Brushing Up on Grammar: An Acts of Teaching Approach

Teachers will use this book as a quick but intensive way to brush up on their grammar skills and a guide to hands-on ways to teach grammar concepts. Author Beatrice Joy Chute said, "Grammar is to a writer what anatomy is to a sculptor or the scales to a musician. You may loathe it, it may bore you, but nothing will replace it, and once mastered it will support you like a rock." Thankfully, the key to that mastery is now at hand. Brushing Up on Grammar: An Acts of Teaching Approach is grounded in a belief that grammar should be taught within the context of writing and reading. Of course, teachers need to know grammar to be able to teach it, something that has become harder as topics like sentence diagramming and parts of speech have disappeared from curriculums in recent years. This book provides the solid grammar foundation so necessary for teachers in the field of English/language arts. Brushing Up on Grammar illuminates the five meanings of grammar; identifies six key grammar characteristics; and covers all of the categories and labels, rules and history, research, and etymologies relative to the subject. The examples and connections here are designed first and foremost as verbal clay. With them, educators can help students mold, probe, shape, reshape, and above all, enjoy their acts of language. Features Includes sample lesson plans and strategies for teaching each content piece Presents eight cartoons and six drawings Offers student samples and test applications Highlights Offers both background knowledge of English grammar for teachers and strategies and lessons for instructing today's students on grammar concepts Covers such basics as parts of speech, phrases, clauses, punctuation, and diagramming Relies on a practical, classroom-tested methodology Draws on the instructional strategies developed by Joyce Armstrong Carroll and Edward E. Wilson, well-known Texas educators _____________________________________________________________________________________ Author Bio In her 54-year career, Joyce Armstrong Carroll, Ed.D., H.L.D., has taught every grade level from primary to graduate school. In the past 36 years, she has trained teachers in the teaching of writing as Co-director of the New Jersey Writing Project, then The New Jersey Writing Project in Texas, now Abydos Learning International. A nationally known consultant, she has authored a national textbook program, numerous books and articles for teachers, and poems. With her husband Edward E. Wilson, Dr. Carroll authored Acts of Teaching: How to Teach Writing, now in its 2nd edition, as well as the award-winning Poetry After Lunch: Poems to Read Aloud. She has recently been awarded the Edmund J. Farrell Lifetime Service Award from TCTELA. Dr. Carroll’s mantra is, “If you teach it, they will learn.” Edward Wilson is co-director of Abydos Literacy Learning. His published works include Acts of Teaching: How to Teach Writing; Brushing Up on Grammar, and Four by Four: Practical Methods for Writing Persuasively. His latest book is The Critical Writer: Inquiry and the Writing Process. Wilson owns Absey & Co., a small publishing company that specializes in teacher idea books.