This week I was relieved to get the chance to practice sentence patterns a bit more. I felt slightly uneasy at the end of the week about the difference between transitional and linking verbs, but after practicing with the newspaper headlines I feel very comfortable. Separating out the prepositional phrases was also a really helpful exercise. It can be confusing determining what the object of a verb pattern is when a prepositional phrase gets in the way, but labeling each part of the sentence made it much easier. I really like this exercise because it allows for lots of practice that isn’t boring or repetitive, such as a worksheet or exercise from the overhead.
The Socratic Seminar this week went a little more smoothly than last week. It’s interesting that we all prefer one big circle when statistics show the fishbowl to be the preferred method. We have a really great group of class members though, so taking turns and giving people room to speak and share their ideas isn’t a problem. I’m surprised that there was such a wide range of ideas about the way Dora’s teacher allowed her to practice her words and sentences. Though giving Dora the freedom to make mistakes and skill-build on her own probably helped Dora in future exercises and in coming to her own conclusions about writing, it was probably frustrating for her to continue to write incorrectly. I was glad that I wasn’t the only person in the class who recognized this. However, I was impressed that we were all able to come to some kind of consensus on the positive and negative aspects of the lessons Dora’s teacher gave.
At this point there aren’t any grammar concepts that I don’t understand or feel uncomfortable with, but practice only makes perfect. I’m excited to see and participate in the mini-lessons. I still feel uneasy about teaching grammar without giving a comprehensive overview before contextualization, and I feel like getting multiple perspectives on how to go about doing it will be very beneficial.
Question: Even when grammar is being taught contextually and in a trial-by-error manner like Dora’s teacher did, is it ok to use terminology such as “sentence pattern,” “verb phrase,” and “preposition” to describe grammar concepts if a question arises? Are these concepts too convoluted for younger students?
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I would say it depends on how old the younger student is and the level of difficulty they seem to be having with grammar. If they understand a majority of what you are saying and what you mean by phrases such as "verb phrase," then I'd say use it. But if the concepts are completely lost to them and they need to start from the bottom, then definitions might be best before the actual practice. Then you can use terminology because they will know what it means, but they will just need to practice with how to do the said terminology.
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