share of the dirt was just a basic expectation. This seemed to work, and I patted myself on the parental back.

Then along came some life experiences where I realized that my kids were a certain personality type that worked well with this kind of parenting. They had internal motivation to excel. I never had to remind them to do their homework, let alone nag, or come to the point where I considered offering incentives. Enter the life experience. What to do with students who lack the internal motivation? What to do with students who can't be encouraged or cajoled into doing their homework? What to do with students who didn't even care if they graduated from high school?

I started to read and study about motivation and incentives. The research is all over the place, and sometimes contradictory. Consider the different studies over the years cited by the good folks at Freakonomics. One study showed a program administered by a school offering cash and incentives for improved grades at the end of each term was marginally successful, at best. With only external motivations, and lacking intristic motivation, the incentives mostly failed. Another study showed that immediate gratification improved test scores. Dangle a $20.00 bill for a good test score, and scores improve. Better yet, tell the students they have $20.00, which will be taken away if they don't score well, and the improvement is even better.

The question remains, then, whether these immediate incentives pay off in the long run, or whether they damage the internal motivation. Many studies I've read, not related to grades, show that generally, when people think they are doing something to help someone else they perform better and complete the task more often than if they are receiving a cash reward.  I believe this, and I tend to think cash motivation for grades do more harm than good, for most kids, including the risk of creating a feeling of entitlement. I have learned, however, that one philosophy does not fit all. For students who lack the internal motivation, it might serve them best to offer the carrots to make some progress.

This is an interesting discussion to have with your students. I'm always curious to know what other parents do, and to compare and contrast how my students are motivated. When I've used this topic in my classes, I'm always surprised how much self-knowledge even younger students have about what makes them successful (or not).  I'm curious to know what you think, too. Do you reward your own kids for good grades? How about the students in your classroom? What works?

I've put together a packet with a pro and con article on this topic at the fifth through seventh grade reading level (Lexile leveled) if you think this would be of interest to your students.  It has plenty of options for classwork, group work, and writing assignments.

MLA 8th Edition Resources

Here's a little video I made to show some of my MLA resources. If you have to teach MLA formatting and citations, either from scratch or just the 8th edition updates, these products will save you a lot of time and make it easy for the students. Click here to see my resources: http://bit.ly/MLAResources

Top Wishlist Items and Teacher Appreciation Sale

These are my top three wish listed items from my Teachers Pay Teachers store. If you have one of these on your list, or any of my other products, Tuesday and Wednesday are the time to buy! My whole store is 20% off, including bundles, and Teachers Pay Teachers will take off another 10% with the code CELEBRATE. Get a few great products in your cache for the end of the year, or get ready for next year at big savings!

Happy Shopping!

Free Back-to-School Resources and Tips ELA Ebook

This ebook is jam-packed with tips and free resources from Teachers Pay Teachers teacher-authors. You can download it for free by clicking here.

Here's my page, which is just one of 45. Each page has a tip, a free download, and a featured product. Thanks to Tracee Orman for putting this together!

Opinion Reading and Writing - Improving Critical Thinking Skills

In teaching remedial composition to college students, one misconception that I am constantly correcting is that academic research papers should not have an opinion. Au contraire. Any paper worth its salt is presenting and defending an argument which, of course, is an opinion.

At first, I was surprised at this misconception, and chalked it up to simply lack of exposure to this kind of reading. After more experience, however, I found it's more complicated than that, and a large part of it is in the semantics.

First, when students are learning to write in the early years, they are encouraged to preface opinions with "I think," "I feel," and "In my opinion" phrases. This is important in the process when students are learning to distinguish between fact and opinion. As writing becomes more sophisticated in middle and high school, however, these phrases are eliminated, making statements of opinion less obvious.

The second issue is how students define the word "opinion." Often, they think if a statement is labeled an "opinion" it is something that can't be proven or disproven by facts, such as which is the best restaurant in town. More advanced critical thinking, of course, quickly shows that even solid facts and research rarely conclusively prove anything. Many opinions on the same issue can be supported by facts.

The later elementary grades are a good time to explore these critical thinking skills. My favorite way to facilitate this is to have students do a close reading of two short opinion pieces that are research and fact based, one pro and one con. This helps clarify that different authors reach different conclusions about the same issues, even though the authors are privy to the same facts.  I like to have the students answer questions about each article, learn the critical vocabulary, and then bring it all together by deciding which author they agree with. Group work and class discussions further promote the skills.

To take it one step further, it's helpful to introduce a writing project in the form of a short five-paragraph essay. With this early introduction, students are on their way to developing the critical thinking skills that will serve them all the way through high school, college and beyond.

I've put together some packets that go through the process I described above. These are common-core based, with challenging reading for fourth and fifth grade (in the Lexile stretch bands) and at grade level for sixth and seventh grade.

Tips for Teaching Grammar When You're not Supposed to be Teaching Grammar

The composition class I have been teaching for years is supposed to be all about research, critical thinking, and honing argumentative writing techniques. The students, allegedly, have already mastered basic grammar and writing skills. After the diagnostic essays on the first day, however, the same story emerges: the grammar mastery is shaky at best, and non-existent at worst. Over time, the topics that need the most review have held steady, and my teaching has evolved to meet this need.

Most of my students have gaps in their early education, or are returning to school after many years, so I am not so concerned that every student knows what a dangling whoseewhatsit is, but they need to review or be taught some basics in order to begin to present a coherent argument. The rest of it can be taken care of through critiques on their rough drafts.  Through trial and error, and ultimately modest success, here are my best tips for teaching grammar when the class is supposed to be at the next level:

1. Couch everything as a "review" since you will have students for whom it is, indeed, review.

2. Even though it's a "review," start with the basic rules and don't assume previous knowledge.

3. Keep the terminology as basic as possible.

4. Start with a review of the parts of speech. I use a cooperative game for this one, and call it an "English Class Ice-Breaker," rather than a formal lesson.

5. Teach sentence fragments and clauses first, then move on to run-on sentences. These two items are the crux of most of the issues, and writing improves significantly with these two errors corrected.

6. Keep the lessons short and to the point. I use a short power point, handouts with the explanations they can study at home, and self-check practice quizzes.

7. Check for understanding with a self-check quiz. Offer to meet with the students who need more help or provide more resources. I often send students to interactive websites for practice.  My current favorite is chompchomp.com.

8. Have students keep an "error journal" where they keep track of where they are making mistakes on their rough drafts. This will help them be self-aware and hopefully, self-correcting.

9. Do short writing exercises to practice the skills your class is really about, but each time, give special emphasis to one point of grammar and grade accordingly.

I would love some feedback on how you teach grammar in the classroom under similar circumstances.

If you'd like to use my resources, which include power points, worksheets, handouts, games, quizzes, and two comprehensive assessments, I've put them altogether in a money-saving bundle. These are what I use each quarter in my class. I hope you find them useful.

Free Resources for Secondary Teachers

I am happy to say that my free Thesis Worksheet resource is now available. Brain Waves Instruction, Literary Sherri, and Getting Nerdy with Mel and Gerdy have compiled three free ebooks full of ready-to-print resources for secondary sellers. There are three ebooks, one for ELA, one for math and science, and one for humanities. My resource is included in the  ELA book, plus there is a link to it in my store at the bottom of this post. Each book contains 25 resources, plus a little bit about each seller and the kinds of resources he or she offers. Check them out here:

Here is a link to my resource that you can download for free in my store:

Figurative Language Posters

When teaching figurative language to students, I find a visual really helps them get the concept. I asked my artist daughter to help me make some posters that would be fun and memorable. Here they are for you to use in your classroom. This free set includes metaphor, simile, alliteration, oxymoron, and personification. Click here or on one of the images to download the posters.

If you like these and want more, I have a set for $4.50 that also includes hyperbole, allusion, onomatopoeia, metonymy, and euphemism. This set also includes the illustrations without the titles so you can use them for a quiz or review for your students. You can find the set of 20 posters here.

SQ3R Note Taking Method Handouts

Here is a an SQ3R (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review) handout and worksheet to help students with effective note-taking and recall. This is a proven method that's worked well in my classroom. It's especially helpful to keep students on task when there is a significant chunk of reading. Having a structure and a plan for studying helps students feel less overwhelmed. Click here or on the picture to download an explanatory handout and the SQ3R template.

Free Valentine Limerick Activity

Have a little fun on Valentine's Day, while at the same time, reinforcing parts of speech, poetic form and syllables with this "Mad Libs" style activity. This activity seems like it would be best for kids, but I've used it successfully with teenagers and young adults as well. It's fun all the way around, and especially educational if you are involved in a poetry unit. Click here or on the photo to download.

Writing Thesis Statements

Writing thesis statements strikes fear into many students' hearts. I have developed a way of getting from a broad topic to a thesis statement that makes it much easier.

First, they think of a broad topic they would like to use and write it down. Then, I ask them to come up with as many questions about the topic as they can think of. When that's done, they do some preliminary research or freewriting to come up with an answer to that question. That answer then becomes the controlling idea, and the thesis comes from that.

For example, if my topic is texting and driving, one of my questions is "Is it really that dangerous?" I find out from research that reaction times are similar to drinking and driving. So my thesis statement is my topic, plus my controlling idea and opinion: Texting and driving is as dangerous as drinking and driving, so the penalties should be the same.

I put this idea with a worksheet, along with everything else I use for helping students write good thesis statements (handouts and worksheets, plus a power point) in this new packet. It's in my teacherspayteachers store for only $3.00. Happy writing!

The Glass Castle in the classroom

One of the reasons I'm a teacher:
I assigned The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls to my Humanities class. A 55-year-old man in my class admitted to me that he'd never read a whole book in his entire life. He'd faked it through school. I encouraged him to give it a try, that he could do it. I promised him he would love it. I crossed my fingers and encouraged, encouraged, encouraged. He did it, he loved it, and still, he contacts me occasionally to tell me how proud he was of his accomplishment and how much he loved that class.

I teach school year-round, so we're headed into the last few weeks of a quarter. In one class, we're wrapping up our study on The Glass Castle. It's an unconventional choice for a novel study, because it's a memoir, not a novel, but as the students turn in their final essays and give their oral presentations, I'm reminded why I choose this book for my classroom, and that my former student's experience with the book isn't all that unique.

First, I've never had a student, out of many hundreds, who has not enjoyed the book, or at least could relate to it in some way. Many of my students don't like to read, or don't think they can get through a book, just like my former student. The teenagers like it just as well as he did. It matters to me that my students like what we read, because more will actually read it, and I want them to have a good experience. I think back to my days studying literature, and how excruciating it was to write papers and give presentations on something I hated.

Second, it's well written, and functions as a novel for study purposes. There are plenty of themes, symbolism, plot, round characters and everything else you would want from a good novel. The fact that it is true adds another level that the students appreciate. The most popular presentation choice is finding out where the characters are now and what they are doing.

Finally, I never get tired of teaching it. Since the students engage with it and are excited to talk about it, I always find something new. Students tend to relate the things that happened in Jeannette Walls' life to their own in incredible ways. I've taught some books once and haven't been able to stomach the thought of spending another quarter with them.

The Glass Castle is best for high school and up, due to some mature themes (there is nothing gratuitous or graphic).

I put my Glass Castle unit up on Teachers Pay Teachers, in case you decide to teach it in your class and don't want to start from scratch. It has evolved over four years, and is exactly what I use in my classroom.