I find a fair bit of grammar instruction does not 'sink in' but I
try anyway and if I can make it a class they leave talking about,
great.
One of our school standards here is that by or in 4th grade
students should understand what a sentence is as well as be able to
write one.
They don't. They can write them but they don't really have a clue
as to what a sentence is. Grammatically a sentence is a
noun/pronoun and a verb. Without a verb, you can't have a sentence.

We know that but my middle schoolers don't. And I also think they
don't know how to think about writing - they kind of spit out
things to fill the page, get it done and they've been told often -
just write what you think which would be nice but they're not
thinking.

Anyway, I strip it all away or try to and tell them what a sentence
is, bear up under the argument(s) that always ensue - a sentence
Does NOT need to have a verb... oh really??
And then put them to writing two word sentences and we have
informal fun no hurt feelings contests for most creative, most
interesting, most congenial, most intriguing etc. etc.

"It exploded" has won most intriguing several years in a row. Then
we move to three word sentence contests after asking them - what
part of speech do you want? Ala Wheel of Fortune, you don't get to
buy a vowel, you get to buy a part of speech."
They don't have to buy it but it usually starts a spirited if
somewhat inane discussion about what part of speech to use to make
a better three word sentence. The very cerebral always want an
interjection - Darn! It exploded. but the majority go for an adverb
though they call it an adjective because they really don't get the
difference. "It exploded well."

It's a popular lesson, they leave talking about it but whether
they've learned what a sentence really is is another question. But
it's a lesson that looks good on paper to administrators and works
well in reality with middle school kids.

> Sara, Thanks for your posting. I was speaking to the principal
> and L.A. specialist in a very low income/performance elementary
> school. I did ask if they wanted me to speak about a whole class
> lesson or a small group reading intervention, but they just
> shrugged their shoulders. So I went into how I would use Elkonin
> boxes with a small group. I'm thinking at my next interview
> (should I be so lucky) I will have both a whole class lesson plan
> and small group reading intervention and just talk about both of
> them.
>
> I am intrigued by your lesson on sentence structure and two word
> sentence contest. Would you be willing to explain?
>
> Again, thank you for taking the time to respond.
>
>
>
> On 10/26/09, Sara wrote:
>> On 10/25/09, BrandNew wrote:
>>> I was asked this question in an interview and talked about
>>> a specific lesson (using Elkonin boxes for CVC words). I
>>> could tell that was not what they wanted to hear.
>>>
>>> Any ideas as to what I should have been talking about?
>>>
>>> Thanks much!
>>
>> To whom were you speaking? Did they know what you were
>> talking about?
>>
>> You could have asked- what objective do you want me to speak
>> to? Specific lessons have specific objectives.
>>
>> Without asking that, I'd have talked about my lesson on
>> sentence structure - one of my favorites - and done my two
>> word sentence contest with them.

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