Ha! A reflexive pronoun gets mistaken for the object of the preposition.
Normally, the "yourself" would emphasize the fact that the character is doing all the work. Grammatically, it probably should have read "are you putting them up, yourself."
Instead, in the final frame, "yourself" is treated as the object of the prepositional phrase "up yourself." This indicates the location of where the lights are being put, resulting in a humorous and grim scene.
The other day in my teaching methods class, we were given a paragraph of informational text and the challenge of "how would you teach this text to your students". Now, this was no normal piece of informational text designed by some Springboard scholars to actually help students comprehend some piece of information or practice a reading skill. This was a paragraph from the abstract of a research paper on some kind of breakthrough marine microorganism.
I was thinking how to teach reading this to 8th graders when I couldn't even get it!
You can see how high level the reading is in the example given to us. However, there is a way to make it simpler, but it requires a firm grasp of English Grammar. You can already see that I started doing that as I was reading. I was eliminating everything but the most crucial parts of the sentence - the Main Subject and Main Verb. To me, the first few sentences read: "The allocation is a complex process. We use analysis to investigate sources..."
Grammar is all about breaking down sentences into their parts and understanding how they interact. Students of mine will definitely not need to know the information in this passage, but they can practice the skill of breaking complex sentences into their components and labeling them. I would engage them in CCSS L.7.3a - Choose language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely, recognizing and eliminating wordiness and redundancy.
To one in the field of studying...whatever this paper is studying, none of this is wordy. Everything is quite precise. However, teaching a student to recognize adjectives and adverbs, adjectival phrases, prepositional phrases, dependent clauses....all the stuff that is necessary to making something precise to a scholar but confusing to a student...and having them eliminate them to get to the point is a skill. They won't even have to know what the words are or mean if they recognize the structural pattern of a sentence!
What concerns me with students in a typical classroom that I expect to be teaching is that many students lack the fundamental grammar basics. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, clauses....all of those things are lost on the student because they don't practice it enough. Traditional reading is not a priority, and the way technology has evolved, more people are concerned with sharing their thoughts via images rather than describing them in words. And even if their "statuses" are posted in words, they are in non SAE form, or internet "meme" slang. I'm sure I need some research to back this claim up, but that's my guess anyways.
I would like to teach a lesson on this topic. I would like to illustrate the lack of understanding of SAE and traditional language use in the classroom by social media and then propose some methods to teach against it (or with it if possible). We are on the prepositions and clauses part of our Grammar unit now, so I will focus on breaking those down in conjunction with my peers.
Before I get into studying for my next test, there is something that I have to review when it comes to English Grammar. I have consistently gotten word formation incorrect because I forget what is what, so I will review that here so I won't forget.
Affixation
Not to be confused with choking (asphyxiation), affix is a common way for forming words by adding on a derivational affix. bake > baker
Compounding
This is when you join two or more words to make a new word. skate + board = skateboard (a board like object on which one skates)
Zero Derivation
No change is made to the word. It just changes in context. Buy a comb(noun) from the store to comb(verb) your hair.
Stress Shift
No change is made to the word but when pronouncing it, stress a different syllable. The doctor was able to successfully implant (unstressed/stressed) new hair implants (stressed/unstressed)
Clipping
Shortening of a long word (not to be confused with backformation). Mathematics > Math
Acronym Formation
Making of a word using the initials of what it represents. NASA . National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Blending
Parts of two words are used to make a new word. Breakfast + Lunch = Brunch
Backformation
This is the opposite of Affixation. Instead of adding affixes, you take them away to form a new word. This is different from Clipping in that clipping deals with taking away syllables which probably don't have an actual phonological purpose. Backformation takes away affixes with phonological purpose like removing "ham" from "hamburger".
Branding
The result of powerful marketing, this is when a commercial business brand name becomes popular enough to stand in for the object it represents. Facial Tissue > Kleenex
Onomatopoeia
When a word is created to emulate a sound. "Hiss" "Buzz"
Borrowing
More like taking a word from another language. Sushi Taboo Chic
I got these wrong for the most part on my first exam. Oh well, try again!
I just posted about how I really wanted to learn the intricacies of the English Language. Then I read the chapter and am all of a sudden wavering in my resolve. No wonder the textbook (English Grammar: Language as Human Behavior 3rd Ed.) prefaced the chapter with a very long explanation of Why and How we study language. In a nutshell, it goes like this:
Language is important as it holds value socially and educationally
Like, what do you think of a person that says "ain't" over someone that says "am/is not"
"I ain't about that life" vs. "I am not about that life" or "I ain't over him yet" vs "I am not over him yet"
There is no official authority on how English must be
Who decides what is right or what is wrong?
Because of the large amounts of groups and individuals who use English, standardization of one variation under one authority is impossible
Unless we want real grammar Nazi's and persecution of people who say "who" instead of "whom". I don't think we want that
Language is constantly changing
huge impact of internet and instant messaging
Seriously, kids are pretty much anti-establishment. If adults something is the straight and narrow, it's not cool. Thus, slang, and if something is used enough, it becomes mainstream.
Result: We should study language to understand the dynamics of it and its impact on society because it is this important thing that people care about.
So here is what I understand:
Constituents - Language is made up of these things. Parts. Components. Constituents are words or groups of words that somehow belong together. They make sense.
Those parts are organized in a heriarchy. At the bottom you have roots and affixes. These are the base form of words and the attachments that change the word meaning. Then there are the words themselves, roots combined with affixes. Then phrases, groups of words that go together as a noun phrase or verb phrase. Then when a noun phrase and verb phrase combine you get clauses. Finally, you can have a combination of independent and dependent clauses that make sentences.
It's like how atoms make molecules, molecules make compounds, compounds make mixtures, etc.
Then there's the rules and regulations that make sense of everything - the SYNTAX.
(that word is so intimidating)
Syntax is broken up into three major categories: Lexicon, Word Order, Inflectional Morphology
Lexicon consists of word classes. This is the stuff we learned in elementary (or grammar) school. Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, etc.
Word Order - words are arranged in order of their grammatic and functional meanings. These are unmarked word orders. However, when writers or speakers move the words around to create emphasis or voice, then this is marked order.
Inflectional Morphology - finally, the way that individual words make sense is the use of morphology. Function words include minor word classes like prepositions and articles that make sense of the main words....like stuffing in a turkey. The turkey is great on its own, but the stuffing helps keep it all together and making sense as a meal. (Arguably, stuffing is great on its own too, but that makes this analogy fall apart) Then, grammatical morphemes like affixes help to distinguish tense, aspect, voice, modality, and mood.
I don't want to be late for a test on this but this is all I can process at the moment. I'll update this post afterwords....probably with a drink. Wish me luck
This strip from one of my favorite webcomics just so happened to appear just as I was considering starting up writing again, this time as a writing assignment for my English Grammar class. It illustrates perfectly (or perfectly illustrates?) this feared and abhorred Grammar Nazi mindset of educated individuals. As I learn more about our language and explore all the nooks and crannies of our English, I run the risk of becoming one of these who persecute those who do not adhere to the latest rules speaking. However, that is not my intent.
I want to learn language because, as the comic implies, it is one of the main means of connecting with others. I remember a scene from the movie The Dead Poet's Society in which the character played by Robin Williams (you're free, genie) stated that "language was invented for one reason...to woo women." While I do not seek any romantic companionship as a result of my studying language, I acknowledge it as such a powerful force that it deserves scrutiny. How is it that we give meaning to utterances of sounds and syllables? Why do we put value on certain words? What is their origin and how are they transformed from morpheme to morpheme? I'll admit, I don't know, but if understanding language as a means communication will connect me to other human beings and I can bring others into the fold so we aren't so alone, then I'm happy to pay the price. (Seriously, I didn't know an English class could cost so much.)
Something happened in class the other day. I hadn't noticed it, but when I took the opportunity to lead a discussion about Utopian ideals vs Dystopian realities, I dropped a couple of example. Of course, this is common practice, since in order to get the students to understand what I was talking about, I wanted to make the concept relatable. So, I made the connections for the students and seemed to get some nods of acknowledgement and understanding. Satisfied, I turned the class back over to my mentor so she could lead them in their typical post-discussion reflection.
A week later, after my mentor had gone through the journals, she pulled me aside to show me something. "Remember when you gave an example of this last week?" She showed me several students' journal writings, all citing the same example I had given them. "All they did was copy down what you said." At seeing that, a little bit of me died inside. I thought I had gotten through to the students, that they actually understood what I was trying to teach them. I was, for the most part, wrong.
In a culture of testing and assessments, students seem to pick up on what is expected of them to pass the class, albeit marginally. They look for hints as to what the teacher wants them to spit out to get satisfactory marks. They are trained to pick up the clues dropped by the instructor as to what to reiterate, without understanding or practicing the inherent concept. Basically, they are trained to repeat, not to think for themselves. My mentor, however, is tough enough and experienced enough to not be moved by these simple acts, and she is always urging the students to "think for themselves."
This trend I see in students shows me how "lazy" they are in that they don't want to think, but re-actively practice "monkey-see-monkey-do." I'm frightened because this translates to potential voters who just jump on the bandwagon, drones who are incapable of escalating the career and administrative hierarchy. I know that it can't be done in one lesson, but I have not spent enough time with my mentor to see exactly how she teaches her students to "think for themselves."
I'll try to remember this as best as I can, but I heard a quote that went something like...
...a book is never truly owned until it is annotated and the margins are full of marks...
I don't know. What I do know is that I dread writing in ANY book, even workbooks. I remember back in Japanese class how I would photocopy the pages of the workbook to practice my kanji instead of just writing it in and tearing it out. It hurt me psychologically and I blame my upbringing in a poor private Catholic school. Our teachers would never let us write in the books...ever. Even if we knew the books were falling apart because they had already seen two generations of students (Mrs. Czerniecki made a point of singling out students who were kids of students she taught before), we still were forbidden from making it worse with our notes and doodles. And so, I never learned how to annotate.
Annotating is like having a conversation with the author. A note like "this is interesting" symbolized with a little asterisk mark or underlining a passage that was maybe a bit too confusing at the time signifies active learning. Making the effort to write down a note registers that information in your brain, repeating over and over again through each reread. It is like leaving comments in a youtube video or blog (like and comment below!)
Students are simply not embracing this idea of annotation. It is work, yes, but they fail to see how much it helps, and honestly, how much fun it could be. Imagine getting a book back at the end of the year after annotating it up at the beginning and seeing what interested you and intrigued you. Imagine constructing personalized assessments based off of what the students annotated. There is so much to be done to help the students see the importance of taking notes and writing in the margins. It sure would have helped me, as I am finally getting into the practice.
Today I witnessed something happen in my classroom. All of the dull days of just rote reading, struggling to get through the key ideas, answering questions that nobody wanted to talk about gave way to a phenomenon of understanding and engagement. My students' assignment was to conduce a "reader's" theater and then discuss the key facets of the story "Harrison Bergeron" in groups. What I saw was a class filled with energy and enthusiasm for learning. The reading was done with passion and the discussions were very engaging, and my mentor teacher just sat back and watched as the whole scene unfolded.
How did this happen? For weeks it seems that my mentor teacher has been planning and preparing for this very outcome. I just didn't see it until I finally stepped away. The technique of "scaffolding" is the practice of making sure all the basic techniques and content knowledge has been taught so that students may engage in higher order thinking and learning. For students to have engaged in the discussions that I was hearing today, it was necessary to understand the unfamiliar vocabulary, read the story thoroughly, and come prepared with some ideas or notions about the themes prior to the discussion. All this was achieved through weeks of scaffolding, the boring and tedious stuff that I felt was dragging on and unnecessary. However, if this did not occur, then the scene today would have looked more like the teacher leading a bunch of clueless students into a discussion with him/herself. They would have done no work or thinking for themselves because they were not properly prepared for it. I wonder if any of the students see the method to a teacher's madness. After all, if you are the one scaling the scaffolding, how could you possibly see all the rungs and ladders that have brought you to where you currently are.
Today we watched this in class. Can you guess what the topic of discussion was? ASSESSMENT!
Dear Lord I never appreciated my statistics AP class more than I do now.
Testing students is part of the profession. Sometimes, we do so much, I don't know why they don't call us "testers" instead of "teachers". Maybe "dementors" is more appropriate for what we do to these kids. Then again, when we try to herd cattle and get them all going in the same direction, I'm sure some coercive tactics are necessary. Testing is necessary to evaluate all students on the same standards and hold teachers accountable for what is taught in the class.
There are two major types of tests: Summative Assessments and Formative Assessments.
Summative Assessments are typically high-stakes, meaning that there is lots at risk depending on the result of this test. This type of test could be a major portion of the grade, a state mandated test for all students, or even a test to determine their fitness for graduation. This is because a summative assessment is a comprehensive examination of what the student has learned and/or failed to learn. This is the final exam, the proficiency, the standardized test.
Formative Assessments, on the other hand, are much less extreme. These tests are smaller and typically more informal, more with the purpose to inform the teacher where the students are in relation to the lesson. Are they keeping up? What do they understand or what are they not getting at this point? Is my strategy working? Formative assessments occur to give the teacher real time information about student performance. It does not account for much of a student's grade or graduation, but plays a crucial role for an educator's lesson plan. These assessments happen quite frequently and can take the from of a simple cold call question in class, exit ticket questionnaires, pop quizzes, etc.
The Summative assessment in question is a standardized test. Governments have become more hands on with our students learning since No Child Left Behind and (long story short) schools must have students pass a standardized test and be ranked. I don't know if lower performing schools get less government money or whatever, but if I were an administrator I would be scared. There are so many arguments for and against standardized testing that to begin now at 1am ( I can't get out of this late night writing funk) would mean I wouldn't sleep...and I like sleep.
The video made some points I would like to hit on though...
"Maybe more emphasis should be put on the learning process and less on the testing process"
Right now, testing is regulated. There are standards a student has to meet and that's the bottom line. The teacher is free to choose whatever method they can to get them to that standard. What this message seems to me is that the government should focus more on controlling what is being taught in the class and how it is being taught. The Common Core standards seems like the response to this, as teachers around the nation are falling into the same mold. As with this concept, there is more debate and arguments. Why should the government control what goes on in my classroom, especially considering the fact that each child learns differently and behaves uniquely?
"Life will slap these kids in the face. They aren't prepared to take it."
This is a comment one of my colleagues made....paraphrased as best as possible. I chuckled to myself in class because the only response I could think of was "let's start slapping them in high school so they can be ready then. Oh? They don't like that? I could get fired....well, damn."
The debate rages on and I can't say I have a firm understanding or stance on it yet. I have yet to read the book The Teacher Wars, but maybe it will shed some light on teaching as a profession and our current battle with standardized testing.
Also, I went ahead and read some of the video comments. I had to stop. If you are going to post publicly, at least make an effort to fix your grammar. It's a pet peeve of mine now because I am going to be an educator, but I think that it just makes you look uneducated. We live in a fast paced world where time is money, but it doesn't take too long to "cross your t's and dot your i's" as Mrs. Czerniecki would say. If you aren't going to check your argument to see if it is sound or could use more support, at least fix your typos before you hit submit so you can at least look like you tried posting meaningful content instead of merely adding to the flame.
I sat in the classroom today reading my novel for homework - Earnest Hemingway's "In Our Time". I was quite enraptured by the short stories so I was slightly irritated whenever my mentor teacher decided to give me input about the class or her teaching strategy...you know, the stuff I'm supposed to be listening to. In those brief moments when I was able to pull myself out of the little worlds I was reading about, I noticed the students struggling to focus on the page. I chuckled to myself thinking "these kids are so weak they can't finish a 3-page short story". Students were tasked with reading "Harrison Bergeron" by Kurt Vonnegut and answering the Key Idea prompts in the margins of their SpringBoard workbooks. I read the story quickly to get a gist of the assignment and was frustrated that many students failed to make headway at all in reading much less providing intelligent responses to the prompts. I sighed to myself as I watched the teacher pass out the results of the "Discovery Education" assessment they took last week, most of which carried the "below standard" result for the student. "These kids just don't have the stamina to read"
Fast forward to later that afternoon. I just get home from tutoring. I want to play Destiny so bad. I start reading the final chapters of "In Our Time". Can't focus. Keep getting distracted by brothers watching RWBY. I find myself having to reread pages because all I've done is scan them with my eyes and not my brain. I'm falling asleep. I choose to play Destiny for a while...
Now it's almost 1am. I'm supposed to have read Stephen King's "On Writing" and have a report on it by 1pm tomorrow. My progress is laughable. Instead, I've watched an episode of Naruto and caught up on my webcomics. I'm reminded of my students whom I have criticized for not being able to hold their attention on an assignment. How can I teach them if I can't control myself. If anything, I should be able to at least model the way for them. BS'ing last minute is not the way any professional should be.
At the very least, I have completed day two of my challenge. Cheers!
"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit at a typewriter and bleed" - Ernest Hemingway
This is day one. I just have to write. That is all. Every night before I sleep. Or maybe every morning when I wake. Walking on my phone to class, absentmindedly tapping the screen until something makes sense.
A published author said that he would dress up as if going to work, and hit the space bar hundreds of times before he was hit with the motivation to write.
Stephen King holed himself up in a corner of the room to write. "Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around." I haven't finished the book yet, but I intend to before it's due...36 hours from now. Maybe then, I'll get what that means.
I am addicted to laziness. I'll admit that. Writing is hard because it requires mental strength and stamina. I lack severely in the physical department of strength and stamina, sure. But mentally, damn am I out of it. I have trouble focusing on any one thing for any period of time. Damn buzzfeed and all those FB clickholes. Lists for everything, no longer than a paragraph. Short status updates. Short sentences. Damn.
I go to my school of observation twice a week, and more often then not, I hear the same thing from my mentor teacher. "These kids don't have the stamina required to read, much less study." They don't, and I sympathize with them. I know that it is difficult to do something you don't want to do. Hell, I've been putting off graduation for many years now. But....it has to be done, and the only way that you can really do it, really achieve, is if you push yourself to do it. Look, kids, in order for you to be better readers, you have to read. Just like if I want to be a better writer, I better damn write.
I've heard the same lesson over and over again, and it's about time that I just do it. I've told myself this over and over again, but I just need to do it. I've started this writing project over and over again, so I just need to do it until it is done.
This is day one. I am bleeding. It is raining in my desert tonight, but after the rain is gone, my blood will wet the sand for forty days. This is my challenge.
In order to fulfill my commitment of writing regularly, I post here a particular article of perhaps insignificant relevance to the blog. However, it is for the sake of writing that I am doing this - typing on my phone on the blogger app bundled under heavy comforters at 3:30 am.
In a few hours I will hopefully be on time for my scheduled school observations. Details of the observation will follow in a more organized and thought out article. What concerns me is this...are our schools optimizing time for our student's learning? I would always wonder why the school district set high school start time at 7am, knowing full well that most adults are not functional by then. Is it to deter the 8am traffic from being overcrowded with school buses? Is it to instill an early- to-bed-early-to-rise habit that is clearly not working?
Fortunately I am not observing a high school. I will be observing Ms Jackson's 8th grade English class at 8:30am tomo....errr...in a few hours. Thank you to the placement person who made sure I got someone who has first period prep...maybe I can sleep in.
I am excited for this semester and will eagerly report my observations and any insight I find useful for a potential educator. Please look out for me and my future posts.
It was my first day of school again...I have to get used to that; I'll be a teacher after all. Anyways, it was the first day of school and while many of my FB friends were posting statuses about being done and not having to do anything that day (get a job you losers) I wasboth dreading and honestly excited for my classes. I had an amazing learning experience last semester and an epiphany about my failures that opened me up to a whole to realm of learning. I am hoping that this semester will be just as eye opening and challenging.
There is one class in particular, though, that I have been putting off for years. Back in Fall 2012, I took the class "Young Adult Literature" with Dr. Grubaugh. If I was bad at procrastinating now, my problem was worse back then. I couldn't keep up with the "one book a week" book reports and readings and the class fell to the wayside. At the end of the class, I had a very definite F for a grade. It doesn't mean that I didn't participate though. I vaguely remember adding input in class discussions and I think I hosted an online lesson because I claimed to be so good at using technology for learning purposes. Anyways, Dr. Grubaugh saw that I did work and that I had potential. He bargained with me and let me get a B- on conditions that I outlined myself. I've attached that contract because I am here to admit that two years after the deadline...I still haven't fulfilled that contract.
I made some pretty big promises in the contract...and aside from the one where I had to volunteer at a virtual classroom (I volunteered in plenty of classrooms since then) I had not achieved a single one. I didn't even take the class that next semester...I put it off...until now.
Dr Grubaugh does this thing at the onset of each course that I knew back then would bite me in the ass but as a more informed and committed educator, I admire as a practice. He recorded the face, name, and major of each of his students. I imagine he goes home to review each one of his students, memorizes their name and face so that the next lesson he will be prepared to engage. I thought he was just being weird...after all, how could I do that to my high school students without facing fear of being a creeper. Now, I realize he is doing the thing that I admire most about good educators: using technology to aid in providing a quality education. I'm not great with names and, unlike some professors I have seen who are able to actually remember faces and names with photographic memories, I will need technological aid to clear this hurdle. Without something as simple as memorizing names...I could never fully engage my class.
He knew me when I walked in. Maybe it was just me....it probably was just me since the doctor is very very patient....but I feel like he had a sort of disappointment in his tone when he said "welcome back". I want to look at my professor as a mentor instead of as a jailor or slave driver like I saw him two years ago. I want to emulate the forgiveness and understanding he showed me because I know I will have little lazy shit students with big ideas and drive but no maturity and discipline to help channel it. I have grown in the last two years...and I intended to show it this year. It's my last one and even though I keep having hiccups....I'll keep going. I need to make up for lost time.
And so my rant ends with a commitment. I haven't posted in a while, but I will start this up again. At this point, I can't say I care too much about who reads and who doesn't....it's more that I care that I just write. It's a personal goal fo mine to write now...consistently and confidently and I welcome any and all criticism. I also want to commit to fulfilling that contract I created two years ago...albeit in my own way. Young Adult literature to me includes story based video games, so I want to cover those too. Youtube is taking the place of virtual classrooms, so I think I'll use that too. This blog will serve as my platform for educating future educators, so all I have to do is maintain it.
I hope that you, my fellow reader and learner, will hold me accountable to these commitments I just made. I've never before wanted to change so badly as I want to do now....so I can better the kids.
Too bad my sense of procrastination still lingers as it is 3am and I have to be up by 5am....
