Blog 7

In the article "Shifting Perspectives about Grammar: Changing What and How We Teach", by Deborah Dean, she writes about her journey through the education world. She has always wanted to change the perspective on right or wrong grammar and she has attempted to do this throughout her education career. Many people, including educators have these right or wrong perspectives even if they aren't trying to. When she first began teaching she was following the rules and teaching in the right/wrong manner that she despised. As the district decided to change their policy, it allowed her more freedom to bring grammar into actual writing. She realized that it was actually beneficial for students to focus less on the concepts that they were learning as terms. If they wrote with the techniques that they were learning and observing without putting labels on them, it went much smoother. Dean eventually found that relating language to different genres that may be used in different areas of an individuals life was effective. The downfall of teaching in these "genres" was that some of the more detailed information seemed to slip by the students. Looking into the future Dean addresses that we much acknowledge that a very great amount of the writing that will be done will be on technology. This doesn't limit the amount of genres that students will be involved with because the internet has just about anything. She believes that educators now and previous educators are not well enough trained to be able to teach the students of the future. As future educators, we much better prepare for what is to come and broaden our perspectives to find new possibilities. 

Dean makes some very good points. Not only can it be difficult to learn different terms, but also to use them in your writing without sounding in-genuine. [Conjunction pairs. Using the "not only" and "but also" in the same sentence works together to strengthen the point]. Teaching grammar alone, especially to young children, will only be taken so far in their daily life. I think that her techniques of incorporating grammar into something more will allow it to become something that they can actually use. The concept of teaching language in genres seems to be something that could help to better bring a student's education in the classroom to their daily life. I think that the education that we receive today to be a teacher is very different from what it has been in the past. However, this will continue to change as the future changes. [Conjunctive adverb. An independent clause stopped by a period followed by a conjunctive adverb, a comma, and another independent clause]. Students now and students in the future will live very different lives and Dean makes an excellent point when she writes that we much broaden our perspectives and prepare for this.

Blog 6

Source 1: Does Code Switching Work for Young Children? A Case Study of English Language Learners

Anselmko, Geena, and Mohogany Williams. "Does Code Switching Work for Young Children? A Case Study of English Language Learners." Proceedings of the National Conference of Undergraduate Research 2012 (2012): n. pag. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

The pre and post scores taken before and after the use of code switching between English and Spanish in the Elementary classroom showed overall improvement in fluency, Pronunciation, grammar, and expression. Overall, this study showed that the code switching technique, when used in the classroom, supports young English learners who are coming from a Hispanic background. It is very important that teachers are prepared to teach English learners.

-         - Songs on CD

-         - Charts written in English and Spanish

-         - Books with CDs in English and Spanish (helps with words and sounds)

-          -Variety of instructional activities

Source 2: Code switching versus borrowing in Bilingual Children

Centeno, Olena. "Code-Switching vs. Borrowing in Bilingual Children." Bilingual Kids Rock. Bilingual Kids, n.d. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.

When a child starts switching between languages mid-sentence it has been mischaracterized as “confusion”. According to pop culture and academic literature, mixing languages is bad and this is also believed by some teachers. Teachers and “old-fashioned critics” are wrong. It is a positive sign of development in bilingual learners.

Two types of mixing languages:

-         - Code switching

-         - Borrowing

Code switching: Child or adult switches between two languages in the same sentence. (both with fluency). They are thinking bilingually and actively using both languages to better express themselves. This is done more out of comfort than out of confusion or excitement. A child is less likely to code switch around someone who they do not feel comfortable around or that would not recognize both languages. For example, going to a monolingual school, a child is much more likely to code-switch at home than at school where they would be much less understood.

Borrowing or Mixing Languages: Using one language primarily and mixing in occasional words from another. The child speaks one primary language and the vocab from the other is altered to fit into their primary language. (Usually when the child doesn’t know the word they want to use in the language that they are using but they know it in another language. While some think this shows the child’s lack of intelligence, it really shows that they are bright enough to think of the best way they can to express a specific word; it is simply in another language.

What to do about code switching: It’s good that a child is using both languages because that is the point of having a bilingual child that can speak more than one language. It does not mean they don’t know the difference between the two languages; however, it may be a problem when a child speaks two languages to someone who would not understand them both. [conjunctive adverb]

In my pattern of the week I used a conjunctive adverb to bring to points together. There is a semi-colon before the however to put a stop to the first statement and a comma after the however to allow the rest of the statement to flow. I chose to experiment with this pattern because I thought that it would be a good way to bring similar statements together while creating a slight emphasis on the second part. I think that I use conjunctive adverbs occasionally but it isn’t usually intentional. If I start to push them into my writing more then it could create more emphasis and variety in my writing. 

Blog 5b

The topic that I am focusing on is how the education of an English Language Learner compares to that of a student who learned English as a first language.

 Morrow, Alyse, Brian A. Goldstein, Amanda Gilhool, and Johanne Paradis. "Phonological Skills in English Language Learners." Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 45.1 (n.d.): 26-39. EBSCOhost. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

 Rojas, Raul, and Aquiles Iglesias. "The Language Growth of Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners." Child Development 84.2 (n.d.): 630-46. EBSCOhost. Web. 17 Oct. 2016.

 Anzaldua, Gloria E. "How To Tame a Wild Tongue." Chicana Cultural Theory. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 75-86. Print. 

Blog 5

It can be difficult to understand what it is like for someone who is trying to adjust to one culture when they have lived their life in another one. Gloria Anzaldua captures this experience completely in her excerpt titled How to Tame a Wild tongue. Anzaldua starts off her writing by explaining how all throughout her time of taking classes she was trying to change herself- accent and all. She explains that things can be so different from one place to another. The first time she heard the word “nosotras” spoken by a Puerto Rican, it sounded unfamiliar. This is the female version of the commonly used Spanish word “nosotros”. For Anzaldua, this felt like she had been taken from the freedom of being a woman. Somewhere down the line, people slowly stopped using the female version of this word and began to group everyone into one category—male. She writes about how complex all of the different languages are and even different versions of each language. As she grew up, she spoke different languages with simply the different people she would see in her everyday life. With her sister, she often spoke what they called tex-mex; switching back and forth between Spanish and English. [a colon to further explain what tex-mex is]. Throughout the years, Spanish has consistently changed from dropping the beginning or end of a word to combining two words to create something that sounds completely different. The author emphasizes how horrible the feeling was to be talked down to for the language she spoke. Home was somewhere that she never wanted to be ashamed of. Thinking about her favorite movies, music, and food gave her comfort. To Anzaldua, being Mexican is a state of soul and nothing can take that away.

In the beginning of the story, Anzaldua uses the parenthetical dash multiple times. For example, “I remember being caught speaking Spanish at recess—that was good for three licks on the knuckles with a sharp ruler” ( 1). In this case, she is using it to emphasize the point of what happened is she was caught speaking Spanish. Although this does not need to be a dash, it is made into a stronger point with it. The author then uses both semi colons and a comma in a sentence. This allows her to list some points while still keeping the dependent clause separated at the end. The sentence was, “For a people who are neither Spanish not live in a country in which Spanish is the first language; for a people who live in a country in which English is the reigning tongue but who are not Anglo; for a people who cannot entirely identify with either standard Spanish not standard English, what recourse is left to them but to create their own language?” (Anzaldua, 3).

This story is extremely strong. She, like many others, has been mistreated for someone that is a part of her. As we looked at in class, this is happening to so many people everywhere. I think some students will not stick up for their language and culture out of fear. In this example, especially at the end, the author explains very strongly how she feels about her culture. Everyone deserves to have this kind of passion for their culture or background but sometimes they aren’t given the chance. In my classroom, I plan to put an emphasis on sharing each individual’s culture and making sure everyone is proud of it. Since I will be teaching Elementary Education, this will give them a good basis of pride to start off with while they are still young. In my research project, I want to look deeper into how  this has been affecting people throughout history. I’m curious if it has gotten better or worse and what people are doing to help. 

Change is inevitable. Throughout all of history, languages have been pushed together and pulled apart from each other to form all of the different languages that we have today. English specifically was one of the languages to branch off from Latin. As different people learn English, different twists are put on the language. In the article The Place of World Englishes in Composition: Pluralization Continued, Canagarajah defines Metropolitan Englishes as, “spoken by the communities that traditionally claimed ownership over the language in England, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand”. He also says that, “…World Englishes are rule governed, with well established norms and communicative functions suitable for their new environment”. Communities take the English language and turn it into their World English by speaking it in the most appropriate way for their community setting. Canagarajah continues to speak about how although English is unique to different communities everywhere, we are still required to teach and learn it as Standard English. The argument is surfaced that English in literature and education should be changed because of the social and communitive diversity in the language. English is becoming a language spoken mostly by multilingual individuals. Canagarajah -acknowledging this- believes that multilingual speakers will soon be able to challenge these standards of education. [Asides set off by dashes]. He further believes that all Englishes should enjoy the same status and that anyone who grew up speaking any of these Englishes could be considered a native speaker. The teaching of solely Standard English inside of schools creates a barrier between a student’s life inside and outside of the classroom. The schools don’t include the information that students should be learning on all of the different diversities. When their educations at school don’t relate to their home lives, they become much more disinterested with school as a whole. Canagarajah, although he thinks it’s important to find a solution to the basic classroom education, realizes that it isn’t as simple as it seems to let go of only teaching the Standard English style. [Complex sentence, independent clause and dependent clause joined by a subordinating conjunction]. He believes that by not focusing only on a target language and by learning to balance the different language communities, we can create one large relatable community. Instead of finding errors in students' English, we should focus on finding reasoning behind what they say and connect that to what they need to learn. 

Reading this article, I learned how complex the English language really is. I learned that the way it is taught in schools really does inhibit students and how they connect their education to their life at home. It’s important to understand how each individual student learns English and what they previously know before trying to teach them anything new. Connecting what they already know to new information will help them to better understand it. Although this is very important for students in middle school/high school classrooms, it is important for younger students as well. I plan to teach elementary school students. Teaching students English at such a young age means they have less background on the language. I will be playing a large part in creating their background. I think that this is extremely important because this gives me (their educator) the opportunity to allow them to incorporate their English into the standard English that is required to be on the board. [an aside set off by parenthesis]. 

 Canagarajah, A. Suresh. "The Place of World Englishes in Composition: Pluralization Continued." (2015): 587-94. JSTOR. Web. 

Blog #3

Every student is going to make errors, especially when they’re still learning new words or concepts. In Sudden Possibilities: Porpoises, Eggcorns, and Error, Darren Crovitz explains some specific errors that students have made and some alternative ways to react to these errors. This is done while focusing on what the student is actually learning; contrary to what many teachers do. He explains in his writing that “Language is learned through a process of experimentation, error-making, and self-correction”. Within this statement, he expresses the importance of having students realize their mistakes and fix them on their own—self-correction.

Crovitz continues on and describes Daily Oral language. He talks about how in a typical classroom, this may not be the best way to teach young students grammar. I agree with the points he makes on this. Daily Oral language is definitely a way to present students with grammatical errors and to have these students address the errors. A downfall of this technique is that students are working on mistakes made by others rather than their own mistakes… which is what they need to work on the most. Individual students are going to make their own individual mistakes. DOL is directed at a generic audience while teaching off of one’s individual work is personalized and will likely present better results. Crovitz writes that many of the sentences presented by DOL contain errors that are easily recognizable, and for the students, this makes it much easier to find the errors within. [Compound sentence: Two independent clauses brought together by a comma and the word ‘and’]. He also makes the point that continuous negative feedback can cause a student to the opposite of better. Giving up. [Rhetorical Fragment with no subject]. No student likes to hear that they are making mistakes over and over again, and if this is the only feedback that they are receiving then they will likely stop trying new things and just stick to what they already know. [Compound sentence: two independent clauses combined by a comma and the coordinating conjunction ‘and’]. Students shouldn’t let their mistakes drive them to feeling forced to stay within their comfort zone and as teachers, it’s important that we make sure this never happens.

My group’s alternative to the DOL exercise focuses on constructing more interesting sentences. In a typical DOL lesson, students are asked to focus on what is already wrong in a sentence and to fix it. Contrary to the DOL, our lesson will ask the students to take a very basic simple sentence and to turn it into more by adding to it in different ways. At the beginning of our lesson we are going to give two different examples. Starting with two simple sentences, “The dog played with the ball” and “The students had a lot of homework”, we are going to use different grammatical techniques to make them more interesting. This will include the addition of prepositional phrases, new verbs, adjectives, and more. Following our examples and the explanations that accompany then, we will assign a simple sentence to the class and have them create a more interesting, more complex sentence. I hope the students take from this lesson that there are so many different ways to write a sentence, and they have the right to explore them all. They can choose what they want to experiment with. Since all of the students in the class are working on the same sentence, they can learn from each other as well.

Crovitz, Darren. "Sudden Possibilities: Porpoises, Eggcorns, and Error." The English Journal 100.4 (2015): n. pag. National Council of Teachers of English. Web.

Exploring the two sources about grammar and the use of it in everyday language compared to the use of it on written paper, I was informed on other points of view on the subject. Linda Christensen wrote an intriguing article on the teaching on the standard of English. In many ways I felt as though I could relate to this article. If not from solely first experience, I have been classmates with many people who have struggled to hit the “standard” that many feel needs to be met in the United States. It is important, as Christensen said, to make sure students know the benefits that being able to follow this standard will bring but I appreciated how she emphasized that it does matter how these students are taught the lesson. The very last sentence in this article says “I was an outsider, a foreigner in their world, my students won’t be”(Christensen,104) which, in my opinion, says a lot coming from someone who now teaches grammar.

In “Grammar Alive!” they talk about how different everyday conversations are from correctly written out grammar. This isn’t emphasized quite as much in the article by Christensen but I think that they are both making the same point; students are all different when it comes to their grammar. [Two closely related sentences joined by a semicolon]. Different students may need help with different things. The authors write “...It is not language itself that is the crucial issue here; it is people, and the match between the language they use and the circumstances they find themselves in” (Haussamen, 11). I completely agree with the emphasis the book puts here on how important it is to know the different kinds of languages that should be used in different circumstances but it isn’t necessary to always use perfect grammatical sentences or proper tones.

In the second chapter the book also talks about some examples of standard English that some people may find no problems with but can be very confusing to students that just may not understand them yet. One example in particular is the word you. The book says “Stand English requires us to use you regardless of whether we are addressing a whole group or just an individual within that group, an inconvenience that we learn to adjust to”(Haussamen, 12). I like this example in particular because personally, I have heard many different things from different teachers throughout my education career about it. I had one extremely intelligent English teacher in high school but he scolded us for ever using the word “you”—which was a commonly used word in many of our vocabularies. I very rarely used the word throughout my freshman/sophomore years of high school but looking back I think he made a mistake in telling us to never use the word in general. As the book says in the quote above, the word you is “required” in standard English. The article by Christensen also relates to this; she had one bad experience with being taught a lesson when she was young and now she is hesitant to use certain words that she has perfected but still feels unsure about.[Two closely related sentences joined by a semicolon]. The word “you” could be one of these words for some people because they may get confused when they attempt to use it and then not use it at all—this is a mistake because this word is required in standard English! [emphasis of an important point].

Christensen, Linda. Reading, Writing, and Rising up: Teaching about Social Justice and the Power if the Written Word. Milwaukee: Rethinking Schools, 2000.

Haussamen, Brock. Grammar Alive!: A guide for Teachers. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 2003. Print.

Blog #1

This semester I would really like to work on my writing as a whole. I think the flow between sentences in my writing could be improved with some new techniques. Although this isn’t a direct grammar issue, I think practicing with different grammar techniques that tend to help make writing flow smoothly could help. I think my writing doesn’t typically fall off topic but occasionally my sentences could flow more smoothly from one to another while connecting similar ideas on the same topic. Because of this, I tend to struggle with sounding confident in my writing so I think that improving this aspect of my writing could be very beneficial to my writing as a whole. 

In addition, I would also like to improve my knowledge of grammar rules and punctuation as a whole. I understand the rules that I have known for as long as I have been taking English classes but throughout the more recent years of classes the topic of grammar rules has become less and less talked about. Everyone knows that the rules of English are important but there is always something else that students and professors would rather put their focus on; it isn’t how to correctly divide two clauses. I would like to experiment with different ways of using the punctuation that I already know how to use. There are so many different uses for punctuation such as the semicolon, but I can speak for myself and many others saying that most of us only use it in places that we feel comfortable. In fact, I used the semicolon two sentences ago but it was clear that my usage was nothing out of the ordinary. 

I really enjoy using more complex patterns rather than just simple sentences. I think that putting the variety of different types of patterns into a form of writing, depending on the form, usually makes it sound more mature and typically more enjoyable. For example, these sentences all sound a little bland and in my opinion, bland sentences get pretty boring to read. At the same time, I want to make sure I don’t go too overboard with trying to strengthen my sentences and making them too complex in the end. That sentence, for example, probably could have been broken or formatted in a better way.

In my writing as a whole, I plan to add creativity. I feel as though I write mainly for essays and notes for my classes. The essays I am usually assigned have decently strict rules, those of which I am told to follow in order to get the points that I need. Although this can occasionally limit my freedom in writing, I think that, as I mentioned earlier, improving the flow of my writing will also give it a more creative and unique feeling. I am excited to see where I can go with my writing and I hope that by the end of the semester I will be a better and more experienced writer as a whole.