Colon and Semi-colon

Step 1: Engage and Explore
I'm working with high school students. I will engage them with my dashing personality and awesome slide show art.

Step 2: Explain
I will explain how and when to use both the colon and semi-colon.

Step 3: Extend
I will extend the lesson by showing examples of how to use each and by explaining Kurt Vonnegut's dislike of semi-colons.

Step 4: Evaluate and E-Search

I will lead the class through two on-line quizzes:

http://www.grammardoc.110mb.com/colonquiz.html

http://www.grammardoc.110mb.com/semicolonquiz.html

In-Class, Oct. 30th: How to Write Abstract

Today, we will hear two mini lessons, and if there is still time left after this, we will compose our Abstracts (what goes in between the black lines of our template; the summary on top of your research essay) as far as we can. We will insert the missing data after Monday, Nov. 2nd, when we get our survey results in.

Task1: Go to this website and read about the four components of an abstract:

1) Motivation/problem statement: Why do we care about the problem? What practical, scientific, theoretical or artistic gap is your research filling?

2) Methods/procedure/approach: What did you actually do to get your results? (e.g. analyzed 3 novels, completed a series of 5 oil paintings, interviewed 17 students)

3) Results/findings/product: As a result of completing the above procedure, what did you learn/invent/create?

4) Conclusion/implications: What are the larger implications of your findings, especially for the problem/gap identified in step 1?

Also read the many example abstracts for different fields (social studies, humanities, biology, etc.) offered on this website. This is what your abstract is supposed to look like. Mind the word limit: 150-200 words!

Task 2: Then, compose an abstract for your own research essay, leaving the parts blank that you don't know yet (the exact results).

Have your paper with you (in electronic format; in an email, or on a memory stick or CD) on Monday, because we will complete the results section in an in-class workshop! That means, bring your template with your complete, peer-edited Literature Review, with your Annotated Bibliography, and your xls file with your three "fake" graphs that we are finalizing in class on Monday. Also, if you have a chargeable ID card, put some money on it, so you can print out your Surveymonkey pdf report sheet in class. You can also print it out at home later; everyone needs a print-out, because you will submit it as evidence in the Annex of your Research Paper when you hand it in.

It is easier to work with the results if you have a print-out and don't need to switch back and forth between different windows on your screen ;-)

access/excess, accept/except, affect/effect

Engage: I will be presenting 3 notorious grammar confusables. access/excess, accept/except, affect/effect.

Explore/explain/extend: I will present a powerpoint and show the difference in meaning. I will show an example sentence using the word appropriately. I will also show more ways to determine affect/effect. affect/effect is one of the most common grammar confusables. I will then go over a couple final examples and have a volunteer choose the correct answer.

Evaluate/E-online: I will first go over a couple extra access/excess questions to begin the quiz portion. The online quiz does not include it. Last is the online quiz that I found to give the class: Link

Pronoun Case

Step 1: Engage and Explore
I will engage my students by introducing the subject through a game of hangman and then explore pronoun case.

Step 2: Explain
I will explain the different types of pronoun case and when and how to use them.

Step 3: Extend
To extend the lesson, I will show some tricks to producing the correct case and then do several samples of case as a class.

Step 4: Evaluate and E-Search
I will evaluate the class by giving them a short online quiz which is also my e-search. http://www.towson.edu/ows/exerciseprocase.htm

In-Class, Oct. 14: Test-Taking of Surveys + Lit Review

1) Our first activity today is to test-take a survey and grade it with the Survey Grading Rubric.
Click on the survey below your name on the list, have a piece of paper and a pen ready, and note down every button that does not work, every option that is missing, every spelling mistake, every wrong deadline or header, etc.!

Then, you are going to give the author of the survey you took WRITTEN feedback (by email; cc to your instructor for grading) of all the mistakes you found in the survey, and all the suggestions/additions you might have. You will also assign a grade and email the author (cc to me) the grading rubric (in the same email, as attachment).

Each student takes the survey of the person below his/her own name on our list on the blog below. The last person on the list takes the first person's survey. This way, every student will receive ONE peer-edit.

For those students who have missed classes: check my grade book for how many unexcused classes you have missed. I give you the unique opportunity of earning up to 3 extra credits to make up for 3 missed days by taking an extra survey per day, and by sending the corrective email and the grading rubric to the author of that survey. You MUST put in your email (in cc to me) that you did it for EXTRA CREDIT; otherwise, I will assume that it is for the mandatory one you did.

2) When you are done test-taking the survey, you can start on your Literature Review.

Basically, you will need the three research articles you have chosen, and which you brought to class today as print-outs, with the quotes underlined which you might want to use in your paper.

The Literature Review is a major component of your research essay and talks about the status quo of current research about your topic - its achievement as well as its shortcomings, which you are trying to fill by adding your own research.

It is a SYNTHESIS of your 3 external sources, not a SUMMARY. Merge, contrast, and compare your sources to one another, and find their shortcomings that you are going to fill with your own research.

You will need meaningful TRANSITIONS between your paragraphs. Don't talk about the first source in the first paragraph, then glue a second paragraph under it talking about the second source, and so on... You need to compare/contrast your sources, and find similarities and differences!

Read the following description of what a literature review is intended for, and of what components it consists.

You can choose whether you want to cite in APA or MLA, but be consistent! On this site, you will find a link to the APA style manual which helps you create the citations for your Lit Review in APA. On this link, you will find a link that helps you to create citations in MLA.

Remember these rules:

• Quotes that are under 4 lines go in your text flow and have quotation marks, and you indicate your source in parentheses: (Miller 2008, 59).
• Quotes that are 4 lines and over are indented, have NO quotation marks, and also have the source indication in parentheses. (See example text below.)

Then, create your own Literature Review, and type it into a blank Word document. Due date for the finished Lit Review is Monday, Oct. 19th, at class time, as an email to your instructor.

LENGTH REQUIREMENT:

Below is a sample of a Literature Review in APA style which I wrote for an education course:

(This is also the minimum length yours should be; you have 3 external sources, so you need to write 2-3 pages (double-spaced; we'll single-space after our peer editing session to achieve the required format.)
_______________________________________________________

A C.A.L.L. for Fresh Wind in Grammar Teaching: Computer Assisted Language Learning as Best Practice for Literacy Education

Literature Review

Who wants to learn grammar? Let’s put it another way: who wants to teach it? Given that this highly analytical topic with its morphology, etymology, and diagramming is one of the most unpopular curriculum components in English language arts both in the conception of students and teachers, there must be a best practice to convey it in an agreeable, content-immersed manner proper for our computer age. We notice that students in middle and high schools have a more and more limited knowledge of technical terms such as genitive or accusative, but skills in information technology exceeding those of the teachers. Instead of bemoaning the status quo, we should readily address those skills, for in 2012, technological literacy will become part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), or the Nation's Report Card, which means that in addition to reading, writing, math, science, history, etc., the technology literacy of students will be measured nationwide.

This important milestone in educational history justifies a more intense integration of information technology into the classrooms, exposing students and teachers alike to new software products and corresponding skills. Why not try it in grammar teaching? It can be argued that instead of drilling the technicalities of Greek and Roman grammar – a language the modern student does not understand – it might make more sense for teachers to use an alternative approach to teaching grammar, such as by imitation strategy, conveying it in the form of computer-assisted instruction in order to address the needs of the modern student.

More and more constructivist teachers change their methodologies by addressing their tech-savvy young audiences in a motivating way. According to Dexter and Anderson (1999), teachers make use of computer technology along a continuum of instructional styles ranging from instruction to construction, exposing their students to either drill and practice, with computer technology as complementation, or, respectively, to active work for knowledge-building, with computers as a tool (Dexter & Anderson 1999, p. 2). They purport that teachers are not only constant decision-makers, but also learners who have to go with the change in the “nowness” of instruction, and reflect upon their own effectiveness to make their teaching fit modern standards (Dexter & Anderson, 1999, 2).

In their study about teachers’ use of computers in their instruction, and their perception of the changes thus introduced in existent classroom practices, Dexter and Anderson quote one teacher who exemplifies the general attitude of all teachers interviewed by stating that computers are not driving, but facilitating the changes she makes: “It is not like there is a written curriculum for the computer. We kind of put it together as we go along based on the needs of the students. Like I said, we try and connect it as much as possible to what is happening in the classroom.” (Dexter & Anderson, 1999, p. 9)

Putting it together according to the needs of the students is also the aim of the present study about teaching grammar courses by using computer-assisted language learning (C.A.L.L.) in the form of WebQuests, blogs, online survey builders, etc. There are, however, characteristics of C.A.L.L. that Dexter and colleague do not mention – the immanent dangers, such as limited on-task supervision, the proneness to use Internet lingo in academic settings, plagiarism, and the leaving-behind of students who are less fortunate than the excelling tech geeks, such as the case study of an Amish student who had just learned what a computer was, but not yet how to use its higher functions. Kuang-wu Lee (2000) analyzes in detail the barriers of C.A.L.L., namely the financial obstacles, the availability of soft- and hardware, the technical and theoretical knowledge, and the acceptance of the technology. Despite all those adversaries, Lee concludes that what matters is not the technology, but how we use it, and states that

[c]omputers can/will never substitute teachers but they offer new opportunities for better language practice. They may actually make the process of language learning significantly richer and play a key role in the reform of a country's educational system. The next generation of students will feel a lot more confident with information technology than we do. As a result, they will also be able to use the Internet to communicate more effectively, practice language skills more thoroughly and solve language learning problems more easily. (Lee, 2000, n.p.)

While Lee – who tackles the subject from the point of view of foreign language learning – discusses computer technology in general, Zheng and colleagues (2004) go more into detail by describing the perceptions of WebQuests by higher-education learners. After a definition of the role of WebQuests and quotes of what they ought not to be, such as “a panacea for all manner of educational ills,” and “merely worksheets with URLs” (quoted in Zheng et al., 2004, p. 41), the researchers mention the key features of WebQuests: a) critical thinking, b) knowledge application,c) social skills, d) scaffolded learning. Their survey of the perceptions of males and females of their WebQuest learning led to the results that males and females both have equal opportunities to learn from scaffolding (including the components of content comprehension, learning, and goal attainment) as embedded in WebQuests without any gender preferences, and can perform equally well in cooperative learning. Although the researchers stress the difference between the old construct of WebQuests focusing on knowledge application and critical thinking versus the new one of constructivist problem solving, they underline that there cannot be uniform standards for WebQuests established, since they display a wide range of quality and design (Zheng et al., 2004, p. 48).

The present study is going to analyze university students’ perception of their grammar learning through WebQuests and other computer-assisted functionalities, hopefully coming to some general statements where this C.A.L.L. in literacy will lead us in the future.

In-Class, Oct. 5: Online Grammar Survey

ONLINE GRAMMAR SURVEY

From now on, we will have your MINI LESSONS every FRIDAY (in the order of our list), and occupy ourselves with our term paper every MONDAY AND WEDNESDAY.

Today, we are laying the foundation for our big semester paper (either a research paper, or a newspaper/magazine article; your choice).

The paper will deal with grammar. The first steps are the same for ALL, regardless of whether you choose to do a research article or a newspaper report. You will sign up for a given topic at the end of this blog (multiple sign-ups per one topic are possible), or pick a topic of your own which I will approve before you start collecting data for your research.

STEPS:
1) establish data pool (through sending out of an online survey)
2) analyze the incoming data (after 2 weeks of collecting)
3) write paper about data, incorporating 3 outside sources

• those who write research paper: Your sources MUST be from peer-reviewed, published research articles from data bases such as JSTOR, ERIC, Google Scholar. You have to cite correctly in APA or MLA style, both in-text and in your References. Attention: if you are sick and have to research these data bases from home, remember that JSTOR requires a password. You need to log into Morris Library with your DAWG tag number first, and THEN access JSTOR!!!
  

• those who write a newspaper/magazine article: Your sources can be quotes from famous people about grammar, or stem from research articles. You won't cite in MLA or APA, but follow newspaper conventions of how to integrate quotes.
  

4) Proofread and peer-edit paper (it must not contain ANY grammar mistakes!!!). We will do a peer-editing session, and the Writing Center will hold a short presentation of their services on October 12th or 14th (for 10 minutes), so you can visit the WC later on and have your essay checked.

5) The papers are due as hard copies on the last course day of November, so you have plenty of time for data collection, analysis, and editing.

If you are NOT in class today (Monday, Oct. 5th, 2009), you NEED to perform the steps below at home, so you won't be left behind. If you have questions, call me or email during my office hours. Don't worry, the whole unit can be performed online, so all you need is a computer with Internet access. People who have the flu or are otherwise out of class for an extended time are EXPECTED to perform the same task at the class at about the same time, using this blog and their email accounts.


INSTRUCTIONS:

Pick one grammar topic from this list you would like to research.
Pay attention:

• If you do a "public opinion survey," your audience will be anybody from the general public, which means you can put the link to your online survey on your facebook page, email it out to all your friends and family, and to people whose email address you acquired.

• If you do a "teachers' perception survey," your audience consists only of teachers (high school, or college, or mixed). YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO EMAIL ANY SIU FACULTY!!! (because they get mad at me for doing those surveys every semester with my classes ;-) Therefore, pick different teachers/professors.)

• If you do a "students' perception survey," your audience will be college students (NO MINORS; NOBODY under 18 years of age!). You ARE allowed to ask SIU students.

WHOEVER your audience is, you must have MORE THAN 10 RESPONDENTS. That means, you MUST send out our online survey to at least 20 people, because 50% generally won't take the survey. If you should end up with less than 10 respondents although you emailed 20 or more people, your own peers will simulate being your audience and take your survey for you (for EXTRA CREDIT). This means, you can still analyze your data, but your results will be fake (won't have any impact on your grade, but you know your research isn't worth while).

Topics to pick from:

1) Public opinion survey about gender: Are females better at grammar than males? (or vice versa)
2) Public opinion survey: Should sentence diagramming be taught at high school?
3) Teachers' perception: Do college students today know enough grammar?
4) Students' perception: Did high school prepare us well enough for college with regard to grammar?
5) Public opinion survey: Does good grammar in one's native language help one to learn foreign languages?
6) Public opinion survey: Does grammar knowledge rise or decline with age?
7) Public opinion survey: Does "good grammar" depend on the region one lives in? (dialect/slang; survey about socio-economic and environmental variables)
8) Public opinion survey: Does good grammar help one to be competitive on the job market?
9) Public opinion survey: Is it important how well our political leaders use grammar?
10) Public opinion survey: Should grammar be taught in grammar-only classes, or integrated into English classes?
11) Public opinion survey: Would learning Latin early in high school help students to be better at English grammar, and the grammar of foreign languages they might study?
12) Public opinion survey: What is the right grade level to start teaching grammar to students?
13) Public opinion survey: Should grammar be taught through drill and practice, or through imitation or other methodologies?
14) Public opinion survey about race: Are (put in a race; e.g., African Americans) better at Standard American English grammar than (put in a race; e.g., Caucasians)?
15) Public opinion survey: Does socio-economic status have an influence on grammar?
16) Public opinion survey: Does texting make students' grammar worse?

17 - 25: Topics of your own choice which you can type on this blog after my approval. Come up with ideas during class!



When you have chosen a topic, log into this website http://www.surveymonkey.com/, in order to create a NEW SURVEY. I have emailed you the log-in and password!!! Go to your email here: Choose the GENERAL template, pick a background color, and start your survey.

Guidelines:

1) Name your survey: firstname_lastname_topic; e.g. Christina_Voss_grammar_in_HS
2) Your survey must have a minimum of 20 questions, and a maximum of 24 questions.
3) The first 4 questions MUST be demographic (e.g., ask gender, age, provenance, income (only if it makes sense for your survey, e.g. if you want to find out about socio-economic differences), level of education, years of grammar at school/college, etc.).
4) There must be 10 questions that are a grammar quiz (if you do it about sentence diagramming, you can design diagrams by hand and insert a scan into your survey!) After all, you want to know whether your audience says the truth and is really good/bad at grammar!!!
5) The remaining questions are up to you (those are the content question where you explore people's attitudes and perceptions).

We'll model and do the survey together in class (you'll finish it up for homework). If you're not in class today, try your best from home and call/email if you encounter problems.

WHEN your survey is finished: I'll show you how to create the online link, and we'll post it on this blog under your name. For those who missed class: I will access surveymonkey, and will get your URL by myself, and put it on this blog.

Your topics:

1. Beck, Chad: texting vs grammar
2. Bleyer, Dan: link
3. Byhring, Jason: Texting vs. Grammar
4. Chemasko, Allison: HS vs. College Grammar
5. Cunningham, Karita: Texting vs. Grammar
6. Duran, Mallory: Grammar survey for teachers
7. Fry, Cory: link
8. Greiner, Kimberly: Grammar vs. Technology
9. Holcomb, Erin: Politicians and Grammar
10. Janis, Kathleen: Grammar and Socio-Economic Status
11. Kern, Robin: Latin in HS
12. Lantrip, Kendra: Age Vs. Technology
13. Lukes-Howard, Brandon: HS Grammar
14. Martinez, Stephanie: Grammar Teaching Methodologies
15. Mason, Melissa: Grammar Survey
16. Meredith, Ryan:Grammar and the Job Market
17. O'Laughlin, Timothy: Politician's Grammar Survey
18. Pyatt, Meghan: link
19. Ragan, Nolan:Text Message Survey
20. Robinson, Shaina: Females Better Than Males in Grammar?
21. Sauerwein, Kyle: Male vs. Female and Grammar
22. Takach, Matthew: Grammar in HS



Here are 3 Example Surveys from the recent grammar 300 courses:

A. The Effects of Computers on College Grammar

B. Grammar in High School

C. Grammar Awareness amongst Teachers, Coaches, and Student Athletes