Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer's Workshop

by Jeff Anderson

Overview

Some teachers love grammar and some hate it, but nearly all struggle to find ways of making the mechanics of English meaningful to kids. As a middle school teacher, Jeff Anderson also discovered that his students were not grasping the basics, and that it was preventing them from reaching their potential as writers. Jeff readily admits, “I am not a grammarian, nor am I punctilious about anything,” so he began researching and testing the ideas of scores of grammar experts in his classroom, gradually finding successful ways of integrating grammar instruction into writer's workshop.

Mechanically Inclined is the culmination of years of experimentation that merges the best of writer's workshop elements with relevant theory about how and why skills should be taught. It connects theory about using grammar in context with practical instructional strategies, explains why kids often don't understand or apply grammar and mechanics correctly, focuses on attending to the “high payoff,” or most common errors in student writing, and shows how to carefully construct a workshop environment that can best support grammar and mechanics concepts. Jeff emphasizes four key elements in his teaching:

• short daily instruction in grammar and mechanics within writer's workshop;
• using high-quality mentor texts to teach grammar and mechanics in context;
• visual scaffolds, including wall charts, and visual cues that can be pasted into writer's notebooks;
• regular, short routines, like “express-lane edits,” that help students spot and correct errors automatically.

Comprising an overview of the research-based context for grammar instruction, a series of over thirty detailed lessons, and an appendix of helpful forms and instructional tools, Mechanically Inclined is a boon to teachers regardless of their level of grammar-phobia. It shifts the negative, rule-plagued emphasis of much grammar instruction into one which celebrates the power and beauty these tools have in shaping all forms of writing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781571104120
Publisher:	Stenhouse Publishers
Publication date:	01/28/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Sales rank:	111,830
Product dimensions:	8.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	9 - 13 Years

Table of Contents

	Foreword
Pt. I	The blueprint : teaching grammar and mechanics in context	1
Ch. 1	Introduction	3
Ch. 2	Moving from correct-alls to mentor texts	15
Ch. 3	Weaving grammar and mechanics into writer's workshop	27
Ch. 4	Off-the-wall grammar and mechanics instruction	51
Pt. II	Constructing lessons : background, mentor text, and visual scaffolds	61
Sect. 1	The sentence : a way of thinking	63
Sect. 2	Pause and effect : crafting sentences with commas	83
Sect. 3	Pronouns : the willing stand-ins	103
Sect. 4	The verb : are we all in agreement?	117
Sect. 5	Adjectives and adverbs : the modifier within	131
Sect. 6	The power of punctuation : the period is mightier than the semicolon	143