Blog Post 20: The Renaissance

Responses are due by Friday, April 3rd.

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The Renaissance was the period of time from 1500 to 1650 was the rebirth of culture and scholarship in Europe. During this time period, there was also a great rise of vernacular languages, an expansion on printing, and a universal grammar was developed.

During this time period, many scholars started to look deeper into languages such as, Latin and Greek. With this coming about there was also a study into vernacular languages. A vernacular language is a normal everyday language that is used instead of an educated language. A focus was being put on everyday language and on the classics as well.

The Renaissance also started the advent of printing in Europe. With a rise in literacy and larger demand on education all around the world, a way of getting the text out to the world was needed.

Common grammar was third part introduced in the Renaissance. Developed by Port Royal School, the individuals that developed the rationalist grammar were called the Port-Royal grammarians. Their main goal in writing this common grammar was to write a form of grammar that contained all of the properties of common languages of the time period. This resulted in a common or universal form of grammar being formed. To begin their grammar concept they started analyzing sentences into prepositions. The prepositions were then defined into concepts and judgments, and then into subject and predicates. The universal grammar is broken into words of the first and second kind. The words of the first kind are pronouns, nouns, participles, adverbs, and articles. The words of the second kind are conjunctions, interjections, and verbs.

All in all, the Renaissance brought forth a wealth of knowledge of the vernacular language, printing, a rise in literacy, and a major start in the examination of grammar. The knowledge of language was very limited at this time and therefore made the student of language very basic. There was no real understanding of the relationships between different languages and how they can form from each other.

Did you know anything about vernacular language? Why would the advent of printing be so important to the rate of literacy?

by: Jordan Glodich

Mini Lesson: Plural vs. Possessive "S" and Abbreviation "S"

A mini-lesson over Plural vs. Possessive "S" and Abbreviation "S."
For sixth-grade students.

Engage: The students will watch a short youtube video over plural nouns to engage the students and help introduce the topic of our the mini lesson, which is Plural vs. Possessive "S" and Abbreviation "S."



Explore: We will explore the different rules that apply to the plural and possessive nouns. We will covers the basic grammar rules that are needed to use the plural, possessive and abbreviation "S" correctly.

Explain: I will explain how to use the grammar rules correctly and give examples to show the student's the correct way to use Plural vs. Possessive "S" and Abbreviation "S."

Expand: We will do two separate quizzes in class related to the mini lesson. Once relates to the plural and possessive "S" and another quiz over Abbreviation "S."


Evaluate: Take the two quizzes during the powerpoint together as a class to test the student's knowledge.

E-Search: The student's will go online and take the following exercise in plural and possessive nouns. This quiz will test them on what they have learned during our mini-lesson.
Link to quiz

For Homework: (The Evaluate and E-Search steps)
For homework the students will complete a quiz over plural and possessive nouns to help them gain further knowledge on the topic.
Link to quiz

Mini-Lesson: The dash

The dash mini-lesson. For high school freshman students.

Engage: Ask students how many dashes there are. And introduce the BrainPop movie.

Explore: Before showing the video have students write down a sentence using a dash correctly. As they watch the video ask them to identify whether they used the dash correctly or not and what type of dash they used.

Explain: Show the Brainpop video ( http://www.brainpop.com/english/grammar/hyphensanddashes/ )

Expand: Do the BrainPop quiz in class

Evaluate: Assign students sentences from Cracked.com and cbssports.com (below) for homework and have them identify what type or dash/hyphen is being used and explain why that type is being used.

E-Search: Have students go online and find five sentences using hyphens or dashes and explain why it uses that particular type of dash or hyphen. Same basic assignment as above, only they are required to find their own sentences or create their own.

For Homework: (The Evaluate and E-Search steps) Identify what type of dash or hyphen is being used in each sentence and explain why that type is being used. (Please note: some sentences may contain more than one type, identify each). Also, find 5 sentences of your own and do the same thing.

1.) Fresh off scoring a game-high 21 points -- including a pair of critical three-pointers -- to help the Orange into the Sweet 16 with a 78-67 win against Arizona State, Devendorf smiled and laughed easily.

2.) Dell has found a way to make money off of America’s racism and/or xenophobia because now –for an additional fee– you also have the option of being connected to a customer service technician “right here in America."

3.) Sometimes, this even happens to us real writers - by which I mean myself - and we find ourselves unwittingly crossing territory already covered by the pathetic Plebeians - by which I mean everybody else.

4.) His phone number is 555-555-1362.

5.) I've got basketball practice 3-5 p.m.

Students must then find 5 sentences online and do the same thing as above. Students will have 10 sentences total (the 5 provided and the five they find.)

Blog Summary 16: What Teachers Say

Since our student dropped the class, here you'll see blog summary 16 done by Diana Howell from the other section. Answers are due this Friday, March 27th, at class time.

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There has been much debate on the teaching of grammar in schools. Long ago it was thought that grammar had no real bearing on ones writing, but now some would disagree with that assumption. In fact, grammar is an important aspect in ones writing. Without the knowledge of basic grammatical concepts like nouns, verbs, pronouns and punctuation, one would not be able to write correctly. Formerly, an interview was done with twenty-five teachers on their thoughts and views of grammar. Each instructor had their own way of teaching grammar; in fact, almost all the instructors that were interviewed agreed on the best way to help an individual understand the concept of grammar.

Writing can be a difficult task if the proper instruction is not taught. Students do not generally learn how to write given only the basic concepts of grammar. However, some students only write what is heard and not what is actually correct. One stated that the students can't go by what sounds right because they have no good role model. Therefore, the teachers must engage the students in their own writings so that they can see what mistakes they are making.

According to some of the instructors that participated in the interview with Brenda Petruzzella, several instructors felt that the most effective way to teach grammar was through individualized learning. They felt that most students would benefit from grammar if they were shown what mistakes they were making. However, in order to learn grammar one must understand the basic forms of writing like nouns, verbs, punctuation, and more. Amoung the many concepts of approaching grammar, many felt that sentence diagramming and sentence combining would benefit their students. The more and more students practice diagramming typical errors in writing, the easier it can be to pick out their own mistakes.

All in all, students must understand basic concepts so that they can apply these rules to their own writings. Students seem to benefit most with constant peer revision. But, peer revision is not always available since the amount of time that is needed with each student will vary. Practice makes perfect and the more one does something, the better he/she will get. So it is understood that grammar is vitally important to students whether they are going to teach English or not. At some point in their education, correct grammar will be needed so why not take the time to teach the mechanics and usages of it?

Grammar Without Grammar: Blog Summary 17

Responses are due on Wednesday, March 25th, at class time

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by Heather Schultz

This article is written by Deborah Dean. When she first started teaching, grammar education was a requirement set by the school district. She tried thinking of fun ways to teach students to identify adjectives and adverbs and to diagram subjects and direct object, objectives specified by the school district. She once spent a week teaching verbals with comic books until a parent complained about her method. When the school eventually dropped the grammar requirements from the curriculum, Deborah was also happy to drop them from her syllabus. She was excited to be able to focus on the student’s writing. However, she quickly realized that her student’s writing needed help, but that they lacked a common vocabulary needed to fix the problems. She tried many different ways to get her students to understand, but none of them seemed to work.

It wasn’t until she came across a book by Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert Connors, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student, that she found a method that worked. Even this method proved to have a rocky start. She began to teach the students by giving them an example written by George Orwell. Her example was “The gallows stood in a small yard, separate from the main grounds of the prison and overgrown with tall prickly weeds.” She asked the students to list the parts of speech: what she received was a blank stare. No one was able to even name the subject of the sentence. Then she decided to have them forget about the grammar and just focus on the sentence. She wrote a sentence imitation on the board: “The invitation lay open on the table, taunting me with its promise and frightening me with its potential.” From this she explained how the sentence was put together: the first part being an observation and the second with descriptions. She did the same with two more sentences and with each example, more students began to understand. She told them to write two of their own sentences and they quickly went to work. She knew that this was not helping with “real” writing, but she was able to introduce them to a style that they were not familiar with.

From that day, she never brought up parts of a sentence using grammatical terms. She continued her method of writing a sentence on the board and having them write two or three sentences in the same style. Students began to become more comfortable with their sentences and often read them allowed in class. If their sentences were wrong, Deborah would use their sentence as an example and the class would fix it as a group. They not only write sentences, but she required them to find sentences from the stories they were reading in class. Then they were to tell why they liked these sentences and how they stood out to them. After that they see how many single ideas come from that one sentence.

Her example of this is “The alley ended at an empty, padlocked garage.” And here is the list they made:

1. The alley ended.

2. It ended at a garage.

3. The garage was empty.

4. The garage was padlocked.

She would have her students find a sentence and make a list like this. Many students thought of it as a game and wanted to pick a sentence that would generate the longest list. Once they have their lists, they talk about how they came up with the list of their single ideas. They try to put their sentences back together: sometimes it worked, other times it didn’t. That part didn’t matter. What mattered is that her students were learning how to form sentences in a way that was new to them and she did it all without using any grammatical terms.

Her student’s writing improved tremendously throughout the year. She ends her article by saying “They know grammar- they just don’t know that they do.”

Do you think that this is an effective way to teach? Is knowing the correct terminology for writing really that important or is her way of teaching better? Would you have enjoyed learning sentence construction Deborah’s way? Or are you glad that in grade school we all must master what adverbs and direct objects are?

Slang of Insider Groups: WebQuests

We are going to create a Lesson Plan again; this time focusing on the 6th big E, the E-Search. We will also have a big chunk of Engage and Explore in our Learning Cycle.
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Today, we are going to learn a new software tool: WebQuests.

These are meant to be online lesson plans that teachers can use in class, providing their students with links to do research about certain topics. (This is point 6 from our Learning Cycle, the "e-search.") The kids go on a "quest" on www and expand their previous knowledge.

The WebQuests have several different steps the kids have to follow, and they also offer a rubric at the end, so the kids know what they will be graded for. Also, they have a welcome page that explains the topic and what they are going to do.

Our task: WE ARE CREATING A WEBQUEST LESSON PLAN ABOUT THE TOPIC "SLANG."


PROMPT 1:

Read the following 1-page excerpt from the DIARY of a medical intern, written by Perri Klass. In it, she explains how she had to learn a "totally new language" in order to understand the slang of nurses and doctors. It is like a "secret language," so that the patients won't know what is wrong with them when the medical staff talks about them. Beware - some expressions are quite offensive!

PROMPT 2:

Choose a topic from the following list of slang dictionaries (or google your own topic) - it needs to be the special language/dictionary of ONE group of society.

1. soldiers' slang
2. prison slang
3. Cockney Rhyming Slang (London, England)
4. police slang
5. computer slang
6. railroad slang
7. 1920s slang
8. 1960s slang
9. Mountainbike slang
10. Australian slang
11. Death slang
12. Antarcic slang
13. drug slang

or ANY other slang dictionary you want to find on your own!!!
Last semester's students found such interesting slangs as Nadsat (from A Clockwork Orange), skateboarders' slang, etc....

(Attention: AAE is no SLANG! Dialects are no slang, either. Invented languages like Esperanto and Klingon are no forms of slang, either.)

When you have chosen your topic (and your dictionary of a certain slang), you have the FIRST COMPONENT of your WebQuest lesson plan. Here's an overview of all the components you need:

COMPONENTS of WEBQUEST lesson plan:

1. a link to your slang dictionary

2. a welcome page (Intro) that tells the kids (address them; let me know their grade level) what the topic of your lesson is (which group you're talking about)

3. a TASK page that tells the kids what the purpose of your lesson is (why they need to learn about it), and what they will do. This is your "table of content."

4. an assignment page (Process) with e-search assignments (working links!!!) for the kids. Here, you need to tell them how to present their findings (such as, to write down what they researched on a piece of paper, fill in a study guide that you prepare, do a ppt presentation, etc.).

4. a grading rubric



For task 4, the PROCESS, you should have the following components:

3.1 I expect you to define the word SLANG for your students, so they are able to tell the difference between LANGUAGE, SLANG, ACCENT, and DIALECT. If you want, you can define other key terms, such as LINGO or JARGON, too.

You can also make them write down their own definitions, and then let them click on a link to an online dictionary that defines those terms correctly.

3.2 Create a brief text using the slang you're talking about (either, write it yourself, or use the translation engine on your website). Let the kids translate it into Standard Written English without looking at the dictionary for help. Then, give them the solutions in a later section of your webquest, to check their responses.

3.3 Give them the link to your dictionary, and invent their first assignment (e.g., create a 10-item dictionary with words chosen from it on their own, etc.)

3.4 Give them some kind of writing assignment about YOUR insider group's slang that you will grade with your grading rubric (prompt examples: "Write a short story using this slang." or "Write an essay about why it is important to learn a certain slang if one wants to "belong" to a group of insiders." or "Is it better to remain true to one's origins and speak one's own language, or does one have to adapt when joining a different group?" or "Why can the use of metaphors be good/bad sometimes?" or "If you were a patient, would you prefer that the doctors speak clear text with you, or wouldn't you mind them talk in secret language?" or "Is a secret language ment to INCLUDE or EXCLUDE people?" or "Develop your own secret society. Write a short essay about what kind of language you would use." BE CREATIVE!!!)

3.5 Create your Grading Rubric with the online functions that WebQuest offers.


SOFTWARE: modeling how to create WebQuests

Go to the homepage of WebQuest. You need to sign up and register for a "30 day free trial." Then, we'll model together how to create the background template and colors, etc. The online builder is pretty easy and self-explanatory, and will guide you through all steps. Remember to ALWAYS SAVE what you typed before you click on another field; otherwise, you'll lose everything!!! You can also insert pictures (which you should do, depending on the grade level you instruct.) IF you insert pictures, you have to hyperlink them to the page where you got them from; otherwise, it is plagiarism, since most photos on the Internet are copyrighted, and their owners could sue you for using them without permission!!!


TIMELINE for this project:
We will have at least three in-class workshops about our WebQuests, and will do the different components (such as the IL Learning Standards) together in class. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to make up.

If you need to, but cannot work on the computer at home, use our classroom before/after class, during my lunch break (12-1 on M/W/F when it is open), the Faner computer labs, or come to my office hours.

DUE DATE: posted on Lifetext. On that day, We will all put the links to our WebQuests on a blog thread I will create, so that we can view each other's works. Your peers will select three WebQuests of their choice and test-take them, grading them with our WEBQUEST GRADING RUBRIC published on Lifetext.


Here are a few links to sample WebQuests from last semester:

1. Beatnik Slang
2. 1960s Slang
3. Cockney Rhyming Slang

Dialect Boundaries: Linguistic Perceptions

Responses are due on Friday, March 20th during class time.

Author Erica J. Benson focuses on where differences in dialect and/or language draw boundary lines. A strategy commonly and traditionally used to determine differences in dialect have been based on production data. Within this technique, other significant notions such as attitudes and perceptions towards language variety have been ignored. These significant factors, according to the text, are known as Perceptual dialectology. Perceptual dialectology, also known as folk dialectology, refers to the beliefs that nonlinguists or "the folk" have towards language variation. These factors play a vital role in how or when language barriers change. A comparison between traditional dialectological and sociolinguistic findings concludes that "folk" utilize factors outside linguistic differences when constructing their opinions of dialect and their mental maps. Initially, on the surface, researchers focusing on perceptual studies found that “folk” boundaries of linguistic are sectioned off based on locations within different regions. On the other hand, there are other aspects such as political and civil influences that provoke these boundaries.

This article justifies the differentiation of dialect boundaries and folk perception when referring to Ohio's traditional study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the folk perceptions of boundaries and their relationship to production boundaries. According to the article, researchers found that not only were Ohio a highly diverse area, but it is also a linguistically complex region, where dialect diversity defines characteristics of individuals. In order to confirm Ohio's dialect boundaries, sociolinguists employed methods such as the Linguistic Atlas of the North Central States (LANCS) or the Linguistic Atlas Project (LAP). After applying these materials and conducting a pilot study or survey based on the knowledge of 12 respondents residing on Ohio of four cities, sociolinguistics reviewed the results given by the respondents. Respondents, within the southern region of Ohio, didn't find much differentiation of language throughout the Ohio region. Respondents from the south-east region unified the languages within the area and others outlined areas of certain language diversity. The overall findings of this study showed a mild difference in perception of languages within Ohio. There were people that believed in a strong language variation and others who found no differences at all. In reference to these findings, the article takes note that these results could be driven by personal beliefs of languages and different exposure of different languages to each respondent. The differences among respondents from different areas also derive from their linguistic security and/or insecurity.

The article concludes that traditional dialectology studies have focuses on mapping dialect forms and have been less concerned with the attitudes of speakers. Production studies allow us to see how narrow the geographical distribution of dialect forms is at a single point in time. Perceptual studies can provide a better comprehension of language community’s ad their relationship amongst one another.

Give your thoughts. Do you, as a citizen, find that there is a significant language variation? How would you determine whether or not there was a difference? If you were a respondent of a study similar to Ohio, would you too feel insecure of your language? Do you appreciate language diversity? If so, why?