Blog 4: Word Play

Making the Journey Ch. 6, 7

It's kind of ironic that Christenbury devotes an entire chapter to making English teachers feel okay about the fact that we can't be experts at absolutely everything. It does take practice and patience to decipher lines of poetry or prose, and linguistics is a whole different ballgame. I once made a bet with my husband about the words "ain't" and I lost miserably. I couldn't imagine that a slang term such as this one would exist in any respectable language book, such as the dictionary. Oops. Just because "ain't" is a word that I obstain from using doesn't mean it isn't a word. I'm still living that one down. The point that Christenbury makes is that language is ever-evolving. She makes two points: first, that language never stays the same and second, that variations in language do not make language wrong or bad (180). That's where I got myself into trouble with "ain't". According to Christenbury, "ain't" was standard usage in Dickens' time in England, though I can't imagine my grandma, who was an English teacher in her own right AND descent of pilgrams from England, ever using the term.

There is a lot to be learned from how teachers correct students when it comes to spelling, grammar, and pronunciation. Christenbury states, "I know of no study that shows a correlation between intelligence and correct spelling. And yet many people equate misspelled words with stupidity and certain ignorance" (183). I find this to be very accurate and find that most people make judgments based on how another person speaks, spells, or writes. The most important part of this section, however, dealt with isolated vocabulary and spelling lists. Christenbury is not a proponent of them, and neither am I. "Letting students participate in their own spelling/vocabulary lists and encouraging them to expand those lists can not only give students more control over this aspect of English language arts but also show them that they, too, live in a world of language" (Christenbury 185). If I allow my students to find meaningful vocabulary terms for them, they are certain to gain much more from the reading than if I had assigned 20 "good to know" terms.

There are good and bad ways to incorporate grammar into a curriculum as well. Christenbury follows four guidelines for teaching grammar: connected to units of study, small doses, relation to student writing, and when needed (187). This is another thing I'm working on - and it's a true work in progress. Numerous studies show that teaching grammar out of context is useless. I agree, for the most part. I do find that many of my students are unfamiliar with parts of speech other than having heard the terms in the past. I do use some worksheet pages to introduce parts of speech, but then I connect that knowledge with student writing. I guess I'm following the rules for the most part. I'm working on shortening the worksheet pages though and increasing the written work to have a better balance. I just can't give up a few worksheets, however, because I find that my students are at such different points in their understanding of grammar and usage. My goal for this school year is to give them all a "pre-test" so I can better focus the learning; perhaps that will help me cater the information a bit better than in the past. This past year, I started using grammar books, such as Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, and several other parts of speech books by Brian P. Cleary, to introduce various items to my students. They seemed to enjoy the short clips of rhyming words, and even asked to borrow them to read during study hall if their homework was done. As with anything else, 7th grade is all about keeping it fresh and interesting.

Another idea that Christenbury mentions is a need for more word play. I couldn't agree more. She cited several examples, some of which I was familiar with and others I had never heard of, but all that my students would find fun and entertaining. I agree with Christenbury that there should be more fun with words and that it can't be all about writing essays and perfecting poems. There are so many ways to draw students into a particular piece of writing, like the "Scars" personal narrative. My students write personal memoirs, but many of them really struggle to come up with a specific event that changed their young lives. If I allow them to focus their work into a personal narrative, I think they'd really come up with a quality product. Christenbury also had some thoughts about revision, editing, and proofreading, all of which my students are still novices at. I use a particular method called "CRAM" for editing and revising, but I think it does exactly what Christenbury talks about - it focuses each activity into a separate part to get the best written product.