ENGLISH 478 Lauri Dietz

Week 3

Seven Principles of Learning

2. 3. 4. 5. 6. How students organize knowledge influences how they learn and apply what they know. Students motivation determines, directs, and sustains what they do to learn. To develop mastery, students must acquire component skills, practice integrating them, and know when to apply what they have learned. Goal-directed practice coupled with targeted feedback enhances the quality of students learning. Students current level of development interacts with the social, emotional, and intellectual climate of the course to impact learning. To become self-directed learners, students must learn to monitor and adjust their approaches to learning.

7.

CAT #2: Focused Listing

In small groups, you will be assigned one of the seven principles of learning. Work together to generate a list of key concepts, ideas, strategies, and practices from the readings that relate to your assigned principle of learning. Goal: To understand how we can apply the seven principles of learning to teaching grammar.

Key Takeaways for In-class Grammar Instruction

Be clear about your goals for teaching grammar. Teaching and learning happen best when teachers and students have regular specific and comprehensible feedback. Help students understand the differences between rules, style, and preferences based on specific contexts and audiences. Teaching formal grammar only helps relatively skilled writers and can have a harmful effect on improving student writing. Native speakers have an internalized, preconscious knowledge of grammar and we should connect grammar instruction to what they already know. Sentence-combing is one of the best strategies for improving the quality of student writing. Reading aloud to peers can help many writers self-identify and self-correct errors and make better style/rhetorical choices. Grammar instruction works best when integrated into writing instruction.

Key Takeaways for Commenting about Grammar on Student Writing

Build in multiple drafts into the writing process. Do not appropriate students writing; instead, give students revision-oriented feedback in line with your learning goals. Comments should be text-specific. Teachers should respond as readers. Identify patterns of error. Help students understand why something is an error. Give students options for correcting an error. Point out what students are doing well and, whenever possible, use their writing to model best practices. Be careful not to send conflicting messages about revision. Recognize when an error may be evidence of cognitive difficulty.

Results of Week One Background Knowledge Probe

My sister and me can eat an entire pizza in one sitting. (20/20) Comments to make Sommers and Bean proud: If you remove [my sister] the sentence should still be complete. You would say I can eat not me can. What would you say if just you were eating the pizza?

Pronouns
A pronoun takes the place of a nominal: a noun, noun phrase, or noun clause (EG 143-144). 3 Types: 1. Subjective Case: When a pronoun is the subject of a clause. (I, he, she, they, etc.) 2. Objective Case: When a pronoun functions as an object (direct object, indirect object, object complement, or object of a preposition. (me, him, her, us, etc.) 3. Possessive Case: When a pronoun is used to modify a noun or to show ownership of another noun. (my, his, her, its, etc.)

Practice!
Between you and I this situation is going to get worse before it gets better. In pairs, work together to: Identify and explain the reason for the pronoun error. Provide at least two different options for solving the pronoun error.

Results of Week One Background Knowledge Probe

I think the referee should of called that a catch. (20/20) Comments to make Sommers and Bean proud: Have is necessary to make sure the sentence is in the past tense. Yes, I agree. However, lets keep in mind that how words sound differ from what we write. Instead of should of, what should we say?

Auxiliaries or Helping Verbs

An auxiliary verb is used with a principal verb to form a verb phrase that indicates mood, tense, or voice (CMS 5.101). Modals: Convey the probability, possibility, obligation, or other mood of the main verb. Use when the action of the verb did not actually occur. (will, shall, can, could, should, would, may, might, must) Have: Exists in two structures as an auxiliary:
Present Perfect (has/have + past participle): Denotes an act, state, or condition that is now completed or continues up to the present (CMS 5.126). Past Perfect (had + past participle): Refers to an act, state, or condition that was completed before another specified or implicit past time or past action (CMS 5.127)

Practice!
I had played video games for the last eighteen hours and am ready for a bathroom break. In pairs, work together to: Identify and explain the reason for the auxiliary error. Provide at least two different options for solving the auxiliary error.

Results of Week One Background Knowledge Probe

If it wouldnt have cost so much, I would have bought Call of Duty: Black Ops too. (10/20)

However, nine of you said the error was omitting a comma before too. According to the Q&A section of the CMS: In most cases, commas with a short adverb are unnecessary. Use commas with too only when you want to emphasize an abrupt change of thought.

Conditionals and If Clauses

From Keith s. Folses Keys to Teaching Grammar to English Language Learners: A Practical Handbook. (Ann Arbor, MI: U of Michigan Press) 2009.

Four types of conditional sentences: 1. Facts or situations that are always true.
Condition (present or past) If + simple present/past tense Result (present or past) Simple present/past tense

If the light is green,

cars go.

Conditionals and If Clauses

2. An action that is likely to happen.
Condition (future time) If + simple present/present progressive/present perfect/present perfect progressive If it has snowed, Result (future time) Future tense

I will still wear my heels.

Conditionals and If Clauses

3. Something that is not true or not possible.
Condition (present or future time) Result (present or future time)

If + simple past (subjunctive)/past progressive

*Use were for all persons with the verb to be. If I were you,

Would + verb

I would tell him how I feel.

Conditionals and If Clauses

4. An action that did not happen.
Condition (past time) If + past perfect/past perfect progressive Result (past time) Modal + have + past participle (conditional perfect)

If it had not cost so much,

I would have bought Call of Duty: Black Ops too.

Note: In mixed sentences, the verb follows the rules for the time of the condition and the time of the result.

Practice!
If I have a million dollars, Id buy you a Kcar. In pairs, work together to: Identify and explain the reason for the if clause error. Provide at least two different options for solving the if clause error.

Results of Week One Background Knowledge Probe

My first job was as a babysitter, I love working with children. (18/20) Comments to make Sommers and Bean proud: These are two complete thoughts. What do you need to add in order to link the two thoughts properly? Two complete thoughts are two separate sentences that require a semicolon or a period. I would have the student label all the parts of both sentences to show that they are 2 independent clauses. I would ask them what punctuation is necessary in this situation.

Independent vs. Subordinate Clauses

Clause = Subject + Predicate Independent Clause: a clause that can stand on its own as a sentence.

Subordinate or Dependent Clause: a clause that fills a role in a sentence (such as adverbial, adjectival, or nominal) and that cannot stand independently as a sentence.

She ran until she could run no more.

Practice!
People really do judge one another according to their use of language. Constantly. In pairs, work together to: Identify and explain the reason for the independent/dependent clause error. Provide at least two different options for solving the independent/dependent clause error.

Results of Week One Background Knowledge Probe

The highlight of my trip was watching sunset on the Serengeti. Recommendations: Add a or the before sunset Change sunset to sunsets Change sunset to sun set. Turn sunset on the Serengeti into a movie title: Sunset on the Serengeti.